CSAN
THE COMPUTER SCIENCE ALUMNI NEWSLETTER
Volume 9, Issue 2
June 1999
Spotlight on Research
Faculty & Staff News
Lakhani Makes Impact in Data Compression
As always, the faculty and staff have been busy this year.
A few notes on what they’ve been up to.
Since 1995, Dr. Gopal Lakhani has been conducting
research in the field of image & text compression. JPEG
algorithms are used industry-wide not only for image
compression, but for video compression as well. Dr. Lakhani
has concentrated mainly on the topics of reduction of the
blocking artifact effects and improving the Huffman coding
of JPEG images.
The JPEG baseline compression algorithm divides the input
image in blocks of 8x8 pixels, applies the discrete-cosine
transformation (DCT) on each block, quantizes each DCT
coefficient of every block individually, and then encodes each
coefficient using predefined Huffman code tables. If this
algorithm is applied to achieve high compression, the
decompressed image is distorted; most prominent distortion is
due to the pseudo-edges formed at the block boundaries.
The implementation described in the JPEG standard
interpolates a region of 24x24 pixels using a second-degree
polynomial. Its objective is to smooth the image region with
the given 8x8 block in the center to reduce the effect of
pseudo-edges formed at the block boundaries. Because of the
large interpolation area and use of a low-degree polynomial,
the decompressed image is overly smooth. Dr. Lakhani
published an article in Optical Engineering (vol. 35,
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Spotlight on Research
Faculty & Staff Update
Alumni Update
CS Banquet
On The Run
Dr. Nancy Van Cleave will present a paper entitled
“Components of a Successful American Indian Computer
Science Program” at the 1999 Frontiers in Education
Conference in Puerto Rico this November. Her paper
was co-authored with Glenn Langhorst of the Fond du
Lac Tribal & Community College in Minnesota.
Dr. Susan Mengel continues her work with the US Army
Training & Doctrine Command Analysis Center (TRAC)
on the new DoD simulation initiative which is to combine
separate simulation efforts into one through high level
architecture and OneSAF (Semi-Automated Force). Her
work is focused on reverse engineering CASTFOREM
(the premiere analytical combat simulation in use for the
past 15 years) into an object model, then proceeding to
continue development of the model into one flexible
enough to take advantage of technology advances in the
future.
Dr. Daniel Cooke was one of three CS professionals who
interviewed Ken Thompson for IEEE Computer in the
May issue. Ken Thompson was the creator of the Unix
operating system among other things.
Dr. Bharti Temkin has presented several papers this
year, including two at the Beltwide Cotton Conference
last January, and two at the Medicine Meets Virtual
Reality: 7 meeting that same month. She will be
presenting another three papers at the Computer Based
Medical Systems conference this June.
Goings
On a sad note, we have some departing faculty this year.
Dr. John Antonio has accepted a position as head of the
Computer Science Department at OSU, and leaves us this
summer. Also leaving this summer is Dr. Nancy Van
Cleave, who will be moving to Illinois. Dr. Donald
Gustafson has decided to retire this fall, after 28 years at
Texas Tech.
Geanna Benson, who has been our Secretary III this
year, resigned in May to stay home with her children.
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CSAN 1
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December 1996, “Improved Image Reproduction from DC
Components”) where the interpolation region is reduced,
but a second-degree polynomial is used for interpolation.
In an article published in IEEE Trans. Circuits and
Systems for Video Tech., (Vol. 7, December 1997,
“Improved Equations for JPEG’s Blocking Artifacts
Reduction Approach”), the 16x16 pixel area is considered
and a cubic polynomial is used, which reduces over
smoothing greatly. In an article being revised for an
upcoming issue of Optical Engineering, he combines this
technique with another technique to obtain a hybrid
implementation.
Dr. Lakhani, along with Norman Zhong, developed an
entirely new derivation to obtain exact, global minimum of
mean-squared-difference of slopes (MSDS) (IEEE Trans.
Circuits & Systems for Video Tech., Vol. 9, “Derivation of
Prediction Equations for Blocking Effect Reduction,”
April 1999). The computational complexity of their
derivation is much less and it can be implemented easily as
part of the JPEG decoder. Visual effect of DCT-based
compression has long been studied. A number of humanvision based models exists, but none of them is suitable for
measuring the performance of blocking effect reduction
algorithms. Dr. Lakhani and Norman Zhong took a
practical approach and defined four metrics for measuring
the effect of blocking artifacts. They used them to
compare their DCT restoration methods with other
blocking effect reduction algorithms. Their results were
published in the Proceedings of the IEEE CBMS ’98 last
June.
Dr. Lakhani and his students also studied adaptation of
the Huffman algorithm for images compressed by the
JPEG baseline algorithm. They determined a new kind of
redundancy in the DC coefficients, and published their
results in IEEE Trans. Circuits & Systems for Video Tech.
(vol. 5, “Improved Huffman Code Tables for JPEG’s
Encoder,” December 1995). In the January 1996 issue of
Optical Engineering, they applied the same observation for
images compressed for progressive-mode transmission
(“Improvements to Progressive Mode Image Encoders”).
More recently, he studied the effect of a different kind of
statistical redundancy in DCT blocks, which is caused due
to the transformation. It is known that the AC coefficients
are usually larger and their run-length is zero in the
beginning and it is opposite towards the end of the block
when traversed in the zigzag order. He and his students
determined how the JPEG Huffman encoder and decoder
could adapt to this characteristic by dividing image blocks
in two or more parts. Those results have been submitted to
IEEE Trans. Circuits & Systems for Video Tech. and IEEE
Trans. On Image Processing.
Take the online Alumni Survey at
http://www.cs.ttu.edu/alumni/survey/
Here’s your chance to let us know
what was best and worst about your
time in CS at TTU.
Comings
This fall we have 3 new faculty joining us. Larry Pyeatt
received his M.S. here in 1991, and received his PhD from
Colorado State University after several years working in
industry. Eric Sinzinger comes to us from the University of
South Carolina. And Richard Watson is from the University
of Texas at El Paso.
Promotions
Dr. Donald Bagert was promoted to full Professor in April.
His promotion will be effective this fall. And Noe LopezBenitez was promoted to Associate Professor as well.
Dr. William Marcy was named Dean of Engineering in
April, after a year-long national search. Way to go, Dr.
Marcy!
Keri Gleason has been promoted from part-time Secretary II
to Secretary III. She is taking over the position Geanna
vacated.
Miscellaneous Happenings!
Dr. Marcy joined the rush to be liscensed as a professional
software engineer by the Texas State Board of Professional
Engineers this spring.
Dr. Mengel will be the Conference Chair for the 13th
Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training.
Dr. Bagert is on the Steering Committee of this conference
as well.
In some Ex-Staff news, Zorita Hile, former Secretary II, has
recently opened her own business sending greeting cards for
businesses, It’s In The Mail, and is doing very well!
CSAA News
Greetings and Salutations!
Well, Spring is rolling into Summer and that means the
end of school for the Spring semester. Obviously, with the
end of the semester comes the CS banquet and the CSAA
awards. This year we were fortunate in a number of ways.
Not only did we have a resounding success in increased
voting via our web site but we also had several CS Alumni
in attendance this year for the banquet including Barry
Salmon, Josh Vorheis, and, two staff Alumni, Jan
Hudson and Zorita Hile.
But enough on the banquet, the important part here is
who won CS Alumni Awards. This year Chris Smith of
Nortel Dallas was the recipient of the CS Alumni of Year
while Flo and Carl Myers were the recipients of the
Friends of CS. In both categories, the high caliber of
nominees makes these recipients double deserving of our
congratulations. SALUTE!
Moving right along (because by this point Mysti is
saying we're going to cut this and this and this to make it
fit...), PLEASE join us for the CS Homecoming festivities
this year. Homecoming will be October 16, 1999 and we
are going to try to put together some new stuff for the last
homecoming of the 90's. More details will be forthcoming
as they get fleshed out, but make your plans now to show
up.
Out Of Newsletter Space. Abort. TomP. ™
CSAN 2
13th Annual CS Banquet
This year’s CS Banquet was once again held at the
McInturff Conference Center on April 23, 1999. We were
lucky enough to see some familiar faces at the banquet this
year, including a couple of former staff members, as well
as several alumni.
After enjoying the musical entertainment from the
function being held next door to our banquet, our very own
Ashley Hunt (President of ACM) and Brian Hansen
(ACM Social Chair) guided us through the scholarship
announcements and introduced the ACM officers for the
1999-2000 academic year. The new President of ACM
will be Robert (Bob) Flanagan, with Kathy Petmecky as
Vice President, Beth Andersen as Secretary, Stacy
Swinburn as Treasurer, and Rebecca Howard as the new
Social Chair. Ashley also announce that Dr. Noe LopezBenitez has stepped down as ACM advisor, and yours
truly, Mysti Digby has been coerced…ummm….
convinced…umm….is pleased to be the new ACM
Advisor.
To close our out evening, BBBS Prez Mike Shelton,
along with a few other student “contestants,” entertained
us with their own version of “Jeopardy.” All in all,
another fun even put together by ACM, BBBS and UPE.
This year’s scholarship recipients are: Rebecca Howard
(ACM), Thomas Boyd (Alumni), Stephen Frisbie
(Myers), Erhan Onal (Outreach & SPACE), Mary
Donahue and Chad Kious (Inet Freshman Scholarship).
Congrats to all our scholars!
Thank You!
We want to thank all those who made donations to the
CS Department this year! Your support continues to
make a real impact!
Brian Ashcraft
Donald Bagert
Steven Bell
Pierce Brockman
Rick Butler
Dennis Carroll
Bobby Cude
Randy Friemel
Bryan Gantz
Kevin Gibson
Billy & Joy Huber
Koree Mires
Gary Rodgers
John Sidney
James Spires
Christopher Smith
Troy Smith
Gagan Toor
Chase Manhatton
Inet
Phillips Petroleum
Raytheon
SBC Foundation
Alumni Update Charlie Aschenbeck (BSCS’94) and
his wife Bridgette are expecting their
first child.
He is working for
Pennzoil in Houston.
Dottie Bargas (BSCS’96) is
working for Alcatel, and was
transferred to Paris, France this June.
Dottie will be in France for 2 years.
John Conner (BSCS’97) is working
as a Software Engineer for Intel in
Chandler, AZ.
Randy Friemel (MSCS’91) and his
wife Susie welcomed their third
child, Emma Kate, on 8/10/98,
bringing the grand (and final) total to
2 boys and 1 girl.
Moshe Gotesman (MSCS’94PhD’96)
has gone to work for Sun
Microsystems in Cupertino, CA in
the Consumer Embedded Division,
working with the group that puts
Java
into
smart
cards
(http://java.sun.com/products/javacar
d/index.html).
Michael Hammel (BSCS’87) is
taking a half year off to work on
some writing projects. His book,
The Artists’ Guide to the Gimp is
doing well, and he is working on a
2nd book on the same subject.
Virginia Hill Martz (BSCS’87)
continues with her company, Vista
Control Systems.
She recently
developed a portable library of
routines so their GUIs can run
against Xwindows or Windows NT.
Micky Ray (BSCS’96) just accepted
a position with ObjectSpace in
Dallas working on their C++ Toolkit
products. He and his wife are also
looking for a house in the Dallas
area.
Albert Sterling (BSCS’96) has been
working for Nortel Wireless in
Dallas.
Mark Teal (MSCS’95) is working
for GHG as a Lead Software
Developer in Houston.
GHG
contracts with NASA, and Mark has
an onsite office at Johnson Space
Center. He most recently has been
working on a web based database for
the Space Station, which will track
every part, tool and test tube.
Josh Vorheis (BSCS’93) and his
wife Susan welcomed their daughter
Kenner Elena on 5/29/98. Josh is
working for Nortel in the Dallas area.
David Whalley (BSCS’81) is
working as an Associate Professor in
Computer Science at Florida State
University.
If you have any alumni news, email
me at mdigby@coe.ttu.edu. Also, if
you’d like to have your ICQ number
or Instant Messenger ID included on
the Alumni Directory webpage, let
me know and we’ll add it. The
Alumni Director should be up by the
end of this summer.
CSAN 3
Missing Persons
They are still lost, and we’re still hoping that if you know where to find them,
you’ll clue us in!
Mikyeong Ahn
Brett Kugler
Rajan Alex
Shaju Mathew
Don Symes
Devander Muniswamy
Chih-Wei Tseng
Balagopalan Ambady
Michael Bullington
Xiao-Hui Meng
Bill Wats
Joel Wilson
Ravi Chakravarthi
Satish Narayanamurthy
Ken Cooper
Kalar Rajendiran
Rama Yanegalla
Ben Curfman
Larry Reich
Jagat Shah
Brian Drozd
Rodrigo Gonzalez
Shan-Wen Sheu
CSAN
Is the biannual Alumni
Newsletter of the
Computer Science Department,
Texas Tech University.
Please direct comments
about this issue to:
Mysti Digby
Computer Science
Department
M.S. 43104,
Lubbock, Texas 79409
Mdigby@coe.ttu.edu
(806) 742-3527
CS WWW site:
http://www.cs.ttu.edu
http://www.cs.ttu.edu/alumni
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