MSB Most Significant Bits Department of Computer Science & Engineering Volume 10, Number 2 University of Washington Summer 1998 Young, a graduate of Antioch College (’59) who earned his PhD from MIT Karp Receives (’63), joined the UW faculty in 1983 from Purdue, where he had spent most of his Technion’s early career. He was UW Computer Sci- ence chair from 1983 to 1988. Though his leadership style emphasized consen- Harvey Prize sus and cooperation, Richard Ladner In May Prof. Richard Karp was awarded claimed at Young’s retirement party, that the Leo M. Harvey Prize in Science and it was nevertheless difficult having Paul Engineering by the Technion - Israel In- as chair. “None of us who worked with stitute of Technology. Karp was recog- him ever learned to read Paul’s handwrit- nized for his “leadership and achieve- ing,” he quipped. A sampling of Young’s ments in the areas of theoretical computer memos and marginalia were circulated to science and operations research.” His the mystification of the partiers. fundamental contributions to combinato- rial algorithms were specifically cited. Young, whose dissertation advisor was Hartley Rogers, made seminal contribu- The Harvey Prize recognizes break- tions to recursion theory and abstract throughs in science, technology and complexity theory. medicine as well as contributions to peace in the Middle East. Along with luminar- At the transition between the Young and ies such as Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Baer administrations, the department Freeman Dyson, there have been several Paul Young moved from the College of Arts and Sci- other computational pioneers recognized: ences to the College of Engineering. Claude E. Shannon, Michael O. Rabin, Shortly after the move, Dean of Engineer- Retires George B. Dantzig, Benoit B. Mandelbrot ing J. Ray Bowen named Young Associ- and Donald E. Knuth. After a distinguished and influential ca- ate Dean of Engineering for Research, reer, 15 years of which were spent on the Facilities and External Affairs. By reor- Born in Lithuania in 1887, Harvey emi- UW faculty, Paul Young has decided to Young continued on page 2 grated to the US in 1907, attended Coo- retire. At 62 years, Young explained his per Union School in New York City, and objective as “wanting to spend more time moved to Southern California in 1911, doing only the things I want to do.” He Profiles of New Faculty where he became a successful industri- will leave Seattle for his 80 acre farm in pages 6 and 7: alist. After World War II he developed a Wisconsin, where he and his wife, Debbie worldwide aluminum processing busi- Joseph, a computer science professor at Tom Anderson ness. The Prize has been awarded annu- the University of Wisconsin, will restore Brian Curless ally since 1972 “to celebrate the advance- much of the land to its original prairie Chris Diorio ments of humanity and outstanding ef- habitat. Alon Levy forts towards peace.” 0101 0101 MSB Page 1 Young continued from page 1 dering his responsibilities, Young became known around the department as the Transitions Dean of F.E.A.R. Tom Anderson returned to UW from Young was also instrumental in found- Berkeley to join the faculty as Associ- ing the Computer Research Association ate Professor. (CRA). CRA, whose membership in- Richard Anderson, Gaetano cludes the PhD-granting computer sci- Borriello and Anna Karlin have been ence and engineering departments of the promoted to the rank of Professor. US and Canada as well as industrial labs and computer related societies, is the Brian Curless joined the faculty af- principal advocate for the computer re- ter receiving his doctorate from search agenda in North America. Young Stanford. served as its first chair and guided it in Chris Diorio joined the faculty after establishing its Washington, DC office. receiving his doctorate from Caltech. In recognition of his many contributions Oren Etzioni returned from a sabbati- to the field, Young was awarded CRA’s cal spent in Israel. 1996 Distinguished Service Award. Alistair Holden has retired. Lazowska Receives In 1994, Young was drafted to be Assis- Nancy Leveson has been on leave for tant Director of the National Science the past year visiting MIT. Service Award Foundation’s Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) direc- Alon Levy joined the faculty from torate. He was responsible for new ini- AT&T Laboratories. The 1998 UW Outstanding Public Ser- vice Award has been presented to CSE tiatives, and implemented needed re- David Notkin returned from a sabbati- Chair Ed Lazowska for his contributions forms. Characteristic of his public spirit cal spent partly in Israel and Japan. and at the expense of his well-earned sab- beyond the UDub campus. Praise for his Steve Tanimoto returned from a sab- batical, Young stayed on after his CISE tireless volunteer work poured in from batical part of which was spent in term was completed to oversee the community leaders such as Seattle Rome. “NPACI re-competition,” which selected Schools Superintendent John Stanford the next generation NSF Supercomputer Paul Young has retired. and State Representative Tom Huff. The sites. top administrators who nominated Lazowska stated that “The range and these were the “best and the brightest,” Young characterized his UW administra- impact of his public service is simply off nine of them won the prestigious Presi- tion as having continued the department’s the chart. His record of achievements is dential Young Investigator Award, with research momentum, hired the best and almost unbelievable. We are convinced UW scoring triple winners two years in the brightest and enhanced undergradu- he never sleeps.” a row. ate instruction: The support and testimonials to • The undergraduate major was doubled • The research “momentum,” begun dur- Lazowska’s contributions came from in size during the Young administration, ing his predecessor Bob Ritchie’s admin- Seattle, the state and the nation. Stanford and there was a concerted effort to adopt istration, referred to sustaining the in his letter of support asserted that “the a more lab-intensive curriculum. department’s large projects, including the volunteer work that Dr. Lazowska has Eden Project, Blue CHiP Project and the donated on behalf of the 47,000 students Perhaps the most miraculous develop- VLSI Consortium. The department un- of the Seattle Public Schools is invalu- ment of Young’s tenure as chair occurred der Young landed two more coordinated able.” The Alliance for Education gave in May ’87 when the Steam Powered experimental research (CER) awards and Lazowska its first ever A+ Partnership Turing Machine mural appeared in the greatly enhanced its experimental port- Award for his contributions to the public East stairwell of Sieg Hall. Taking ac- folio. schools. Huff asserted that “The scope tion the moment he heard about it, Young and quality of his service in support of • In faculty recruiting, Robert Henry, called UW’s physical plant, told them the economic development, education pro- David Notkin, Ken Sloan, Richard Pattis, painting was not graffiti and requested grams and policy, telecommunications Tony DeRose, Richard Anderson, Carl that they seal it. This departmental icon policy, land-use policy and tax policy is Ebeling, Martine Schlag, Paul Beame, is a fitting reminder of the Young Admin- unprecedented in my experience.” Gaetano Borriello, Dan Weld and Susan istration since Turing Machines were Eggers were hired. To emphasize that critical to his research. Lazowska continued on page 5 0101 0111 MSB Page 2 the two departments would redistribute themselves to benefit from intellectual affinities in the closely allied fields. Project implementation became rocky, however, and the EE/CSE Building con- struction became controversial. The building was completed months behind schedule, it could not be occupied ini- tially because of a moldy ventilation sys- tem and there was a huge cost overrun. The Seattle Times reported that the final price tag for Phase I was $90 million, which represented a $20.5 million bud- get overage. There was considerable fin- ger pointing among the university, the general contractor, Ellis-Don of Mercer Island, and the architects, Kallmann McKinnell & Wood of Boston. UW can- celed Ellis-Don’s contract for Phase II, and contested $10 million in charges, though it only recovered $3.3 million. EE/CSE Building Dedication, April 16, 1998. From left: Ed Lazowska, Greg Zick (EE), The cancellation and overrun put Phase Dean Denice Denton, President Richard McCormick, Provost Lee Huntsman. II construction in jeopardy, and prompted UW to reexamine its construction con- Phase I of EE/CSE Building Dedicated tracting procedures. But, at the dedica- tion McCormick committed UW to com- It has 84,500 usable square feet, state- Built on the southeast side of Drumheller pleting the project so that CSE will have of-the-art labs, classrooms with full mul- Fountain occupying a former parking lot high quality space. timedia support, commons areas and of- behind the old EE building, EE/CSE was fice space. What the EE/CSE Building planned to have multiple construction Since Spring Quarter, various CSE doesn’t have yet is CSE. That’s Phase phases. Phase I, built against the old EE classes were scheduled in the new build- II. For now the focus is on the just com- building but without disturbing it, would ing. In the technology-loaded class- pleted Phase I. allow EE to vacate their old premises into rooms, it is possible for a professor to the new facility. Then the wrecking ball dispense with physical transparencies, In April the handsome neo-Gothic build- would make space for Phase II. Finally, and simply project the lecture from a ing was dedicated by UW President Ri- when the whole project was completed laptop or the WWW. chard L.