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Students Assistantships
Department of Computer Sciences
February 13, 2006
Assistantships recognize promising students and are
awarded based on academic merit and potential. Full assistantship
carries tuition remission and a stipend for living expenses. Students
awarded with assistantships are required to perform duties:
teaching classes, supervising labs, grading, and system
administration. This document details the qualifications,
duties, and application procedures for these assistantships.
In addition, research assistantships are available through individual
Computer Science faculty.
Research assistantships are not described
in this document and students should contact
faculty members
directly to learn of the availability of research assistantships.
The Computer Sciences Department awards assistantships to
full-time undergraduates and graduates in our program.
Undergraduates are awarded assistantships as
lab facilitators,
graders,
systems administrators,
and #.#>
Graduate students are awarded assistantships in the above categories,
but may also be assigned responsibility to teach classes.
Award decisions for each new academic year (Fall term) are made in
May of each year. Some assistantships may still be available after
May due to unforeseen changes in the plans of students.
Some assistantships become open in January (Spring term) of each year.
Only a few students are supported by assistantships during the Summer term.
All Assistants must have at completed a data structures and algorithms class
(comparable to CSE 2010 at the undergraduate level or CSE 5100 at the
graduate level).
Graduates students who have taken graduate courses must have
a GPA of 3.5 or higher.
Undergraduates must have at least a 3.0 GPA.
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) requires
that graduate students who have primary responsibility for teaching a course
have at least 18 hours of graduate level courses in computer science.
Specific requirements for assistantships are given in
Assistantship Descriptions below.
Language Requirements
Students whose first language is not English must score 600 or higher on the
Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and 45 or higher on the Test of
Spoken English (TSE).
Official test scores must be submitted to the University's office of Graduate
Admissions.
The GSA Seminar
The Dean of the Graduate School requires that all students who teach
attend series of seminars held during the week two weeks prior to the
start of school in the Fall.
Students who do not attend this seminar can not be assigned to teach
classes or laboratories.
The sessions of the Instructional Development
Seminar posted at the following site:
The seminar is required for
students who hope to become Teaching Assistants, but it does not guarantee
that a a student will be offered an assistantship.
A full-time student assistant is assigned twenty (20) hours of duties per week,
for nineteen (19) weeks each semester.
These 19 weeks include 2 weeks prior to the start of classes.
Student assistants must be available these preliminary weeks
to prepare for the classes they will teach or to maintain
and improve computer systems and laboratories.
The normal load for a full-time student assistant is 2 classes
or laboratories, or administration of one type of computer system.
Student who are assigned classes to teach must prepare a class syllabus,
homework and programming projects, quizzes and examinations.
Continuation of the award depends on successful academic performance
and progress toward the student's degree.
Graduate assistants are expected to maintain a 3.5 GPA
and undergraduate assistants are expected to maintain a 3.0 GPA.
Assistants are expected to only earn grades of B or better.
Computer Science Help Desk and Office Hours
Teaching assistants are required to staff the Computer Science
Help Desk at least 2 hours per week.
Teaching assistants, those that have full responsibility for one
or more classes or one or more computer laboratories are required
to have at least 2 office hours per week for every class/lab they teach.
Graduate applicants should read the
Graduate Assistantships section
of the University catalog for additional policies on student assistants.
Assistantship Descriptions
Computer Sciences awards assistantships to students to help the department in
various ways.
Brief descriptions of these duties and minimal requirements are given below.
Lab Facilitator
Lab facilitators are upper-class undergraduates who have proven themselves
as good students in freshman/sophomore computer science courses,
in particular, as programmers.
Lab facilitators assist the instructor of the course and the
lab teaching assistant by helping students in computer
laboratories with problems they may encounter.
Lab facilitators receive a stipend.
They are not required to attend the
GSA Seminar,
submit TOEFL or TSE scores,
maintain office hours,
or staff the Computer Science Help Desk
(although they are encourage to perform this last service).
Grader
Graders help instructors by grading homework, programs, quizzes
and exams.
Graders must have passed, with high marks,
the course (or a comparable course) for which they will grade
Graders receive a stipend.
They are not required to attend the
GSA Seminar,
submit TOEFL or TSE scores,
maintain office hours,
or staff the Computer Science Help Desk
(although they are encourage to perform this last service).
Systems Administrator
Systems administrators maintain the department's computer systems.
This includes laboratories, and faculty and staff computers
and peripherals.
The program supports Windows 98, Windows NT, Sun Solaris,
Silicon Graphics Irix, and IBM Aix computers.
Previous knowledge of these operating systems is not required,
but is helpful.
They are not required to attend the
GSA Seminar,
submit TOEFL or TSE scores,
maintain office hours,
or staff the Computer Science Help Desk
(although they are encourage to perform this last service).
Lab Teaching Assistant
Lab teaching assistants help an instructor to prepare, deliver,
and grade programming assignments.
Most lab teaching assistants are graduate students,
but rising undergraduates who plan to attend graduate school
may also be awarded lab teaching assistantships.
Lab teaching assistants never have primary responsibility for teaching a
course.
Lab teaching assistants are required to attend the
GSA Seminar,
submit TOEFL and TSE scores,
maintain office hours,
and staff the Computer Science Help Desk.
Knowledge of the programming language being used by the
class is normally assumed.
Computer Sciences teaches laboratory classes in Ada, C/C++, Java, FORTRANand other
programming languages.
Depending on enrollment and lab duration,
full-time lab teaching assistants are assigned to 2 or 3 laboratories.
Classes with lab teaching assistants include:
- Fundamentals of Software Development 1 (Java)
- Fundamentals of Software Development 2 (Java)
- Algorithms and Data Structures (Java)
- Introduction to Software Development with C++
- Advanced to Software Development with C++
Teaching Assistant
Teaching assistants have primary responsibility for teaching and
grading courses.
They are required to attend the
GSA Seminar,
submit TOEFL and TSE scores,
maintain office hours,
staff the Computer Science Help Desk,
and have at least 18 graduate-level credits in computer science.
Full-time teaching assistants are assigned 2 classes.
Classes assigned to teaching assistants include.
- Introduction to Computer Applications
- Introduction to Software Development with FORTRAN
- Introduction to Programming (restricted to Ph.D. level assistants)
- Assembly Language and Computer Organization
(restricted to Ph.D. level assistants)
To apply for an assistantship, students must supply the department
with information to support their application.
An
application form
must be completed and returned to the Department of Computer Sciences
before students will be considered for an assistantship.
All assistantship application information
application form,
resume, recommendation letters) should be delivered to the department at address:
Department of Computer Sciences
Florida Institute of Technology
150 W. University Boulevard
Melbourne, Florida 32901-6975
Application form,
Resumes and letters of recommendation may also be send via electronic
mail to admit@cs.fit.edu.
All applicants to Florida Tech must provide
official transcripts from all universities they have attended
to the
Graduate Admission Office.
All assistantship applicants must provide the department
with a resume that describes their experience and goals.
At least two (2) recommendation letters must be submitted to the
department.
These letters must be from persons familiar with the applicants
academic or computer skills.
All application information
(application form
transcripts, resume, recommendation letters) needed by the department to review
applicants for an assistantship must be submitted by February 15
for students seeking awards for the Fall term,
or by September 15 for students seeking an award for the Spring term.
Once a student has been notified that they have been selected for
an assistantship they must meet with the Computer Science secretary
to provide information needed to complete a contract letter.
Once a student has been hired as an assistant, they should
arrange, through the Student Office secretary, to obtain
building, office and laboratory keys, and a mailbox.
Students who are assigned to teach a class or laboratory
must see the Computer Science secretary to obtain a copy of
the
textbook
and other supplemental materials.
Student may use the department's copying machine for small copy jobs (less that
25 sheets), but for larger ones they must submit material to be copied
to the
University Copy Center.
Copy request forms are available in the student office, copy center
and their Web site
http://copynet.fit.edu.
Several times during a term class lists will be distributed.
Some of these are for your information only, but others require
to you document attendance or grades. Class list and grade sheets
that fall into this category must be promptly returned to the
Computer Science secretary before the deadline.
The Computer Sciences department must maintain records to document our
instruction of students.
Student assistants must help in this effort.
The following material must be submitted to the Computer Science
secretary.
- Class syllabus, office hours, and a schedule of Help Desk hours
must be submitted before the end of the first week of classes.
- Samples of graded exams, homework, programming projects must
be submitted for inclusion in course notebooks.
An example of excellent, average, and poor work should be
submitted.
- At the end of each term a copy of the grade book used in
determining student grades must be submitted to the
Computer Science secretary.
New teaching assistants should review this archival material
to help them prepared for their responsibilities.
The Computer Sciences department has an
honor policy
that governs the use of computers and academic honestly.
The honor policy must be distributed to students in your class
at the beginning of each term.
Know how to
request a computer account
on any and all computers your students may use.
Also know how to obtain after-hours access to computer laboratories.
Inform your students of these processes.
Whenever you have a concern immediately inform your faculty coordinator and
the program chair.
Always look to them for support in making tough decisions or when
you are uncertain about something.
Report all computer (hardware and software) problems to the systems
administrator in charge.
Follow-up to see that any problem is corrected and see the program
chair if the problem is not resolved.
Become involved in
faculty research,
student organizations (for example, the
ACM
and the
UPE)
and short courses offered for the University community.
William D. Shoaff
2006-02-13
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