Colloquium Activities

The Computer Science colloquium series brings in researchers and practitioners from around the region, country and the world to speak of topics of interest in Computer Science. Attendance at these colloquia is an important part of a graduate education.

All CS graduate students must take the 1 credit hour CS 690 Colloquium course and attend at least 10 colloquium events while they are in the program. We use a separate Canvas course (not directly associated with CS 690) for tracking attendance at colloquium events.

Completing this requirement is comprised of several steps:

1. Enroll in the CS Graduate Colloquia Canvas course
   • This Canvas course is not associated with CS 690 but is only used to record your attendance at the talks.

2. Start attending CS Colloquium events and register your attendance appropriately (depending on if you are online or in-person). Events are announced through the grad@cs.odu.edu email list and are posted on the calendar at https://www.cs.odu.edu/~zeil/colloq.html.

   • You are encouraged to attend events during any and all semesters that you are in the program. You do not need to be registered for CS 690 to attend the talks or register your attendance.

3. Register for the 1 credit hour course CS 690 Colloquium
   • This step is independent from enrolling in the Canvas course mentioned above. There is no Canvas course directly associated with CS 690.
   • There is no assigned meeting time, and all students will receive a P grade for the course.
   • You may take this course in any semester, and it only needs to be taken 1 time.
   • If you are on a GTA/GRA, your tuition waiver will apply to this extra 1 credit, even if you were already at a full load (9 credits).

Registering attendance for online viewers: After viewing the event’s Zoom livestream or recording, complete the appropriate quiz in the CS Graduate Colloquia Canvas course. You will receive 1 point for each quiz correctly completed. Quizzes will be posted within a few days of the event and are only available for completion for 1 week after being posted.

Registering attendance for in-person attendees (complete both steps): 

1.    When you enter the auditorium, look for a sheet titled "Computer Science Colloquium - In-Person Attendance" with a QR code. The code will take you to a Google form that you submit to register entering the talk. Make sure you're logged into Google with your ODU credentials.

2.    As you leave the auditorium after the talk, submit the Google form a second time to register leaving the talk.

Once your submitted Google form responses (both entering and leaving) have been logged and marked as appropriate for the time frame of the talk, you will be given credit for attending the colloquium in the Canvas course and you will not need to complete the Canvas quiz.

Completing the requirement: Towards the end of each semester, the department will review the completed quizzes in the Canvas course, and students who have accumulated 10 points will have their Degree Works record updated.

• When this has been done, the student’s “Requirement Completed” assignment will be marked as Complete (✅) in the Canvas course.
• Students can check their status in Degree Works by looking for a checkmark by “10 Colloquium Attendances Requirement” or “Departmental Colloquium Requirements” under “Milestones”.

PhD Students: This requirement (steps 2-3 above) must be completed for each graduate degree, so students who receive both a MS and PhD from this department will have taken CS 690 two times and attended at least 20 colloquia:

• While a MS student, students must take CS 690 once and attend at least 10 colloquia.
• While a PhD student, students must take CS 690 once and attend at least 10 colloquia.