The Debugger       Fall 2000

Table of Contents
  • Editor's Notes
  • From the Chair - Gary Buterbaugh
  • Carol's Corner - Carol Miller
  • News from Tompkins Lab - Joseph Shyrock
  • Who Says You Never Use What You Learn in College? - Justin Streiner
  • Our Ever Changing Curriculum - Tia Watts
  • Business Decision - Jim Wolfe
  • ACM Regional Programming Contest
  • Century Club
  • Computer Science Faculty

    • EDITOR'S NOTES

    In this issue, we have an interesting article from IUP alumnus Justin Streiner. It is derived from e-mail that Justin sent Carol a couple months ago. As a editor, I immediately recognized the e-mail as a genuine "pot of gold." Justin was saying all nice things about our program; he was categorically listing (or implicitly referring to) many courses in our curriculum and identifying how the material from those courses help him in his job. In addition, he was acknowledging a basic fact which alumni soon realize after graduation and which current students rarely notice: the primary purpose of having students take all these courses and do all these assignments is to get them to think logically and critically. Seldom do we see such a ringing endorsement and validation of what the faculty does.

    Tia Watts provides you with an update of developments in the curriculum. As always, the curriculum is changing; as always, it is not as rapid as some would like; as always, it is too rapid for others. Tia has been directing a major change in our core courses through the curriculum change process. Note: this will be Tia's last contribution to The Debugger; she has decided to accept another position and will be moving to California in January. She came to IUP in the Fall of 1986 and has been a part of curriculum development for nearly all of that time; she has also been an enthusiastic coach of the IUP Programming Team for the last several years - see the latest team results in this issue. We wish Tia good luck at Sonoma State; she will be missed.

    As always, Carol Miller provides the bulk of the material in this issue. She gives you a run-down of the Alumni Breakfast and all the other alumni contacts she has had since August. Also, Joe Shyrock gives you an idea of what has been happening in Tompkins Lab and the classroom labs here in Stright.


    Jim Wolfe, Editor

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    Gary Buterbaugh's picture From the Chair
    Gary Buterbaugh


    I was going to devote my whole article to a topic called, "What Makes the Computer Science Program at IUP Successful", however there are several other items that I should cover in this issue.

    Alumni Readers for COSC 319, Software Engineering Concepts

    For the first time ever, I taught COSC 319, Software Engineering Concepts - and am thoroughly enjoying it. This course is a writing intensive course and requires that the students write three different papers. Besides having the "rough draft" of the paper reviewed by the instructor (yes, I have to grade each paper twice), I used a peer review by another student in the class and for 18 of my 25 students, an alumni reviewer. Except for the normal problems you have when you work with students (putting things off to the last minute, not following instructions, etc ), this as worked quite well. I have been so busy that I have not had the time to thank all the alumni (many of whom I want to write to persoanlly just to get caught up with them), so please accept this as a big "THANK YOU" if you served as one of the alumni readers.

    Next semester we will have two sections of COSC 319, either taught by me or a new faculty member. I again would like to recruit alumni to help as alumni readers. I do not want to presume on alumni who served as readers for the fall semester, so I am looking for a whole new set of volunteers - I need about 35. If you are an alumnus who wants to "pay back" the department a little (and not have to give "money!", please e-mail me that you are willing to volunteer. My email is glbuter@grove.iup.edu.

    Century Club

    You are probably aware that we have a "Century Club" for individuals who give to our department. The way it is supposed to work is that if you give $100 in a year you receive a gift from the department. Well, we goofed last year and did not send gifts - part of this is because everything we do goes on a school year (September -August) and the Century Club runs on the calendar year and partly because the Foundation converted to a new reporting system. We will be providing a gift this year (probably a Computer Science denim shirt) if you have given at least $100 in the year 2000 (hopefully we will get this done in January and February). If you gave $100 last year, but did not give $100 this year and you would like to receive a gift, please call or e-mail Carol or me!
    Filling Position Left Vacant by Resignation of Dr. Ralph Grove

    We have had a Search Committee that has been working on filling this position since this past May. We had a total of about 10 or 12 candidates, but some did not qualify (did not have a PhD). We were left with about 6 or 7 serious candidates. All but two of these are currently overseas and one of those two is in the USA but is a foreign national. Right now, we are hoping to bring in two of these candidates for an interview in early December.

    There is a real possibility that we will not be able to fill this position. In that case we will either cover the courses that were to be taught by the new faculty with overloads, moving faculty around and letting some of the temporary faculty we have used in the past to teach sections of COSC 101, or hiring a one semester full-time temporary (perhaps one of our candidates) to cover the courses. Aren't you glad you are not the chair of the Computer Science Department at IUP?

    Dr. Tia Watts is Leaving!

    Just last night (November 20), I received notification form Tia Watts that she will be leaving IUP at the end of the Fall Semester to accept a position at the Sonoma State University in Sonoma, California in the Department of Computer Science. Tia has been a part of the IUP community for almost 20 years having received her undergraduate degree in Mathematics from IUP and being a part of the faculty of the Computer Science Department since 1986. During her time at IUP she worked towards and received a PhD in Computer Science at the University of Pittsburgh. One of her primary activities in the Computer Science Department has been in her role as the faculty advisor for the department's Programming Teams. She has done an outstanding job with these teams; bringing international recognition to IUP and the Computer Science Department. Tia has also been a vital part of our Departmental Curriculum Committee the past several years and is currently serving as that committee's chair. Tia has been an important faculty member and will be sorely missed! However we wish her much success at Sonoma State and offer our hearty congratulations!

    (Don't even ask how we will cover Tia's courses for the Spring Semester - there goes my Thanksgiving vacation! )



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    Carol Miller's picture Carol's Corner
    Carol Miller


    Well, here we are again, in the middle of another semester. I can't believe how time flies!! We're almost into the holiday season. Unfortunately, the leaves have just about all fallen off the trees now and it's a bit bleak around here. The only thing that will make a change is that four letter word that begins with S. But, I hope all is well with everyone and you're enjoying the season.

    For those of you didn't make the alumni breakfast, you missed a good time. Again, like last year, there weren't a lot of people here, but there were more than last year and we really enjoyed having those of you who did come.. And, I'm sure everyone's dying to hear who was here.

    Micki Hart (5/91) dropped in with her daughter, Jessica. It was especially nice to see Jessica since she attended class with Micki over 17 years ago, but we didn't get to meet her for a few more months since she hadn't been born at the time. I can't believe it's been that long! Micki, as I'm sure you remember, works here at IUP in the Advancement Services office in Sutton Hall. Thanks for coming, guys. It's always nice to see you, Micki, and to see Jessica again.

    Dan Gabor (12/97) and his friend, Anne Marie were here. Dan is still with Raytheon in State College and is doing well. Dan, I'm glad you and Anne Marie could make it again this year.

    Greg Foster (8/87) & his son, Tyler came. I think I told you about Tyler last year. He's a real pistol. We really had some fun. I was trying to talk him into a new baby brother, but he didn't want any part of that. Greg is also still here at IUP working in the Technology Services Center (formerly known as the Computer Center).

    Bridget Calderone (8/99), who is working with Computer Science Corporation in Newark, Delaware, with Eric Smith (5/99). They were both here for breakfast. They're working for JPMorgan at the moment which Eric says is a very aggressive and busy account but he can now write SQL in his sleep.

    Mark Strawcutter (12/76) dropped by and visited with everyone. Mark is also still with IUP's Technology Services Center. I'm really glad you made it, Mark.

    Cathy (Fleig) Gruss (12/85), her husband, Eric, and Miranda & Rebecca (the twins), Alexander, and Evan. Those of you who remember Cathy, I'd like you to know that her kids are just as cute as she is.

    Mike Rudge (5/83) and his wife, Celeste were here. Mike is still with IBM in Pittsburgh. Mike is Web Server Product Specialist Lotus Notes. Thanks for coming Mike and Celeste. I enjoyed our discussion.

    Jason Agostoni (12/97) and his wife, Jackie Weaver Agostoni were also here. Jason is still with PPG in Pittsburgh and was also here on November 1 to give a colloquium about PPG. Jackie is still in medical school (third year) and we'll all get free medical care when she's finished (only kidding!!)

    Also at the breakfast were Jeff Scott (5/90) and Wendy (Cauffman) Scott (8/89) and their two children, Sarah and Matthew. I think I mentioned before (and I will now emphasize) that Sarah is the spitting image of Wendy and Matthew is the spitting image of Jeff! Jeff is still working at PPG in Pittsburgh and Wendy is happily retired (sort of) and is hoping she can remain that way for as long as possible. It was great seeing all four of you.

    Dave Revitsky (5/77), Anne and Ethan were also here this year. I mentioned in one of The Debugger issues that they had been here last fall with their son, Ben, who is now a freshman computer science major and that Anne was pregnant at the time, and then I reported that they had had a son. Well, that son is Ethan and oh boy is he cute. I call him their empty-nest baby - they just couldn't bear the thoughts of an empty house. But, I think they're enjoying him more than their first family (oops, I mean as much as their first family). He's just learning to walk around things and, of course, I let him fall. Wouldn't you just know it? Now, he'll never want to be an IUP Computer Science major! His little psyche's probably damaged forever about IUP. But, I'm so glad we got to see him. You, too, Dave and Anne!

    Mark Minser (5/00) had RSVP'd, but didn't make it. I found out on Monday that he had to make a trip to the Emergency Room Saturday morning. I don't have any details, but I do know it wasn't anything serious - just a couple sutures. Glad it was ok, Mark. Mark did stop in earlier in the semester on a day off, though and we visited with him. He's working at Raytheon in State College and living in Armagh - loves the work, hates the drive. Let's hope you can make it next year, Mark.

    Steve Brehm (5/76) wasn't able to make breakfast it; but he sent his best wishes. Thanks, Steve. It was nice to hear from you.

    There were a few others who RSVP'd but didn't make it. I won't mention any names, but I have a feeling there may have been a bit of partying Friday night. In fact, from what I read in the Gazette and in the Penn, there was more than a little bit of partying Friday night.

    Congratulations and best wishes go out to Laura (Wojciechowski) Lawler (12/97) on her marriage. She and Brion were married April 15. Laura had stopped in and visited with us last year and brought Brion to meet us. They were married in Charlotte, NC (where they are living and working) and honeymooned in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. I think Laura maybe would have liked to stay there. I apologize to Laura for not making this announcement prior to the wedding. Keep me posted on how things are going.

    It had been awhile since we heard from Mark Lacy (5/87) and he has some real good news. Mark left his job with Marriott in the DC area last May and had been working for the Department of Energy since then. BUT, he was hired recently for a position at Shaner Hotel Group in State College and started there the beginning of October. Mark has been wanting to get back to Pennsylvania for years now and I'm sure he's really excited about this opportunity. Keep me posted Mark and let me know how it's going. I tried to talk Mark into the Alumni Breakfast, but that was the weekend he was moving, so I guess he could be excused.

    Brian Geibel (5/00) has been hired by AIMS Logistics in Collierville, Tennessee as a programmer in their Operations department. He deals with Databases using FoxPro as the front end and a Sequel Server as the back. He programs in SQL. Congratulations, Brian, I'm glad you found something you're going to enjoy, just don't leave your backpack lying around.

    Gary Buterbaugh had a nice long e-mail from Judy (Fisk) Spomer (5/77). Her big news is she and her husband (Phil) traveled to China to adopt a little girl they named Nicaea, after the city where the Nicene Creed was written. While there, they asked about children who had been removed from the adoption lists and were introduced to a 17 month old little boy with a cleft lip and cleft palate, strabismus (eye muscle problems), and (Judy's words) a fiery temper. They returned to China in September 1999 and adopted him. His name is Alexander and he has since had surgery on his palate, is wearing glasses and is under treatment with a pediatric ophthalmologist. He will be undergoing more surgery on his palate, but they are considering pharyngeal flap surgery and they have to wait until he is four for diagnostic tests. All in all he is doing well, but will undergo at least 3 more surgeries and may have a slight hearing loss. Judy said it has been more difficult working with his emotional needs since his birth family abandoned him at a year of age. He then went to an orphanage where he lived in a crib for 6 months and then was moved to an older children's area where he learned to defend himself by hitting, kicking and biting. He had cigarette burns on his legs, arms and one shoulder. But, he has emerged into a wonderful, loving little boy. Judy and Phil have two other children, Kathy, 19 and Jenna, 11. She sent a picture with her e-mail; and, Judy, you have a beautiful family.

    Gary also heard from Dave Wagner (12/84). He's still in Seattle and working for Amazon.com. Dave worked at LADC for Honeywell for 4 years on CP-6, left there and did some overseas contract work with a small start-up company that went bankrupt. While working for them, he was sent to England where he met Georgina, his wife of eleven years. They now have 2 children, Victoria and Thomas. When Dave came back to the US, he worked for Teradata in LA (they do a highly parallel specialized hardware/software database solutions) until it was bought by AT&T in the AT&T/NCR fiasco. After Victoria was born, they decided they wanted to raise their children in an environment that was not all concrete. (This was after they put Victoria down on the grass when she was a year old; and since she had never seen grass before, she was terrified). So, he left Teradata for a job with Cray Research working on their Massively Parallel Processor utilizing up to 2048 DEC Alpha chips. The T3D used 21064 processors and the T3E used 21164. He handled all the memory management for those 2 products. After Cray was bought by SGI, he started looking around. They moved to Seattle with DEC and he continued to work with the Alpha processor, this time with Windows NT where he ended up managing the performance group responsible for making sure the NT ran well on Alpha. After that, he moved to Amazon and has been there for almost a year . Great to hear from you Dave! Keep in touch!

    Big news for Janie (Pike) Kustaborder (5/92) and Ron. They're having their third baby in March and it's a boy!!! They haven't picked out his name yet, but they still have some time. I'm sure Amber and Heather are going to be thrilled with a baby brother, but I think Amber would be thrilled with either a brother or a sister. I can't wait to see him! Earlier, Janie sent me a ''clip'' of Heather walking. It was so cute! She just kind of took off and staggered across the floor. Congratulations guys!!! I'm excited for you. Keep me posted!

    And, speaking of babies, Sean VanScoyoc (12/90) brought Adam in a couple weeks ago. He was almost 5 months old and he is soooo cute. I think I mentioned last time that Sean doesn't want him to look like a baby; he wants him to look like a little boy and when they had brought him in the first time he was wearing blue jeans and a red tee shirt. Well, this time he was wearing a Steelers warm up suit and a charcoal henley tee shirt. I could not EVEN believe it. But he just laughed and cooed; and we have a good time!! He's starting to get teeth, but he sure wasn't fussing about it. Sean, bring him anytime!!

    Tim Ferro (12/97) moved back to Illinois this summer. He really enjoyed working at SMG in State College but wanted to get back to Illinois and also wanted to move into a position with more responsibility and more and better opportunities. He also was thinking that the kids would be closer to their mother who moved back to Illinois after they divorced. So, off he went. He bought a house in Aurora and takes the train each day into the Chicago Loop District where he's writing software for Citadel Investment Group, a privately held corporation using proprietary strategies & technology, as well as risk management processes, and is one of the top performing hedge funds in the world. Tim has much more individual & team responsibility there and is being actively trained/groomed for team leadership as the company grows. And he has his hands on the full software life cycle. Tim says the company is phenomenally committed to it's technology group, and practically anything they need they'll be able to get. On the home front, Haley & Reid are now in 2nd & 1st grades, respectively, and Tim hears from their teachers that they are performing at the top of their classes. Reid has several aspects of his day that are individually paced, and in 2 or 3 of them he's almost finished work meant to last the entire year - this could present a problem. Tim said he sees him already getting frustrated. One solution would be to put him a year ahead but that would put Haley & Reid in the same class, presenting yet another problem. Fortunately, their teachers recognize the problems and hopefully something will be worked out. Good luck on that front, Tim! Tim's also living across the street from an old roommate at Northern Illinois and they have some irons in the fire. Keep me posted Tim!

    Mary (Singer) Mosholder (5/99) stopped in one day. If you remember, Mary works in the Technology Services Center here. She had the day off and she and her husband, Terry, brought Guy in for a visit. Yes, I know, last time you heard about Mary, she didn't have a husband. They got married last October 22 (1999). Actually, they eloped!! She didn't tell if they took Guy along, but I bet they did. You should see him. He is BIG!! He's just as solid as a rock. I told them I thought he would be a football player. They think he'll not only be a football player, but will be drafted by the NFL and all their money problems will be over. It wouldn't surprise me one bit. He's also just as cute as can be. Since then, he's started walking and talking, and, for Halloween, he was Superman. I'm so glad you brought him in, Mary, please do that every once in awhile.

    Congratulations to two of our 'geeky' alumni (Mike's words) who recently won a golf tournament. Larry Moon (5/92) and Mike Elder (5/94) won the Salem Glen Country Club Member-Guest Tournament the middle of September in Winston-Salem NC. Salem Glen is the course to which Mike belongs. He said it was very thrilling and they had a great time. Mike said Larry hasn't changed a bit which, knowing Larry, doesn't surprise me. Mike's encouraging him to move there, but Larry is working on a masters degree and would like to wait until he finishes which may be in December. Isn't it a shame that Larry never writes and tells me anything?? On the home front with Mike, the girls are fine. Monica just started kindergarten and Alexis started at the same school as Monica, but in pre-school. Their school is near where Mike and Lori both work which makes it very convenient for them. Mike said they were thinking about coming up for Homecoming, but I guess they didn't make it, did you Mikey? At any rate, again, I say congratulations to you and Larry; and please keep in touch.

    Todd Campbell (5/98) changed jobs. He accepted a position with Southwestern Bell in King of Prussia. It's with the portion of the company that was previously owned by Comcast (wireless - Cellular ONE) and had a lot of contracted help. With the takeover, SBC decided to replace the contractors with full-time employees. Todd's doing a lot more interesting and technologically up-to-date work, learning new database skills with SQL Server, and doing some small intranet projects. He's really enjoying the work. He's sill living in West Chester, but is thinking about moving to a 'burb' closer to Philly. It's interesting to hear Todd say he's living near WCU and said it was a really nice place until the students came back to town and now it's crazy. He said he's beginning to see how the Indiana folks felt for those years he was at IUP. Todd was also considering homecoming as an option; but I guess he didn't make it either.

    TJ Hall (5/88) came up the end of September for a football game; and a bunch of us went out to dinner at Benjamin's and had a wonderful time. TJ is still at US Airways, but he works for Sabre. US Airways outsourced the work he does in 1998. TJ worked for US Airway's from 4/96 - 12/97 and from 1/98 to present for Sabre. He's doing the same job, in the same cube, has the same phone number, but gets paid by a different person. He still gets his flying benefits, but now it is on US Airways and American because American used to own Sabre. Patty is still in the banking industry. She worked for the Network Division at Mellon, but Mellon sold it to USB, so now she works for USB. They built a house in Cranberry in 1997 and they have 2 cats, Sprocket and Gidget.

    Debbie Rice (5/81) has changed jobs since we last heard from her. She's now working at National City Bank in Cleveland. She started in July, but had worked there prior to her consulting position. Since the birth of Leeann, she wanted a more permanent position. She said Leeann is still an angel, getting big. At the time of Debbie's e-mail Leeann was rolling over, and sitting up pretty well on her own. There are also new pictures on the Internet, by the way. It's members/aol.com/leeannerice/Leeann.html You can watch her grow!

    Had an e-mail (and pictures) from Jane (Cunningham) Harnagy (5/87). Jane was a dual major in Computer Science and MIS and she gave us an interesting perspective on being a dual major in those two areas, insofar as the pros and cons of each program. It was very enlightening, Jane! Thanks for telling us!!! Meanwhile, Jane is also busy being a mother to Olivia. It was Olivia I got pictures of. She is so cute, Jane; and it sure would be nice to meet her in person (hint, hint). But, at least, send more pictures!!

    Bill Monti (12/98) had a lot of news for us. First of all, at the time of his e-mail, his wedding was five weeks away which means it is now over. Hope all went well for you, Bill! Second, after the wedding, he and Kate are moving to Latrobe, PA because Kate got a promotion at Indiana Hospital. Since Bill works out near the Pittsburgh Airport, he may have to change jobs which he's not real happy about since he was just offered a promotion at his present job (dsports.com); but he doesn't think he wants to commute 3-4 hours a day. I can't blame him for that.. Keep me posted, Bill, on what you decide and how it's going.

    Amy (Slowik) Gross (5/99) sent information about jobs in the silicon valley she thought some people might be interested in. We got the word out. She's doing great, her job is fantastic; and she really likes her bosses (IBM, Poughkeepsie) and has gotten to go to some really interesting conferences. She just migrated from OS/390 Java Performance and is now working with OS/390 Java System Test which she likes because there's more coding involved. She's also doing some work with Java XM. Her husband (Jonathan) loves his job and is looking forward to being put on first shift at the MRI clinic where he works. She said they're both homesick, though. Sister Bonnie (5/96) is planning on moving down to Washington D.C. soon. Great hearing from you Amy. Please keep in touch.

    Scott Whitney (5/00) sent e-mail to Drs. Cross and Shubra to let them know what he was up to; and they passed the information along to me. Scott interviewed with a company called MediaSite the day after graduation and was hired one week later. MediaSite is in the business of indexing video to be searched on the internet. Scott said searching for video clips is expected to be the new paradigm of the Internet; it is the result of this explosion of video content is similar to the initial explosion of text content on the Web during the early 1990's. This creates a desperate need for video search engines to search through content. MediaSite is the technology leader in making video interactive, enabling organizations with video to increase their revenues and extend their brands by creating searchable video websites. Scott says there are many opportunities at MediaSite. He is a Quality Assurance Tester, but there are other openings listed on the website at www.mediasite.net. They are a startup company so everything (wages, flexible hours, no dress code, ping pong, etc) is based on attracting talent and keeping it here. They are growing so rapidly that they are constantly recruiting new people. MediaSite is located on Liberty Avenue in Pittsburgh.

    Also heard from Jim Butler (8/88) (finally, Jim!) After graduation, Jim moved to Northern Virginia where he worked for several firms, as a contractor for the intelligence community. In mid-1996, he moved back to Central PA, taking a job with Keystone Financial, Incorporated. He worked for Keystone for 4 years, providing Lotus Notes and VB development and project management and he just recently left Keystone to join Concurrent Technologies Corporation in Johnstown, PA where he hopes to provide them with project management and technical lead expertise on some upcoming contracts. On the personal side, Jim has two sons, Adam is going on 16 (and I remember when Jim brought Adam in when he was a student), and Ryan is going on 1. Jim sent a picture of Ryan. He is really cute. He looks like his dad! Jim is living in Roaring Spring, PA which is his home town. Hmm, seems like only a couple years until Adam will be a student at IUP, right?

    Rick Joslin (5/85) dropped in the other day. He was here again for Business Day at Eberly College of Business. Rick is still with ServiceWare in Pittsburgh; and they've taken the company public. It's now one of the few companies to be listed on Nasdaq. I'd say they're doing pretty well! Rick has two daughters, ages and ten and five, and Rick's wife and his ten year old are close to getting their black belts in Tae Kwon Do. Rick and I had our conversation interrupted by faculty, so I didn't get names. Sorry, Rick!! I probably have them on file somewhere, though. At any rate, Rick, it's always nice to see you.

    Rick also gave us a bit of news about Todd Schick (5/85). It seems Todd has sold his company for a not so small sum of money. Todd, I think you need to contact me with details about this sale.

    Becky Salter (12/94) is currently trying to get a commissioned officers position in the Air Force. She's just getting started with the preliminaries and needed some help getting some information. She's promised that she'll keep me updated with her progress and I, of course, will let everyone know. Thanks, Becky for the update!!

    Unfortunately, that's all the news I have for this time, but I appreciate everyone writing and please continue!! Have a great holiday and let me know what you got for Christmas and where you went.



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    Joe Shyrock's picture News from Tompkins Lab
    Joseph Shyrock

    As the holidays and finals approach us, the classrooms, labs, and its staff are very busy. Tompkins Lab was not as busy with students during the beginning of the semester. As the semester continues, the Tompkins Lab gets busier as more students become aware of another open public facility. Currently the Lab supports MS Office 2000, Netscape, Internet Explorer 5.0. The public scanner is also very popular.

    The Lab and Stright 320 support many classes for both majors and non-majors. For the non-major, the first course is COSC 101, an introduction course; COSC 201, Internet and Multimedia is also popular. The more computer science specific uses of the facilities are COSC 441, Database (currently being taught using Oracle), COSC 320, Software Engineering Practice, taught in the classroom, and the developing COSC 415, which is on Internet Architecture and ASP. Of course, the facilities continue to be used to teach COSC 110, which is a C++ course and COSC 444, which is a Visual Basic course.

    In a previous article, I mentioned that the department bought three new Dell Power Edge Servers. The names of the servers follow a unique theme. They are Thor, Odin, and Loki, of Norse legend. Loki is primarily serving COSC 415; Odin is primarily serving COSC 441; and Thor is starting to be used by COSC 201 and COSC 304.

    Another area of interest is the improvements to Stright 331. A projector was mounted on the ceiling. It is similar to the projector in Stright 220 if you are familiar with that classroom - it provides a means for projecting what is on the computer monitor onto the large screen. There is also a permanent computer station in room 331, as well.

    An ongoing discussion in the department is about the possibility of purchasing a departmental web server. However, a final decision has not been made. The University is preparing to serve WebPages from student home directories as they shift away from the VAX. The space for the pages will be managed centrally as part of the university-wide student services.

    I hope that this helps to keep you informed about the new facilities at Stright. I would like to wish you and your families a happy and safe holiday season.



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    Who Says You Never Use What You Learn in College?
    Justin Streiner (5/97)

    When I started at Stargate in May '97, the company was at about 20 employees, serving just over 6,000 customers. We currently employ around 450 in three states (Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia) to support a customer base of 90,000+ and growing. The recent acquisition of CIScorp (home of an IUP alumnus or two...), the opening of our data center in Greentree, and a host of other big announcements on the horizon underscore our commitment to support and continue that growth.

    My responsibilities have changed completely since starting. Initially, I handled much of the Unix system administration and engineering work. That role has been turned over entirely to our Production Systems group.

    I now focus entirely on engineering, design, implementation, security, and capacity planning of Stargate's core network; the routers, switches, circuits and transports that permit our customers to access the Internet. While at a convention over the summer in Las Vegas, I obtained my CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) certification. This is a fairly basic certification, but a required one for more advanced certifications offered by Cisco, such as a CCNP or CCIE.

    At first what I do may seem like a fairly static, dull job, but I can assure you it's anything but dull. Supporting thousands of customers in physically diverse locations presents significant technical challenges; and it requires ingenuity and tenacity to come up with the answers. I have to think on my feet every day and be able to move quickly on something if needed. The logical reasoning and critical thinking skills I draw upon daily were honed at IUP. My job also provides me with constant exposure to new technologies and new hardware/software. I have to look at things and be fluent at all levels of the networking spectrum, from low-level transports such as: TDM (Time Division Multiplexing; the basis for the way T1 and DS3 circuits operate), SONET, and DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) through the physical circuits / interfaces / router+switch hardware, network transports (ATM, frame relay, POS, etc), routing protocols (OSPF, BGP, PIM, etc), and finally the end-user applications. So much for not having any run-on sentences ;-)

    One question people ask on occasion is, "How are your current job skills and responsibilities tied to your college courses and experience?" The answer is complex.

    While the bulk of the CompSci coursework I did at IUP focused on tasks related to software engineering, if you look at the very lowest layers of those courses, they all has the same basic goal. That goal is to teach a student logical reasoning and critical thinking - to teach you to think. Whether the course involves writing a binary search tree algorithm in C++, COBOL with embedded SQL or file and disk I/O routines for Operating Systems, the base doesn't change. The student has to digest the task at hand, break it into whatever steps are needed to begin work, research issues they may not immediately know how to tackle, and take it to completion.

    I think the same could be said of just about any college curriculum.

    When in college, sitting in CO[insert course here], students may view the next programming project as a pain, or mindless busywork. At that level, at that time, it's tough to see them for what they really are and that realization may not dawn on people until after they've graduated and been working for awhile. Had I thought about my coursework as teaching me to think, especially my early coursework, I'm sure I could have improved some grades here and there.

    Do I ever use the stuff I did in college in the 'real world'? Absolutely. Networks are about as heavily based in math as any technology can be. Many of the principles behind modern IP routing protocols such as OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) and BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) take their cues from principles of discrete mathematics. Distance-vector protocols such as RIP (Routing Information Protocol) and DVMRP (Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol) are based entirely on discrete math.

    Data Communications provided basic concepts of how electrical and optical signals went from point A to point B, along with other core concepts such as modulation, signal regeneration and propagation, and budgeting for attenuation over circuit distance.

    Data Structures provided an understanding of stacks, queues, sorting operations and optimizations, used extensively in all routing protocols.

    Probability and Statistics provided an understanding of statistical methods which I still use for trending, forecasting and capacity planning. All of these things are essential to budgetary planning, with the goal of maintaining positive EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) on the financials (I didn't take any accounting classes ;-)).

    My internship provided an object lesson in marrying all of this with the functional and business requirements of being in the "real world".

    Wow... I didn't realize this would be so long. I guess I've scripted out most of a colloquium. [Editor's Note: Thanks for all the course advertisements Justin. We will have to get Charley Shubra to set up one for you on this topic.]

    By the way, when I'm not working, I've found a number of ways to blow off steam. So far, paintball and sky diving are the two best. I've gone sky diving twice; and next spring, I plan to pursue a United States Parachute Association (USPA) class A parachute license. Believe it or not, I found 8,000 feet of free-fall to be pretty calming. Paintball, however, is played year-round. I try to play at least once every few months... where else is it perfectly acceptable to shoot at vendors, customers and co-workers in the name of sport? ;-)



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    Tia Watts' picture Our Ever Changing Curriculum
    Tia Watts

    To remain current in a rapidly changing field, every university and college computer science department must, from time to time, review and modify its curriculum. It is now one of those times for IUP's Computer Science Department. The changes we are making are designed to address several major goals.

    1. To include both procedural and object oriented programming paradigms.

    In past years, our curriculum has emphasized the procedural programming paradigm by incorporating the FORTRAN, COBOL and Pascal programming languages. A few years ago we migrated COSC 110 and COSC 310 (note the new BANNER prefixes!) to C++ so that we could also include the Objected Oriented Programming (OOP) paradigm. Since making this change, we have further recognized the importance and challenges presented by OOP. In order to address these issues, we are adding a third C++ OOP course, COSC 210, between COSC 110 and COSC 310. Designed by Dr. Tia Watts, the title of this course is Object Oriented and GUI Programming. In addition to covering the OOP paradigm in depth, this course introduces the students to GUI programming using MFC (Microsoft Foundation Class) objects to create Windows applications.

    Since COSC 210 will become a prerequisite for COSC 310, Dr. Sanwar Ali has rewritten the COSC 310 syllabus to include more algorithm development in place of the Object Oriented topics that have moved to COSC 210.

    2. To emphasize the importance and wide spread usage of data base technologies.

    Many of our graduates and interns have indicated that knowledge of data base technologies has been very beneficial to them in their employment situations. This message has also been conveyed to us by our Corporate Advisory Board. To address this issue, Dr. Charles Shubra has rewritten the syllabus for the data base class (formerly known as COSC 441). In addition, we have changed the number of this course to COSC 341 to indicate that it is a junior level course and have included it in the list of core courses for all tracks. By taking COSC 341 early in their course sequence, students will be able to take advantage of a new course that emphasizes web-based data delivery models.

    3. To include web based programming and data delivery technologies.

    COSC 415, Internet Architecture and Programming, created by Dr. Andrew Yang, is designed to familiarize the students with the fundamental architecture of Internet systems and the process of developing computer applications to run on the Internet in general and the World Wide Web in particular.

    Since the prerequisite for COSC 415 is knowledge of a graphical, Object Oriented Language, students in the Applied CS track will now be required to take either COSC 304 (Java) or COSC 344 (VB).

    4. To make these changes without greatly increasing the number of Computer Science credits required for graduation.

    We know that our students like to graduate! So, to keep the number of credits required to graduate reasonable, we have made two additional changes:

    COSC 315, Large File Organization and Access, has been removed from the required list of courses. Some of the topics formerly covered in COSC 315 have migrated to COSC 341 and a few have been removed from the curriculum.

    Dr. William Oblitey has revised the syllabus for COSC 220, Applied Computer Programming, to include the remaining topics from COSC 315 that are considered applicable to modern computer technologies. To include these additional topics, COSC 220 has been increased from 3 to 4 credits.

    These changes have been passed by the Computer Science Department and are currently under review by the College of Natural Science and Mathematics curriculum committee. We hope to have these changes in place by the beginning of the 2001/2002 academic year.

    We would love to receive your input regarding these changes and future directions for our curriculum. Send your comments to tiawatts@grove.iup.edu
    [Ed Note: or to cjshubra@grove.iup.edu]



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    Jim Wolfe's picture Business Decision
    Jim Wolfe

    On November 15, the Computer Science Department finally reached the point of voting on a proposal regarding a possible move to the College of Business and Technology. During the discussion, a number of good things were cited about that College and its Dean; however, when the vote was taken, the decision was to stay in the College of Natural Science and Mathematics. In the end, I think the overriding issue was one of philosophy. Several faculty pointed to the differences in emphasis in the way courses are constructed and taught, as well as the differences in operational approach with regard to running the department and doing research as factors that influenced their vote.

    In recent years, the Computer Science Department has worked closely with the Management Information Systems Department and the Department of Technology Support and Training in revising the curricula of all three departments. The faculty in Computer Science fully expects to continue with that work as each of our curricula continue to change. In fact, there are several efforts currently going on involving revision of the Computer Literacy course and the Multimedia course and the development of a jointly taught Master's degree program. We do not see our choice of staying in NS&M to be a hindrance in continuing these tasks.

    To those of you who took the time to write to us expressing your views on a possible move, the department expresses its thanks. I collected all the alumni the comments on a Web page that could only be viewed if you knew its URL; i.e., there were no links to it. The only people who were given the URL were the faculty in the department. In the last issue, I tried to summarize what these messages were telling us. I have since received a few additional comments from alumni and have added those to the Web page for the faculty to view.



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    ACM Regional Programming Contest

    On Saturday, 11 November 2000, the IUP Programming Team traveled to Lehigh University to participate in the ACM Mid-Atlantic Regional Programming Contest. After 5 hours of brain numbing work, Team 1 (Jim Culp, Yiming Sun, and Gautam Swaminathan) solved three problems to place 27th (of 140); Team 2 (Jason Barto, Jason Brown, and Andrew Grasmeder) solved two problems to place 66th; and Team 3 (Adnan Al Ghourabi, Jeff Carrick, and Jacob Graham) received an Honorable Mention. Congratulations to ALL who participated!



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    Century Club

    You can become a member of the IUP Computer Science Department's Century Club. Membership in the Century Club is obtained by pledging at least $100 through the Foundation for IUP for the Computer Science Department. Century Club members will receive a gift (tee shirt, mug, glass, etc.) for their membership each year. The Chair and Carol try to find something new and interesting each year to send as a gift. If you have any new ideas for gifts, let
    them know.

    A pledge of $100 is less than $10 per month. Please consider this opportunity. To join, cut off the form in the next column, complete it and commit yourself to giving $100 for 2000 or 2001. Your gift to the Century Club is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.