CONNECTEDO Received a Second Place Award in ACM Competition

Kudos Matthew Vail and Qingfent (Frank) He received CISCO schol- ED arships. Also, Jack Frink received ECT an award for developing a new NN software tool, and Lucas Layman CCONNECTEDO received a second place award in ACM Competition. [See page 4.] Nader Moussa, a triple-major A NEWSLETTER FROM THE senior, was an IBM Extreme Blue DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE intern last fall. MARCH 2005 Bensong Chen, doctoral student, was named an Outstanding Teaching Assistant by NC State’s Students' Wolfgrid tests strengths Graduate Student Association. Neha Jain, Tyler Johnson and of grid computing software Matthew Vail, all seniors, received CRA’s 2005 Outstanding Under- What if you had a bunch of graduate Award honorable men- computers all over the world, tions. hooked together? That’s a Senior Rich Killian is serving as the Microsoft Ambassador at question that Sammie Carter, NC State for the 2004-05 aca- computer science senior, and demic year. Jon Harris, graduate student Carol Allen, administrative as- in the College of Design, had sistant in the undergraduate advis- in mind when they began to ing ofﬁ ce, was recognized for 25 years of service at the university’s build the Wolfgrid across the staff recognition program last NC State community. August. She has been with the Using Apple’s new Xgrid computer science department for software, the two have been her entire NC State career. Dr. Peng Ning, assistant pro- hooking up personal com- Sammie Carter, computer science student, discusses the Wolfgrid with fessor, received an NSF CAREER puters across campus, creating Everette Allen, computing consultant. NC State’s Information Technol- Award. [See p. 10.] a virtual community grid that ogy Division, center, and Jon Harris, student in the College of Textiles. Pride of the Wolfpack Award works like a super computer, recipients in the last quarter performing tasks when the individual com- was launched in February 2004, with guid- were Kelly Potter, Senior Design ance from Everette Allen, computing con- Center; Carol Allen, administrative puters are not being used by their owners. assistant, undergraduate advising, The student-initiated Wolfgrid project sultant with NC State’s Information Tech- and Linda Honeycutt, departmen- Continued on page 5 tal executive assistant and director for personnel actions. As member of Defense Science Study Group, Nearly 170 computer science degrees were conferred in Decem- Antón explores national security issues ber 2004. Donald Haile, president of Fidelity Investments Systems, Summer 2004 was anything but typical (DSSG), designed to develop strong links was guest speaker. for Dr. Annie Antón, associate professor at between the national security community NC State’s Department of Computer Sci- and emerging leaders of science and engi- ence. neering. This is a very selective program; Inside this issue She spent several weeks touring military Anton was one of 14 chosen from a group • Senior Design teams aim to bases and government agencies, learning of 137 nominees, according to Dr. Phillip help Insight Racing meet about the technical dimensions of national Gould, DSSG director. DARPA Challenge, page 6 security issues as well as the people and op- Managed by the Institute for Defense • IBM anticipates more IT jobs, erations involved. She also earned an ‘Hon- Analyses (IDA) and sponsored by the De- page 7 • Perros joins NLR Council, orary Paratrooper’ award in recognition of fense Advanced Research Projects Agency page 9 her successful jump from the 34-foot tower (DARPA), the central research and develop- • Alumni update: Derek Meyer at Fort Bragg, NC. ment organization for the Department of combines computing, piloting, Antón had been selected for the 2004- page 10 2005 Defense Science Study Group Continued on page 8 1 THE DEPARTMENTAL CONNECTION

From the Desk of the Department Head Don Martin, former CSC department Another academic year is well on its The Fall 2004 commencement ceremony head, dies way, and it has been wonderful so far. recognized the academic achievements Donald Martin, Ph.D., pro- The computer science department spent of 166 Computer Science graduates and fessor and former head of the the early autumn months preparing for brought the ranks of our alumni to over computer science department, two major milestones - the CAC/ABET1 4500. This was an exciting and auspicious died Feb. 11 following a battle accreditation review, and an external peer event that culminated years of hard work with MDS and leukemia. review in preparation for the formal search and dedication for all concerned. Martin received bach- for a new department head. In the fall of 2005, we will be moving elor of science and master's The CAC/ABET review took place in into a new building on the NC State degrees at the University of late October, and the external review in Centennial Campus. This move will enable South Carolina and a Ph.D. in mid-November. As a department, we have our department to consolidate, and our chemical engineering at NC gained a lot from both. The process of students to take the majority of their State. He helped to develop reviewing carefully and constructively both courses and conduct research with our and headed the computer sci- our undergraduate and graduate programs, faculty in new state-of-the-art classrooms ence department at NC State as well as our research program, yielded an and laboratories. We have several exciting during a time that has come to honest and very useful assessment of our months ahead as we prepare for this move. be known as the "Martin Era." core strengths, challenges and potential. We I wish you a year of happiness and Although he received nu- have accomplished much and have much to success. merous accolades, his family look forward to. notes that his most important One highlight is recognition that our Mladen A. Vouk was being voted teacher of educational programs equip our students Interim Department Head the year for several years by to be competitive, to succeed in their his students. He loved teach- profession, and to contribute to society. For Footnotes 1 Computing Accreditation Commission of the ing and was known as a tough example, for the fourth year running, NC Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology professor from whom stu- State was the largest supplier of new hires (http://www.abet.org/cac1.html) dents learned well. to IBM – and computer science students Martin had served in the represent a large fraction of those hires. U.S. Navy and Reserves for Also, we are among the top in the nation over 20 years and retired as in the number of awarded bachelor’s and Staff Appointments & Changes Commander. master’s degrees in computer science and Barbara Adams, PhD, is assistant director He is survived by his wife in the top 40 in the number of awarded of undergraduate advising, working with Doris, children and grand- Ph.D.’s in Computer Science. Joyce Hatch, lecturer and coordinator of children. In lieu of ﬂ owers, Currently, we have 41 tenured and advising. the family requested that tenure-track faculty, over 850 undergraduate donations be made to St. Jude majors, and over 380 graduate students. We Ginny Adams transfered to the Centennial Hospital, 501 St. Jude Pl., are in the process of looking for new faculty Campus faculty secretary position. Memphis, TN 38105. Tributes members to help make our department even Jason Corley was named information tech- may be sent to www.bronw- more competitive. nology coordinator for the department. ynne.com. In the last six months our students, staff and faculty have received a number Jennifer Craddock left for a position with of awards and recognition, and have Fidelity Mutual. Technical papers participated in a number of professional Dana Lasher was named director of stu- events. This includes best paper awards, To keep up with faculty dent services. student and faculty scholarship and research research, view Computer awards, a prestigious NSF CAREER award, Anna Rzewnicki left for a position with science faculty members’ tech- several Pride of Wolfpack awards, and the College of Management. Irene Rindos, nical papers online at http:// appointments on prestigious national bodies CSC freshman, is assisting with department www.csc.ncsu.edu/research/ such as the National Lambda Rail (http:// communications. tech/reports.php. www.nlr.org) Network Research Council. 2 THE DEPARTMENTAL CONNECTION

Mayr joins the CSC faculty The newest member of the comput- and are used conducted research with colleagues er science faculty is bringing additional in differ- in the United Kingdom (particularly expertise in software verifi cation to the ent roles, Scotland), France, Sweden and the department. depending Czech Republic. His doctoral supervi- Dr. Richard Mayr joined the faculty on the ap- sor in Munich was Spanish and had also as assistant professor this fall, coming plication,” he worked in Scotland, “so this was a con- from the computer science faculty at the says. tributing factor” to Mayr’s international Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg, While interests, he says. Germany. much of the It stands to reason that he includes His main research areas are formal work in veri- travel, foreign cultures and languages verifi cation, logic, automata theory, term fi cation has on his list of hobbies, along with hik- rewriting, asynchronous systems and been about ing, cycling and skiing. He speaks four computer networks. systems languages fl uently: German, English, Richard Mayr Although he began his research which have French and Swedish, plus a little Span- in semi-automatic verifi cation meth- fi nite state ish and Greek. ods, using computer assisted proving spaces, Mayr has focused on the more Mayr also enjoys working with systems, he shifted to fully automatic general case of infi nite state spaces. His students. “Teaching is a very rewarding methods when he changed research research has applications in safety-criti- experience, especially when something groups while working on his doctor- cal systems, primarily in telecommunica- diffi cult gets across (to the students) ate, and continued that approach in his tions and data fl ow analysis, as well as successfully," he says. He is teaching post-doctoral research. performance analysis. He also works CSC 333, Automata, and CSC591C, ”The semi-automatic methods are with scalable verifi cation methods and Software Model-Checking. powerful but require a lot of knowledge their application to industrial specifi ca- He received his Ph.D. in computer of the user and can be cumbersome,” tion languages such as UML RT. science from TU-Muenchen, Germany. he says. “The automatic methods, based Mayr, who has studied and worked The title of his dissertation: `Decidabil- on algorithms, are powerful and have abroad for much of his academic career, ity and Complexity of Model Checking the advantage of being easier to push seeks out opportunities for international Problems for Infi nite-State Systems.’ into applications. Both are important collaboration. Over the years, he has

Engineering Building II On Track for Fall 05

Engineering Building II is on track for completion and use by Fall 2005. The computer science department will be located in the left side of the building; computer and electrical engineering will be housed in the right side of the facility. The new building is located on NC State's Centennial Campus, near the Red Hat building.

3 THE STUDENT CONNECTION

Privacy research experience yields student recognition Frink receives award for new software tool Jack Frink, senior in com- The tool was used to evaluate online puter science, recently received healthcare privacy policies that evolved an entrepreneurship award in response to the Health Insurance in recognition of his work in Portability and Accountability Act developing Flesh, a cross-plat- (HIPAA). Flesh quickly analyzes a form, freeware Java applica- document (such as plain text fi les) and tion. He also received a $1,000 displays the diffi culty associated with scholarship from the local comprehending it. company n software in recog- Flesh is available for both Mac nition of his achievement. OS X and Windows. Within days of Neha Jain, also a computer publishing it, Flesh was downloaded science senior, assisted with by several hundred users, Frink says. extensive testing and feedback He continues to take feedback and on the project. is working to extend its functionality Frink developed the soft- Jack Fink at Wither's Hall computer lab. and overall utility. More information ware tool to help with a research Place.org, a research group founded by about the tool is available online at http: project that he, Jain and other students Dr. Annie Antón, associate professor of //jack.gravco.com/fl esh.html. were engaged in through ThePrivacy- computer science.

Vail, He receive CISCO scholarships Two computer science students re- tion of online healthcare privacy policies er science program, received a CISCO ceived Cisco Information Assurance that evolved in response to the Health scholarship in fall 2003. Scholarships this year. Eight Cisco Insurance Portability and Accountabil- The results of this project are sum- scholarships are awarded each fall and ity Act (HIPAA). Other students on his marized in Technical Report 2004-21, each spring. team were Neha Jain and Jack Frink in “An Analysis of Web Site Privacy Policy Matthew Vail, senior, was awarded computer science, and Carrie Gheen Evolution in the Presence of HIPAA,” a Cisco Scholarship for fall 2004, and in the College of Management at NC posted on the computer science Qingfeng (Frank) He (Ph.D. candidate) State. department’s website [http://www. received a Cisco Scholarship for spring Their research was performed under csc.ncsu.edu/research/tech/reports. 2005. He is the third NCSU computer the direction of Dr. Annie Antón, assis- php]. The article is also currently under science student (and third member of tant professor of computer science and review for publication in IEEE Security theprivacyplace.org) to be so honored. a leader in privacy and security research. and Privacy. The scholarships recognize students The team’s objectives were to examine who are making a signifi cant contribu- privacy policies to evaluate the compli- tion in the fi eld of information security ance of specifi c healthcare organizations Department Mourns the information assurance. with HIPAA, investigate the evolution Scholarship requirements include of the organizations’ privacy practices Loss of Freshman prior intern or work experience and re- before and after HIPAA went into ef- CSC freshman, Michael Lloyd Ire- search in the fi eld of information assur- fect, and to quantify each policy’s level land, Jr. of Aurora, NC, was killed in an ance or information security. of readability and clarity. auto accident on Sunday, November 14, He’s application was selected based Vail is working full time as a distrib- 2004. He is survived by his parents Mr. on the originality of the ideas posed uted computing services engineer in the and Mrs. Michael L. Ireland of Au- in his essay along with his breadth of Administrative Offi ces of the Courts rora, NC. Our deepest sympathies and knowledge in the IA fi eld. for the State of North Carolina and car- prayers go out to the parents, family During the 2003-04 academic year, ries a full academic load at NC State. and friends of Michael. Vail led a multidisciplinary team of un- Neha Jain (B.S. 2004), currently in the dergraduate researchers in the evalua- Accelerated Bachelors/Masters comput- 4 THE STUDENT CONNECTION

Students take learning beyond the classroom For NC State’s computer science students, learning is not limited to for- Wolfgrid tests grid computing software Continued from page 1 mal coursework. A growing number of nology Division and staff advisor for people can do with it.” student organizations, they offer work- the project. The Wolfgrid currently Carter and Harris presented their shops and other opportunities to stretch allows collaborative computations on progress via videoconference to par- their knowledge and gain experience in networked Macs; soon, Linux boxes ticipants at the University of North this dynamic fi eld. will be added to the grid. Carolina CAUSE 2004 conference The Wolfgrid project featured in The Wolfgrid now includes about held in Boone, NC, last fall. this issue of Connected is one example 25 computers, and the number grows “The long term IT goal (of this of such student initiative. About 300 daily, Carter says. He and Harris have project) is to see if we can scale up graduate and undergraduate students done a bit of troubleshooting and cre- this technology and see if we can use attended an information night early last ative problem solving while building the computing cycles that are not be- fall, sponsored in part by a contribution the grid. ing used in the labs and even the of- from CISCO, to learn what other op- One problem dealt with the unpre- fi ce machines,” Allen says. portunities are available to them. dictable speed of the individual com- But the greater value of the proj- Following is an overview of current puters, which varied depending on ect, he says, “is to provide an outlet student organizations. All feature guest the computers’ features and how they for creative students to do a project speakers, workshops, educational and were being used. They resolved that on their own, to get the extra experi- social events. Alumni and corporate by hooking up all the fast computers ence, and also to create awareness that leaders interested in discussing speaking in one grid and all the slow ones on this technology is on the forefront for opportunities may contact Ken Tate, another. Those fi rst two grids are dy- the groups that are interested.” director of development and external namic – people and their computers Exploring the potential for such relations for the department, at 919- can come and go. As a result, comput- technology is a great fi t for computer 513-4292. er processing on the grid can be fast science students, he says. • ACM/AITP - NC State’s combined or slow, depending on how many and For design students such as Harris, student chapter of these two leading the power of the computers that are it offers a chance to see how the new national organizations are continuing connected to it. technology can be implemented to in a tradition of leadership and service. “We’re building a third grid that speed up their production processes. For the second year in a row, they are will be static, with a fi xed number of For example, when creating a movie rebuilding donated computers, prepar- computers,” Carter says, using com- with multiple components, “They can ing them for a new service in an area puters in the university’s computer see if they can ship it out to a bunch school. labs. of computers that are asleep and have • Computer Science Graduate Stu- “The software being used for the them do the work, achieving a faster dent Organization, which is developing grid is preview technology,” he says. turnaround,” Allen says. an interactive website for its members. “Apple is beta testing it to see what • Game Developers' Club -- for those interested in game development. • Java Users Group -- promoting ap- • PacMUG – possibly the largest Student offi cers meet as a student plications using Java. campus-based MUG in North Carolina. board and provide a channel of com- • Linux Users Group – LUG -- • Women in Computer Science munications to the department admin- promoting and supporting the use of – WIC – supporting, promoting and istration. Two board members also Linux and related free and open source helping to retain women in computer serve as student representatives to the programs within the NC State campus science. department’s technology committee. community. • The department also has members represents undergraduate students. • Microsoft.net Users Group in the Association for the Concerns of A number of the student organiza- – DNUG – extending the program- African American Graduate Students. tions are supported in part from contri- ming knowledge of NC State students, Check out all the organizations butions through the computer science faculty and staff with teaching sessions online at http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/aca- department’s ePartners Program and the on .NET, ASP and much more. demics/students_orgs.php College of Engineering’s E-Council. 5 THE ACADEMIC CONNECTION

Senior Design students aim to keep Layman places second in ACM Competition Insight Racing's vehicle on track Lucas Layman, a computer science Seniors in NC State’s computer sci- was unable to compete due to a lack of Ph.D. student, received second place in ence software design projects course funding. While 15 of the 25 fi nalists at- the graduate category of the ACM Stu- are facing a unique challenge this year: tempted the fi eld trial, the prize went dent Research Competition held last fall designing the software that will keep an unclaimed as no vehicles were able to in Vancouver, B.C., in conjunction with experimental autonomous vehicle on complete the diffi cult desert route. the OOPSLA (Object Oriented Pro- track. The 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge gramming, Systems and Applications) The off-road vehicle is being de- will be held in the Mojave Desert. The 2004 conference. signed and built by Insight Racing, a team that develops an autonomous Layman is a research assistant work- Raleigh-area based company comprised ground vehicle that fi nishes the des- ing with Dr. Laurie Williams, assistant of a number of College of Engineer- ignated route most quickly within 10 professor, investigating the effects of ing students and three of their mentors. hours will receive $2 million. The route Agile Software Development practices, Their goal: to compete in the DAR- will be about 142 miles over desert ter- such as Extreme Programming, in in- PA 2005 Grand Challenge [http:// rain featuring natural and man-made dustry. www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/] sched- obstacles. The exact route will not be He is currently working with groups uled for Oct. 8, 2005. revealed until two hours before the at IBM, Sabre Airline Solutions, and Insight Racing came to the Comput- event begins. Tekelec to study the effects of Agile er Science Senior Design Center, which Insight Racing has completed a two- practices on requirements engineering, assigns teams of students to real-world mile test run and is continuing this fall production quality, and customer sat- projects, for software design support. to enhance its object avoidance, routing, isfaction. Their work is funded by the A special summer session of the senior and control systems, with the assistance Center for Advanced Computing and projects course was offered, with four of the two senior design teams. Communication under its core research teams of students working on various CISCO and Foundry Networks, both program for Analyzing Emerging Soft- aspects of Insight Racing’s software computer science ePartners companies, ware Development Methodologies and needs. Additional teams are continuing have provided sponsorship support for Practices. to work on the project this year. fall senior design teams working on this Layman received the award for his re- Created in response to a Congressio- project. search report, “Empirical Investigation nal and Department of Defense man- The Insight Racing [http:// of the Impact of Extreme Program- date, the Defense Advanced Research www.insightracing.org/ ] team includes ming Practices on Software Projects.” Projects Agency (DARPA) launched the Kate Caldwell, senior, mechanical engi- Grand Challenge as a fi eld test intended neering; Mike Randall, senior, comput- tion and magnetic heading. The com- to accelerate research and development er science and vice president of Ascot puter science senior design teams work- in autonomous ground vehicles that will Technologies; Matt Rhinehart, junior, ing on this project use these sensors help save American lives on the battle- aerospace engineering; Brendan Shanley, as input to a computational process to fi eld. senior, electrical engineering; and men- create an inertial navigation system that The Grand Challenge brings together tors Grayson Randall (B.S., aerospace provides precise location information. individuals and organizations from in- engineering), Brian Dean (B.S., physics; Those interested in being an ad- dustry, the R&D community, govern- M.S., computer science), and Walt Sliva ditional sponsor of this project may ment, the armed services, academia, stu- (B.S., electrical engineering). Sliva also is contact Walt Sliva at (919) 468-8558 or dents, backyard inventors, and automo- Insight Racing's business manager. [email protected]. tive enthusiasts in the pursuit of a tech- College of Engineering Dean Nino nological challenge. Masnari provided funding for an at- Daniels Hall now home to In the 2004 Grand Challenge, auton- titude and heading reference system CSC teaching labs omous ground vehicles ran from Bar- (AHRS) to assist the senior design stu- The old computer science teaching stow, Calif., to Primm, Nev., compet- dents with their efforts working with labs in Leazar Hall closed in January. A ing for a $1 million prize. The Insight Insight Racing. The AHRS device new 24/7 lab is now open in Daniels Racing Team was one of only 25 teams uses micro-electro-mechanical systems Hall. This is Phase I of the Daniels Hall to fully qualify for the 2004 event, but (MEMS) sensors to measure accelera- renovation project.

6 THE ePARTNERS CONNECTION

Faculty, students join in IBM’s University Day ... more IT jobs expected NC State’s computer science faculty NC State’s undergraduate enrollment new-hire projections for this year by 88 and students were among the more than in computer science declined from percent – to nearly 19,000 total hires. 100 participants and presenters at the 900 in fall 2003 to 826 for fall 2004. Most of the positions will be for people IBM University Day held at the compa- However, enrollment in the graduate with technical skills. ny’s main campus in the Research Trian- computer science programs rose, from IBM expects to hire between 300 gle Park in October. 362 in fall 2003 to 384 in fall 2004 for and 400 graduates of North Carolina The ongoing event brings together the masters programs and from 91 in schools, with the lion’s share coming IBMers and academics to share 2003 to 127 in 2004 for the doctoral from NC State, Duke, The University information and to collaborate on programs. of North Carolina and North Carolina technology projects and trends, industry Margaret Ashida, IBM’s director of A&T, all of which participated in the requirements and future employment University Relations, told University University Day event and joined IBM’s opportunities. Day participants that “One of the initiative to better prepare students IBM’s comments about employment greatest concerns of leaders from for information technology jobs of prospects in the industry drew local industry and academia alike is the tomorrow. media attention this fall. In its news challenge of preparing talent capable of NC State presenters included Dr. release about the event, IBM cited U.S. driving innovation -- and thus economic Laurie Williams, assistant professor of Department of Labor in reporting growth. We intend this Academic computer science, and Dr. Michael Rap- and enormous opportunity in all Initiative (discussed at the event) to help pa, Alan T. Dickson Distinguished Uni- technological fi elds. By 2006, it predicts lead to the bright, optimistic future we versity Professor of Technology Man- this country will need 1.5 million more see on the horizon,” he added. agement in the College of Management. information technology professionals, Launched earlier this year, IBM’s Rappa and Williams collaborate on and that one out of every four jobs in initiative offers a wide range of open source software research. More this decade will be in IT. technology education benefi ts for about their work is available online at Colleges and universities will have to participating schools. Its gifts to the http://openseminar.org/. About fi ve quadruple their number of graduates by computer science department, for computer science students also present- 2008 in order to meet this demand. This example, totalled more than $325,000 ed posters at the event. situation exists at a time when schools last year. Also participating were universities in in North Carolina and nationwide NC State produces more IBM new Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina and are witnessing dwindling enrollments hires than any other single school in Florida plus IBM technologists. The in computer science and related the nation, it was reported at the event. event was sponsored by the IBM RTP engineering courses. Worldwide, the company has increased Center for Advanced Studies.

Corporate involvement brings real-world perspective New online job board puts students-employers in touch Corporate-academic interaction On-campus presentations typically helps advance knowledge through last from 30 to 45 minutes, covering The computer science department sponsored research. It also strengthens technical and other topics relevant to has recently enhanced its online job the learning experience for computer computer science students, followed by board, providing a convenient place for science students through informal a question and answer session. employers to post full and part time op- presentations as well as hands-on learn- Corporate leaders interested in dis- portunities targeted to computer science ing opportunities, including sponsored cussing project sponsorship or speak- students. projects, internships and co-ops. ing opportunities are invited to contact Employers are welcome to post posi- Numerous opportunities exist for Ken Tate, director of development tions using the new easy-to-use interface companies to interact with students, in- and external relations for the com- at the department's online Career Ser- cluding sponsoring Senior Design Cen- puter science department, by email at vices Center: http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/ ter projects or presenting in classrooms [email protected] or phone at 919-513- corporate_relations/career_center.php. and at student organization meetings. 4292.

7 THE RESEARCH CONNECTION

Antón in DSSG Continued from page 1

Defense, the program acknowledges such as the Department of Energy, the fundamental role that technological various intelligence agencies, and advantage has in assuring U.S. national Congress. security, according to the department’s Visits to military bases throughout website. It is part of the sponsoring the United States provide members agencies’ efforts to keep pace with the with a unique perspective of operating nation’s rapidly evolving technology and forces and allow program members defense needs. to meet with senior commanders The DSSG selects young professors as well as enlisted men and women. from many of the nation’s top universi- Tours of defense laboratories and ties as well as non-university affi liated industrial facilities provide further men and women – all nominated by se- insight into research, development and nior academic offi cials – and other offi - manufacturing technologies. cials from various government agencies “This year, we each are working to take part in DSSG. Over the course on a project that in some way helps of the two-year program, participants the Department of Defense, for focus on defense policy, related research example, by applying our research to and development, and the systems, mis- a challenging engineering or science sions, and operations of the armed problem,” Antón says. The participants forces. will also each write “a think piece” During the course of eight sessions summarizing their project. Annie Antón after completing her para- – a total of 22 days per year over a two- “Papers written by the participants as grapoper exercise year period – the DSSG members take a result of their research are distributed to the road as they immerse themselves top-level offi cials from the Defense widely within the Department of in the issues and policies related to Department, as well as senior offi cials Defense,” Gould says. “A few have national security. They interact with of other government organizations even been briefed to the staff of the President’s National Security Council.” Faculty, students present research at broadband, security conferences Computer science faculty and stu- the Dynamic Traffi c Grooming ses- Faculty presenters were Dr. Laurie dents participated in the fi rst Annual sion. Williams, assistant professor, and Dr. International Conference on Broad- Doctoral student Bensong Chen Mladen Vouk, professor. band Networks held in San Jose, Calif., received an NSF travel grant that Several graduate students and one in October. (See details at http:// enabled him to present a paper at the undergraduate student also attended www.broadnets.org.) Optical Networking symposium's and presented papers at the conference. This new conference included a Workshop on Traffi c Grooming. The These two conferences are just a Broadband Optical Networking Sympo- paper was co-authored with Dutta nd sampling of faculty members' profes- sium and a Broadband Wireless Net- Rouskas. sional activities. As a group, they pub- working Symposium. Several other doctoral students also lished nearly 100 papers and conference Dr. George Rouskas, professor, was a participated in the conference. presentations, books and book chapters member of the networking symposium's The department was also well repre- in the past academic year. technical program committee, co-chair sented at the International Symposium For more information about cur- of its Workshop in Traffi c Grooming of on Software Reliability Engineering, rent faculty research, review the de- WDM Networks, and chair of the Burst held in November in France (See partment's online summary of funded and Packet Switching syession. Dr. Rudra details online at http://www.issre.org/ research at http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/ Dutta, assistant professor, was chair of 2004/.) research/faculty_projs/2004.php. 8 THE RESEARCH CONNECTION

Perros appointed to NLR Network Research Council New book on networks coming in 2005 Dr. Harry Perros, professor of com- solve complex challenges of network sion link along the path. The concept puter science and program coordinator architecture, end-to-end performance, of connection, as used in the telephone for the Master of Science in Computer and scaling. The NLR infrastructure will system, has been emulated for a long Networks at NC State, has been ap- initially provide four separate 10 gigabit time in computer packet-switched net- pointed to the National Lambda Rail per second wavelengths with provisions works. (www.nlr.org) Network Research Coun- to add another 28 to 36 wavelengths as “In this book, we explore two con- cil (NRL NRC). He also recently com- needed to support members’ research nection-oriented packet-switched net- pleted a new book on networks, to be collaborations. works, ATM networks and Multi-Pro- published in early 2005. In his new book, Connection-Ori- tocol Label Switched (MPLS) networks. NRL, a major initiative of U.S. re- ented Networks: SONET/SDH, ATM, The book also discusses two circuit- search universities and private sector MPLS, Optical Networks, Perros ex- switched networks, SONET/SDH and technology companies, provides nation- plores connection-oriented packet- Optical Wavelength-Routing networks. al scale infrastructure for research and switched and circuit-switched networks. “We also present a new optical net- experimentation in networking technol- Written as a textbook for a second up- working scheme, which has not as yet ogies and applications. NC State is part per level course on computer networks, been standardized, known as Optical of the NRL network through a coali- Perros says it would also be useful for Burst Switching, which can be seen as tion of North Carolina universities rep- networking engineers in the ﬁ eld. lying between packet switching and cir- resented by Duke University. The ﬁ rst connection-oriented net- cuit switching,” he says. The book also In addition to supporting cutting- work is probably the familiar and ubiq- contains a chapter on access networks, edge uses of optical networking capa- uitous telephone network, he says. This such as ADSL-based networks, cable bilities in research and education, one circuit-switched network establishes a modems, and ATM passive optical net- of its primary goals is to bring together connection between the two parties by works, and a chapter on voice over networking research communities to allocating a channel on each transmis- ATM and voice over MPLS.

Speech identifi cation research draws international scholar What’s in a voice? Increasingly, it is research drew the attention of a group to open a door, for example. Rodman being used to help narrow down the list of doctoral students working on the wanted to learn if their method, which of suspects in forensics cases, says Dr. same topic in Sweden. uses spectral features to discriminate Robert Rodman, professor of computer “I got an email from a Swedish wom- between speakers, was language-inde- science whose research focuses on com- an working on her Ph.D who was study- pendent. puter speaker identifi cation and auto- ing what was involved in mimicking an- Results of Eriksson’s work on the matic lip synchronization of spontane- other voice,” Rodman says. project, presented at the 17th Swedish ously spoken speech. In discussions with the student and Phonetics Conference at Stockholm Rodman compares the use of voice her advisor, he learned of another University last May, show that language identifi cation to the use of the refrac- student, Erik Eriksson, who had re- is not a factor that affects their meth- tory index of glass in determining the ceived an award to study abroad for fi ve od’s accuracy. Co-authors on the paper likelihood that glass shards found on a months. Eriksson joined Rodman as a were Luis Cepeda, an NC State com- suspect came from a particular crime visiting scholar earlier this year. puter science doctoral candidate, as well scene. One of their joint projects involved as David McAllister and Donald Bitzer, “We use likelihood ratios, or what applying the speech identifi cation tech- both NC State computer science pro- people commonly call ‘odds,’ to deter- nology that Rodman and colleagues at fessors. mine the possibility that two different NC State have been developing over the Eriksson also assisted Rodman with a recordings of a voice were made by the past decade to the Swedish language. literature search regarding emotion de- same person.” Speech identifi cation can be used to tection, which would be useful in deter- More recently, his research has fo- identify a person – such as in a crimi- mining changes in the emotional state cused on developing methods for distin- nal trial – or to verify a person’s iden- of an individual participating in com- guishing mimics from real voices. That tity, to activate a voice-based command puter-based training. 9 THE ALUMNI CONNECTION

For Derek Meyer, Computing, piloting skills combine for high-fl ying career “It’s way cosmic, and very, very com- – a Ph.D. program for plicated.” That’s how Derek Meyer (B.S. fi ghter pilots, he says. computer science, ‘79) describes his cur- Meyer's last assign- rent consulting project, the F/A-22 Air ment involved duties Combat Simulation being developed by at the F-15 test and Lockheed Martin in Marietta, GA. evaluation squadron His understanding of computer sci- and as a core pilot for ence gained as an undergraduate stu- the F/A-22 Raptor dent at NC State while on an Air Force being developed by ROTC scholarship, coupled with sev- Lockheed in Marietta, eral decades of fl ying experience that GA. included stints as a fi ghter pilot and an “I provided advice instructor pilot, prepared him well for and really enjoyed the his current role. design side,” he says. Meyer credits Dr. Alan Tharp, pro- This led to Mey- Meyer in the F/A-22 air combat simulator fessor of computer science and one of er’s employment as a his undergraduate instructors, for get- staff engineer with Lockheed. He has tions International Corporation (SAIC), ting him on the right track. “The way he worked on cockpit design, pilot-vehi- involved in the operational testing and ran his classroom and how he organized cle-interface, and assisted the chief pi- evaluation of the F/A-22. things, his methodology – it just clicked lot in preparation for the Raptor’s fi rst He works with the Air Force Op- with me,” Meyer says. fl ight. During the same period, he was erational Test and Evaluation Cen- “It helped me do my work (then), fl ying F-15s on weekends as a member ter (AFOTEC) and Lockheed Mar- and it helped me later on in how to deal of Georgia’s Air National Guard. tin’s F/A-22 Air Combat Simulation with problems, even after leaving gradu- Meyer left the National Guard in (ACS). The ACS features 12 advanced ate school and going into a completely the mid-1990s, but has continued fl y- cockpits with 360-degree out-the-win- different fi eld. (And) all those things ing, now as a pilot for FedEx Express, dow visuals that Meyer describes as helped me get my job at Lockheed where he has been working since 1995. "incredible." The ACS allows today’s when I left the military service.” “But in 1997, some of the guys I Raptor pilots to fl y in dense, advanced Meyer had planned to enter the Air worked with at Lockheed wanted help threat environments that current air- Force after receiving his bachelor’s de- with an aircraft design project, so I space and budgets don’t allow. gree in computer science, but a backlog started there again as a part-time engi- “We have some outstanding software in pilot training at the time postponed neering contractor.” engineers that have helped to make this the start of his military career. He opted Currently, Meyer is a part-time con- happen,” Meyer says. for delaying active duty for a year and sulting employee for Science Applica- headed off to graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin, where he Ning Receives NSF Career Award for studied electrical engineering. After completing his master’s de- Sensor Network Security Research gree, he started pilot training in the Air Force and launched a military career Peng Ning, assistant professor of computer science, recently received a Faculty that included piloting an F-15 Eagle, Early Career Development (Career) Award from the National Science Founda- serving as an instructor pilot and squad- tion (NSF), effective July 1, 2005, through June 30, 2010. The NSF will provide ron weapons offi cer, attending the U.S. $400,000 in funding over the next fi ve years to support Ning’s research project en- Air Force Fighter Weapons School, titled, “Career: Towards Trustworthy and Resilient Sensor Networks.” NSF Career and eventually returning as an instruc- Awards are one of the highest honors given to young university faculty in science tor. The school combines academics and engineering. The department is now home to 13 NSF Early Career Award win- and fl ying with the latest fi ghter tactics ners.

10 THE ALUMNI CONNECTION

Alumni newlyweds pay tribute What are CSC to former professor alumni doing now? Jenn Taranto (CEM ’00) and Tom Porter passed away unexpectedly in About 20 percent of Spring 2004 Vitolo (CSC ’99, AMA ’00) got married 1999. Taranto and Vitolo, who after bachelor's degree recipients went on to last June, and they shared their story nearly four years in the College of En- graduate school. One of those, Andrea with all NC State engineering alumni. gineering had yet to cross paths, met at Costellow, is working on her MBA at They did so because they wanted to Porter’s memorial service. NC State. A growing number are pursu- spread the word about their matchmaker After the service they had coffee ing graduate studies through computer and catalyst of their present careers. together and shared their memories of science's combined Bachelor's/Master's Although both were students at the Porter. They’ve been sharing coffee, and degree program. same time, they didn’t meet until both making their own memories, ever since. Scott Vu (B.S. ’04) took a slightly attended a memorial service for the late different approach. He was the depart- Dr. Richard L. (Ric) Porter, who had Johnson wins ment's ﬁ rst alumnus to enroll in the been assistant dean for academic affairs university’s new biomedical doctoral in the College of Engineering. He was award, thanks profs program. both mentor and friend to both. William Johnson reports that he The department also has tracked Their relationship began as they recently received Booz Allen Hamilton’s nearly 20 of its doctoral graduates. shared memories after meeting at his “Team’s Appreciation Award.” Two are in postdoctoral fellowships, memorial service. In a letter to Carol Miller, computer at SUNY Stony Brook and Carnegie science instructor, he says: Mellon University. Jackson receives award “I would like to say that I received Seven are in faculty positions at the Dr. Laura Jackson (Ph.D., '03) re- the award because of the quality of University of North Carolina-Charlotte, ceived the 2004 Nancy G. Pollock PhD education and guidance that I received NC State, Bogazici University in Turkey, Dissertation Award for the College of from NC State university, which al- University of California-Irvine, Univer- Engineering. lowed me to provide innovative ideas sity of Texas-Arlington, University of The title of her dissertation is: “The and solutions to solve complex techno- Nebraska-Lincoln, and Istanbul Univer- Directional p-Median Problem with Ap- logical problems . sity in Turkey. plications to Trafﬁ c Quantization and “You, along with Mr. Lasher, helped Others are in research or senior Multiprocessor Scheduling." Her advi- shape and mold my intellect. So I have programming positions with SAS In- sors were Drs. G. Rouskas and M. Stall- all of you to thank, along with whole stitue, IBM, Livewire Logic, and Avaya mann. She is currently a senior research computer science department, for this Research Laboratories. statistician at the SAS Institute. wonderful accomplishment.” Elwood Becton (BS ’73) and his wife, Diane, have been active, loyal NC State Alumni, others join Strategic Advisory Board alumni for three decades. After gradu- ataing, he worked for several years for Six new members recently joined the computer science department's Strategic Southern Bell (now BellSouth), then Advisory Board (SAB). went on to law school and earned a The SAB is a cornerstone of the department’s strategic planning efforts, provid- Master’s in public policy sciences from ing input and guidance critical to helping shape our future. SAB members meet Duke University. He now has a pri- annually on campus and work as a virtual working team during the year, serving on vate law practice. Read more online at subcommittees and executive panels. http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/enews/. Starting three-year terms on the board this fall are: Alumni are encouraged to submit up- • Richard Conn, university liaison, Microsoft Corporation dated information to the department's • Chris Evans, entrepreneur with The Deepwood Group online alumni directory at http://www. • Vivien Joklik, vice president, marketing, John Deere csc.ncsu.edu/alumni/directory.php. • Kathy Markham (B.S. ’80), vice president, Information Systems, Kindred Providing email addresses will ensure Healthcare, Inc. receipt of the college’s monthly e-news- • Rudy Puryear (B.S. ’74), director, IT practice, Bain & Co. letter. • Kristopher Tyra (B.S. ’86), co-founder and previous CTO, HiddenMind Technologies. 11 NONPROFIT ORG. Coming Events U.S. POSTAGE North Carolina State University PAID April 1 Department of Computer Science RALEIGH, NC Campus Box 8206 PERMIT No. 2353 Engineering Open House for Raleigh, NC 27695-8206 prospective students. Stop by Withers Hall for computer science information, 9:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m. For more information call (919) 515-9669.

Nov 6-10 2005 IECON [IEEE Industrial Electronics Society Annual Con- ference), to be hosted by NC State. IECON’05 is an international conference on industrial applications of electronics, control, robotics, signal processing, computational and artiﬁ cial intelligence, sensors and actuators, instrumentation electronics, computer networks, internet and multimedia technologies. Details online at Details online at http://www.adac.ncsu. edu/IECON05/index.html.

Alumni encouraged to stay in touch Computer Science's online Jobs Board has caught the attention of employers, with more Anna Rzewnicki, editor posting their employment opportunities each month. This is just one of the opportunities Department of Computer Science offered to students and alumni of the department. North Carolina State University "We are always looking for new ways to add value to our students, alumni and friends of http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/ the department," says Ken Tate, director of development and external relations. 5,000 copies of this public docu ment "We encourage our alumni to stay in touch, so that they can continue to stay informed were printed at a cost of 4 cents each. about the news of the department. We also encourage our alumni to consider opportunities to return to campus and share from their experiences, either through student organiza- The newsletter was printed with the ﬁ - nancial support of Foundry Networks, a tion meetings or classroom presentaitons. Such exchanges are extremely valuable for our Depart ment of Computer Science Super students." ePartners company. The department recently launched the electronic CSC eNewsletter, which features research stories, awards, alumni and donor relations news and other news from the department. It is now being distributed to approximately 3,000 alumni, students, faculty, staff, and corporate partners. Alumni are encouraged to provide their email address at http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/alumni/alumni_update.php, to assure that they are on the distribution list.