DR. ROBERT F. DUGAN JR.
24 Davelin Road,Wayland, MA 01778
http://www.stonehill.edu/compsci/bdugan
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508-358-3066
bdugan@stepzero.com
EXPERIENCE
STEPZERO, LLC, Boston, MA
Performance Architect - March 2001 - Present
Co-founder and principal of performance engineering-based consulting firm. During client engagements
predicted, discovered, diagnosed and corrected application performance problems from front to back
including: browser, network, web server, relational database server, and operating system. Worked closely
with client development, quality assurance, and information technology departments to ensure that
performance improvements minimize impact on schedules and architecture.
STONEHILL COLLEGE, Easton, MA
Computer Science Department
Associate Professor - January 2008 – Present
Assistant Professor - August 2002 – December 2007
Professor responsible for courses in applied computer science including: Database Management Systems,
Operating Systems, Computer Networks, Web Programming and Software Engineering. Research projects
have included performance antipatterns, network bandwidth utilization by commercial applications, user
perception of performance, and awareness of performance in the software engineering discipline.
ECAL CORPORATION, Philadelphia, PA
Advanced Technology Group
Chief Engineer - June 2000 – March 2001
Team-lead responsible for all aspects of performance for eCal’s 4 million user web-based calendaring
applications. Member of five-person architecture review board that ensured applications developed across
four sites were designed from ground up for scalability. Created a performance group within the company
and trained personnel in the techniques of performance assessment. Improved critical application
scalability by several orders of magnitude.
RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, Troy, NY
Computer Science Department
Doctoral Candidate - August 1994 – August 2000 (graduated)
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Dissertation: A Testing Methodology and Architecture for Computer Supported Cooperative Work
Software. Work included Rebecca-J, an 80,000-line implementation in Java which uncovered serious
problems in a mature collaborative software system.
Instructor: Taught three semester-long courses: Fundamentals of Database Systems (using ORACLE,
Senior/Grad Level), Data Structures and Algorithms (Senior Level), Exploring Computers and the
Internet (NSF course for underrepresented junior high school students).
WORLDSTREET CORPORATION, Boston, MA
Performance Group
Performance Engineer - June 1998 - March 1999 (full), March 1999 – December 1999 (part)
Team-lead responsible for all aspects of performance for Worldstreet's suite of web-based financial
applications. One discovery increased the number of simultaneous users supported in a critical application
from 300 to 16000. Increased single user performance by 500% on average. Increased number of
concurrent users by a factor of over 100. One of the frequent compliments customers give about
Worldstreet software is "It is fast!"
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES, Kingston, NY
Geographic Information Systems Architecture and Design Group
Senior Associate Programmer - January 1988 - April 1994
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Technical lead for multi-threaded Geographic Information System (GIS) database API for ORACLE
DBMS on UNIX platforms. Directed 10 programmers and personally responsible for over 60,000 lines
of code. Member of 7 person Architecture and Design team that was responsible for the overall design
and implementation of a multi-threaded relational database GIS including client/server architecture,
object-oriented data model design, thread support, device support, and graphics management.
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Team lead for graphics performance enhancements to IBM’s GIS product, Graphics Program
Generator (GPG). This effort involved the creation of a graphics server in a host attached graphics
workstation. The server off-loaded host graphics processing functions and significantly reduced the
average cost per seat for a GPG customer. Responsible for a group of five programmers and 20,000
lines of code. Industry press at AM/FM International 1989 called GPG’s graphics performance “the
fastest in the industry.”
OPERATING SYSTEMS
Linux, Solaris, AIX, Windows/95/98/00/NT/XP, DOS, VM/CMS.
FRAMEWORKS
JFC, AWT, .NET, DB/2, Oracle, SQL-Server, Sybase.
LANGUAGES
Java, C#, VC++, C++, ASP, STL, C, Perl, Visual Basic, FORTRAN, SQL, PL/SQL, Open/GL, XML,
HTML, CGI-Bin, Pascal, REXX, Assembler (RS/6000, 80x86, 390, 6502), IDL, LISP, Scheme, Prolog.
EDUCATION
RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, Troy, New York
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Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science, 1994 - 2000
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General Electric Teaching Scholarship (1995,1996)
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President of Upsilon Pi Epsilon (National Computer Science Honor Society) - RPI Chapter
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Member of Graduate Admissions Committee, Committee for Electronic Citizenship, ACM
WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, Worcester, Massachusetts
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Master of Science in Computer Science, 1993
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Concentration in Databases
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Received full scholarship from IBM’s Graduate Education Program
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Member of Graduate Student Council
WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, Worcester, Massachusetts
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Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, 1988, with Distinction
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Minor in Electrical Engineering
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Senior Thesis was first undergraduate research ever sponsored by IBM at university
INVENTIONS
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Brightness Control for Raster and Vector Graphics, Patent No: 5,499,325
Pseudo-Randomization for Tree Sort Algorithms, IBM Invention KI893-0013
Object Oriented GIS Data Model, IBM Invention KI891-0178
Relationships: Improved Integrity for RDBMS, IBM Invention KI891-0180
Pointing Surface Window Map, IBM Invention KI889-0075
Cursor for Arbitrary Directional Pan, IBM Invention KI889-0039
PUBLICATIONS
Dugan, R.F., Dugan, R.M., Trabucco, C. (2011). Healthy Computer Use for Computer Science. Journal of
Computing Sciences in Colleges. 27, 1 (October 2011). Acceptance rate 60%.
Dugan, R.F. (submitted June 2010; revised June 2011). A Survey of Computer Science Capstone Course
Literature. Journal of Computer Science Education. 21, 3 (September 2011).
Dugan, R.F., Polanski,V.G., (2006). Writing for computer science: a taxonomy of writing tasks and general
advice. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges. 21, 6 (June 2006).
Dugan, R.F., Performance Lies My Professor Told Me: The Case for Teaching Software Performance
Engineering to Undergraduates, Fourth International ACM Workshop on Software and Performance (WOSP
2004), San Francisco, California, January 14-16, 2004.
Dugan, R.F., Glinert, E., CAMELOT: Technology Focused Testing of CSCW Applications, IEEE
Proceedings of the 36th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-36), January 6-9,
2003, Big Island, Hawaii.
Dugan, R.F., Glinert, E., Shokoufandeh, A., The Sisyhpus Database Retrieval Software Performance
Antipattern, Third International ACM Workshop on Software and Performance (WOSP 2002), Rome, Italy,
July 24-26, 2002.
Dugan, R.F., Glinert, E., Task Division in Collaborative Simulations, IEEE Proceedings of the 35th Hawaii
International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-35), January 7-10, 2002, Big Island, Hawaii.
Dugan, R.F., Glinert, E., Triggers: A Dynamic Approach to Testing Multi-User Software, Technical Report01-5, Computer Science Department, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, May 2001.
Dugan, R. F., A Testing Methodology and Architecture for Computer Supported Cooperative Work
Software, Doctoral Thesis, Computer Science Department, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, May
2000.
Dugan, R. F., Hachem, N., Gennert, M., Temporal Extent for Global Change Research, ACM Conference
on Advances in GIS, Washington, D.C., November 5, 1993.
Dugan, R. F., Temporal Abstraction in Global Change Research, Master’s Thesis, Worcester Polytechnic
Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1993.
Dugan, R. F., A Feasibility Study of Automated Input of Geographic Information, Senior Thesis, Worcester
Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1987.
Dugan, R. F., IBM Graphics Program Generator: Digitizing Support Manual, IBM Corporation, Armonk, New
York, 1986. Voted “manual most likely to take to a deserted island” by 1986 GPG User’s Group Meeting.
AWARDS
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Professional Development Grant (2011)
Davis Fellowship for Teaching/Learning (2006)
Glenn Mueller Entrepreneurship Award (2000)
General Electric Teaching Scholarship (1995-6)
IBM Graduate Education Scholarship (1993)
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IBM First Patent Application Award (1992)
IBM Invention Achievement Award (1990)
IBM Quality in Development Award (1988)
IBM Division Award (1989)