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COURSES TAUGHT
| CompE 160 | Computer Programming C |
| CompE 361 | Windows Programming |
| CompE 375 | Embedded Systems Programming |
| CompE 561 | Database and Web Programming |
Biography
Born in 1942 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Attended Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) and studied Electrical Engineering, mostly because Sputnik had scared everyone so badly that Engineering looked like the only really important profession. Worked during the summers in various jobs (encyclopedia salesman, carpenter, draftsman, laborer). The summer I worked as a laborer was fascinating because it got me into a BIG steel mill, Duquesne Works of U.S.Steel, which stretched for more than a mile along the Monongahela River. The enormous scale of things in the mill made it a trip just to be there. Graduated in 1964 with a BSEE degree.
Attended Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland (now Case Western Reserve University - after I go to a school, they always change the name). Married Kay Walsh in 1965. Discovered at Case that I really enjoy studying engineering and doing research. Studied Systems Theory and Control Engineering. Graduated in 1969 with a PhD in Systems Engineering.
Took a job with Aerospace Corporation in San Bernardino. Worked on a novel project involving driving missiles around the desert on flatbed trucks (because the stationary Minuteman missiles were considered vulnerable). Simulated Kalman Filter-based inertial navigation systems with Fortran programs, played ping-pong at lunch time, and got laid off after 9 months in one of the boom-and-bust aerospace industry down cycles.
Took a job as Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Michigan Technological University in Houghton Michigan in 1970. An incredible place. Four hours north of Green Bay. Thirty feet of snow the first year we were there. Put chains on the Spitfire in December and left them on until may. Unbelievable storms. It was great. Had our first child, Jesse in 1971. Taught control systems, electric circuits and logic design. Developed an interest in minicomputers. Persuaded the department head, Hank D’Angelo, to buy a PDP8 mini, and used it to supervise graphics programming projects involving vector graphics displays.
Bone chill, cabin fever and memories of the California sun motivated another job search. Took a job at San Diego State University in 1973, and haven't wanted to move since. Had two more children. Worked hard to keep the EE curriculum current by introducing new technologies as they developed (microprocessors, CAD tools, multimedia systems, object-oriented programming, Windows programming) and by developing new laboratories (personal computer lab, microprocessor development systems lab, CAD lab, embedded systems lab). Provided consulting/training services to various organizations including General Dynamics, CalTrans, Kodak, and Megatek. In 1986 published a textbook “Principles of Computer Design” that did not revolutionize the EE curriculum as planned, but was used in training courses at Bell Labs. Chairman of the Electrical Engineering Department from 1989 to 1994. Head the Software Engineering sector of the SDSU Defense Conversion Program from 1994 to 1998. Led the development of a B.S. program in Computer Engineering and served as coordinator of the program since its inception in 1998. Continue to enjoy working with students, solving problems, and playing tennis, racquetball, and basketball.
Currently teaching courses in C programming, object oriented programming, GUI and graphics programming, embedded systems, databases and web programming. I am in the process of developing a new undergraduate instructional laboratory based on the Freescale microcontrollers in the HCS12 family. I am also devoting a good deal of effort to developing a new senior/graduate course that spans the range of modern technologies for representing, storing, accessing and communicating data. The course includes file systems, serialization, XML, Unicode, LINQ, relational databases, web applications and web services. Traditionally these topics would be covered in several courses, and students are not able to take all of them. The objective of this course is to present all of these technologies in sufficient depth for students to understand the fundamental principles involved, and at the same time to provide sufficient detail for students to use these technologies in developing significant applications.
Research Interests
I did my M.S. and PhD work under the supervision of Tom Windeknecht, and through him developed a lifelong fascination with mathematical modeling, which has always been at the heart of my research interests. My most rewarding research project involved the phenomena of metastable operation, which is the indeterminate behavior exhibited by digital devices when processing asynchronous inputs. A group of researchers at Washington University published oscilloscope traces of metastable operation and focused attention on the failure of digital systems caused by this phenomena. This prompted a number of researchers to look for a way to process asynchronous inputs that would eliminate system failure due to metastable operation. I was able to provide a convincing proof based on functional analysis that metastable operation cannot be avoided. Researchers today focus on ways to minimize the effects of metastable operation rather than on ways to avoid it. I am currently interested in analyzing traffic flow, finding a winning strategy for the game of Chomp, and developing a new approach to analyzing elementary probability problems.
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