The Computer Science Department organizes a number of applied CS groups. The primary aim of their projects is to give students an opportunity to apply and extend knowledge gained in the classroom to "real world" software and hardware projects. Students are encouraged, but not required, to participate in one or more of these groups as part of their educational experience while at Earlham.

The Content Administration Group, the wonderful people responsible for the page you are viewing now. This group is primarily responsible for developing and maintaining the CS Department's web presence, including course materials. Detailed description Content's site
The Hardware Interfacing Project (HIP), who connect us to devices and gadgets HIP develops hardware interfacing software for open source platforms. Hip's site
The Pedagogical Tools Group, who generate teaching devices for the lower-level CS courses. This group is responsible for development tools and support libraries in an environment with Mac and MSWindows workstations and open source Un*x servers. Detailed description Pedagogical's site
The System Administrators, who keep 50+ computers and their associated software running for the use of three departments. The admins support the servers and workstations used by CS, Mathematics, and Physics in Dennis Hall. They support three flavors of open source Un*x running on over 50 machines. Detailed description Admin's site
The Database Interfacing Group, in conjunction with Earlham Computing Services, who make looking up your class schedule oh-so-much easier Detailed description DBI's site

During the academic year students are paid through work study. We hope that students will work between 8 and 10 hours each week, including at least one weekly planning meeting with their particular group. Many of the groups have projects which are more appropriate to work on during winter and summer breaks. We encourage students to spend one or more breaks working on campus. The wages are the same during breaks but we also provide housing on campus.

In all positions we're hoping, but not necessarily expecting, that students will be involved in the groups over an extended period (usually several semesters). This potentially includes people migrating from one group to another.

The Cluster Computing Group, who connect many computers to solve large problems The cluster group works on tools and techniques for effectively using Beowulf style clusters for interdisciplinary computational science research. Within this framework they focus on various aspects of molecular dynamics software, a principle component of computationally based research into protein folding and structure determination. Cluster's site

The Theory Group, who are currently studying the parsing of obscure grammar formalisms The theory group's broad focus is on problems in the area of formal language theory, particularly computational approaches to studying natural languages. Theory's site

Much of our work in both applied and research groups involves others' information and equipment. This leads us to have high standards for the integrity, trustworthiness, and reliability of the students we work with. While the format of a simple code has shortcomings, a reasonable description of what we aspire to can be found in The System Administrators Guild (SAGE) Code of Ethics.

In early December of each year we solicit applications from students for each of these groups. A copy of the most recent application can be found here. The actual application can be obtained from Jim or Charlie. If you will be off campus during the application period, please get in touch with one of them to make arrangements to submit your application ahead of time.