The Debugger      Spring 1999

Table of Contents
  • Editor's Notes
  • From the Chair - Bill Oblitey
  • Carol's Corner - Carol Miller
  • News from Tompkins Lab - Nadine Tatarko
  • Notes from Abroad - Ralph Grove
  • Impressions From an Exchange - Peter Martin
  • Computer Science Club - Chris Smith
  • Century Club
  • Computer Science faculty


    • EDITOR'S NOTES

    For this issue, we have a special treat. With Ralph Grove in England on a faculty exchange and Peter Martin here from England on the exchange, I have managed to convince both of them to contribute articles that describe their reactions to their new environments. You will find the articles both interesting and amusing as Peter contends with trying to find proper British food here in the desolation of Western PA and Ralph faces the requirement of producing examinations on material he hasn't taught months before the exams are to be given.

    Incidentally, I have deliberately left Peter's article as unedited as possible so that you can appreciate the phrasing and spelling. You will easily see why Winston Churchill described the USA and the UK as "two countries divided by a common language." Peter's article also illustrates what adjustments are sometimes necessary to get "the idea" across to students.

    Meanwhile in the regular features, Bill Oblitey talks about how much money you may be making and the awards that some current students have won; Carol Miller fills you in on alumni happenings; and Nadine Tatarko tells you that nothing much has happened in Tompkins lab but that something big is about to happen. In addition, we have another rare contribution - a small article about what the Computer Science Club has been up to lately.

    You will notice scattered throughtout the issue a small advertisement for the A Homecoming Breakfast that the department is setting up for October. We are trying to give you as much notice as possible in the hope that you can join us for the event.


    Jim Wolfe




    Back to the Contents
    From the Chair
    Bill Oblitey

    Hello again,

    I have a few items to report to you this time. First, I think you will be interested in the 1997 Annual Report of the Office of Career Services of IUP's Division of Student Affairs for the class of 1997. I just received it and it is bearing the news that Computer Science had twenty two graduates from December 1996 through August 1997 and seventeen of these graduates responded to the survey sent to them. These seventeen people are all employed in computing-related positions; with a highest starting salary reported of $55,000 and an average starting salary of $32,000. The overall average starting salary of all IUP graduates with Bachelor's degrees was reported as $25,560. The report is drawn from a follow-up survey of the Class of 1997 and was mailed to the graduates in December 1997. The students who did not respond to the mailing were surveyed again in October 1998. I was also contacted, as chair, to help fill in any missing information. The study is meant to represent a look at the "total" placement of the IUP Class of 1997 but is not meant to be interpreted as a commentary on the quality of the programs at IUP. All the same, I want to encourage our recent graduates and those getting ready to graduate to respond to their surveys when you get them.

    Concerning the difficulties that I and the faculty have faced since the retirement of Drs. McKelvey and Sweeney, I need to inform you that we have really missed them due to the fact that we are yet to find replacements for their positions. Although we are making much progress in examining the applications that we received for the positions, our problem is expanded because we have two more faculty who are not around for the semester. Dr. Grove is doing an exchange program in Bristol, United Kingdom; and Dr. Micco is serving as a visiting professor at the School of Computing Technology of the Eastern Mediterranean University in Gazimaguya, Turkish Republic of North Cyprus. However, the resumes of the applicants for the two positions are all quite strong; and we thus hope to hire two people from the lot before the semester ends. We will keep you informed in the next issue of The Debugger about how things worked out.

    The plans for the twenty-five years celebration did not work out so well. We did not get enough positive responses from you so that we could come to Washington D.C., Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, as we planned, to hold the dinners. However, I do hope that we can still plan to do something. However, our biggest problem is that because we are working short, we are not able to find the time to do the dinners. Also, Dr. Howard Tompkins does not feel like he's up to travelling; and I don't think we need to bother him at this stage of his life. It will be good, though, if you will keep him and his beloved wife in your thoughts. I know he will appreciate that tremendously. I still think that it should be possible to hold the dinner at a later time when we have our faculty in full strength. Again, we will keep you posted on this.

    On March 6, 1999, Dr. Watts entered three programming teams in the PACISE (Pennsylvania Coalition of Computer and Information Science Educators) programming contest which was held at the Millersville. Twelve teams participated in the contest and our teams placed first and fourth. The team that came first consisted of Drew Dorman and Simon Thomas and the team that placed fourth consisted of Jim Culp, Yiming (Jim) Sun and Gautan Swaminathan. The third IUP team consisted of Matt Musingo and Jason Barto. I'm sure you will join me and Dr. Watts in congratulating our participating students. We're very proud of them; and we encourage all students to endeavor to be part of our programming teams.

    I am pleased to report to you that this semester's award for the Fundamentals of Computer Science (CO 105) was presented to Michael R. Liggett. The award was sponsored by ARMCO. The Problem Solving and Structured Programming (CO 110) award which was sponsored by North American Communications went to Pablo Viedma. The award for Software Engineering Concepts (CO 319) went to B. Michael Sprankle; it was sponsored by the Raytheon Corporation; and the award for Data Base Management (CO 441), which was sponsored by the PPG Corporation, was given to Christopher K. Smith. I congratulate the recipients of these awards and thank the companies that sponsored them. I would like to end by encouraging you, as alumni, to continue to contribute to the department.

    We Want To See You!
    (and give you the opportunity to see us and your fellow alumni)
    Join Us For

    A Homecoming
    Alumni Breakfast

    Saturday, October 9, 1999
    Third Floor Stright Hall
    8:30 am until 11:00 am
    It's free !!!

    You must make a reservation
    by Wednesday, October 6

    Call Carol at 724 357-2524 Or

    E-mail her at camiller@grove.iup.edu

    Back to the Contents
    Carol's Corner
    Carol Miller

    Happy Spring!!

    Actually, this has been a miserable "spring". We've seen even less sun than we usually do. It's been snowing and freezing cold. Finally, though, it's starting to warm up a bit - just in time for Easter. I think the faculty all went south for Spring Break and who could blame them.

    Kathy McKelvey dropped in one morning to visit. She's enjoying her retirement immensely (probably more than is legal). During the tax season, a couple mornings a week she is volunteering her services to the senior citizens to help them with their income tax.

    Mary Micco is still in Cyprus. She will be back home in August.

    Ralph Grove is in Bristol England on an exchange professorship. His counterpart is Peter Martin, and we're enjoying having Peter with us for the semester; and I think he'll be here part of the summer as well.

    Bill Oblitey went to Antigua for Christmas to visit his sister and her family, Jim Wolfe and his wife went to Australia to visit the kangaroos. They both had a good time; and I'm sure didn't particularly want to come home.

    Mark Lasich who you may remember was our first lab manager for Tompkins Lab stopped in for a visit with his wife, Robin, and their little boy, Ben. Ben is almost a year old and what a joy! Mark is working for Alcoa now and Robin has quit her job to take care of the baby. It was so nice to see them!

    But, now, for the news you REALLY want to hear:

    Nancy McLees (5/97) stopped in a minute ago. She actually stopped to talk to Bill Oblitey about her son coming to summer school, but I got to talk with her for a few minutes. Nancy is still working at Mellon in Pittsburgh. Her husband is now working at a place called Milleniun (I think that's how it's spelled) in Harmarville, so Nancy rides down to Harmarville with him and then takes the bus into Pittsburgh. She really likes Mellon, but I don't think she's real thrilled doing COBOL. At any rate, it was really nice seeing you, Nancy. Please stop again.

    Rick Joslin (5/85) gave me a nice summary on what he's been doing recently. Rick is still working with ServiceWare in Oakmont PA. ServiceWare is a fast growing company; and Rick's having fun! Along with his regular activities, he represents ServiceWare on the Multi-Vendor Support Strategy program committee of the Customer Support Consortium which is an organization made up of major vendors focused on developing standards and practices for reducing the total cost of support. The representatives come from Microsoft, Novell, Intel, HP, Oracle, NCR, etc. Rick was also asked to join the Board of Advisors of the Help Desk Professionals Association which is a new organization. He was asked to join primarily because of his involvement with ServiceWare, starting the first student chapter of the Help Desk Institute, and being president of the HDI local Pittsburgh chapter. You know what, Rick? I think those are excellent reasons. Thanks for the info!. ServiceWare is hiring, by the way, and if you want more information, check out the Web site at www.ServiceWare.com. Thanks again, Rick, and take care.

    Kari Robson (5/98) had a little "fender bender" on Rt. 279 near Robinson Towne Center in Pittsburgh. She was coming back from training for PPG when all of a sudden the traffic went to a dead stop. She doesn't remember if she hit the car in front of her or if the car behind her pushed her into it. At any rate, she got it from both ends and did $6500 damage to her car. Now, can you believe this happened on Thursday evening and Kari went to work the next day! She was stiff and sore, but otherwise ok. She has a new title now, though (not because of the accident - because of good work); she's a Programmer Analyst and the new title came with a nice raise. She also had a month of training in West Virginia but she traveled back and forth on the weekends. On a more personal level, she and Greg are working on the house and slowly getting it whipped into shape they way the want it - like a new bathroom and a new chandelier for the dining room and a new corner cupboard. Kacey (the pup) is growing like a weed and has reached that point in her little life where she has made a trip to the vet to be neutered. I had a chance to visit with Kari and Greg recently. Their house is really nice and they have a great yard with fruit trees and bushes and even a little stream running through it. I met the rest of the birds (I had only met Liberty previously) and almost took Kacey home with me, but she kept barking from under my coat and they figured it out that I was trying to smuggle her, but I'll get her next time. Nice seeing you two!!! It had been a while.

    Andy Weiss (5/93) has a new baby daughter. Her name is Eva Rose. She was born December 9 and weighed 8 lbs. 1 oz. She is on the web at www.geocities.com/heartland/hollow /7408, and you have to check her out. She is just adorable and is the apple of her daddy's eye. Suzanne (Andy's wife) is doing well, but they aren't getting much sleep. I don't think they're complaining though, are you, guys??

    Sergio Rivera-Zeballos (5/91) wrote to me recently. After graduation, he worked for American Management Systems in DC, but has left programming and gone into finance and banking in New York City. Right now, he's trying to have his IUP diploma legalized in his homeland, Bolivia, and needs to furnish them with a syllabus from each of the classes he took from us. It was so nice hearing from you, Sergio, please let us know how everything turns out.

    Dean Oswald (5/83) has been in touch and has given us the story of his life after IUP and what an interesting life it has been. After graduation, he went to work for HRB-Singer in State College, PA where he stayed for three years, and then agreed to a "10 week" temporary assignment in the DC area to redesign a ground control system, and that ten weeks turned into ten months and then ten years. He met his wife, Wendy, while in DC and relocated to Northern Virginia where he's been ever since. They have four children, Jonathan - 9, Erica - 6, Matthew - 4, and Christopher - 4; and, yes, Mattthew and Christopher are twins (identical), a house, and no dog (NO DOG!!!!) . Well, Dean's allergic to dogs, so I guess we'll let him off the hook. They are very fortunate in that Wendy is able to stay at home with the children. Since moving to the DC area, he's been with Exigent/STI for 10 of the 12 years he been down there, and has done both Government and Commercial satellite work.

    Two of his most rewarding accomplishments include the Clementine mission which mapped the Lunar surface in 1994, and the delivery of the Ground Command & Control COTS product that is used to control both the Iridium and GPS satellites. Dean also spends about 75% of his time working with the Naval Research Lab's (NRL) Naval Center for Space Technology (NCST) Department on the International Space Station Interim Control Module development and testing. Prior to that, he led the development of their OS/COMET Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) Product which is a ground based telemetry and command product used to control satellites. Here, Dean had to get into the "business aspects" of software development as well as the technical. Dean says that while the COTS product development was challenging, he finds it much more challenging and fascinating to be involved in developing software that actually flies on the space vehicle. That and the fact that he wanted to remain technical led him out of the COTS product development.

    Now, he wants to continue his education in the technical area. So, he's planning on going to graduate school for a M.S. Degree in Aerospace Engineering, with a primary emphasis on Systems and Controls. This is an area within Aerospace Engineering that deals with Orbit Determination and Maintenance, Attitude Determination and Control, and Flight Dynamics and is software and mathematics intensive. His long term plan is to teach at the University level in applying computer science and mathematics to aerospace engineering. On top of all that, he's held various leadership positions and presently serves as Vice President and Deputy Chief Technology Officer of Software Technology, Inc. Wow!!! Dean - I'd say you lead a very exciting life.

    Jason Agostoni (12/97) caught me up on what's happening in his life these days. On graduation, Jason started with PPG in Pittsburgh where for the first six months he did a lot of client/server work with Visual Basic and some work with web applications in VB Script and Java Script. Then he joined the rest of the IUP'ers who are working at PPG for training over the summer which included a two week trip out to Los Angeles for some business process training, and two weeks in Cleveland. Then he went back to work for the Automotive Coatings business unit. He's been working with a lot of new technologies which he finds exciting and challenging! Jason and his fiancee, Jackie, will be getting married on July 10th, 1999, in Indiana and will then move to Erie for a year while she finishes up Medical school and then plan on returning to Pittsburgh. Jason will either telecommute, or, perhaps, work in the Meadville plant while they're in Erie. He also mentioned the Comp.Sci alumi who are working at PPG that he sees on a semi-regular basis. For those of you of may be interested, I will repeat them - Rob McWhirter, Kari (Robson) Behune, Matt Ficco, Kevin Higgs, Jeff Scott, Taufiq Shamim. Thanks, Jason, please let me know how the wedding goes.

    Big, big news for Lisa Dillon (12/93) and Tony Boslett (5/92). They got engaged Christmas eve. Lisa said her ring is beautiful. Actually she said a LOT more than that, but if I use all the adjectives she used, I won't have room to write about anyone else. But, I am going to let Tony in on a secret, Lisa said Tony could have given her a lump of coal on a string and she would have been just as happy. They are getting married on December 4 in State College. Lisa's other big news is that she's changed jobs. She accepted a job with the Penn State University Applied Research Lab where she'll be working in Intelligence and Information Operations. She thinks the job will be challenging (along with higher salary and more vacation days) and she will be able to stay in State College. Lisa was going to try to make it down this way "between jobs;" but I guess that didn't work out. It's too bad, I was looking forward to seeing you, Lisa. Keep me posted!

    Bill Bentrim, a 1964 graduate who has a small computer firm in Bucks County, PA sent me e-mail to tell me they are moving into a new facility and expanding. He's looking to add another network engineer to the staff. They need someone who understands networking and specifically NT. If anyone is interested in Central Bucks County, Bill has a web page at www.buckingham-computers.com or you can email at or fax him a resume at 215 340-5697 or phone at 215-489-9800 or write at Buckingham Computers Inc., 76 West Swamp Road Doylestown, PA 18901. They have a very low turnover rate which Bill feels is based on their family friendly policy. It seems like a real nice opportunity.

    Word from Bryan Mechtly (5/83) through Gary Buterbaugh is that they have moved and are expecting their second baby in April. Matthew, their son, is three years old now. Bryan is still at IBM and loves it there. Bryan, let me know when the new baby arrives!!!

    Jimmy Maple (5/86) sent me e-mail with the scoop on what he's been up to. TCS (the company Jimmy founded) is still growing with this past year being an investment year. In October of 1999, they will celebrate their 5th year of operations. I can't believe it's been that long! The coming year is also looking healthy, too; and they are always on the look out for good technical people who have some backgound in UNIX/C and TCP/IP and/or ORACLE programming and integration experience primarily. And a computer security background is a real plus as well. So, if anyone out there is interested in the DC area and have some experience, let me know and I'll give you Jimmy's e-mail (or, for that matter, send me your resume and I will forward it to Jimmy). I think I may have mentioned last time that Jimmy has taken up flying for business and personal reasons. He passed his FAA check ride before Christmas and is now a Private Pilot. He plans to pursue a Multi-Engine rating as well as an Instrument rating. Both require additional study, exams and check rides with the FAA. Jimmy, do you have one of those leather helmets like the Red Baron has? Jimmy's other passion right now is the IUP mascot, but I'm not going to get into that. Let me just say this - I agree with Jimmy. Thanks a bunch for the news. Come take me for a ride in your flying machine some day (when you get one).

    And, I got one of my favorite kind of e-mails - a "you may not remember me, but" from Scott Emmel (5/85). Scott, I remember everybody! (Well, almost everybody.) Scott has been at Armco in Butler, PA for the past 14 years working mostly in the area of the systems called Shop Floor applications which Scott says are basically production, quality, and shipping data collection systems. He got married in 1990 and he and his wife have 2 children, a girl, 6 and a boy, 3. Scott and his wife are doing genealogical research and are interested in using the Stapleton Library here on campus - which means they should be over in this area once in awhile - which means they'll probably stop in and say hi to us. Right, Scott???

    I got a weather report from Ken Cypher (8/91) who is with the Army (as I reported previously) living in Alaska 170 miles south of the Artic Circle. It's the farthest Army post to the north. Ken said that at that time it had been around -50 for two weeks. He said it's amazing how many things just stop working. You have to have a car battery warmer and an engine block heater or forget about even getting the car started. He said in 1989, it reached -80 and at that point, your tires freeze solid. He has friends who have snapped the car axle when they attempted to move their cars. (I can't even imagine temperatures that low. It's bad enough in Pennsylvania in the winter). Ken said it's a different world up there when it gets that cold, but it's also like everything else, if you have the right education, it's quite easy to function. He said the hardest thing to adapt to is the loss of sunlight. During the first few weeks of January, they only receive 3-3 1/2 hours of light a day. But, wait a minute, in the next sentence, he said he's flying to Hawaii for a week of vacation. Oh, I guess that's fair!! Thanks for the info, Ken, keep in touch.

    Ron Howe (8/96) sent greetings from rainy Seattle. He said this year has been the rainiest season in Seattle's history. It has rained for 90 of the days between November 1, 1998 and February 28, 1999. That's a lot of rain, Ron. I remember reading something about it raining forty days and forty nights somewhere at some time, and I think there was an ark in the story somewhere, so keep an eye out. Ron sent along information about job opportunities out in the area at Meridian Partner. If anyone is interested in the Seattle area, let me know. For those of you who may not know, Ron is working at Microsoft. Thanks, Ron. If it gets too wet out there, I think you could probably find a cave to live in - Bill Gates might be willing to share.

    I heard (through a long and winding grapevine, I might add) that Scott McClements (8/98) has accepted a job as a software engineer at IBM in Poughkeepsie NY starting March 29. He will be in development working on their "Component Broker" software that helps developers make distributed applications on IBM's S/390 platform. Thanks, Scott, for letting me know where you are, after all I did for you - called you and let you know IBM was hiring. Are you feeling guilty yet? I think Scott may be working with Mike Everett, but when I talked with Mike, I didn't know Scott wasn't starting until the end of March - I thought he was already up there and Mike hadn't seen him.

    Had a call from Scott (5/88) and Jen (Alleman) Buchanan (5/88) one day. They are now IS managers in a Colorado Ski Resort. It's the Winterpark Ski Resort in Winterpart CO. What a change for them!!! From sunny North Carolina. They want to set up an internship with one of the universities out there and were information gathering. It was so nice to talk with you guys. I hope you do call again. There are lots of questions I didn't ask you!

    Tim Graham (5/93) phoned one day. He's changed jobs and is no longer working for Computer Aid, he's working for Stevens Automation Controls. They make Industrial Controls for conveyors and cranes, etc. They're located in Allentown and Tim started with them in mid-September. He's using Visual Basic to design programmable logic devices and really enjoys it. The company is owned by the father of a friend of Tim's, and they asked Tim to join them since he has a computer background and they needed help in that area. The company is beginning a growth spurt and looks like it has a very rosy future. Good luck to you, Tim, and please keep in touch.

    Tim also told me that Brett Galura (8/93) and his wife had a baby girl last May(?). Her name is Madeline. Since I didn't get the information from Brett, I'm hoping he will contact me and give me additional information. How about it, Brett?

    Another reason Tim called me was to get the address for Brian Lawton (5/93). Unfortunately, I don't have a current address for Brian and Mindi. I haven't heard from them in quite a while.

    Jeff Bertrand (5/94) stopped in one day the end of November and brought some posters for a student job he had open (and has also stopped in since then). He also told me that I made another mistake (hard to believe). It wasn't his mustang he wrecked, it was his Sunbird. But, he got another Mustang, a GT. I think he just might be collecting them. He's very serious about starting graduate school, though, so maybe not; it might have to wait. In case you've forgotten, Jeff does consulting at FMC in Homer City and lives in Indiana - we did such a good job with him here at IUP he just can't fly the nest (believe that one!). He said the baby (his niece) is getting big. She weighed fourteen pounds at that time. She's probably even bigger now. (We hope she's bigger now.) We'll be talking to you, Jeff!

    Dan O'Donnell (12/87) called out of the blue one day and put me on speaker phone because he had a surprise. He's changed jobs and is doing his own contracting these days and has been working at RPR, a pharmaceutical company. I think he told me it was in Malvern, but I'm not sure about that. It's in the area anyway. BUT, he is working with Deana Griffith (5/86) and they both wanted to say hi. It sure was nice to hear from them - I hope they call more often. Dan told me his brother Douggie and his wife are expecting a baby and I hope you let me know what it is, Dan. He also told me that Melissa Campbell (5/88) is back in the Pittsburgh/Chicora area. Melissa, give me a call or send me e-mail and let me know what you're up to these days.

    Mike Everett (5/97), Kerian and Logan stopped in to visit. Actually, Mike has been in quite a few times. His mother has been having some heart problems and has been hospitalized on a semi-regular basis and Mike has been coming to check on her; so, he's been in fairly often; and it's always nice to see him. I was really surprised that Kerian remembered me (or at least he seemed to). He's really a sweetheart and so is Logan, although she slept almost the entire time they were here. She did wake up toward the end and let me hold her for a bit (until she turned around and saw who was holding her). Meanwhile, up at IBM Mike is currently working on a project called Component Broker which he says may change the face of how big businesses do their application development and deployment. It is currently available for Windows NT, IBM's AIX RISC box, and as of today the IBM OS/390 large server with varying degrees of availability on each platform. The middle of the coming year, he'll be working directly with the customer's to solve problems that occur with Java and Component Broker. Right now, he is in system test writing clients and running them in various ways in C++ and Java to see how many ways the customer might be able to break the product. He's really enjoying that. This is a middleware product that takes advantage of existing reliable technologies to allow application programmers to write C++ or Java pure object-oriented code on their Windows 95 or favorite environment. They simply compile it and tweak it a bit here and there; and it will easily run on any platform that has implemented CORBA 2.0 compliant environment. More information can be found at http://www.software.ibm.com/ad/cb/. Thanks for the info, Mike, I'll be seeing you one of these days.

    Heard from Doug Blystone (8/95). Doug is now at Catholic Health Initiatives doing Visual C++ and Visual Basic integration programming. He's been with them about a year now; but he's still near Philly! He keeps in touch with Derek Ochs (12/95) and they are starting a sideline consulting business, so if anyone out there is looking to have some programming work done, go to www.voicenet.com/~birdman/consulting/ and check it out. In Doug's spare time he officiates basketball games at the schools in the five county area down there. Best of luck to you, Doug, please continue to keep in touch.

    Also heard from Mike Elder (5/94), twice, actually. He sent their new e-mail addresses and their new web site address which is www.mindspring.com /~golfguru. Then he sent another e-mail to tell me he had just changed jobs as of the middle of March. He was offered quite a bit more money so he grabbed it and I don't blame him. Anyway, he's working for EFG Technologies in Winston-Salem about five minutes from where he worked at Wachovia. The company does student loan servicing and Mike is creating a web application to do the Entrance/Exit Exam. Mike said the weather down there is finally turning around and the girls have been playing on their new swing set. Lori is still working at Integon and is doing well. Mike is in the process of updating my web site to include new pictures of the girls. I'm really anxious to see them! Thanks for the info, Mike, I really appreciate it and I'm really glad to hear from you.

    New baby news for the Mike Gutzat's (5/88). Their third is due to arrive in the middle of summer, and Mike plans to spend the winter getting the basement ready for the older two to play down there. (It seems like just yesterday, the older two were the babies, doesn't it?) Then, he will move the computers somewhere so Rachel can have the computer room and the baby will get the nursery. WOW! Mike did promise to send picture. Thanks, Mike. I appreciate the info. Everyone stand by for the summer edition and I'll tell you all about the new baby!

    And, I had e-mail from my granddaughter, Amber Kustaborder, daughter of Janie (Pike) Kustaborder (5/92) and Ron. (She had a little help from her mother.) Amber told me she's moving into a new house in April, her new room is being painted pink and she's really excited. But, she's also excited because her mommy and daddy just told her that she is going to have a new brother or sister in October. She's really excited about it. Of course, at that time, Amber will have just turned 2, so I'm sure her excitement will be short lived when she discovers how much time the new baby takes from her. Meanwhile, Janie has picked a topic for her thesis. It is "Augmented Reality and It's Application On The Factory Floor". Her plan is to get her masters in May and I'm sure she'll do it. She and Ron are both really busy at work, but they made it through all the lay offs at Raytheon. Janie is working on a project involved with making the Raytheon network talk to another network and I think she's having fun with it. They'll both be happy to get into the new house. Hopefully, I'll be able to get up and see them sometime either this spring or early summer. I had a trip planned in January and the day I was planning on going was the day the huge ice storm decided to plague the area and I had to cancel. You'll be hearing from me, though!!

    And, more baby news. I heard from a little birdie (I won't say who) that Jane (Cunningham) Harnagy (5/87) and Bob are expecting their first the end of summer. Congratulations to them! Keep me posted, Jane.

    Joe Karolchick (8/87) gave me the "Reader's Digest" update of the happenings in his life since we last heard from him. Wait til you hear this, gang - Joe's roommate is a new grandfather, and Joe helped with the birth. When Joe's roommate's daughter announced she was pregnant, she asked Joe to help with the birth. Joe said he went through all the classes and preparations her. And on July 2, Kyle Gerard was born, 10 lbs 2 oz - that's a BIG BABY! Joe said it was a very interesting experience.

    Meanwhile, in his other life, he commuted from Baltimore to Ocean City so he could spend almost the entire summer living at his beach place which you may remember he bought summer before last. It was an ocean front condo that was a handyman special and he has most of the fix up work done now and his whole family is enjoying it. He was planning on spending New Year's Eve down there, too. So, Joe, did you do the polar bear swim in the ocean? And, last but not least, Joe has made a nice career move. He decided Raytheon probably wasn't the right fit anymore since so many changes have been made since Joe started there eleven years ago. Now he's an Associate for Booz Allen & Hamilton. That was his first week, but he thinks he's going to like it very much. The company not only offers wonderful career opportunities, they go out of their way to support their employees. I hope you continue to enjoy the work, Joe. Please let me know how it's going and how the baby is doing.

    Lance Tost (12/95) has also made a career move. He moved to Pittsburgh in October and is working at a place called Be Free (www.befree.com). They do advertising and affiliate network stuff on the Internet. So far, he loves it and he says they're growing like crazy (from 15 when Lance started to over 50 in two or three states now). Everything Lance deals with is Solaris (UNIX) based including his desktop computer. Production systems run exclusively on Sparc Solaris and Oracle RDBMS/Web Server/Application Server. Development is done in Powerbuilder and PL/SQL. Their clients include Barnes & Noble, Verisign, Network Solutions, and Travelocity; but they can be seen in a lot of other places like Lycos (www.lycos.com/shopnet/books/).

    They're also hiring if anyone is interested (http://www.befree.com /00employment.htm). Now that you're a little closer, Lance, maybe you'll stop in and visit more often?

    Adam Beck (5/92) has made a move. He, his wife and their daughter (Jordan) have moved to Malvern PA near Philadelphia. They bought a four bedroom, 2.5 bath house, and really like it. If you want to take a look at them, or their house, check out their website at www.users.fast.net/~abeck. I did - it was fun! Adam is still with PCLC as "Director of Domino and Notes Services". Thanks for the update, Adam, please keep in touch.

    Now for little sad news. We've lost another alumnus. Two of our alumni from Shared Medical, Kim Phillips (12/97) and Jeff Senley (5/94) sent e-mail to tell me that Walter (Skip) Wright (5/83) had passed away on January 27 from an aneurysm in his neck that burst. He was found in his car after work on Friday by some people leaving, who got an ambulance and got him to the hospital. He was on life support until Wednesday. He was 43 years old and lived in Downington with his wife, Kathy (they had been married 13 years), and two daughters, Sarah and Emma. We're all so sorry to hear this news and send our condolences to his family. He will be missed. For those of you who are interested, memorial contributions may be made to the trust fund for Sarah and Emma Wright, c/o Harleysville National Bank, PO Box 195, 483 Main Street, Harleysville, Pa., 19438 or to the Walter W. "Skip" Wright Memorial Fund, Calvary Fellowship Church.

    And, I finally heard from Mike Wrobel (5/98). Not that it's been that long, but I was wondering about him. Mike's working as a software engineer at Raytheon in State College. He's is doing fine but misses the challenges of IUP (and the people, too, right Mike?). But right now he's enjoying real world challenges and he's finding that much more rewarding than school. Mike is also very interested in working with our students by making some presentations and helping to open doors for them. We're really pleased that Mike is willing to do this. Mike, please keep in touch and we'll work out the details.

    Mark (5/85) and Bev (Green) (5/85) Landry sent a nice Christmas card with a picture of their two little ones, Justin and Ryan. Justin looks exactly like his mother. I'm not sure about Ryan. I think he looks like his dad. I'll have to wait another year, and then re-evaluate the situation. Thanks for the card and picture guys.

    Bonnie Slowik (5/96) has moved back to Pittsburgh. She's working for Ciscorp doing consulting work. Her sister, Amy, who is here getting a second degree in computer science suggested that anyone who might be interested in Ciscorp either give Bonnie a call (412 494-0570) or send her e-mail (bslowik@ciscorp.com).

    Hey, Willie Lewis (5/84), where are you?? We sent you a letter and it came back saying they had no forward order on file. So, what's going on? Is the sheriff after you?

    Here are the people who graduated in December. I don't know where very many are working, so if you recognize any names, say hello:
    Michael Cole, Ross Cooper, Dave Hritz, Roy Jones, Kevin McKernan, William Monti, Anthony Popp, David Prohaska, and Kathy Scott

    That's all the news I have for now, but please keep it coming in and I hope to see you on Homecoming at the Alumni Breakfast we're hosting and which you'll be hearing more about .
    Back to the Contents
    News from Tompkins Lab
    Nadine Tatarko

    Not much has really changed in the Tompkins Lab since the Fall Semester. The buzz around the department/lab now is about the upcoming Stright renovation that is supposed to take place this summer. Unfortunately, the Computer Science Department is losing a portion of the lab to the IUP Graduate School. My current office cubical is going to be split and part of it will be the new custodial lounge/office. The rest of it, along with the remaining portion of the lab will be made into offices for Graduate School employees.

    My office and all of the servers (for the lab and College) will be moved into what is currently the custodial lounge Stright room 103.

    The part of 107 that will remain "the lab" will be renovated and re-wired for category 5 Twisted Pair Ethernet. This should greatly improve network performance and allow for easier maintenance and troubleshooting of cable level problems. We should also be getting a dozen or so more new PCs as part of the renovation "deal". This will bring the lab s level of PCs up to current standards across campus.

    From what I understand, the "new lab" will be designed similarly to the Classroom of the Future (STR220). It will be both an open lab and a classroom. It will be equipped with a ceiling mounted projector, a screen, and chalk boards to accommodate classroom instruction and demonstration.

    I wrote last time about some things that were happening "centrally" or globally within the academic arena. One of these was NT user authentication for all IUP students. Supposedly plans and procedures are being worked out within the TSC (Technical Services Center former ISCC); but have not yet been divulged to anyone.

    The other issue last time was the "Laser Printing Cost Recovery System". The software and hardware for this was purchased by the University and installed in the Central Labs (i.e. Johnson, Mack, Davis, Eberly, etc..). However, the system was implemented with a cost of zero ($0.00) cents per page. The thought was to get students used to the idea of having to swipe their card before they could retrieve their printout for a while until the actual charge was put into place. The actual charging is/was supposed to begin during the Summer I session. However, rumor has it that the political debate over "can we charge students to print and how much" is still going on at various levels within the University. Only time will tell. And these are the days of our lives here at IUP ..please stay tuned. [Editor's Note: On April 6, the IUP Senate passed a motion to recommend charging students only enough to cover the cost of paper, toner, and printer maintenance.]


    We Want To See You!
    (and give you the opportunity to see us and your fellow alumni)

    Join Us For

    A Homecoming
    Alumni Breakfast

    Saturday, October 9, 1999
    Third Floor Stright Hall
    8:30 am until 11:00 am
    It's free !!!

    You must make a reservation
    by Wednesday, October 6

    Call Carol at 724 357-2524 Or
    E-mail her at camiller@grove.iup.edu

    Back to the Contents
    Notes from Abroad
    Ralph Grove

    In the fall of 1998, Peter Martin of the University of the West of England (UWE) and I agreed to take part in a faculty exchange for the spring semester. And now, I'm here at UWE teaching Peter's courses while he is teaching at IUP. In response to Jim Wolfe's request, I've written a short piece about my impressions of life here, both academic life and life in general. (Caveat: This is all based upon my impressions of UWE, not the official facts!)

    UWE is similar to IUP in many ways. Programs here are largely undergraduate and professional in nature, and the students are, for the most part, a homogeneous group, from this region of the world. There is a small international population, about the same proportion as at IUP. There is a fair amount of research taking place here in addition to education, but I would say that education is the primary mission.

    UWE is much larger than IUP, with several times as many students studying computing. As a result, there are many more tracks ("awards") in computing (real-time systems, software engineering, etc.) than the two (BS tracks) offered at IUP. And, though UWE does provide some residences, most students commute from in and around Bristol.

    The biggest difference in the programs at UWE and IUP, from a student perspective, is certainly the lack of a liberal arts component in the curriculum here. Imagine taking computing and math courses exclusively - forget humanities, social studies, arts, foreign language, etc. Some IUP students, I'm sure, would love such a change. It's hard for me to imagine completing my bachelor's degree on such an exclusive diet, however. Though I might not have said so at the time, I'm glad now that I studied science, electronics, literature, politics, and all of the other "stuff" that made up my undergrad studies at Purdue. On the other hand, the tighter focus of the program here allows more depth of learning. There are topics taught here (e.g., real-time computing and software patterns) that are important but beyond the scope of our program at IUP.

    The program here is structured such that students take two years of computing studies, a third year in industry, and a fourth year of study again, including completion of a senior project and dissertation. Though I haven't been here long enough to evaluate the results, I would think that students coming out of the UWE program have better direct preparation for entry into the professional world, by virtue of their added work experience and depth of knowledge. (Flame preemption: However, I don't mean to discount the value of a liberal education, for it provides students with other qualities.)

    From a faculty perspective, the biggest difference is that the system here is more organized (in the sense of having more structure) and bureaucratic. At IUP, we're used to working in a strictly hierarchical organization, with the faculty at the top, supported by the department head, who is supported by the dean, who is supported by the provost, etc. (That's the way I like to think of it anyhow - some cynics might say that my view of the hierarchy is inverted, that the faculty are on the bottom of the pile : ). In any case, the organization here at UWE is not so clear. There are heads of school, heads of awards, module leaders, a dean, and other officers whose role I'm still not clear about.

    The bottom line is that here there are many more rules, regulations, and accompanying paperwork here than at IUP. For example, when I write an exam here, the exam is submitted to an internal reviewer, then returned to me for modifications, then submitted to an external reviewer, then returned, and then passed on to students. All of this takes a lot of time obviously, so exams must be prepared months in advance. There is value in review, to be sure, and I would like to be able to take advantage of peer review at IUP, but the pressure to complete an exam is difficult to deal with early in the semester. In general, there is more control and less freedom for faculty here than at IUP. It's also not clear at times who has ownership of certain issues and who is responsible for decisions. Given time, much of this might become clearer to me.

    There is a big difference in the way courses are structured here. A typical course (a "module") comprises a large lecture, a tutorial session, and a lab session each week. The three sessions may be taught by different people, and there may be half a dozen instructors involved in teaching the course. That creates a problem of coordination and communication for the teaching staff, and restricts the ability of faculty to become acquainted with students somewhat. This style of teaching isn't unknown at IUP, of course, but is hasn't been used in the CompSci dept. in recent history.

    Course assessment is handled differently as well. At UWE, students complete two projects during a year-long course of study, and take a single exam at the end of the year. That's compared to 10 or so projects and 5 or so exams per year that IUP students face. Of course, the projects here, being fewer, are also more intense. For me, it was nice not to have to do grading ("marking") during the semester!

    In terms of people, the students here seem very familiar. They have similar attitudes and backgrounds to those at IUP. I don't feel that I've come to know them as well as I would have at home, though. One reason is that, as I mentioned above, I don't have as much contact time with students, because of the course organization. Another is that students here are not in the habit of visiting faculty as often, and we (faculty) don't have regular office hours for them.

    I'm very impressed with the UWE faculty. They are a knowledgeable and dedicated group, eager to innovate and improve the quality of education. They have a wide variety of professional experience as well as academic qualifications. There are many exciting ideas floating about and the curriculum is close to state of the art. All in all, it's an exciting and interesting place to work.

    And here's the biggest difference of all, for students. The legal drinking age is 18 here; and there are pubs on campus! In between classes, students often have a pint and throw a few darts in the student center. We faculty remain cold sober all day long, of course.

    I've really grown to love England during my stay here. It's a beautiful country, with much interesting culture and geography, and the folks are as friendly as can be. I've traveled only a bit so far, to London, Wales, and the southern coast. But our semester is over soon, and I'll then have six weeks or so to travel about before returning home, to which I'm eagerly looking forward.

    Meanwhile, I hope all of you at IUP and elsewhere are having a good year. If you're planning to visit England before the end of June, be sure to stop by.


    Back to the Contents
    Impressions From an Exchange
    Peter Martin
    Exchange Faculty Member from University of the West of England

    No matter how much planning and care goes into the preparation for a new situation, the reality always seems to take one by surprise. A fact that I should be well accustomed to as it happens to me every time I embark on the teaching of a new module (or the repeat of an old one if it comes to that !).

    The same has been true of this exchange with Ralph. Everything seemed to be straight forward until we found ourselves actually living the experience. Then such thoughts occur as - 'I wonder if Ralph is having all-night raves and demolishing the house' and 'in how many pieces will I find my car on my return'. Luckily we had met Ralph prior to the exchange and during the first week and knew full well that we could happily rely on him to look after our property. My main concern became - 'I hope I don t change the shape of his car' - after all everyone drives on the wrong side of the road over here (at least most of the time).

    One of the most surprising aspects of our experience here has been a realization that we don t speak the same language. I often wonder what impact this has on my students, as I know that my students back in England have difficulty following me - here they must find it almost impossible. This lack of understanding cuts both ways however and on the morning of my first class, not having a list of students to hand, I foolishly asked everyone to introduce themselves, with the intention of making out a list of student names. By the time I had figured out what the first student had said and had contrived to produce what was probably a close approximation to its correct spelling the last student had finished speaking, so I was none the wiser.

    On one occasion when I wished to demonstrate how a critical path network is constructed, I used the example of making a cup of tea. I ran into trouble in a big way here when I referred to a tea-pot - a concept totally foreign to my audience.

    It is not just that we have different vocabularies, or that the same words have a totally different meaning so much as the difference in pronunciation (how do you say that?). On a recent occasion, Nancy Cross (John Cross' wife) mentioned a good source of sordid books. This we followed up with eager anticipation to find a bookshop in which the very respectable stock was organized in an orderly fashion ! You will be glad to learn however that I am rapidly acquiring skill in expressing myself in American as this following anecdote will demonstrate :

    "One day I was outside doing a bit of yarding when a friend fauceted me on the shoulder and suggested that we go to a local flea market. Being right out of fleas at the time I readily agreed, donned my hobnail hiking trunks and set off at a brisk pace. Being rather unfit, I was soon trousering badly and sat down to study the graffiti bandaided all over the wall opposite. I soon realised that the message it conveyed was a load of facecloth, so I got up and resumed my journey...."

    It was intriguing to see to what extent special events are celebrated over here. The fact that Christmas decorations are kept up until well into February was at first surprising until we discovered just how long your winters are. On one occasion after the (so called) Spring break we were returning from Pittsburgh airport after a week in the sun only to become embroiled in a St. Patrick s Day celebration the like of which I am sure has never been seen in Ireland. There they certainly don t go so far as to paint their dogs green ! The patriotic fervour was such that we felt it necessary to take great care to pretend that we were not English.

    One of the most difficult things to get used to and one that caused my students most consternation was the differences in methods of grading between England and America. When I told my students that a mark of 70% was extremely good and hardly ever achieved they noticeably blanched. Before I was trampled to death in a rush for the door I assured them that I would change a habit of a lifetime in that regard.

    Prior to our arrival in Indiana, we had been assured by several people that the rural setting of Ralph s house (it backs onto White s Wood) meant that we would enjoy all manner of wildlife in the back garden - including deer and even the occasional bear. We were disappointed to find that for a long time after our arrival, not only did we not see bears (for which I am grateful) but we didn t even see any birds, despite putting out all manner of inviting tidbits for them. Locals swore blind that there were multitudes of deer in the area, but for the first three months, during which we travelled over 3000 miles (please don t tell Ralph or he ll want me to pay for his car) the only deer we saw were dead ones and I got to thinking that they had been carefully imported and planted beside the road to perpetuate the myth. Happily John Cross solved the problem by showing me where to look for them and we have since seen many, but no bears as yet - any suggestions ?

    Another aspect of America which I thought I was prepared for but still flabbergasted me was the sheer size of the country. The initial thought of being able to get in a car and drive anywhere - something you can t do in England without getting very wet - is very enticing until you realize that you will have to drive for about 30 hours to reach your destination. I guess Pennsylvania is about the same size as England - and your counties not much different to ours. The only good aspect of travel is that 10 dollars worth of petrol seems to last for ever !

    We have already travelled widely in this area and have had some interesting experiences during these excursions. For instance an unsuccessful attempt to visit my sister in Canada - we got to within 50 miles of her home before the road disappeared under a thick blanket of snow - resulting in our being waylaid at the US border and cast into a den occupied by what looked like illegal immigrants, drug traffickers and gunrunners for what seemed like an eternity. We were quite surprised when they actually let us go. On another occasion we booked into a dubious looking hotel in the Falls Church area of Washington to discover that the internal walls were made of something with the sound proofing properties of paper. This would have been alright except that one of our neighbours was keen on the ladies of the night. Still it made a change from watching television.

    Another area where we were taken aback was in relation to food . I already knew that Indian restaurants were almost impossible to find, but we hadn t realized that so many of the other things we take for granted in England simply don t exist here - like real bacon, gammon steak, real cheese, proper gravy and clotted cream. However, on a visit to Annapolis we were delighted to find an Irish shop specialising in the sale of English foods such as baked beans and branston pickle. A Shangri-la to which we will undoubtedly return.

    One of the worst aspects of the exchange has been the weather. I knew that we should expect severe weather in winter and in that respect I was pleasantly surprised that it was not colder. What we hadn t expected was that an exchange covering the period January to May would only encompass the winter season. In England, such a period would embrace winter, spring and a goodly part of summer. We now know what cabin fever is and we have become very adept at jigsaws. I should perhaps explain that in Bristol last year we had 1 day of snow and received about two inches which had vanished by the following morning - a bad winter - after all the previous year we hadn t had any snow at all !

    By the way, you should not count on getting rid of me at the end of the semester as I have volunteered to teach a summer semester. I have to say that the alacrity with which my offer was accepted has left me feeling somewhat like the winner of a pass-the-parcel game who having unwrapped the final layer discovers a large round object with a fizzing wick and an empty room.

    I can t help thinking that one of the reasons that faculty members are being so nice to me is because there is the ever present threat of dive bombings or invitations to fly, but perhaps that is just paranoia.

    Perhaps the most lasting impression has been of the extreme friendliness and hospitality of all with whom we have come into contact. Everyone has gone to great lengths to make our stay enjoyable and we feel that we have made a number of lasting friendships. We would hope that some of you might be able to visit us in England in the future.

    All in all, the experience has been a happy and successful one (or it will be if I can only get the car aerial that I broke replaced before Ralph finds out !) and we hope to do further exchanges in the future.

    Thank you all for helping to make the exchange such a great success.

    We Want To See You!
    (and give you the opportunity to see us and your fellow alumni)

    Join Us For

    A Homecoming
    Alumni Breakfast

    Saturday, October 9, 1999
    Third Floor Stright Hall
    8:30 am until 11:00 am
    It's free!!!

    You must make a reservation
    by Wednesday, October 6
    Call Carol at 724 357-2524 Or

    E-mail her at camiller@grove.iup.edu

    Back to the Contents
    Computer Science Club
    Chris Smith, Vice President

    The Computer Science Club has had several intriguing meetings recently; and more are in the works. First, one meeting covered Visual C++ Application development. This went over very well as students; and several professors participated as well. They created their own gratuity calculating GUI application. Drew Dormann, president of the Computer Science Club was the presenter.

    Most recently and to be continued, was the DirectX programming meeting. Students learned the initial requirements for programming a DirectX game. In the next meeting, students will actually program their own game - Drew also supervised this meeting. Various other interesting and beneficial meetings are in the works.



    [Editor's Note: Sorry, no pictures of December graduates. No photographer and very few chose to come to the departmental ceremony.]


    Back to the Contents
    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.

    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 1999. Your gift to the Century Club is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.