Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science
Volume 9, Number 1
Fall, 2002
Letter from the Chair ........................................................ 1
Research & Publications................................................... 1
Activities and Awards....................................................... 2
Sabbatical ......................................................................... 2
Pi Mu Epsilon ................................................................... 2
Colloquia .......................................................................... 2
Undergraduate Report ...................................................... 2
Graduate Report ............................................................... 2
Graduations ...................................................................... 3
New Faculty Members ...................................................... 3
Letters from Alumni ......................................................... 3
Alumni Update ................................................................. 6
Staff Update ...................................................................... 6
Letter from the Chair:
As the new Chair of our
department, I'd like to
introduce myself. I'm Dr.
Peter Jones and no doubt
many of you have been in
one of my classes during
your studies here, especially
since I've taught a number of
large calculus classes in
recent years. If you
remember me, email me! I attended a conference of mathematics
department chairs in Washington, D.C., last weekend. Even
there, a former student came up to me with “Hi Dr. Jones, I was
in your Calculus II class a few years ago!” The photo was taken
just before I took over as chair in August - let me know if you
recognize the location. OK, the sign is a hint, I know.
Our department is in a time of change, and our alumni can play
a part. Our main focus this year is on developing a new strategic
plan and central to that plan is a new undergraduate computer
science program, whose development is being spearheaded by Dr.
Glenn Brookshear. Based on the recommendations of the latest
ACM/IEEE report (www.acm.org/sigcse/cc2001/cc2001.pdf), it
continues the emphasis on broad-based knowledge as a foundation
to life-long learning yet prepares graduates for entry into a newly
competitive job market. One new feature is an Emerging
Technologies senior seminar, in which faculty members will
present some of the latest developments in computer science.
Alumni are invited to contribute real-time developments to the
seminar - especially in person. And keep in mind the possibility of
giving our students real life experience as an intern or a co-op in
your workplace.
Central to the development not only of our undergraduate
program but of the graduate specialization in computer science and
the Master of Science in Computing is the hiring of a cadre of top
quality computer science faculty. We began that process last year
with Dr. Craig Struble and with Dr. Jim Factor. (You can find out
more about them and our latest hire, Dr. Kim Factor, inside the
newsletter.) As I write, we are about to interview candidates for
another computer science position and a biostatistics position.
In the office, we are very pleased to welcome our former
graduate student Lingtao Zeng as our Unix systems administrator.
At the same time, Jaime Piekarski’s and Oanh Pham’s positions
have been upgraded to reflect their increased responsibilities in the
office.
Peter Jones, Acting Chairman
Newsletter Editor: ........................................................................ Glenn Brookshear
Telephone: ....................................................................................... (414) 288-7573
E-mail address: ............................................................. newslet@mscs.mu.edu
Newsletter is a publication written by students and MSCS
faculty for alumni of the Department of Mathematics,
Statistics, and Computer Science, Marquette University.
Research & Publications
Bansal
Published: Simultaneous selection and estimation in general
linear model, J. Stat. Plan. Inf., Vol. 104, 377-390, 2002. (With
K. Miescke.)
The theory of ratios of normal variables and its application to
biomedical data, Journal of Applied Statistics Science, Vols. 1
and 2, 83-100, 2002. (With G.G. Hamedani, C.A. Dawson, K.L.
Karau, G.S. Krenz.)
Aphasia type and aging in hindi speaking stroke patients,
Brain and Language, Vol. 83, 353-361, 2002. (With S.C.
Bhatnagar, A. Pauranik, S.K. Jain, D.C. Jain, M. Bihari, M.C.
Meheshwari, M.V. Padma, and M. Gupta.)
Addressing health disparities in middle school student’s
nutrition and exercise, J. Community Health Nursing, Vol. 20,
Number 1, 1-14, 2003. (With M. Frenn, S. Malin, M. Delgado,
Y. Green, M. Havice, M. Ho and H. Schweizer)
Brookshear
Published: Computer Science: An Overview, 7th edition.
This text is now available in multiple languages including
Russian and Chinese.
Krenz
Published: L-arginine uptake and metabolism following in
vivo silica exposure in rat lungs, Am. J. Resp. Cell Mol. Bio.,
26(3):348-355, 2002. (With L.D. Nelin, L.G. Chicoine, J.F.
Morrisey, C.A. Dawson, and R.M. Schapira.)
Vessel distensibility and flow distribution in vascular trees, J.
Math. Biol. Apr; 44(4):360-374, 2002. (With C.A. Dawson.)
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The theory of ratios of normal variables and its application to
biomedical data, J. of Statistical Theory and Applications, 1:83100, 2002. (With G. G. Hamedani, Naveen Bansal, Christopher
A. Dawson, Kelly L. Karau.)
Published abstract: Flow invariance in arterial trees with
distensible vessels, FASEB Journal 16, A70, 2002. (With C.A.
Dawson.)
Merrill
Published: Etiology and Pathogenesis of AIDS, AIDS and
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (with R.S. RootBernstein). L.J. Standish, C. Calabrese, and M.L. Galantino
(eds.), Churchill-Livingstone, 2002, 31-50.
Introductory biological sequence analysis through
spreadsheets Proc. of 13th ICTCM, Atla nta, GA, AddisonWesley (2002), 246-249. (With S.E. Merrill.) Powerpoint slides.
Sequence variation in the gene encoding the non-structural 3
protein of hepatitis C virus: Evidence for immune selection, J.
Mol. Evol. 54, (2002), 465-473. (With H. Wang, T. Bian and
D.D. Eckels.)
Detecting autocatalytic dynamics in data modeled by a
compartmental model, Math. Biosci., 180 (2002), 255-262.
(With B.M. Murphy),
Pi Mu Epsilon
by Rebecca Burton
Pi Mu Epsilon Officers:
Rebecca Burton - President
Ben Imhoff – Secretary
Nicole Paradisco – Vice President
Audia Dobson - Treasurer
Dr. Slattery, Faculty advisor
We planned an induction ceremony for our new initiates in
November. There we discussed and got ideas for next semester
in an attempt to become a more active organization.
Activities & Awards
Bankston
Presented: Modeling non-intersective adjectives using
variable-binding operator logics, Department of Mathematics,
Statistics and Computer Science’s Logic Seminar, Marquette
University, September 27, 2002.
Formal aspects of adjectives in natural language,
Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science,
Marquette University, October 10, 2002.
Helping edit the Topology Proceedings problem section, to
be published in the on-line Topology Atlas.
Bansal
Presented an invited paper: Simultaneous Selection and
Estimation of the Best Treatment with Respect to a Control in
General Linear Models, DeKalb, IL, May 2002.
Presented: Selection of the Best Treatment Under the
Balanced and Unbalanced Design, Department of Mathematics,
Statistics and Computer Science, Marquette University,
November 2002.
Jones
Presented: The lattice of convex inverse subsemigroups of an
inverse semigroup at the International Conference on Universal
Algebra, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, May 2001.
Inverse semigroups determined by their lattices of convex
inverse subsemigroups at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb,
IL, July 2001.
Krenz
Presented: Flow invariance in arterial trees with distensible
vessels at Experimental Biology 2002, New Orleans, LA, April
2002.
Lilly Foundation Conference: Theological Explorations of
Vocation participant, Marquette Manresa Project representative,
Indianapolis, IN, October 1-3, 2002.
Consultant for the National Institutes of Health, Special Study
Section 9, Washington, D.C., October 24-25, 2002.
Pi Mu Epsilon Initiation Day
Colloquia
by Paul Bankston
The Colloquium budget has been expanded over what it has
been in recent years, resulting in a renewed ability to bring in
speakers from farther away. We also hope to be able to keep
speakers here a few days longer, to encourage research
interactions with our own faculty.
Undergraduate Report
by Karl Byleen
Alex Buob, Paul Hoffman, and Niraj Swami represented
Marquette in the 2002 William Lowell Putnam Mathematical
Competition on Saturday, December 7. The six hour Putnam
exam, given at colleges and universities throughout the United
States and Canada, is a challenging test of originality and
technical competence. Sample question from the 2002 exam:
Given any five points on a sphere, show that some four of them
must lie on a closed hemisphere.
Undergraduates Kendra Bower, Ryan Brummond, Sarah
Richardson, and Michael Stilp were panelists at the Department's
Discovery Days session for prospective students and their
parents on Sunday, November 17,2002. They answered
questions about their majors (secondary teaching, computational
mathematics, mathematics/computer science, and
mathematics/elementary education, respectively) and shared
information about courses, internships, advising, and other
aspects of student life.
Graduate Program News
by Gary Krenz
In a flurry of curriculum activity, the department regularized
some of its Topics in Computer Science courses. The courses
now have their own designation as well as an explicit course
description. These courses include:
MSCS 222-223 - Applied Discrete Mathematics 1 & 2. This
sequence examines applied combinatorics and computational graph
theory. The sequence includes topics of interest to a wide audience,
such as generating functions, recurrence relations, search and sorting
trees, equivalence relationships and complexity.
Sabbatical
Dr. Bankston is on Spring 2003 sabbatical leave.
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MSCS 226-227 - Paradigms for Software Development 1 & 2. This
sequence examines the imperative, declarative, object-oriented and
functional programming approaches to software design and
development. This sequence teaches the student to use proper
software engineering principles when designing in those paradigms.
The above sequences have superceded earlier graduate
sequences offered by the department: MSCS 204-205 Theory of
Computation 1 & 2 and MSCS 206-207 Concepts of Computer
Science 1 & 2.
Two additional “Topics” courses will be offered on a regular
basis under their own designation. These include:
MSCS 228 - Data Mining. Data Mining investigates techniques for
extracting “interesting” relationships and knowledge hidden in data.
Techniques, such as decision trees, association rules, clustering, neural
networks, Bayesian classifiers, feature selection, pattern assessment,
inductive logic programming, outlier analysis, data imputation, and data
integration are examined.
MSCS 239 - Knowledge Representation focuses on using special
grammars and their associated language for communicating business
information universally amongst very diverse systems. The course
attention is not on the formalities of the grammars, but on the ways one
can take advantage of knowing that documents are valid with respect to
those grammars. The technology primarily considered is XML, and
many current standards from the XML community are considered and
used.
If you know of potential graduate students (computer science,
math, math with an emphasis in statistics, or mathematics
education) please have them request your department's new
graduate program brochure from the MU Graduate School, or
have them contact us directly!
including the development and coordination of join ventures with
industry.
We are pleased to welcome these new members to our
department and invite you to stop and meet them the next time
you are in Milwaukee.
Drs. Craig Struble, Kim Factor and Jim Factor
Letters from Alumni
We love to hear from you so please send
a letter to any department member or via
email to newslet@mscs.mu.edu.
Then, you will get to read about yourself as
well as your friends in the next newsletter.
Graduations, August 2002
John Carnell (john_carnell@yahoo.com) to Dr.Corliss
☺
B.S. in Computer Science
Victor Del Real, Jr.
Carlos Delgado
Dominic Sardina
Life sure is a strange journey
. I was dropping you a line
and letting you know that I am still alive. I have the privilege
and the responsibility of being a new father. My son Christopher
was born two months ago and he has turned my world upsidedown. (In a good way). I am always amazed at the sound of him
Master Science in Computing
Krishnan Deekshatha
Mayank Singh
Wenhua Wu
☺
cooing can just make my day.
I am working for a small consulting company here in town
called the Centare Group. We specialize mainly in J2EE and
Open-Source application development.
I have been busy over the last 3 years. I have been a primary
author and contributing author on 4 books. My latest book has
just been released and is called “J2EE Design Patterns Applied”
(Wrox Press). I contributed the chapter on using J2EE design
patterns to build and wrapper a data persistence tier.
I am currently in the proposal and outlining stage for a new
book that will explore using open-source Java technology to
build applications.
I am starting my second semester of teaching at the
Waukesha County Technical College. I am teaching a class on
Distributed Java Programming. Last year I taught a class on
Introduction to Java programming. Being on the other side of
the classroom has given me a deep appreciation for what your
New Faculty Members
Over the last two years, the MSCS department has been
joined by three new tenure-track faculty members. They are
(pictured from left to right) Drs. Craig Struble, Kim Factor, and
Jim Factor. Dr. Struble came to us from Virginia Tech where he
earned a Ph.D. in computational algebra. He is taking an active
roll in our new bioinformatics program that our department
offers jointly with the Medical College of Wisconsin. Being
from Virginia Tech, Dr. Struble is trying to learn to think
“basketball” rather than “football.”
Dr. K. Factor joined our department from Lindenwood
University where she was head of the mathematics department.
Her research area is applied graph theory--an area that blends
well with the interests of many already in our department.
Dr. J. Factor also joined us from Lindenwood University.
(The facts that Jim and Kim have the same last name and both
came to us from Lindenwood University are probably enough for
you to realize they are husband and wife.) Dr. J. Factor's
research area is solid modeling. He was quite active at
Lindenwood in computer science curriculum development
☺
guys had to put up with when I was in school at Marquette.
Anyways. I am in the process of promoting my new book. If
you are ever interested in having me come to Marquette and talk on
the subject of J2EE Design Patterns I would love to do so.
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BTW: You know Dr. Corliss, I have to tell you that you told me
something that has helped my career immensely. You once took
me aside and told me to always be a good human being. I have
always kept that to heart and have always worked at making sure
that I work on establishing relationships with everyone I work
with. All of my technical skills have never gotten me as far as my
interpersonal skills have. If I can give one piece of advice to
computer science students graduating is to re-iterate what you
told me.
It always strikes me the number of smart and talented people
we have in the CS field who have no social skills. They look
down on others and yet they are always frustrated as to why they
can not implement or execute their ideas. Interpersonal and
communication skills are often the critical piece that they lack. I
just want to say thanks.
Victor Dorsey to Dr. Corliss
I was perusing Marquette's website and my old department
when I saw your name. I thought I would take the opportunity to
write you.
I studied under you during my undergraduate years at
Marquette. I obtained my degree in Computational Math in
May, 1983. At the graduation ceremony, you gave me the
congratulatory handshake and told me that I “earned it”. I felt
honored that you expressed this because I respected (and still
respect) your intellect and judgment. I did indeed feel that I
earned a very valuable degree. You urged me to keep in touch.
This I also did not forget.
My joy at completing my B.S. degree was tempered by my
feeling that I had let myself down by failing to achieve a level of
quality in my work that was more reflective of my intellect and
potential. This was important to me, yet throughout my years at
Marquette I failed miserably in time-management and
prioritizing. I attribute it to immaturity and lack of focus. I felt
though that I'd never be content until I once again proved to
myself that I could excel in the academic world. My immediate
concern at the time though was finding a job.
My first job was working as a stockperson at Pill&Puff drug
store on Wisconsin avenue, then unloading trucks at UPS in
Brookfield in subzero temperatures from 11p-1am. The UPS job
was especially hard and the regimental atmosphere was sobering.
One snowy night after my ride didn't show, I caught the bus,
only to discover that the bus route that night stopped short of my
destination. I got off and began running in a futile attempt to be
on time. I wore military steel-toed combat boots. My dad had
commented on many occasions that I didn't look myself as I
returned from the UPS job. On this night though, while running
a mile in the snow, it dawned on me that I would have to get
busy finding a job in my field. I quit the UPS job that night and
began serious preparation for a software or computer job. It was
February, 1984.
I began developing a portfolio that I would use as an example
of my firm understanding of the process of software
development. My target was Digital Equipment Corporation.
The portfolio consisted of analysis, design, and skeleton code to
automate a bowling alley. I chose this application because this
was a class project in Zeigler's Pascal class and I had turned in a
shameful and incomplete project. I wanted to complete that
project to show myself that I could do it. It was written in VAX
Macro. VAX Macro was the language introduced to me in
Brookshear's Hardware Systems class. This language was the
most difficult for me to grasp during class so that's why I chose it
here. I reasoned that the effort of reading and developing would
clarify and strengthen my understanding of computers and
software. This would better prepare me for interviews. It was
August, 1984 and I had worked on this program continuously. It
wasn't finished but I had done enough work on it for it to be
effective as an interviewing tool.
In September I got two calls. One from Northrop
Corporation in Ventura, CA and another from HRB-Singer in
State College, PA. Both were Defense contractors. I was
interviewed by both and received offers. I had presented my
portfolio during both interviews. I accepted the position with
HRB-Singer and began working as a software engineer in
November, 1984. This was my first time away from home.
I spent two years at HRB in PA before transferring to their
Maryland facility to work on-site at the NSA. The systems that I
built software for were telemetry and signal-processing systems.
Most were proprietary applications and quite complex. The
primary language of these systems was Fortran. I put in long
hours (70+ weeks) to meet many of the deadlines of our
customers. I remained at HRB until Jan, '88.
I accepted a position with GTE as a software engineer
working in Rockville, MD. It was a chance to work on a big
program that dealt with voice-processing. The software
methodology was different, utilizing the OO methods of Grady
Booch in the analysis and design stages. The language was
ADA. The platform was VAX workstations. It was a very
formal development process, with extensive documentation,
customer review presentations, and peer reviews. I enjoyed it
but not the heavy traffic and long, stressful commute. I got
married in June, '89 and transferred to GTE in Mountain View,
CA.
At GTE I developed much of the same type of software.
VAX, Unix, ADA, C, C++, GUI, OO methodology, formal
development process. The applications were similar also: signal
processing and collection, telemetry. I got promoted again and
became a group leader residing over one of the major subsystems
on one project. In ’93, my title was Senior Software Engineer. I
did however begin feeling as though the field was not providing
me with enough stimulation. I had been interested in the applied
math portion of my major at Marquette. The math modeling
class that you taught was the most interesting class of my major.
Yet, I was falling further and further away from this area. It is
now December, 1995. I am beginning to investigate ways that I
can reacquaint myself with mathematics and ultimately math
modeling. I quit GTE and accepted a position with Applied
Signal Technology (AST).
AST in Sunnyvale, CA almost killed me! It was the second
worst job of my life behind UPS. I worked 70-80 hour weeks! I
got no recognition for the work that I did. I had two kids then
and they never knew when I was coming home. Days and nights
ran together as did weekends and weekdays. Turnover was
extremely high. Every week, at least 10-12 employees turned in
their resignations to pursue startup opportunities. AST would
hire at least 12 per week so the employee count always stayed
around 600. From the outside looking in, it appeared that AST
was growing. It was a nightmare! The applications they
specialized in were great opportunities for me however. They
had their hands in just about every Telecom technology:
wireless, cellular, ATM, DSP, data security, voice. They were a
5
Defense contractor making a transition into the commercial
arena. They were also a hardware-oriented company, with utter
disdain for software and effective software development
methodology. I was hired to help them develop software using
the methodology that I had become accustomed to at GTE. In
exchange for this, they promised to allow me to gain expertise in
the software that drove their telecom applications. This did not
happen. I chose to work in the DSP algorithm department. It was
sheer disaster for me to make a long story short. I left there in
April, 1998, lasting 6 months longer than the average new
employee did at that time. I accepted a position with TRW in
Sunnyvale.
TRW was a slower-paced, more software friendly
organization. They built signal collection Defense systems. They
had one huge program that was over 20 years old and I parked
myself there while we had a third (and final) child. I helped the
program through their integration and testing efforts before
becoming a software lead on a small program. Turnover was
high because no new contracts were coming in and people were
jumping ship to join the startup bandwagon. I had no such
intentions. Most startups didn't appear to me to be on solid
ground. Every person that I knew who was working for a startup
was either gaining weight and jeopardizing their health waiting
for lightning to strike or they were spending insufficient time
with their families. There were many divorces. Companies
would tell their overworked employees that they were going to
go public in six months and the employees would sacrifice
everything to do their part to make this happen. 6 months later,
there would be an announcement that the public offering was
being delayed another 6 months or so, and the employees would
continue to work ungodly work schedules. I didn't like this cycle
so I refrained from working for a startup. I had my heart on
getting back in school.
I was laid off from TRW in July, 2001, in the midst of the dot
com bust period. There was no new work coming in and the
company was preparing to move to Sacramento. I chose not to
go and was placed on the layoff list. I was preparing to take a 6month sabbatical anyway to investigate my school options, so the
layoff gave me the opportunity to explore my options. After a
few months, I had decided that I would pursue a Masters, then a
Doctorate in Scientific Computing and Computational
Mathematics. I thought about my undergraduate years and how
intrigued I was with your math modeling class. I had been
exposed to the use of mathematics in solving problems related to
the identification and detection of digital signals and I felt I
could excel in this area if I took the time to go back to school. I
had become familiar with SIAM (from your comments in the
department newsletters) and I was fascinated with the level of
mathematics by people specializing in this field. I felt that a
concentration of this sort would be worthy of my total
dedication, but the ultimate question of whether or not this field
was suitable for me at this point in my life led me to different
conclusions. I have decided instead to attend law school and
pursue a legal career.
So I am now preparing for the LSAT with intentions of
starting law school in Fall, 2003. My extensive technical
background makes me a great candidate for specializations in IP,
Internet, Technology, and/or Computer Law. I will always be
involved with software, mathematics, and technology, just from a
standpoint more appropriate for my strengths.
Well, that's all. Sorry to make this so long, but I've been
putting off writing you for years. I hope all is well. Keep up the
good work and keep in touch.
Douglas J. Fowler, Captain, USAF
(douglas.fowler@keflavik.af.mil) to Dr. Corliss
The Air Force now has me managing the computer network
and post office at a Naval Air Station in Iceland! I never thought
I'd stay in the USAF for more than 4 years, or take a job in
Iceland to do so, but I really am loving it. I don't want to sound
like a recruiting poster, but I get to be technically competent, get
30 days of vacation a year, travel the world, manage people with
20 more years of experience than me, earn a decent salary (about
55K for my rank), and have job security. The USAF will never
have an IPO, but I'm very happy.
Having day to day control over an entire network is a great
opportunity. I no longer get to actually do server maintenance,
etc, but I do get to make high level decisions affecting the health,
size, and security of the network. The Air Force is migrating to
centralized network management in an effort to do more with
fewer trained people (As an example, all of the email servers for
13 bases currently reside at 1 base in St Louis. It stresses the
infrastructure, but you need fewer server administrators). The
post office I'm totally new at, but anything can be broken down
into processes and managed.
Iceland itself is also a great opportunity. There's no Eskimos,
polar bears, or tundra here. The country is very green and
beautiful and has lots of sightseeing to offer (glaciers, waterfalls,
steam vents, geysers, fjords). Everyone speaks English, which is
a lot more than I can say about being stationed in San Antonio.
We also have the midnight sun here during the summer, but get
20 hours of dark a day during the winter.
Meghan Sheehan (sheehan@stats.com) to the Department
Hey there.
I've been out of Marquette for 3 1/2 years now and it just hit
me that I've been a ghost of an alum and I apologize for that
immensely. All of you taught and/or counseled me at some point
in my MU stint and no doubt set me on the fantastic path that I
am current living. I was that female jock in your classes that
probably showed up late often with wet hair coming straight
from a quick shower after basketball practice, or always asking
to take my exams early/late since I always seemed to be out of
town with the team...I still don't know how I did it.
Well, I wanted to share with you all what I've been doing the
past few years. I was one of the lucky seniors that had secured a
job by November while everyone else was still job hunting. The
original job I got with STATS, Inc. was due to the project I did
in Dr. Merrill's Computational Modeling class - I modeled
something about Mark McGwire hitting home runs. That led me
into the sports statistical world and I couldn't be happier.
STATS, Inc. is located in Chicago. I lived there for almost
one year and had the simple job title of “Programmer.” I worked
on massive C, C++ and Java programs that accessed data in our
live environment and spit it out into HTML or XML format to
several internet clients who wanted live scoreboards, boxscores,
fantasy games, etc. on their sites. I did not particularly enjoy debugging 75,000 line programs, but I seemed to get the hang of it
and learned a heck of a lot.
In May of 2000, STATS, Inc. was bought by Rupert Murdoch
and his cronies, News Corp, which also owns FOX, 20th Century
FOX and FOX Sports. Now that we had inherited a relationship
6
up.” At this point, I have been involved with remote sensing
retrievals of the Martian atmosphere for wavelengths from the
ultraviolet through mid-infrared (~50 micrometers). Most of my
application of mathematics remains in the realm of numerical
analysis. Although the current state of radiative transfer would
involve a lot more mathematics, I am a “modeller” rather than
someone trying to develop clever, mathematically sophisticated
techniques. In fact, the case could be made that such an
approach is not worth the effort in the face of current
computational capabilities and the use of monte carlo techniques.
Domestically, things are also going well. Of course, given
the uniqueness of my “remote employee” position (Space
Science Institute is in Boulder...so it is a bit of an heinous
commute from Augusta) and the demands of children, I have
come up with an important theorem (or perhaps it is a law...since
there is a veritable “boatload” of supporting documentation):
“The flexible spouse gets flexed.” Being said spouse, I do
wonder why June Cleaver was always smiling so much...
Hope you are doing well and thank you keeping us on your
Christmas card distribution. We enjoy hearing the news.
with FOX Sports they wanted us to create a whole research
department physically in their studios in Los Angeles. I ended
up being one of two Chicago employees asked to come out here
to LA to start up the new research department. We've been here
for over 2 years and it's been a helluva ride - sports are played
every day of the year, and in this informational age, all the quirky
(and simple) statistics that tell the story of the games are wanted
more and more. Our job is basically to make every sports
broadcast on FOX/Fox Sports Net better. When the announcers
sound really smart, it's people like us who pat ourselves on the
back. We write up game notes, e-mail daily reports, create
graphics downloads, answer any specific stat requests...basically
the background support that all TV production needs, yet hardly
gets noticed by the viewers.
Right now we're working for the World Series and it's great –
very challenging, requires quick thinking, typing, de-bugging and
confidence. For example, when the Angels and Giants started
off Game 1 with the first 3 hits all being home runs, I wrote a
quick program to see if that had ever happened before in the
World Series (it never had before), got my answer and sent the
info via Instant Messenger to the production truck at the game,
who then related the info up to the talent booth. Then I heard
Play by Play announcer Joe Buck say live on TV exactly what I
had just come up with ...all this took place within 5 minutes.
When that happens, it's instant reward...feels great to contribute
to a nationally televised game so directly.
We program in an old legacy database language called
System 1032 (S1032). Like any language, it was tricky at first,
but once the syntax is understood (variables, for-loops, etc), it all
comes down to knowing which datasets/directories the data lives
in. We have been slowly converting to Oracle, but it's a massive
project. We cover all sports, not just baseball - NFL, NBA,
NHL, college football, college hoops, even NASCAR. Daily
requests vary from “which running backs this year have gained
the most yards after first making contact with a defender?
(LaDanlian Tomlinson)” to “when's the last time a player hit a
home run in his first 3 world series games (like Bonds has
done)?” … etc, etc. I've written over 2,000 programs myself in
the 2 years I've been in Los Angeles. Some are just 50 lines
long, others can be a few hundred lines. Would love to give you
more examples of our database work, but I actually have to get
back to work...Game 4 starts in a few minutes. I wanted to at
least give you guys an idea of a cool job that computer science
majors can find out here in the working world.
Hope everyone is doing well. Take care.
Mike Wolff (wolff@colorado.edu) to Dr. Corliss
Your Christmas card is still sitting on my “in” stack...so when
I stumbled across your site about form MU/MSCS students, the
impetus was finally sufficient (i.e., “guilt”...benefits of a Catholic
Alumni Update
Shirley Perfetto Brinkley (B.S. MATH ’68) writes: I worked as a
Reliability Statistician at Astronautics Corporation of America,
then at Allis Chalmers, before marrying a Civil Servant and
living in Iran, where I taught at the American school on Base.
My daughter Heather (30) and son Brian (25) are both married.
I have a grandson. I am very busy in full-time Bible education
work as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses and am self-employed.
Ernest Fandreyer (M.S. in Mathematics ’71) updates: Ed.D. at
Boston University, 1984. At Fitchburg State College, Math
Department as: Associate Professor, 1985; Professor, 1991;
Clinical Professor and Teacher Education (secondary math);
1981-1994; Retiree, 1998; Advanced Placement reader (for
ETS), 1998-2001. Enjoying my three grandchildren.
Staff Update
Jaime Piekarski
We have had an exciting
year in the department. We
said goodbye to one of our
students receptionists last
December and we will once
again be saying goodbye to
Kelly this year. Miss Melnik
has been with us for 3 ½ years.
We’ll sadly say goodbye to
Jaime, Kelly & Marie
Kelly in December because she
will be student teaching next semester. She will graduate in May
2003. We wish her good luck in her future teaching career.
We hired Abby Erker to start this fall, Abby is Erin’s younger
sister. We have also hired Emily Grigaitis, new receptionist, to
start in Spring 2003. We are happy to have both of them join our
department. These new students will be in addition to our existing
staff of Pat Garrity, Erin Erker, Jaime Waldron, Rebecca Burton
and Audia Dobson.
We have also added a new full time position to our department.
We’re pleased to welcome Lingtao Zeng as our new Unix System
Administrator, who is one of our former graduate students. He is
excited to embark on his new journey in the MSCS department.
Lingtao will be working on our departmental Unix computer system
as well as setting up and maintaining specialty labs for our classes.
☺
education
.
Anyway, a little business first. Updates to the page could
include: Major, year: Mathematics, Physics 1988; Employer:
Space Science Institute; E-mail: wolff@colorado.edu;
URL: gemelli.colorado.edu/~wolff
Professionally, things continue to go well. I have been riding
the Mars “money train” for about 50% of my support the last few
years (the remainder comes from research programs related to
light scattering properties of cosmic -- mainly interstellar-- dust
grains). It has been a fun journey and things are still “ramping
7
.
Each MSCS newsletter includes a “Alumni Update” section. We would like to know where you are and what
you are doing. Who is your employer? Have you received further degrees or honors since you left MU? Please
take a few minutes to complete this form and return it to the editor. If you would like your e-mail address
published in Newsletter, please include it under your PERSONAL NEWS section.
NAME:
ADDRESS: _________________________________________________________________________________________________
YEAR OF GRADUATION: ___________ DEGREE (e.g., B.S. in CS): ______________________________________________
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NEWSLETTER
DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS, STATISTICS, AND COMPUTER SCIENCE
MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY
PO BOX 1881
MILWAUKEE WI 53201-1881
Department of Mathematics,
Statistics and Computer Science
P. O. Box 1881
Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881