The Debugger Summer 1996
Table of Contents
EDITOR'S NOTES
As usual, this issue brings you a variety of articles related to computing and
IUP. Note that Bill Oblitey no longer writes as Acting Chair, but as Chair, having
begun his term in July. Carol Miller fills you in on the alumni who have contacted
her. And Nadine Tatarko brings you up to speed on the happenings in Tompkins
Lab.
In addition to our standard features, we have some special topics articles and
some interesting guest contributors. About a year ago, a new dean, Dr. John Eck,
took over the College of Natural Science and Mathematics; he has written an up-beat message to our alumni. Willie Lewis asked if he could write a short article
making some suggestions on investing your money. Since our graduates normally
leave here and obtain fairly high-paying jobs and since few of them have had to
consider long term investments before, it seemed like a good idea. I think you will
be enlightened and amused by Willie's ideas. Finally, instead of an article from the
ISCC, this issue has a brief description of what is happening at IUP in terms of the
World Wide Web and our CampusWide Information System. Dr. Ed Donley writes
about the CWIS; he is chair of the CWIS committee and a driving force in
establishing IUP's official Web presence.
This issue also contains the two articles that I promised last time. I wrote a
description of our evolving curriculum and Ralph Grove (Gift Money Committee
Chair) wrote about where gift money comes from and how we spend it.
Oh, yeah. We also have a picture of the May graduates who came to the
departmental ceremony.
Jim Wolfe, Editor
Back to the Contents
From the Chair
Bill Oblitey
It is a pleasure to communicate
with you through The Debugger and,
for some reason, I feel like you have
been waiting patiently to read from
me. A few things have happened
since the last issue of The Debugger
came out. We are proud to announce
that seventeen students have
graduated in May and August to join
the ranks of our alumni. I, once again,
congratulate our recent alumni.
Our freshmen enrollment for the
coming Fall semester has been a little
lower that we anticipated; and we
therefore have had to cancel one
session of our class for freshmen. I
am however very pleased to announce
to you that with the start of the Robert
E. Cook Honors College, we have
registered six honors students into our
program. This is a good number
considering that this is the first
Honors College class and also that it is
not easy to get into the Honors
College program. We also conducted
a one week getting-acquainted
workshop for recruitment purposes to
attract students into next academic
year's honors class. We had eleven
students for the workshop and the
faculty who run the workshop are
very happy with the quality of the
student participants. We also
conducted a computer workshop for
the Big Brothers and Sisters of Indiana
County under the direction of Dr.
Ralph Grove. We had about twelve
little brothers and sisters and were
extremely excited about the things
that they could do with computers.
We hope to keep in touch with them
and maintain their interest in
computing. We also conducted our
ARIN Expo for the Armstrong and
Indiana High Schools. Many of the
faculty and seniors were involved and
it was very successful.
I am proud to share with you that
DuPont Information Systems was
selected by the Arthur D. Little blue-ribbon panel of experts as one of the
1996 Best of the Best for
implementing Enterprise Systems
(defined as a set of integrated
computer applications that
collectively are used to plan, control,
and report on all aspects of a business
including finance, manufacturing,
logistics, human resources, and sales
and marketing). Best of the Best
practitioners represent a group of
companies across multiple industries
that are most effective at consistently
improving cross-functional business
processes. These companies derive
business benefits from Enterprise
Systems implementation efforts and
have established effective project
management, business metrics, and
change management programs to
ensure success. We of the Computer
Science Department congratulate
DuPont IS and we especially
encourage our alumni employees of
DuPont IS to continue with the good
work. We also acknowledge a grant
from the DuPont Educational Aid
program given to us this summer,
part for unrestricted use and part for
minority recruitment. We are
particularly grateful for the help and
opportunity to compete in recruiting
quality minority students for our
program.
Faculty offices in the Department
just went through an interesting sort
of musical chairs. Everyone, except
Dr. Charley Shubra, Dr. John
Sweeney, and Prof. Jim Wolfe
changed offices. [Ed. Note: Office
numbers and phone numbers on the inside
back page are correct.]
The faculty has been active this
summer: Profs. John Cross and Mary
Micco have obtained a Microsoft
Instructional Lab Grant for software
licenses valued at $68,700. The grant
will help us upgrade the software in
the lab. Dr. Mary Micco presented a
paper Search Engines on the Web
for the ALA special interest group on
Authority Control. Dr. Ralph Grove
has had two papers accepted for
publication, the first one, which is
entitled "Multiple-Fault Diagnosis
Using Sequential Testing", will be
appear in the International
Symposium on Intelligent control,
Dearborn, MI, in September, 1996 and
the second, "A Modified PARBS
Architecture and Applications to
Directed Graph Algorithms", will
appear in The International Journal of
Computers and their Applications,
August 1996. Dr. Grove also took a
leadership in developing a proposal
for a Computer Science Specialty
Living Option (a dormitory floor
devoted to Computer Science students
who choose to participate in the
program). The floor is expected to
open in the Fall of 1997. Dr. Charley
Shubra is currently engaged in his
summer consulting with PPG. Prof.
Jim Wolfe has tailored his GRADER
program to incorporate more special
functions for the faculty who have
grown to depend it. This summer, Dr.
Gary Buterbaugh once again
organized the Picnics in the Grove. It
was successful as usual.
I want to end by encouraging all of
our alumni to continue with their
support of the Department. We are as
proud of you as you are of us; and we
know you will continue to help us
with the resources to keep the
Department moving toward the next
millennium.
Back to the Contents
Carol's Corner
Carol Miller
Happy Summer Everyone!!!
Can you believe it s almost over!
We re into the second summer session
right now, and that means Fall is not
far away. Somehow, we do manage
to survive.
It s actually pretty quiet here this
summer. Many of the faculty have
been traveling and some still are.
After a two-week vacation in Hilton
Head, Charley Shubra is working at
PPG for the summer so that makes it
really peaceful. Our newest faculty
member, Ralph Grove, just became an
Indiana homeowner; and, after a trip
to Europe, he moved in. Now, Andy,
(his four-legged friend) has a place to
run. John Sweeney also spent a
couple weeks in Europe, as did John
Cross. Mary Micco spent a week in
Virginia at the beach, then met Bill
Oblitey at the University of VA for a
C++ Conference. The Maples have
just purchased a home in Bemus Point
NY. It s a block from Lake
Chautauqua. They re selling their
house here in Indiana and will spend
summers in New York and winters in
Florida. Sounds like the life.
In April, we had a party for the
CompSci majors out at the lodge and
Brent Cramer (5/95) and Warren
Hilton (5/95) were here at the same
time as presenters for DuPont at a
colloquium, so they were able to join
us for the party and we were more
than happy to have them. We had a
great time at the party. I hope you
two can come back again either
together or separately. Brent is from
the Pittsburgh vicinity so, Brent, I do
expect to see you once in awhile on
your way home for visit if nothing
else. We also hope to make the party
an annual event, so maybe more of
you can be there on various occasions.
Just had e-mail from John Campos
(8/91). He has had an exciting life
since we last heard from him. He just
got married in Jamaica in May. His
new wife is Tina. They made
arrangements for their trip and went
down and got married. Doesn't that
sound romantic? He was still peeling
at the time of his message to me and I
couldn't find it in my heart to be
sympathetic. John is still working at
the Department of Environmental
Protection in Harrisburg. It is an
Oracle shop and he really likes his
work. He works with Stephene
Gority (12/86) and Mike Hudak
(5/92). He also gave me some info on
Flay Goodwin (5/90). Flay is a
Captain in the Marines and is
currently a pilot flying (John thinks)
an F-16 fighter jet. Sounds like a thrill
a minute!!! Thanks, John, for keeping
in touch.
Peggy Mogush (5/87) is no longer
dwelling in the Gutzat s attic. She
moved into one of those neat
apartments in a huge old home in an
old residential area in Wilmington.
It s three blocks from the Brandywine
River Park and real close to I-95.
Peggy is also changing jobs (not
employers (PSCI)). On July 8, she'll
be starting a contract at Centocor in
Malvern. She'll be doing VMS
system management. Always great to
hear from you Peggy!!
And, speaking of the Gutzats, Mike
(5/87) and Mary are doing well. They
are the proud parents of a baby girl
born on July 17 and they didn't name
her Choo Choo Train as Ryan had
requested. They named her Rachel
Marie. She weighed 10 lbs. 4 oz. and
was 21.5 inches long. That is a big
baby, Mary! Mike sent me a disk with
pictures of Ryan. Although only two
pictures came through ok, it was
enough to show me that he is really
adorable. Mike is going to send
another disk later with pictures of
Rachel and Ryan. They can take tons
of pictures now that they have an
entire attic to store them in.
Congratulations to all three of you.
I also heard from Trifon Dalson
(8/85). Trifon has been working for a
consulting firm in Columbia MD for
about a year. On graduating from
IUP, he went to the Department of
Defense and stayed for five years,
then moved to GTE Government
Systems for 5 years. In May, he got
his MS in CS from American
University. He got married a year
and a half ago, his wife is originally
from Ebensburg, and they would like
to come back to this area. So, if
anyone knows of anything opening
up in this neck of the woods, let me
know.
Our deepest sympathy goes out to
Bo Gohn (12/94) and his family on the
death of his brother in a motorcycle
accident in April. I hope your sorrow
is lifting somewhat at this time, Bo.
Please keep in touch with us (even
though I know you have a new
woman in your life, that doesn't mean
you can forget us).
Ryan Anderson (12/93) sent a
really nice e-mail to let us know what
he's up to these days. He and Tammy
are in Denver (which, as you may
remember, is where Ryan wanted to
go). He is working for American
Management Systems in the Mobile
Communications Industry Group. In
one project, he spent three months in
Belgium upgrading the rating and
foreign call processing subsystems for
Belgacom Mobile. Recently, he
worked for a start-up project to
develop a mobile communications
system for the conversion and
implementation of their VAX/DBMS
PRISM package to a GUI/Sybase
system for Airtel in Madrid. Now, he
is working on a consortium project
between Portugal (Telecel), Madrid
(Airtel) and Belgium (Belgacom
Mobile) to maintain the one version of
the GUI system in one location for all
three operators. Sounds REALLY
interesting!! Tammy is working as a
marketing coordinator for an
engineering firm writing marketing
and business proposals for diamond
and oil mining projects located
around the world. That sounds
interesting, too.
They are also hiring. It s really too
bad we don't have a way of
advertising these types of jobs to you
alumni. The Debugger just doesn't
come out often enough to be worth it.
We need to get them on the network,
don't we???
Valerie Bonito (12/93) sent me a
postcard from Devils Tower National
Monument in Wyoming while on her
way to Yellowstone for the weekend.
Val is still in Minnesota. Thanks for
the card, Val. Devils Tower looks like
an nice area to visit.
Doug Lute (5/96) is (and has been)
working as a Systems Analyst at
Westinghouse in Monroeville and is
living in Irwin, PA.
Mark Carrier (12/94) is still
working for Tartan Labs in
Monroeville and was promoted last
Fall. He s working on the backend of
an ADA compiler for Analog Devices
new chip. He is also doing some
consulting for NeoVision
Hypersystems which makes real time
applications for analyzing data feeds.
He is thinking seriously about taking
graduate classes at Pitt this Spring.
That will be really close to Shadyside
where he s just moved. Great to hear
from you, Mark. Please keep in touch.
Mark also told me that Mike
Bigrigg (5/91) has left Tartan for CTC
in Johnstown and is planning on
working on a masters in physics at
IUP in the Fall. So, Mike, let me know
what s up!
T.J. Hall (5/88) has left Weirton
Steel and is working for US AIR. I
haven't gotten information yet on
what he s doing there, but since TJ
told me he would let me know, I'm
sure it will arrive soon (hint).
Anyway, he and Patty are now able to
fly standby, so their world has
expanded considerably. Thanks, TJ -
always nice to hear from you.
Dewey Miller (12/94) keeps in
touch on a regular basis and is still at
Corning in New York. Ellen is now
also working at Corning and I don't
have to say any more about that, do I?
Let s just say, everything is going well
in Dewey s life. Talk to you later,
Dewey.
Chris Clair (12/94) is still with
Keane and still at Lockheed, but
things are getting busier. He said
there is a golf course across from
Lockheed. Do you suppose that
might be why he s busier. I'll give
you the benefit of the doubt, Chris.
Mike Elder (5/94) called me the
other day. Mike and the family have
moved to Winston-Salem North
Carolina where Mike is working for
Wachovia Bank. They really like it
down there and are looking for a
permanent residence and Lori is
looking for a job. They are hiring at
Wachovia, too! I also saw a recent
picture of Monica - she is just
adorable. She doesn't look anything
like Mike. (Just kidding, Mike.)
Thanks for calling, Mike. Please keep
in touch.
Bob Durbin (12/95) accepted a job
as a software engineer with HRB
Systems in State College. He left
Biocontrol in April. He likes HRB
very much and they were looking for
a home to buy. Keep in touch, Bob.
Lynn Styers (12/95) still loves her
job with Shared Medical. She is
recuperating nicely from her accident.
Her daughter, Britney is enrolled in a
Montessori school in the area and is
loving it. Jeff, her husband, he
working for a company that deals in
the restoration of old cars. That
sounds interesting. Thanks, Lynn.
And, then we have Derek Ochs
(12/95) also at Shared Medical and
also enjoying what he s doing. He s
doing client server programming in
Visual Basic and C++. Derek is
wonderful - he sent me a cheesecake -
yes he did. After I badgered him
(well, Derek called it cheesecake
stalking) for a year, he had Giant
Eagle deliver a cheesecake to me one
day. It was WONDERFUL!!! The
only problem is, now I don't a have a
reason to badger Derek. (I guess I
could try for 2, couldn't I?) Thanks,
Derek, that was over and above the
call of duty (and good). Please keep
in touch.
Ken George (12/83) is now
working as the Senior Systems and
Networks Manager for
Commonwealth Mortgage Assurance
Corporation in Philadelphia. He
manages VAX and Alphas running
OpenVMS and also DEC UNIX
alphas. In addition, he and his wife,
Judy, are starting up a small business
of their own and are planning on
selling their present home and
building a new one. They have a trip
to Europe planned for the summer
(and are probably home by now). No
kids yet! I hope all goes well in all
your endeavors, Ken. Keep in touch.
Karl Cherry (12/86) is still with
Fiserv where he s been since 1993
when Mellon Bank sold him (and a
few others) to pay for their acquisition
of Dryfus. Karl is working in the
world of Telephony. Telephony is the
name for those people who come on
the line when you call a bank or
whatever and a voice comes on the
line and tells you what to do. He likes
the change from COBOL and DB
technology which he was doing.
Theresa is still teaching in Pittsburgh s
Hill District and really loving it. No
kids yet, either.
Well, so much for rumors, but at
least I got e-mail from Julie (Paserba)
Lampe (12/87). They are NOT
expecting. They still have Kayla (3)
and Jill (1). But she did tell me that
Dan O Donnell (12/87) did have his
third, a boy, Ian. Julie and Roy almost
stopped to visit in April on their way
to Butler for a wedding; but the kids
were sleeping in the car and need I
say more? But, sometime on your
way through (maybe October?) do
stop longer and say more than "Hi."
Thanks for the info, Julie.
Lance Tost (12/95) is still living in
the zoo (that s the Washington Zoo),
but he hasn't been shot or had his car
stolen or anything like that yet. He s
promising me some news, but won't
say what. So, Lance, did it work?
Glad you still like it down there!
Also had e-mail from Dan
Glasstetter (5/87). Dan is working as
a technical sales consultant for Oracle
Corporation in Boise, Idaho. Not only
does Dan love Oracle, he loves Idaho.
I hadn't realized what a great place
Idaho is for the outdoorsperson (am I
politically correct or what?) with its
wilderness, mountains and fishing
areas. Dan s wife (who is a Finance
grad from 87) is working as a
marketing program director for
Hewlett-Packard s printer division.
Did anyone contact you about jobs,
Dan? I tried to get the info out to our
August and December grads. Thanks
for the update! The Idaho life sounds
wonderful!
Duane Aylsworth (5/89) is still
alive. As he said himself Yumpin
yiminy - several letters within the
span of a year! Duane is still in the
Florida sunshine - on that lake - and
has just bought a 1955 pickup truck
that s he s working on. Great hearing
from you, Duane. Do it again!
Had e-mail, too, from Chris (Goda)
Huston (5/88). Chris has been
working for IBM in Poughkeepsie
since she graduated, as has her
husband, Jim, who was a 5/88 MIS
graduate. Jim is working in System
390 Marketing. Chris is a member of
the development team installing
SAP s R/3 system for her division
and, since her division has locations
all over the world, a nice trip is not
out of the question. They are in the
process of re-engineering their
business processes and are coding in
ABAP/4. They both received their
MS degree in Information Systems for
Marist College in Poughkeepsie and
Jim also received his MBA. Chris is
also teaching Database Management
at Mount Saint Mary College and
really loves it. They don't have kids
yet either, but they do have a four-legged one. He is a Bouvier puppy,
and at the time I heard from Chris, he
was 18 months old and 75 lbs. And,
his name is Indiana (guess why!).
Thanks so much for the info, Chris
and keep in touch.
Chris also told me that Linda
(Kielarowski) Zatlin (5/88) had a little
boy. Last issue I told you she was
expecting.
Brian Lawton (5/93) did some
fishing this Spring. I know because
Mindi, Briana and Kevin came to
Indiana while he was fishing. I had a
really nice visit with them. It s hard
to believe the kids will be five and
two already. Mindi is working hard
to become a jazzercize instructor (and
probably is by now). It s always nice
to see all of you.
On August 10, I'm heading to
Tyrone to a candle party that Janie
(Pike) Kustaborder (5/92) is hosting
and the demonstrator is Lisa Dillon
(12/93). So, I'll get a chance to visit
with both while I'm up there.
I heard from Adam Beck (5/92).
He and Lisa are living in Maryland
and working in DC. Adam is
working for PCLC which is a PC
training and consulting company
located four blocks from the White
House, and Lisa is teaching second
grade in a private catholic school in
Northeast DC. Thanks for bringing
me up to date Adam, I really
appreciate it.
Had e-mail from Balaji Ratakonda
(5/93) Balaji got his Masters in
Computer Science Engineering from
the University of Texas at Arlington
and is working in the Dallas-Ft. Worth
metroplex for a telecommunications
firm called INET. He works with
signalling protocols (namely SS7) and
they build test equipment for
telephone companies. Nice to hear
from you Balaji. Please keep in touch.
(I like your smiley face on your e-mail.)
Last time I told you Tom Scott
(12/93) had left PPG in Pittsburgh.
Well, he s at Thomson Technology
Consulting Group in Rockville,
Maryland. He sent me a bunch of job
listings, too. Thanks, Tom, I've posted
them - hope you get some calls.
I walked into my office one
afternoon and did a double take.
Matt Arezina (5/86) was sitting here.
He was visiting his family in New
Kensington and stopped in to say hi.
He's still working at McNeil Labs in
Philadelphia. Thanks for the nice
surprise, Matt.. I really enjoyed
seeing you.
Pamm Gindlesperger (12/94) and
Vickie Pearce (12/94) stopped in April
to visit with me. They are doing well
at RPS in Pittsburgh. Pamm also
stopped a couple weeks ago on her
way to visit friends in York. Stop in
again soon, both of you.
I had e-mail from JC Caler (5/90)
the other day. JC is still working as a
consultant, but not at Mellon. She is
now at Federated Investors in
Pittsburgh where she is doing
mainframe COBOL work on a
TANDEM. She has also done PC
based COBOL maintenance along
with some SQL. She really likes her
job. Her son is working at Pitt in the
PC Center and going to school part
time. Congratulations on everything,
JC. I hope all goes well. Keep me
posted!
Just got e-mail from Ronda Lucas
(8/95). Ronda is still at IBM s
subsidiary - Integrated Systems
Solutions Corporation in Lexington,
Kentucky and is working the 5pm to
5am shift. She just bought a house in
Lexington and having a lot of fun
with it. She may be making a trip to
PA in August. Hope to see you then,
Ronda!!
Tim Burns (12/90) called (and
FAXed) with a job description for
CDS Consultants where he is working
in Weirton WVA. CDS is a software
company. Tim and his wife, Kelly,
are living in the Penn Hills area of
Pittsburgh. Kelly is a nurse at
Children s Hospital and they have a
little boy, Brook Christian, who is
about eight months old about now.
Thanks, Tim. I hope some people got
in touch with you. AND, I hope you
keep in touch.
Becky Salter (12/94) stopped in one
day to say hi when she was in the
area. It was really nice to see you,
Becky. One of the reasons Becky was
here was to pick up a transcript to
apply to a business school. Becky is
working in a bank in St. Marys, PA
and really enjoys the work and thinks
she'd like to get involved in the
business end of it. I'm really glad you
stopped, Becky, please stop again.
Believe it or not, I'm about out of
news for this issue. Please keep in
touch. It s up to you, out there, to
keep me employed. You don't want
me to be on the unemployment rolls,
do you.
Take care and I'll talk to you in the
Fall.
Back to the Contents
News from Tompkins Lab
Nadine Tatarko
Well, can you believe that it's been
a whole year since I started here at
IUP? Officially, 7/31/96 is my one
year anniversary!
Okay, now that that's out of the
way, we can get down to business. As
reported in the last issue, I believe I
told you that the copy of Novell
NetWare 4.1 had finally arrived and
that it was currently installed in the
lab and was "in test mode".
Over the summer, with the help of
some of my student staff, we have
converted all workstations (including
faculty) to connect and log on to the
new NetWare 4.1 Server --
TOMPKINS1; via the TCPIP protocol.
ERNIE, the old Server, will serve as a
backup system.
We were able to get replacements
for some of the stolen items from this
past Spring's break-in of the lab.
Professor Wolfe 'finally' got his new
Pentium and his old 486 has replaced
another 386 in the lab. We now have
a total of 10 Dell 486's, with 8 Meg for
RAM, in Tompkins. These systems
are heavily used by students who
need to run applications like MS-Office, MS-Visual C++, MS-Visual
Basic, and Netscape.
Dr. Shubra's Grant System (Dell
Pentium running NT Server and SQL
Server) is starting to take off. This
server serves two other NT
Workstations in Tompkins as well as
faculty who are running Win95. This
system also coexists with NetWare
and can access the NetWare Print
Queues. It's pretty neat!
Dr. Micco is currently working on
a project involving the NT Server in
the lab. She is trying to set up an
INTRA-NET. Through the use of
ODBC, she is attempting to use MS-Access to attach to databases out on
the Internet. Dr. Shubra has been
doing the same thing; however he has
been using ODBC to attach to RDB
Databases on the VAX.
One last thing, the Tompkins
Computer Lab now has a WEB
presence! For those of you who have
access to the Internet, please view our
site athttp://www.co.iup.edu/tompkins.
I also have a home page at http://www.iup.edu/~ntatarko.
Check us out!
Back to the Contents
Message From The Dean
John S. Eck
It has been a little over one year
since I began my tenure at IUP as
Dean of the College of Natural
Sciences and Mathematics. In
accepting this position I had the
premonition that IUP would be an
excellent place to serve as a university
administrator taking into
consideration the current climate
nationally for higher education. State
legislators are taking the position that
faculty at institutions of higher
education must focus more energy
and effort into undergraduate
instruction rather than in research and
other activities. IUP already had an
outstanding reputation for creating a
fertile learning environment in which
undergraduates could develop the
necessary tools to engage in a lifetime
of learning, so important in the world
they will experience upon graduation.
Thus, IUP was already engaged in the
activities that legislators were
pressuring other state universities to
become involved with.
Nowhere has this outstanding
learning environment been more
prevalent than in the Department of
Computer Science. With the
assistance of the Computer Science
Advisory Boards, comprised of
members from academe and industry,
the faculty has shaped a curriculum
that prepares students for a
meaningful job upon completion of a
bachelor's degree, as well as for
further advanced study in the field.
The curriculum is strongly enhanced
by a significant internship experience
which allows students the
opportunity to practice their skills in
a real-world environment prior to
commencement. The success of the
internship program is indicated by a
demand for our student interns that
far exceeds the supply. In addition,
large corporations such as DuPont
and others have shown a high interest
in hiring IUP computer science
graduates because of the excellent
preparation they have received for
entering an industrial environment.
Another strong indicator of the
quality of our Computer Science
program is the outstanding support
we receive from industry and alumni
to underwrite scholarships for
deserving students. These funds have
made it possible for students, who
might otherwise not have been able to
do so, to complete a college degree in
Computer Science. Another valuable
source of support for our programs is
alumni referral of students for our
programs. Our programs are only as
strong as our students and faculty and
recruitment of outstanding
individuals in both categories has
helped make the Computer Science
program at IUP one of the best in the
Middle Atlantic region.
As dean, I am proud of the
Computer Science Department and its
programs and I plan to continue to
work with faculty to maintain and
strengthen our offerings in this area.
An undergraduate degree in
Computer Science from IUP will
continue to grow in stature and
provide the backbone for a lifetime of
accomplishments and rewarding job
experiences. Again, I welcome your
continued interest and support for the
Department of Computer Science and
the College of Natural Sciences and
Mathematics at IUP.
Back to the Contents
Save Money Fast
(Some advice for recent and soon-to-be graduates)
Willie Lewis (5/84)
[Ed. note: Willie works at Cray Research
(which may be SGI by now) fixing
operating system bugs on Cray T3D.]
Congratulations! You've gotten
your diploma and a shiny new job
with a good company that pays you a
lot of money to play with computers.
But before you start buying those
expensive toys you feel you've earned,
consider the following: retirement,
mortgage, college for the kids,
expensive hair transplant surgery.
Are you scared, yet? You should be.
"But what about Social Security?"
you ask. Don't count on it unless you
are really looking forward to a diet of
dog food and lawn clippings, because
that's all that the Baby Boomers are
going to leave for you. And the really
cruel part is that you won't be able to
out-vote them.
Now, I know you're still not scared,
because you're young and invincible.
That, plus the fact that you're used to
a frugal college life-style, is a big
advantage, though, because you're
probably over forty years away from
retiring. You've all written the
compound interest program - you
know how it works. Many companies
offer 401(k) or other retirement plans,
many of which include a company
match or some kind of deferred profit
sharing. So, if you haven't signed up
already, do so right now. You want to
contribute as much as you possibly
can, ideally the maximum allowed,
which is typically 10-15% of your
salary. A 401(k) lets you lower your
taxable income; shelters the
compound growth from taxes; and in
the cases where the company matches
part of your contributions, is like
getting a little bonus every year. The
catch is that there is usually a 10%
penalty if you take the money out
before you retire. These plans usually
let you spread your contributions
among several different types of
investments. Since I don't want any
lawsuits, I'm not going to say how
you should allocate the funds.
Another savings plan offered by
some companies is an employee stock
purchase plan. These plans allow you
to deduct after-tax money from each
paycheck to buy stock in the
company, almost always at a discount.
The details of these plans vary, but
they can provide a very good rate of
return. The other nice thing is that
since the money is taken out of your
check, you can't spend it. Many
people recommend against owning
too much stock in the company that
pays your salary. This is prudent
advice because if the company does
poorly then you could lose your job
and the value of your stock could
drop. As with all investments, you
have to decide how much you're
willing to risk on any single company.
There are many other things you
can do on your own to save for your
retirement (or that new hair you
might want). Here are a few more:
Use direct-deposit to put part of your
pay into a savings or brokerage
account. Again, the key is to put it
somewhere where you can't spend it
on a whim.
Blackjack is not an investment.
Spouses, children, and ex-spouses can
be expensive. Try not to have an
excessive number of them - two or
three of each seems to be the norm.
Don't run up credit card debt. You
need only one or two credit cards, and
you should pay them off promptly.
And finally, I am not a financial
professional; these are just some
opinions I've developed. If you want
real-live financial advice from
someone you can sue, ask your
co-workers for the names of financial
planners in your area and make an
appointment. If they try to sell you
Emerging International Hog Snout
Futures, find a different one. Good
Luck and I'll see you on the Riviera
around 2030.
Back to the Contents
IUP's CampusWide Information System
Ed Donley
Chair, CWIS Committee
(and I still teach mathematics, too)
http://www.ma.iup.edu
/people/hedonley.html
[Ed. note: CWIS is the title given to the
hierarchy of Web information that will
link administrative, departmental, faculty,
student organization, and student pages
at IUP. Standards have been created for
the form and content of many of these
pages by the CWIS committee. The
committee oversees the entire structure of
IUP's Web presence.]
IUP now has a plan to establish a
comprehensive Web site. IUP's Web
presence up until now has been
patchy. Several departments and the
library have had Web sites up for over
two years. Since then, about a dozen
other departments have started to
develop sites. But most people who
wanted specific information about
IUP would not bother checking the
Web because there was no guarantee
that that information would be
available.
This is all about to change.
President Pettit has mandated that
every administrative office and
academic department on campus will
publish material on the Web by
September 30. Each office will have a
Web maintainer who will be
responsible for the site's content.
Mary Micco is the Computer Science
Department's maintainer. HTML
training began in early August. Most
offices have hired students to create
their Web sites. Many Computer
Science majors are using the
opportunity to build up their resumes.
You will see their work credited at the
bottom of many office's sites.
Be sure to check out IUP's site at
http://www.iup.edu later this fall. If
you were part of a student
organization during your IUP days,
then go to the Student Services area.
The Office of Student Activities and
Organizations is hosting pages for any
student organizations who wish to be
on the Web. Or check out the news
and sports section to get the latest IUP
information that you cannot find in
your home newspaper. Visit the
academic area of the Web and read
about out new course offerings from
the Computer Science Department.
Don't forget the Alumni Affairs
Office. You will be able to get alumni
news before it appears in the printed
version of the IUP Magazine (the
magazine will be on-line, too, by the
way). The Alumni Affairs Office is
looking into setting up a Web-based
bulletin board where alumni can post
their latest news. So look up your old
friends. And don't forget to let the
Alumni Affairs Office know what you
are doing, so that your friends can
keep track of you.
If you have suggestions for
improving any particular area of IUP's
CampusWide Information System,
please contact that area's Web
maintainer. Maintainers' e-mail
addresses are listed at the bottom of
every page. If you have any
suggestions about the CampusWide
Information System, please contact me
at hedonley@grove.iup.edu.
Back to the Contents
Thanks A Million!
Ralph Grove
Chair, Gift Money Committee
Though we haven't received a
million, we are nevertheless very
grateful for all of the gifts made to the
Computer Science Department and to
the Howard E. Tompkins Scholarship
Fund. In the past two years, the
Department has received about
$47,000 in gifts (for the two-year
period), including contributions from
corporate foundations, alumni,
friends, and from IUP faculty and
staff as well. During the 1994-1995
fiscal year, the Tompkins Fund
received about $2000 in contributions
(1995-1996 data were as yet
unavailable).
Though IUP is primarily a
state-supported institution, the gifts
we receive allow us to enhance and
improve our program in ways which
wouldn't otherwise be possible,
through equipment purchases,
student services, faculty support, and
recruitment activities. The
scholarships which we are able to
provide from gift money give extra
incentive and support to the best and
brightest Computer Science students
and help to encourage students who
are under-represented in the program.
General contributions to the
department over the last two years
include $42,800 in corporate
contributions, ranging in size from
$50 to $28,000 (over two years).
Individual contributions ranging in
size from $20 to $1,000 were received
from 24 alumni, friends, and faculty
(this includes the Century Club
contributions). Contributions to the
Tompkins Scholarship Fund,
meanwhile, came from 7 individuals
and varied in size from $50 to $1,000.
Our list of corporate contributors
includes the following companies:
American General Finance
EI Dupont de Nemours & Co.
IBM Corporation
Pennsylvania Power and Light
PPG Industries Foundation
Rockwell International Corporation
The Prudential Insurance Company
Westinghouse Foundation
The list of individual contributors
is much longer, but out of respect for
the wishes of some contributors to
remain anonymous, we won't list
them all here. We will simply say
THANK YOU to all of you!
Contributions to the Tompkins
Scholarship Fund are used to build
the endowment which is used to give
scholarships to Computer Science
students according to the rules
established when the fund came into
existence. The IUP Financial Aid
Office oversees handling of the
scholarships.
General contributions to the
Department, meanwhile, are received
by the University Foundation, where
they are kept and invested until the
Department Gift Money Committee
decides to spend some of the money.
The Committee includes the
Department Chair, 3 other faculty
members, and 1 student. We meet
periodically and consider requests
which have come from students and
faculty for equipment, software,
special projects, etc., and then decide
what to spend for which purpose.
Following is a summary of how the
Committee has spent gift money over
the past two years (July, 1994 - June,
1996).
ACM Conference $1,244
The Association for Computing
Machinery (ACM) includes
professionals, educators, and students
in computer science, in a variety of
ways. At the ACM annual conference,
computer science educators meet to
review curriculum, tools, techniques,
etc., and to share their expertise. It is a
wonderful place for the faculty to get
new ideas to improve our curriculum.
This year the conference was
reasonably close, in Philadelphia, so
nine of us were able to go, with
support from the gift fund for
registration and hotel costs.
Advisory Boards $1,157
The IUP Computer Science
Department has an Educational
Advisory Board and a Corporate
Advisory Board, members of which
review our program periodically and
give valuable advice about
curriculum, recruitment, and careers.
Since our state funds cannot be used
for refreshments and meals, the gift
money allows us to show hospitality
to those board members who take the
time and trouble to visit the campus
once or twice a year.
Colloquia $318
Part of our curriculum is a series of
colloquia featuring outside experts,
vendors, alumni, and other speakers.
The gift money used for these events
allows us to provide refreshment to
attendees and pays for meals for our
speakers who have come from out of
town.
Computer Equipment $16,055
Next time you are on campus, step in
to the Tompkins lab and take a look at
the new Windows-NT network,
featuring 2 high-performance Dell
computers. Our students (and faculty)
are so happy to have these up-to-date
systems to work with in the lab. And,
ask Carol Miller how much she
enjoyed the use of her new Dell
computer as well (but don't ask her
how she likes the MS-Office software
which is installed on it). [Ed. note:
Carol's computer was lost in the computer
thefts of last Spring; but it has been
recovered and will be returned when the
police are finished with it.]
The figure shown above includes a
few odds and ends as well, such as
upgraded disk drives and
communication boards for lab
computers.
Faculty Release $8,420
A "faculty release" is time granted to a
faculty member to work on a special
project in lieu of teaching one class
during a semester. Gift money was
spent for two 1-semester releases. The
first release allowed webmaster Dr.
Micco to develop a world-wide-web
presence for the department (check it
out at http://www.iup.edu
/co/index.htmlx) and to develop lab
materials for our CO 101 and CO 201
courses (CO 201 is the new Internet
and Multimedia course developed by
Dr. Micco). The second release
allowed Dr. Cross to work on
implementing the transition from
FORTRAN to C++ which is taking
place in our CO 110 class this year.
Instructional Software $850
This money was used to buy software
for the Tompkins Lab, such as a
several copies of a CASE tool for
software engineering.
Minority Recruitment $16,491
For the last two years, a special gift
has been given to the department
strictly for the purpose of minority
recruitment. This money has been
spent to place computers at host sites
where minority students have access
to them after school and on weekends,
in order to better prepare these
students for studying computer
science in college.
New Copier $8,972
Only the most important piece of
equipment in the office (after the
coffee pot)!
PACISE $2,384
PACISE is the Pennsylvania
Association of Computer and
Information Science Educators. This
organization mainly involves the
Computer Science faculties of the state
owned universities. The above
amount was used to support
conferences and student activities,
such as the annual PACISE
programming contest.
Recruitment/Retention $243
During the year, we sponsor a
number of activities designed to
recruit new students and to help
retain the ones we have. for example,
the High School Days program, ARIN
Mentorship program, and the
Computer Science Club. The money
was used for refreshments and prizes
for various activities such as these.
Student Activities $3,319
Let's see - the annual graduation
reception, internship awards, student
travel to conferences out of town, a
picnic for our majors, Dr.
Buterbaugh's new car (no, just
kidding about that one!). There are all
sorts of special events that go on
during the school year for our
students; and this money has paid for
transportation, supplies, and
refreshments for them.
The Debugger $725
The gift money fund paid for one
issue of The Debugger, when funds
were tight elsewhere.
Tompkins Scholarship $525
Scholarships have been given to two
students in the past two years. As the
scholarship fund grows, of course, the
number and amount of scholarships
will grow as well.
PPG Scholarship $5,553
The Committee has also allocated for
expenditure in the next two years the
amount of $5,553 which was received
from PPG Industries to fund
scholarships. Originally, this grant
was intended to support foreign
students in the IUP Computer Science
program but was expanded to
included all students. Scholarships are
awarded on the basis of academic
performance. Three scholarships
worth $950 each have been awarded
for the coming school year and three
more will be awarded next year as
well.
So, that's where the gift money has
come from and where it is going.
These gifts have made a real and
significant difference in the quality of
our program and we can't thank those
of you who have contributed enough.
If you would like more information
about the gift money fund, please
contact me or Dr. Oblitey and we'll be
happy to oblige you. And, as always,
your future gifts are welcome, both to
the gift money fund and to the
Tompkins Fund. If you do decide to
contribute, be sure to ask if your
employer has a matching program as
well.
Back to the Contents
Curriculum Evolution
Jim Wolfe
What's happening with the IUP
Computer Science curriculum these
days? The answer is, "a lot." But to
appreciate what changes are coming,
it is essential to understand how the
curriculum has already changed
compared to when you were here as
undergraduates. Unfortunately, you
were here at different times; so, you
all have not been exposed to the same
curriculum. This article tries to put
the Computer Science curriculum into
perspective so that you can
understand how it is evolving.
We begin with our programs prior
to 1981. What happened in 1981?
Well, that was the year I came to IUP;
so, before that date, the IUP Computer
Science programs were a vague blur
of indistinct course requirements (at
least that's the way it was for me). I'm
sure that the programs used real
computers prior to 1981; they were
probably even powered by electricity
and ruled by the laws of physics;
although that was not a certainty for
the Microdata or the Xerox. If you are
one of the alumni who graduated
before 1982, your degree requirements
were probably similar to what I found
when I arrived.
In 1981, we provided two degree
possibilities - a B.S. that required 30
credits of Computer Science and an
approved minor (or 9 additional CO
credits); and a B.A. that required only
the 30 CO credits. The department
also required two calculus courses of
every major; and the college required
up to four semesters of foreign
language. Both degrees included
about 50 credits of general education
requirements. To get 30 CO credits,
students had to take the core courses
(Problem Solving (CO 110), Applied
Programming (CO 220), Numerical
Methods (CO 250), Assembly
Language (CO 300), Data Structures
(CO 310), Large Files (CO 315), and
two seminars) plus 10 elective CO
credits. Elective CO credits could
come from Software Engineering
Practice, Data Communications,
Computer Resource Management,
Processor Architecture, Programming
Languages, Systems Programming,
Data Base Management, Numerical
Analysis, and Theory of Computation.
These degree requirements
remained essentially the same until
1989. Oh, there were a few changes
along the way. In 1985, the
requirement for two calculus courses
was changed to one calculus course
and one statistics course; and in 1987,
a course in finite mathematics was
also required. In addition, several
new courses were added to the
curriculum as electives: Computer
Graphics, IBM Job Control Language,
Operating Systems, Computer
Security and Fraud.
In 1989, general education was
replaced by liberal studies. One
consequence of this was that foreign
language changed from a college
requirement to a department
requirement. We also replaced the
finite mathematics requirement with a
requirement for a technical writing
course. Otherwise, the programs
remained the same.
In 1990, a new first course,
Fundamentals of Computer Science,
was added as a core requirement and
the number of required credits was
raised to 33. This was the first step in
a much larger change that took effect
in 1992.
In 1992, the whole Computer
Science program was revised to
provide three degree possibilities: a
B.A. that required 35 CO credits,
calculus, statistics, discrete
mathematics, and technical writing;
an applied B.S. track which required 3
more CO credits (including Software
Engineering Concepts and Data Base
Management), an approved minor,
and an internship (or the Software
Engineering Practice course), in
addition to the B.A. requirements; and
a graduate-school-directed B.S. track
which required 6 more CO credits
(including Processor Architecture,
Operating Systems, and Programming
Languages), a second calculus course,
and Linear Algebra, in addition to the
B.A. requirements. Additional new
courses were added to the curriculum,
mostly as electives: Software
Engineering Concepts, Unix and C,
Artificial Intelligence, Software
Development in Ada, and Compiler
Construction. The new program also
dropped Numerical Methods as a
required course (it was removed from
the core, although still taught as an
elective). With the new program in
1992, the liberal studies requirements
remained basically unchanged and
the foreign language requirement
stayed.
Since 1992 (until fairly recently),
curriculum changes have been mostly
cosmetic - prerequisite adjustments,
changes in course titles or
descriptions. However, over the past
year or so, two new courses have been
created, Fourth Generation Languages
and Internet & Multimedia; and
several other significant program
changes, which have yet to go into
effect, have been approved. Below is
a brief summary of these.
Language change in CO 110 (Problem
Solving) and CO 310 (Data Structures)
Since sometime before 1981, CO 110
has been taught using FORTRAN.
Beginning with the Fall 1996 semester,
CO 110 will be taught using C++.
Initially, we plan to introduce C++
procedurally without changing over
to a full-blown object-oriented
approach. That is not to say that
objects will be ignored; for beginning
in Fall 1996 (actually it started in
June), CO 310 will be taught using
C++. It is in the Data Structures
course that the object-oriented
approach will be stressed. We are
also revising our suggested course
sequence so that students will take CO
310 in the semester immediately after
they have taken CO 110.
Honors seminars are being developed
Fall 1996 is the first term in which
students will be admitted to the
Robert E. Cook Honors College at
IUP. We are expecting a small
number of incoming Computer
Science Freshmen to be part of the
honors program. We are developing
four seminars which will be required
of the honors students (one seminar in
each of their first four semesters).
Communications Media minor
We have agreed to add
Communications Media as one of the
approved minors for Computer
Science students. A few kinks have
yet to be worked out with the
Communications Media department;
but it looks like this will happen in the
not too distant future.
There are number of curricular
issues that we have been kicking
around for some time but are as yet
not very far along. These are things
that still need a lot of work. Here is a
brief description of a few, in no
particular order.
Change in the foreign language
requirement
Computer Science students have long
complained about this requirement
(equivalent to four semesters of a
language). Our problem is in finding
an adjustment to the requirement that
satisfies our faculty, the college, the
various foreign language
departments, and the students. A
variety of past proposals have not
made it very far without someone
shooting them down.
Adding a LAN course
We have two problems to overcome.
The facilities needed are a problem
because of task sequencing for the
class and the fact that other classes
cannot use the facilities which are
having LANs set up on them
(probably incorrectly). Also, we have
competition in creating such a course
from the MIS department. They are
concurrently proposing LAN courses
that are similar to our proposed
course; and they have a great deal
more facilities available to them.
Incorporating parallel processing into
the curriculum
Current discussion involves
developing a parallel processing
course (an upper-level elective).
However, we think that some of the
concepts of parallel processing are
significant enough now (and will
become even more significant) that
they should be presented to a
substantial number of our
undergraduates. We have not worked
out how best to handle this yet.
ACM accreditation
For some time, we have been
considering applying for ACM
accreditation of the Computer Science
program. We have done several self-evaluations and made several
curriculum adjustments with
accreditation in mind. The consensus
is that at the moment the program is
still deficient in a couple of small
ways. We will continue to try to
eliminate these drawbacks.
In this discussion of curriculum, I
have tried to avoid a catalog-like
presentation, with its emphasis on
course lists and credit totals. I hope
you were able to grasp the overall
content and direction of our
curriculum. If any of you have
comments or suggestions about the
Computer Science curriculum, please
feel free to send them to me
(addresses inside back cover).
Back to the Contents
PACISE Programming Contest
This year's PACISE programming
contest was held at California
University of PA on 30 March 1996.
IUP sent only one team, consisting of
Zack Howe, Dennis Hall, and Tim
Jamison. Our team placed second
coming in between two teams from
Shippensburg.
The problems for this year's contest
were apparently rather difficult.
Shippensburg's winning team solved
only two of them, with IUP's team
and Shippensburg's other team each
solving one.
Back to the Contents
May Graduates
Top row, left to right: Melanie Stewart, Bonnie Slowik, Eric Grover, Tosha
Fadness, and Nicole Koger. Bottom row, left to right: Douglas Lute, Matthew
Yonkoske, Christopher Cunningham, Travis Stormer, and Jason Moyer. Not
shown: Ronald Howe and Sherri Soltis. Sorry for the darkness of the picture.
Everyone was wearing gowns. The picture shown through the WWW is better.
Back to the Contents