newsletter fall 2000 - nc state computer science€¦ · luis cepeda thomas vitolo felton dengler...

Venture I

Research IV

ConnectedComputer Science Fall 2000Alumni Newsletter Volume IX

A Building CrisisFrom the Department Head Dr. Alan L. Tharp

For those of you who live in North Carolina,you are probably aware that the StateGeneral Assembly has authorized a $3.1

billion bond referendum for November forbuilding initiatives for the sixteen campuses ofthe University of North Carolina System. Thesefunds are needed to provide facilities to educatethe increased numbers of people requiring a

universityeducation andto repair andreplacebuildings thatcame intodisrepairduring leanbudget times. One item ofgood news if

the bond issue passes is that it includes funds forthe first two phases of the College ofEngineering s move to Centennial Campus. Abuilding to house the Department of ComputerScience is included in phase 2 of the bond issuebuilding plan. It is critical to the continuedsuccess and advancement of the department

that the computerscience faculty, staff,and students bereunited into a singlebuilding very soon. Computer Sciencecurrently occupiesspace in nine buildingson two campuses(soon to be ten). Ourgoal is not to make itinto the Guinness Book of Records for the numberof buildings occupied by an academic department.The Department has space in Withers, Daniels, andLeazar Halls on the Historic Campus, and in theEngineering Graduate Research Center, ResearchII, Research IV, Venture I, Venture II, and Partners IIon the Centennial Campus. Next year thedepartment will also be occupying space inVenture III on the Centennial Campus. Space isneeded to expand the programs of thedepartment, and to meet the student demand forinstruction in computer science. This past year,the department began a master s degree incomputer networking, joint with the Departmentof Electrial and Computer Engineering and the

(Continued on page 2)

$1 Million SAS Endowed Chair Established

A $1 million endowed chair in computerscience has been established through thegenerosity of SAS Institute Inc. of Cary. SAS Institute gave $666,000 to theDepartment of Computer Science to endow adistinguished professorship in data warehousing. This endowment made it possible for thedepartment to receive a matching grant of$334,000 from the Distinguished Professors TrustFund maintained by the University of NorthCarolina General Administration. Together this

brings the computer science endowment to thetotal of $1 million.

This generous gift will allow the department to

recruit an acclaimed computer scientist to benamed the SAS Institute Professor of ComputerScience. This person will contribute to thedevelopment of data warehousing processesthrough student academics and research. TheComputer Science Department s faculty containsmany dynamic members whose research andteaching are bringing NC State to the forefront ofcomputer science departments. In the past sixyears, the department has hired 14 tenure-track

(Continued on page 2)

2 Computer Science Alumni Newsletter Fall 2000 Volume IX

Leazar Hall

Withers Hall

SAS Endowed Chairfaculty members, six of whom have receivedNational Science Foundation Career FacultyDevelopment Awards. Undergraduate enrollmenthas grown from 500 to 1000 currently; graduateenrollment, from 113 to 286. Academic programs have been focused onemerging areas of computer science, includingelectronic commerce, network security, opticalnetworks, and quantitative human-computerinterface design. We are very excited about the growth,leading-edge research and teaching activities that have been going on in our department, said Dr.

Alan L. Tharp, head of the Department of ComputerScience. The SAS Institute professorship will helpcontinue this momentum, and most exciting iswhat this scholar will be able to contribute to theeducational experience of our students.

"By establishing this professorship, SASInstitute can help ensure that NC State remains aleading university in engineering and computerscience," said Dr. Jim Goodnight, president andCEO of SAS Institute. Along with this generous gift, SAS Instituteprovides four endowed scholarships in theDepartment of Computer Science.

A Building CrisisCollege of Management. AURICS (AcceleratedUndergraduate Research In Computer Science) wasbegun last year to better challenge the many verytalented undergraduate students entering theDepartment. The Department is also movingaggressively to build a nationally prominentprogram in e-commerce. This e-commerceinitiative is joint with the College of Management.

The Departmentof ComputerScience, althoughbeing one of theoldest in thecountry, foundedin 1967, onlyreceived authorityto offer graduatedegrees in 1990. Offering graduatedegrees allowed a

greater emphasis on research which is essential inproviding instruction at all levels in leading-edgetechnologies. Graduate education requires morespace than undergraduate education. SinceComputer Science has needed more space over theyears, and a new building was not forthcoming,space was taken wherever available. All the spaceon Centennial Campus except for the EngineeringGraduate Research Center is rented space. TheCollege and Department are responsible for mostof these rental payments, which diverts funds fromother purposes. Despite the modern day tech-nology, direct face-to-face, often unscheduled,interactions between people are essential to fur-thering the programs of the department. Becauseof the scatteredness of the people in the depart-ment, some faculty members do not see one

another except forfaculty meetings. Sincealmost every facultymember canconceivably haveteaching and researchcollaborations with anyother member of thefaculty, manyopportunities havebeen lost. It is alsomore challenging andmore costly to serve the faculty and studentslocated in so many buildings. Many redundantservices need to be provided. The required traveltime between buildings reduces the productivity offaculty, staff, and students.

But there is good news! With a new building,designed specifically for computer science, theDepartment will be able to design the space for theprograms important in the 21st century. TheDepartment will not need to try to retrofit existingbuildings. Many Departments of Computer Sciencearound the country have moved into new buildingsin the past ten years. We can build on theirexperience for insights as to what has worked andwhat has not worked. We will also be askingmembers of the Department s Industrial AdvisoryCouncil to provide us with suggestions on what toinclude in this building and will ask them to reviewfuture building plans. We welcome suggestionsfrom others. If you live in North Carolina, Iencourage you and your family and friends tosupport the University Bond Referendum inNovember. It is important to the future of all of us.


Daniels Hall

Students love the new Sun Unix stations in Withers

400 .

In the EOS Computer Lab at Withers Hall, Students work on

projects, comp lete homework , and check email. Rarely is

there an empty seat in the room.

Undergraduate Report

1999-2000

The addition of several newfaculty to our department, as well as emergingfields such as network security, electroniccommerce and multimedia bring many possibilitiesto the undergraduate program. As these newfaculty start up their research programs, a widevariety of new undergraduate elective courses andopportunities for undergraduate research projectsare on the horizon. We expect the energy andvitality these young faculty bring to the departmentto be readily apparent to eager undergraduates.

Student Enrollment

Computer science continuesto be a popular degreeprogram. Currently thereare 943 students enrolled asundergraduate computerscience majors. This is upfrom 727 at the end of the98-99 year (a 22 percent

increase). Acceptance into the CSC departmentrequires a college grade point average of at least a2.7.

Graduates

There were 140 B.S. Degrees awarded in ComputerScience during the 1999-2000 academic year. Most of our B.S. graduates took positions inindustry (95 percent). The average starting salarywas approximately $47,000, up from $45,000 ayear ago (4% increase).

B.S. in CSC with Honors

Christopher Blythe Joanna GarlickLuis Cepeda Thomas VitoloFelton Dengler Patrick YanerAaron Dhiman Luke Zettlemoyer

Graduating University Scholars

Christopher Blythe Carey Rogers Alan Booth Thomas Vitolo Felton Dengler Matthew Wright Joanna Garlick Alicia Wilkins Jeffrey Nusz

CSC Senior Awards Also selected as COE Award Recipients

Luke Zettlemoyer: Scholarly Achievement Carrie Farley: Leadership Thomas Vitolo: Citizenship & Service

Bitzer Creativity Award

Luke Zettlemoyer


EGRC

Graduate Report

1999-2000

Over the last few years wehave been noting the dynamicaspects of Computer Science asa discipline and the pervasive-ness of computers in all areasof modern life. This has led toa degree program structurewith four degrees in ComputerScience. Three degrees withcomputer science concentra-tions administered by theOperations Research Program,and a concentration field withinthe Master of Engineeringadministered by the College ofEngineering. Various options,tracks, and concentrationswithin the above provide 25distinct sets of requirements forgraduate degrees. By distinct we mean that satisfying therequirements for one will not

satisfytherequire-mentsfor anyother.Inadditionto the

various degrees, our GraduateProgram also supports dual-majors, co-majors, minors andcombined bachelor s/master sprograms.

Major Growth in Applications and Admissions

For the 1998 calendar yearwe had approximately 150applications for admissions. This grew to more than 250 in1999. Now we have greatlysurpassed those numbers withmore than 500 studentsapplying for admission in 2000.

Fall is the preferred semester forbeginning graduate study,and application numbers reflectthe interest. Official GraduateSchool applications andadmissions numbers for Fall2000, as of June 30, arepresented in the following table. The number of admissions islikely to be higher since theGraduate School is stillprocessing them.

Students and DegreeProduction

Our programs averaged about200 students for the 1999-2000year. For that year we had 101in the MCS program, 55 in theMS, 9 in the MSCN, and 34 in thePh.D. Over the past year, weawarded 47 MCS degrees, 17 MS,one MSCN, and four Ph.D.degrees. The MSCN is a newprogram with the first studentsadmitted in Fall 1999. As can beseen in the table above, there isconsiderable interest in theprogram such that studentnumbers will increase quickly.

Awards

The NSF has recognizedWilliam Bares with a CAREERAward. William earned his Ph.D.from our department in 1998working with Drs. James Lesterand Woodrow Robbins. Dr. Baresis currently an AssistantProfessor at the University ofSouthwest Louisiana s Center forAdvanced Computer Studies. HisCAREER Award will supportresearch on constraint-basedcamera planning for 3Denvironments, which he beganas a graduate student on thePhysViz and CPU City projectswith Dr. Lester s IntelliMediaInitiative.

Alumni Speak Out

Question #1: Why did you decideto become a computer scientist?

Brent Bisch off

Wireless Development Engineer

Lucent Technologies

I enjoy the challenges it offers. Iwanted a career that offersunlimited opportunities andpossibilities. Computers and theInternet are changing the waypeople work, live, and play. Therewas no way I was going to missthe future it yet beholds.

Merri Jensen

Setup Developer

SAS I nstitute

I was good at math and logic,and fairly competent with acomputer in a word-processingsense, and mostly becausecomputers don t talk back unlessthe programmer makes a mistake. I didn t really ever want to buildcomputers or learn about thehardware. I just wanted to makethem work the way that I wanted

them to.

Jon Kenney

I. T. Analyst, CSE-IT

C isco Sys tems

When I was a kid, I used to lovewriting AppleSoft BASIC programson my Dad s Apple II computer. Then I used UCSD Pascal on theoriginal IBM PC. Since those daysI have learned COBOL, Natural, C,Objective-C, C++, Perl, HTML,Java, JSP, and EJBs. I have alwaysloved programming and still do!


Industrial Advisory Council

Mr. Rowland ArcherPresident and CEO HAHT Software, Inc.

Dr. Nicholas S. BowenDirector of Services

IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center

Mr. Gerald J. ButtersChief T echnol ogy Str ategis t

Lucent Technologies, Inc.

Mr. Edward T. CarneyDirector of Engineering InterWorks Business Unit Cisco

Systems, Inc.

Mr. Keith V. CollinsVice President of Research and Development

SAS Institute, Inc.

Mr. Phil CrewsPresident Rockwood Systems

Mr. Christopher M. CrumpDirector of Software Engineering

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

Mr. David P. DaughertyDirector of Systems Integration

ABB Corporation, Inc.

Ms. F. Jo GoodsonVice President

Infor mati on Se curity Gold man , Sach s and Co.

Dr. Gopal KakivayaDevelopment Lead Microsoft Corporation

Mr. Steven F. KuekesSenior Vice President and

Chief Technology Officer

Tangram Enterprise Solutions, Inc.

Mr. Michel MayerGene ral M anag er IBM Netwo rking Hard ware Div.

Mr. Gerhard PilcherExecu tive Vic e Presid ent

H.B. Rowe & Company, Inc.

Ms. Anne SchoweVice President Systems Software and

Engineering Technologies

Sun Microsystems Com puter Company

Mr. Norman H. Skip Staples

Mr. Lloyd ThrowerDirector of Information Technology for the East Coast

JDS Uniphase

ePartners StrengthensTies with Industry

The ePartners initiative is now underwayto support the mutual needs of both theDepartment, including its students, and Industry.By developing stronger partnerships withcompanies in the Triangle area and beyond, theDepartment will be more able to provide itsstudents with the best educational experience.The ePartners program offers benefits tostudents, faculty, alumni, and company partners.Students will have the opportunity to interactmore closely with companies through seminars,presentations, a resume bank, etc. The facultywill be able to collaborate with companyrepresentatives on emerging issues in the fieldand share research developments. Companieswill benefit from assistance in recruiting andaccess to a dynamic faculty. The departmentwould also like to involve the alumni in thisinnovative program. There are two primary waysthat alumni can become involved. Bycontributing $50, Alumni will be included eachyear in our Alumni newsletter as a valuedsupporter and receive our annual ePartnersreport. Alumni may also choose to support thedepartment through mentoring and other studentcentered activities. As the name implies,ePartners will use the internet as a tool tofacilitate the connection between the departmentand interested supporters. If you are interestedin becoming an ePartner,please contact CarmenBrennan [email protected].

The department hashired Carmen S. Brennan asdirector of ePartners. Carmengraduated from NC Statesumma cum laude with a BA inEnglish. She previously servedas an English teacher at CaryHigh School where she was aTechnology ConnectionsCoordinator for the Englishdepartment. She was also on the NC State/CaryHigh School Partnership committee where shehelped organize Partnership Blitz, a three dayexperience for the students at Cary High to beexposed to emerging issues in academics byguest lecturers from the NC State faculty.


New Faculty MemberLaurie Williams

Coming back to theTriangle area is almost likecoming back home for Dr.Williams. After completingher BS in IndustrialEngineering at LehighUniversity in 1984, Dr.Williams came to thetriangle to work at IBM. During her nine years atIBM, she held several

technical and managerial positions in engineeringand software development. She received her MBAfrom Duke University in 1990. She went on toreceive her PhD in Computer Science from theUniversity of Utah in 2000 before returning to theTriangle area to become an Assistant Professor inComputer Science at NC State. Female computer scientists are currently ararity in the field. When asked why she wanted tobecome a computer scientist, Dr. Williamsresponded that computer science was appealingbecause it is an emerging field with so much arealeft to explore. The problems faced as acomputer scientist are harder because they areless concrete which makes the job morechallenging. According to Dr. Williams, manywomen do not choose to study computer sciencebecause of the introverted intellectual stereotypethat plagues the field. She sees female rolemodels and innovations such as pairprogramming as ways to attract more womeninto making a career out of computer science.

New Space in

Venture I

The month of Junebrought about the moveof four faculty membersand graduate studentsto Venture 1. This newspace will allow forcollaboration between

the faculty members which include Dr. Singh andDr. Wurman, along with those pictured. Picturedabove is Dr. James Lester beginning to unpackthe many boxes that filled his new office. Dr.Lester is the Co-director of IntelliMedia

Switching from a career in industry to a career inacademia makes Dr. Williams feel as if she ischallenging herself through her research andteaching activities. Her current research isfocused on software engineering where sheworks with companies to implement and measurethe effectiveness of pair programming. Dr.Williams believes that pair programming willproduce a higher quality of software in a fastertime period compared with that of programmerswho work alone. Three main elements whichpoint to the success of pair programming are Pair Pressure, where programmers who worktogether push one another harder and createmore productivity, Pair Think, where bothprogrammers use their combined knowledge tocome up with a better solution, and Pair Review, where each programmer continuously reviews thecode of his partner to catch mistakesimmediately. NC State is fortunate to have Dr. Williams as anew member of the Computer ScienceDepartment. Dr. Williams looks forward to beingat a university that works closely with partners inindustry to lend a practical nature to the coursesthat are taught. She is also very interested inexploring the area of e-commerce in her researchand teaching which is an area that NC State hasemerged as one of the world s leading experts. Students can look forward to working with Dr.Williams in the fall when she teaches a class titled Launching the e-Commerce Enterprise. Thestudents will propose and implement prototypesfor e-Commerce businesses. Local entrepreneursand venture capitalists will review studentbusiness proposals and share their insights andexperiences with the class.

Initiative which is ajoint project with theCollege of Design. VisitDr. Lester and learnmore about hisresearch atwww.csc.ncsu.edu/faculty/lester. Onthe right is Dr. MichaelYoung, busy workingon the computer in hisnew office. Dr. Young is currently doing researchwith the Liquid Narrative Group which studiesthe computational models of narrative applied toa wide range of human-computer interactions.Visit www.csc.ncsu.edu/faculty/young.


Alumni SpotlightRudy Puryear

Innovative, computer savvy,and on the cutting edge. RudyPuryear is all of these thingsand more. After graduatingfrom NC State in ComputerScience in 1974, Puryear wenton to become one of the topconsultants in the world. Today Rudy is President andCEO of Lante Corporation, aleading Internet consultingcompany focused exclusivelyon creating eMarkets-powerfulonline communities that unitemultiple buyers and multiplesellers within a market orindustry segment. Sincejoining Lante in June 1999,Rudy has led Lante inbecoming a nearly $4 billionpublic company. Withheadquarters based inChicago, Lante serves clients inthirteen offices in the UnitedStates and Asia, including anoffice in Charlotte. Originally from Raleigh,Puryear became interested incomputer science while he wasa sophomore in high school.At 15 Puryear began workingat Synergetics, an architecturalengineering firm, where hebecame involved withprogramming. When the timecame to go to college,computer science seemed the

obvious choice. While at NCState, Puryear worked full-timeand maintained a full courseload. Puryear described histypical day in college as takingback to back classes in themorning so that he could go towork at noon and put in a fullday. He would then campout at the computer centerdoing homework and projects,many times until midnight,before going home to getsome sleep and do the samething the next day. While thislifestyle may not sound likethat of a typical collegestudent, Puryear s accomplish-ments are a testament to thefact that he is far from typical. The experience he gainedworking at Synergetics from1967-73 was only the begin-ning of a whirlwind ride ofamazing strides in theconsulting field. After leaving Synergetics,Puryear became Stone SchoolSupply s first Data ProcessingManager. He converted theentire company to computersfrom 1973-75. He then wenton to be the first Director ofInformation Systems for theNC Judicial Department from1976-80 where he designedand built the first computersystem for the AdministrativeOffice of the Courts in NC. In

1981he moved to Boston towork for Nolan, Norton &Company, an InformationTechnology strategyconsulting firm. By 1983 hehad moved to Chicago as theManaging Director runningconsulting for the company.Continuing to strengthen hisexperience and presence in thefield, Puryear went to AndersenConsulting in 1991 asManaging Partner of ITstrategy. He soon became theGlobal Managing Partner of e-Commerce responsible for theoverall development anddirection of Andersen s e-Commerce strategy. Under hisdirection the company grew toa $425 million consultingpractice. Coming to Lante gavePuryear the opportunity tobuild something again. Thenimbleness and responsive-

ness to themarketplace of arelatively small firm isvery exciting, saysPuryear, I have theopportunity to workwith leading-edgecompanies to buildleading-edge solutionsto tackle leading-edgeproblems. Thechallenge in thebusiness lies in leading(Continued on pg 13)


Graduate Students work along with Dr. Rhee in the lab.

Faculty SpotlightInjong Rhee

Not only is Dr. InjongRhee known for hisbreakthroughs inmultimedia networkingresearch, he is alsoknown for his energyand ingenuity insidethe classroom. Hisstudents have beenknown to compare hishigh level of energy to

that of a nuclear reactor. After receiving his BS in Electrical Engineeringat Kyung Pook University in Korea in 1989, Dr.Rhee attended UNC Chapel Hill and was awardedhis PhD in Computer Science in 1994. Dr. Rheethen went on to do Post Doctoral research atEmory University, Texas A&M, and the Universityof Warwick before accepting a position at NCState. Coming to NC State was like a home-coming, according to Dr. Rhee. While travelingmany places doing post doctoral research, hecould find no place he liked better than theRaleigh/Durham area. He saw NC State ashaving an up and coming Computer ScienceDepartment which had the support of theuniversity. The large number of young facultymembers also left Dr. Rhee with a feeling of highenergy that had the potential to impact thescientific community in the future. As a PhDstudent, Dr. Rhee felt like his energy was focusedon a specific course. Becoming a faculty mem-ber at NC State allowed him to put all of hisideas into real form. Why did Dr. Rhee want to become a computerscientist? The appeal of being able to createsomething very quickly lured him into the field.He saw in computer science the opportunity toput your ability into your own art. One of thenumerous areas of Computer Science which Dr.Rhee is doing research on is multimedianetworking. He is trying to solve the problem oftransmission losses that occur with thetransmission of real time video over hand helddevices. His research in this area also involvesthe problem being compounded when real timevideo is being broadcasted to a large audience atdifferent locations. He, along with a team ofgraduate students are well on their way tocoming up with a solution.

When teaching, Dr. Rhee prefers to work withstudents one on one. Even when students areworking in groups, he requires that each groupmember beprepared toanswerquestionsabout everyaspect of theproject. Dailymeetingswith Dr. Rheekeep stu-dents ontheir toes andresults intheir successin the class. While his work takes up a large part of histime, Dr. Rhee does have interests outside ofcomputer science. He enjoys playing tennis,swimming, and cooking. As he travels around thecountry attending conferences and working on hisresearch, he makes a point to pick up a localcookbook and try his hand at creating the cuisinefor his family when he returns home. Hiscommitment to research and teaching makes Dr.Rhee a valuable asset to the Computer ScienceDepartment.

Faculty NewsPromotions and New Appointments

Dr. Robert D. Rodman Full Professor

Dr. Munindar P. Singh Associate Professor

Dr. S. Felix Wu Associate Professor

Dr. Laurie Williams Assistant Professor

Mr. Frederick George Visiting Lecturer

Mr. Ken Jarchow Assistant to the Associate Head of the Dept.

Mr. Dana Lasher Visiting LecturerDirector of Student Services

Mrs. Carmen S. Brennan Director of ePartners


Partners II

Computer Scientists

Lead the Way in

E-commerce

Opening the businesssection of any newspaper leadsmany readers to headlines thatboast of the success of e-commerce. While millions ofcustomers buy and sellproducts and services over theinternet everyday, most do notrealize what work went onbehind the computer screen. Several of the leading experts ine-commerce teach in theDepartment of ComputerScience. Dr. Munindar Singh,associate professor, recently leda project to create a shoppingengine technology which isbeing used by a local company. In a recent news release, Dr.Singh said that this shoppingengine not only can presentinformation from severalmerchants but also offers aunified shopping cart and anintegrated checkout. Dr. Singhserves as editor-in-chief of theprestigious IEEE Internet

Computing and has wonresearch awards from theNational Science Foundationand from IBM. Dr. Peter Wurman s currentwork focuses on onlineauctions. Dr. Wurman, whosegraduate work at the Universityof Michigan received anaward from IBM for the beste-commerce dissertationproposal in 1998, focuseson auction theory andautomated negotiation,areas that combine thedisciplines of artificialintelligence and economics. Auction exchanges will becentral to e-commerce, says Wurman. While manypeople only negotiate for fairly

largepur-chases,heseesauc-tionsbeing used for more thingsbetween businesses andconsumers. There are manyopportunities to makeauctions faster, easier, andmore accessible. Wurman is also co-directorof NC State s e-commercepartnership, aninterdisciplinary initiative withthe College of Management. This partnership allows NCState s business and computerscience students to work onjoint research projects withtwelve high-tech companies. Dr. Alan Tharp notes, Wesaw the e-commerce trendcoming several years ago andfocused our faculty hiring onsuch emerging areas. We offerthree courses directly relatedto e-commerce now, and aswe hire more faculty and re-sources, we ll add morecourses. This year the e-commerce classes were sopopular that many studentswere turned away. Look forthe creators of tomorrow sAmazons, eBays, and Yahoo!sto emerge from the depart-ment, predicts Tharp.

Alumni Speak Out

Question #2: Where do you see thefield moving to in the future?

Suzanne Gordon

Director of MIS

SAS I nstitute

Board of Trustees at NCSU

More and more a part of everythingwe do, how we work, how we live, butalways changing.

Brent Bisch off


Lucent Technologies

Mobile, Mobile, Mobile. In the futurethere is no limit to what services willbe offered over mobile devices. Onlyone s imagination can tell.

Mickey Bishop

Applications Analyst Programm er

System Office of the NC Community College

System

Hopefully closer to what has beenportrayed in Science Fiction and StarTrek in terms of technology. Computers easy enough for anyone tooperate. Of course that will requirehighly skilled programmers andengineers to create them.

Matt Dailey

Graduate Student Researcher in Artificial

Intelligence at UCSD and a Research

Scientist at Burning Glass Technologies in

San Diego

I think one of the most excitingemerging fields is data mining. Forbetter or worse, we are becomingbetter and better able to sys-tematically extract knowledge fromlarge databases. It doesn t excite methat this will enable advertisers andother entities to predict my behavior,but it does have important implica-tions for other sciences. We seempoised to play major roles inadvancing molecular biology,neuroscience, and cognition. So it sgonna be fun to be a computerscientist in the next few decades!


Dr. Alan Tharp tells students how the

classroom was m ade possible.

Students wait for the first class in

Venture II to get underway.

Venture IIClassroom Opens

On August 21, 2000, the firstComputer Science classroom onCentennial Campus opened. Students packed the eighty-six

desks that fill the room. Makingthis classroom a reality was adirect result of support shown bycompanies such as Verizon andAT&T Solutions. Verizon fundedthe space which includes theclassroom. AT&T Solutionsfunded much of the equipment inthe classroom and adjacentnetworking lab. Classes arescheduled in Venture II from8:35am until 10pm. Many of theclasses are joint with theDepartment of Electrical andComputer Engineering. Dr. Alan Tharp, DepartmentHead, made an appearance at thefirst class held in the classroomand told the students how muchhard work went into making thisclassroom happen. Now most

graduate faculty and students arelocated on Centennial Campus.

AURICS Attracts Top Students

To compete with top technology companies andother universities for outstanding students, NCState s Computer Science Department developed aninnovative program designed to excite andchallenge the brightest students as they enter theprogram. The Accelerated Undergraduate ResearchIn Computer Science (AURICS) program involvesstudents in research projects beyond those thatthey encounter in their normal classes. In a recentnews release, Assistant Professor Dr. Robert St.Amant, who developed the idea of AURICS, statedthat NC State s Computer Science program is thebest in the state and near the top nationwide. But,for our very best students, courses alone aren tgoing to fully tap their potential. AURICS is meantto fill that gap, says Dr. St. Amant. Becoming a part of AURICS is not easy. Students must have an SAT score of 1540 orhigher. Last year 29 students were invited into theprogram, one of them having a perfect score of1600. Once in the program, students areintroduced to faculty members and the wide rangeof expertise that the department offers such asleading areas like e-commerce, graphics andanimation, optical networking, and artificialintelligence. AURICS students have their own research labequipped with state-of-the-art equipment

including PCs with multiple flat-panel displays andhigh-speed graphics and networking cards, aSilicon Graphics workstation, a Sony Playstationprogramming environment, and industry-strengthdevelopment software. Students also have accessto more sophisticated equipment such as networktesting equipment, a motion capture system, anda 44-inch stereo workbench that can producerealistic 3D images that appear to float in space infront of the viewer. Dr. Alan Tharp, DepartmentHead, refers to this lab as a sandbox for thebrightest students to play in and discover newareas of computer science. The lab also gives thestudents a place hang out and discuss what isgoing on in the field today. The hope is that whenthese students graduate they will have created anetwork among themselves that they can carrywith them as they begin their careers. The AURICS program allows students toexpand their minds as well as gain real worldexperience beforegraduation. Dr. Tharp seesthe benefits of this programas being win-win for all ofthose involved. Studentsget a chance to see whatthey like before theygraduate and companieshave an opportunity to builda relationship with a highlyskilled individual who mayturn out to be a potential employee.


Venture II

Alumni Speak Out

Question #3: How did yourexperience in NC State sComputer Science programprepare you for your future?

Brent Bisch off


Lucent Technologies

I highly believe in the CO-OPprogram. The work experience Igained proved invaluable. Afterworking at a fortune 40 companyfor a year and a half now I havelearned that you don t have to bethe most technical person tosucceed. More importantly knowhow to be professional. Be able tospeak effectively with others. Know how to handle and conductyourself. Excel at working as part

of a team.

Terry Clapp

Professor and Curriculum Advisor for

Strayer University in Washington, D.C.

The preparation I received atNCSU dealing with IBM mainframesperfectly positioned me for the AirForce assignment I went into at thePentagon in 1979.

Robin Seiler

Solution Centers and Services Manager

for Asia-Pacific-Singapore

Intel Corporation

Most valuable class I took at NCSUwas the MIS course where we hadto do a real project in a realcompany. It is very important tounderstand how to apply what youare learning in college to real-life....What I wish I had taken: a

few more business courses. Mostpeople who start out technicalneed to growtheir businessskills as theywill eventuallybe asked to usethem.

NSF Career Award Winner

Dr. Ana I. Anton

Dr. Ana (Annie) Anton,Assistant Professor in SoftwareEngineering is the recipient ofan Early Career Faculty Develop-ment Career Award from theNational Science Foundation.This is the highest honor givenby the NSF to young universityfaculty in science and engineer-ing. The award provides Dr.Anton with $220,000 in fundingover the next four years. Withthe help of this award, she willcontinue her research project, Towards Estimating Require-ments Coverage: ManagingScenarios and Goals inRequirements Evolution, whichaddresses important issues inthe discovery, elaboration, andmanagement of system usescenarios for the specificationof software requirements. Students at both the under-graduate and graduate levels,as well as industrial participants,will use the software producedthrough this research. A libraryof projects in various domainswill lead to new materials suchas techniques, methods and

cases forsoftwareengineeringeducation, Anton said.

A Student for the Record Books

Luke Zettlemoyer is astudent that few professors seemore than once in their career.This outstanding young manhas more honors and awardsassociated with his name thanone can imagine. They includethe Computing ResearchAssociation OutstandingUndergraduate Award 2000" formost outstanding maleundergraduate researcher; USAToday s All-USA AcademicTeam; Department of ComputerScience Faculty Senior Scholar;Park Scholar; the BitzerCreativity Award; ComputerScience Honors Program;Mathematics Honors Program;Undergraduate ResearchFellowhip; University ScholarsProgram; NSF GraduateResearch Fellowship; and theDOD Graduate ResearchFellowship. He has also co-authored ten peer-reviewedresearch papers. Luke is now the Director ofAdvanced Technologies for anArtificial Intelligence/ Internetstart-up company calledLiveWire Logic. The professors(at NCSU) are extremelyaccessible to undergraduates. It was primarily through per-sonal interactions with facultymembers that I learned aboutcomputer science and preparedto contribute to the field, saidZettlemoyer. His new job offershim many opportunities to putinto use the knowledge hegained from his time at NCState. In the future Luke plansto attend graduate school tostudy for a PhD in ArtificialIntelligence. The departmentwishes him luck and continuedsuccess!


Research II

Venture III

Find out more about

NC State Computer

Science by visiting us

on the web at

www.csc.ncsu.edu

CSC GraduatesWhere are they now?

I became fascinated withcomputers at about the age of 12and decided by the time I went intothe 8th grade that I wanted toattend NCSU, major in ComputerScience and then enter the AirForce. I graduated from NCSU May12, 1979, received my commissionthe same day and spent the next17 years in the Air Force. I am nowa full time professor and theCurriculum Advisor for StrayerUniversity here in the Washington,DC area.

Terry Clapp

Class of 1979

I graduated in the spring of 1987(BS EE, BS CSC). I worked 5 yearsfor AT&T Bell Laborator ies at whichpoint I entered Duke University andreceived my MS in ECE in the fall of1993 followed by my PhD in thespring of 1999. I currently workfor a startup company in RTP calledReciprocal (www.reciprocal.com).

We work in the area of Internetcommerce.

Dr. William T . Rankin

Class of 1987

I found a job teaching part-timeat Forsyth Technical CommunityCollege in the ContinuingEducation Department. I taught allsorts of Computer courses for11and ½ years before finallygetting a full-time position as theDepartment s Data SystemSpecialist. In June of 1999, Iaccepted a position with theSystem Office of the North CarolinaCommunity College System inRaleigh, NC as an ApplicationsAnalyst Programmer. I have nowbeen here a little over a year, andcontinue to find my jobchallenging and rewarding.

Mickey Bishop

Class of 1983

I am currently working at SASInstitute in Cary-in the PC R&Dgroup as a Setup Developer usingInstallShield and other tools tocreate the Install programs forvarious SAS software products.

Merri Jensen

Class of 1999

I am currently working in CairoUniversity, Dept. of CommunicationsEngineering, where I hold theposition of Assistant Professor.

Khaled Elsayed

Class of 1995 (PhD)

I am currently a programmer inStore Systems at the corporateoffices of Lowe s HomeImprovement Warehouse in NorthWilkesboro, NC. My department isresponsible for writing andmaintaining all of the code that runsin nearly 600 Lowe s stores acrossthe country. There is never a dullmoment.

Joe Brock

Class of 1998

I am the Solution Centers andServices Manager for Asia-Pacific,essentially running a business unitwhich is responsible to providesoftware/solution prov iders withconsulting and technical services asthey build their solutions on IntelArchitecture.

Robin Seiler

Class of 1993

I work at IBM within the SoftwareGroup as a Software DevelopmentManager. My current focus ishelping provide integrated solutionsto complex e-Business customerscenarios. In addition to my dayjob, I serve as the NCSU CampusRelationship Manager for IBMSoftware Group. NCSU is one of thetop schools for hiring technicaltalent into IBM...I want to keep itthat way!

David George

Class of 1984

My business experience combinedwith the strong technicalbackground I received from NCSUhave served me well. One of themost important things thathappened during my undergraduateCSC program was meeting andmarrying my wife and partner,Deborah, a fellow 72 CSC graduate. We have been married over 28 yearsand have a son, Charlie, who is afreshman at NCSU in mechanicalengineering. I am a private investorand a partner in CI Partners, LLC. Iam very active in the angelinvestment community working withTri-State Investment Group and TheAtlantis Group in helping tocapitalize and mentor technologystart- ups.

Ed Whitehorne

Class of 1972


Lante s headquarters in

Chicago offers an

incredible view of the

city s skyline from the

top floor of the Title

Building.

Near Lante s office

is one of Picasso s

most famous

masterpieces.

Alumni Spotlight: Rudy Puryearpeople intensive company that is growing at 30%a quarter. The ever changing world of e-Commerce leaves many twists and turns awaitingon the road ahead. Puryear sees the future of e-Commerce being full of the wildest possibilities. At the present he believes the world is in themiddle of a transition from an industrial economyto an electronic economy. Technology will be thetool that will enable us to move forward. Puryear s accomplishments have made him a wanted man in a world of advancingtechnology. He regularly speaks beforebusinesses around the world, and his insights one-business have been featured in business

publications such asWall Street Journal,Fortune, Forbes andFinancial Times. InJune 2000 he wasrecognized as number7 in ConsultingMagazine s Top 25Consultants in theWorld. Under hisdirection, Lante wasrecently ranked asnumber 7 in Sm@rt

Reseller s Smart 100 companies.

What lies ahead for Rudy Puryear? There seemsto be no limit to his innovative ideas anddetermination that continue to create newadvances and improvements to e-business. NCState Computer Science is proud to be able tocall Puryear one of its own.

WE WANT TO HEAR

FROM YOU!

The CSC department isinterested in creating a strong-er relationship with its alumniwho have grown to over 3600.We have a lot of exciting ideas! Please take a moment to emailus with your responses toquestions and new ideas.

*ALUMNI GET TOGETHER*

We are currently planning aalumni get together in theSilicon Valley area. If you areinterested in attending, pleaselet us know so that we cansend you an invitation. CSCalumni can be found in almostevery state in the USA. Thelargest numbers are found in

NC, MD, VA, GA, FL, TX, CA,SC, IL, and MA. We would loveto plan a get together in thesestates as well. Please let usknow if you would beinterested!

*ALUMNI NEWSLETTER*

Now that we have a full-timeDirector of Alumni andCorporate Relations, CarmenBrennan, we would like topublish the alumni newslettertwice a year. We want to knowwhat you want in your news-letter. Please give us yourfeedback on the followingquestions.

What types of articles are youinterested in reading?

What are you doing now?

What new activities would youlike us to provide for alumni?

Have you registered on thealumni directory online? Ifnot, the address iswww.csc.ncsu.edu/cgi-

bin/alumnidir.pl

*How can ePartners helpyou?*

ePartners will have an onlinedatabase where undergraduatestudents, graduate students,and alumni can enter theirresumes. Your resume will belooked at by our corporatepartners. If you re interested,visit the ePartners web site athttp://epartners.ncsu.edu

Email responses [email protected]


John Deere WorldwideCommercial & ConsumerProducts EquipmentDivision, a business unitdivision of Deere &Company, is proud to be aco-sponsor of theePartners initiative withNorth Carolina StateUniversity. The C&CEDivision manufactures afull line of lawn careproducts for residential,commercial, and golf andturf applications. Theseproducts are distributedthrough its network ofindependent retailers.

The Division s internationaloffices are currently basedin Raleigh, NC with newheadquarters underconstruction (completionexpected in late 2001) inCary, NC. The Division alsohas 11 North Americanlocations and two inEurope.

For more informationabout John Deere and theC&CE Division, includingemployment specificmaterial, please visit ourweb site JohnDeere.com

WELCOME ePARTNERS !

The 75,000 people ofNortel Networks work @ theheart of the Internet revolu-tion. We re delivering morereliable, secure, integratednetworks that bring togetherdata, voice and video servicesover wireless and wirelinenetworks. Our Unified Net-works serve a wide range ofcustomers from global carriersto home businesses.

Nortel Networks is doingbusiness in 150 countries andterritories including NorthAmerica, Europe, Asia, thePacific, the Caribbean andLatin America, the Middle East,and Africa. With 48 R&Dfacilities in 17 countries, weare literally innovating aroundthe clock, around the world.

Nortel Networks solutionsspan Optical Internet, WirelessInternet, Local Internet and e-Business to redine the speed,reliability, quality and profit-ability of the Internet forbusinesses of all kinds. NortelNetworks, with its customersand partners, are creating thehigh-performance Internet-creating new opportunities forbusiness providers to profitfrom the Internet by unleash-ing a new era of eBusiness andglobal communications.

Southeast Interactive(www.seinteractive.com) isheadquartered in the ResearchTriangle Park of North Carolina. The company manages threetechnology funds, and has acapital base in excess of $180million. Southeast Interactive wasthe first venture capital groupsouth of the Washington/Baltimore area with an exclusivefocus on information technology. Southeast has led or co-investedin the financing of 25 companiesto date.

Southeast Interactive's focusis to invest in companies locatedin the Southeast portion of theUnited States that are involved inthe fields of telecommunication,enterprise management, Internetinfrastructure, business-to-business, bandwidth enablementand e-commerce. The funds'management team looks forcompanies with strong, entre-preneurial management, whogenerally have a productgenerating revenues or advanceson royalties and who havestrategic partnerships in place orin negotiation. Its value-addedleadership has placed theResearch Triangle's IT industry onthe global radar screen and itcontinues to attract technologypartnerships from across theworld to its portfolio ofcompanies.

Southeast Interactivecompanies include BuildNet,OpenSite, KOZ.com, Nitronex,AllConnect, HAHT, Wave Systems(NASDQWAVX), Arsenal DigitalSolutions and Virtus Enter-tainment. Southeast Interactive isthe only venture fund in thecountry to produce a nationallybranded technology conference. The national IT-focused eventpromotes the region and itsbusinesses.


DO YOU HAVE A

PASSION FOR

TECHNOLOGY?

Make Systems is a pioneer inthe development ofsophisticated technology forthe fast growingtelecommunications industry. Our next generation networkdesign and engineeringsoftware stands alone in thisdynamic and excitingmarketplace. We are lookingfor uniquely talented andmotivated professionals tojoin our team.

Positions are available now insoftware engineering, testing,systems engineering,consulting, sales & marketing. Background/experience withnetworking technologies iskey, including TCP/IP, ATM,MPLS. Software developmentskills include Java, C++ orSmalltalk, object orienteddesign.

Make Systems is a mature,privately held technologycompany with principaloperations in Cary, NC. Weenjoy a casual butchallenging culture whichfosters professional trust,growth, and excellence. Come talk to us about joiningour team!

MAKE SYSTEMS, INC.

200 Regency Forest DriveSuite 150Cary, NC 275111-919-461-2445 Ext. [email protected]

www.makesys.com

ABB is on a bold courseinto the future. In a fastmoving, increasinglyglobalized world, informa-tion and knowledge are thenew currencies of success.To remain a leader, wereduce our dependence onheavy assets and build ourcombined intellectualwealth - ABB's brain power.This is the company'ssecond revolution. We'reremaking ABB into a light-er, faster, smarter companyacting in real time, all thetime. More than ever, anti-cipation and responsive-ness are the keys tosuccess."

"Today we're living in aneconomy of ideas as well asan economy of physicalthings. This creates newways of defining value andof adding value - andopens up new excitinghorizons. ABB's globalresources, local marketknow-how and technologyprovide us with a uniqueplatform for building newvalue. We aim to work soclosely with our customersthat we become part oftheir business, and theypart of ours - sharing theendeavor of buildingexcellence, efficiency andproductivity."

Founded in 1976, SAS is in itsthird decade of double-digitannual growth. We remain theworld s largest privately heldsoftware company, serving morethan 33,000 customer sites in110 countries. Some 3.5 millionusers have seen the power of SASin turning raw data into refinedinsights. Employee and customerloyalty continue to drive us. Weseek out the industry s finesttalent to develop our solutionsand services. And we retain thattalent by providing anaward-winning workenvironment, which fosters ahealthy balance between realwork and real life. Th is flexibilityenables SAS to enjoy the lowestturnover in the industry --just 4percent against a 20 percentaverage. Our customers expresstheir satisfaction through a 98percent annual renewal rate.

The result? Sustained growth,high productivity, solid profitsand long-term relationships.With a passion for developingtechnology-based solutions thatturn questions into answers, SAScontinues to lead the way inofferings that take the world tonew levels of discovery.

Visit SAS at www.sas.com


NONPROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDRALEIGH, NC

PERMIT NO. 2353

Department of Computer ScienceNorth Carolina State UniversityRaleigh, NC 27695-8206

NC STATE

PR

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& PAST3800 copies of this public document were

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newsletter fall 2000 - nc state computer science€¦ · luis cepeda thomas vitolo felton dengler...

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