Hello there!!!
This. Is. Awesome.
I myself am currently starting my senior year (of getting a BS degree) at SUNY Polytechnic Institute of Tech and my major is Computer Science which as im sure you know encompasses a HUGE amount of programming. I have worked for an insurance company for over a year writing C# code for them (both front (GUI) and back end).
I spent a bit of time playing your engine and its quite impressive for a scratch made project!!!
A few notes:
-For me, the engine moves almost instantly however I do have an extremely fast computer and a fairly strong internet connection...so very nice!!!
-The GUI is functional but as far as I am concerned that is the least important part of the project because with true engines you can simply install them into an available GUI like Arena or many others.
-Maybe provide buttons for functions like "New Game", and also the ability to step forward and backward through the game
-Next step might be to add functions like searching for opportunities like forks and other tactics
For quite some time now I myself have been wanting to write my own engine to see how high an ELO I can obtain and would love to have our engines play each other I will keep you posted if I do!!! I am on break for summer now so I cant think of a better time for me to start coding it so maybe tonight I will! Excellent work and KEEP IT UP!!! 
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A while ago I made a very simple chess engine. I recently, however posted it online at http://thatchapthere.github.io/ChessHome.html . On this page you can access all of the versions up until now. Support, suggestions, bug reports and interesting games against it would be greatly apreciated. There are a few levels, but the best it can do is about 550 elo, despite having beaten some humans (no comment). I might even post some stuff about making it, since it is a very simply constructed engine and the bits are easy to understand. I also don't think it has the typical chess engine functons in it, since I made it from scratch. Code savvy people might also be able to suggest a better thought algorithm, as it current prevents your browser from doing anything while it is its move, using all of the RAM. It takes a bit to move, despite only having a two ply search depth and a basic evaluation function (Material and center control, with a bit of king safety, both of which are accounted too much in the endgame). But please check it out!