Industry

Industry Collaboration

Computer Science and Engineering is the largest department in the USF College of Engineering by student population. The Department has 39 full-time faculty members and about 2600 undergraduate students, 200 Masters students, and 100 PhD students. Four BS programs are offered: Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Cybersecurity, and Information Technology. These four BS programs graduate about 380 students per year. These graduates are well prepared for industry jobs learning relevant concepts and skills that translate directly to success for the students and the companies that hire them. Department graduates can be found in many companies in the Tampa Bay area and at leading high-tech companies outside the Tampa Bay area.

There are multiple ways to engage with our students, who are in very high demand by local – and nationwide – companies for internships and jobs.

  1. If you want to distribute an internship or job opportunity, please send an email to Ken Christensen (christen@cse.usf.edu) and we will advertise it to our students.
  2. If you want to participate in career fairs, please contact USF Career Services. USF Career Services hosts two career fairs annually of which one day of each fair is dedicated to technical careers.
  3. If you want to participate in a resume matching system, please consider participating in an online database. For more information see Handshake Headquarters (at USF Career Services).
  4. If you want to engage in research and development, we have two vehicles for undergraduate engagement in this area, small in scope and supervised by a faculty member, the BEST program is the vehicle for student training in the context of an engineering development project. For in-depth research and development, with active involvement of faculty members and graduate students, the Corridor Matching Grants Research Program is there for you. 
  5. If you want a customized structured engagement with students in Computer Science and Engineering, you may wish to consider our industry partners program called the Computing Partners Program. The Computing Partners Program was created for companies to have a deeper connection with our students and Department.

Description of the Computing Partners Program

The USF Computing Partners Program enables industries to develop close working relationships with the CSE students and faculty. Industry partners get an enhanced level of engagement with Department students and faculty as described below. Additional levels of engagement will be developed in later years in discussion with donors.

Membership

Annual membership is $10,000. Membership is free for community service non-profit organizations. Annual membership will be due on the anniversary of the joining date.

How funds will be used

Computing Partners Program funds will support educational initiatives and activities of CSE students and costs associated with administering the Computing Partners Program. The program will support expenses such as scholarships, travel, academic conferences, competitions, educational events, relevant seminar series, tutoring, student program ambassadors, summer programs, and student recruiting.

Qualified sponsorship statement for solicitation materials

For all sponsorship levels, please note the following: Pursuant to IRS guidelines, support is defined as a "Qualified Sponsorship," which means no endorsement of your business, qualitative or comparative language, price information or indication of savings or value can be included in written words or in program remarks. In essence, your organization can be acknowledged through simple use of your name, logo and location, but no message that promotes or markets and trade or business, or any service, facility or product is permissible.

Student organizations

  • Women in Computer Science and Engineering (WiCSE)
  • Whitehatters Computer Security Club (WCSC)
  • Society of Competitive Programmers (SCP)
  • RoboBulls
  • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - Computer Society (IEEE-CS)
  • Girls Who Code Loop
  • GameDev Club
  • Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) Club
  • Association for Computer Machinery (ACM)

Contact

Ken Christensen
Professor and Associate Chair of Undergraduate Affairs
Email: christen@cse.usf.edu | Phone: 813 974-4761 | Office: ENB 319