tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60126479702118876932024-02-02T09:49:31.370-05:00University of Cincinnati's Computing HistoryThis research reflects our own institutional history and the impact that UC's facutly, staff, and alumni have had on the computing field since the first computers. From the arts to medicine and business to science, we are helping to push the future of computing technology.Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.comBlogger98125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-88803294431868720752017-07-18T22:27:00.002-04:002017-07-21T10:34:45.527-04:00A old time mechanical engineer graduate and eventual head remembers what true computing was<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
James Thorpe (Jan 26, 2008; edited for clarity)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
I am a UC
graduate, ME 1952, and served as UC's ME department Head for ten years and a
faculty member for 25 years retiring in 1992. It is too bad Jack Lemon died
because he might have been very useful to you in reviving the legacy of SDRC<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I solved
the non-linear, integral equations (which were a part of my PhD dissertation),
numerically, on the University of Pittsburgh's IBM 650 (located on the top
floor of the Cathedral of Learning) in 1960. Half of the thickness of my
dissertation consisted of the SOAP (machine language) program that took me
weeks to write. I would actually turn this behemoth on at 1 AM every morning
after leaving my wife and two small children to drive to the Oakland campus
(generally through snow and ice). <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
After
reading my huge deck of punch cards into the 650 I would then wait for several
hours of numerical iterations to see if the machine would converge on the
solutions (which would generally take several hours to run during which time I
would pray that the machine would continue to operate). This was several years
before any interpretive languages (like FORTRAN) were developed.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I still remember when the first of these
interpretive languages (called WOLONTIS) was developed and I consider it a miracle
that the program I wrote actually worked (most of the time) and produced
excellent data from which I could compare with the experimental data that I had
taken in the University of Pittsburgh's ME Lab. Sometimes the computer would
not converge on the solution but diverged instead. This was generally because
the starting value of the program (which had to be guessed at) turned out to be
a poor guess. Sometimes this would happen at 3 or 4 AM. You can imagine my
frustration when this happened. I would then have to start all over with a new
guess.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I spent
about 6 weeks doing this in the year 1960 (almost 50 years ago). It was such a
draining experience that I was actually turned off with computers for many
years. Just think, this problem can be easily programmed today and it would
probably only take seconds, or at the most minutes, to run. But the saving
grace is that I actually am one of the few people still alive who knows how the
computer really works! I hope to god that some of the computer programs that I
helped to write during the late 50's for determining the hottest channel in the
nuclear core of a reactor have been renovated but I wouldn’t be surprised if
they have not. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
I hope
that my message turns out to be useful to you because I have said all that I
care to say about computers except that it really irks me to hear people refer
to electronic devices (such as the one I am using to send you this message) as
Computers.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sincerely yours, James F. Thorpe</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt7neafrgrXwbAXR_WcDMYYIjWJGZu3Oal2F9aiCna8l0Iu7cepljdgGABCax_wV1O4RaO4KWaXB7W4p9zIaenW9dCDiW9vFuKsKw7TaUbilutKHFelxn1XWtjpHzH2AuECjitDL3zSF7Y/s1600/ThorpeJim.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="292" data-original-width="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt7neafrgrXwbAXR_WcDMYYIjWJGZu3Oal2F9aiCna8l0Iu7cepljdgGABCax_wV1O4RaO4KWaXB7W4p9zIaenW9dCDiW9vFuKsKw7TaUbilutKHFelxn1XWtjpHzH2AuECjitDL3zSF7Y/s1600/ThorpeJim.PNG" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-5505202123270753632017-07-18T22:20:00.000-04:002017-07-21T10:34:31.402-04:00A couple of statisticians help UC move into the forefront of social sciences and beyond<div class="MsoNormal">
Amin R. Shafie (interviewed June 20, 2008)<o:p></o:p></div>
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Amin Shafie received his BS and MS degrees (1964 and 1966)
in mathematics from the University of Cincinnati. He also did graduate work toward
a PhD degree (ABD). His family and relatives had over 10 degrees from UC. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Shafie started to work for UC in the summer of 1968 having
been granted an assistantship to work for Jason Lemon at SDRC as a programmer.
He remembered that the company started out with two software products called
BEST-1 and BEST-2. He planned on starting course work on his PhD in math starting
in the coming Fall Quarter. One of his classmates was Paul Messina. His job
titles were Assistant Director of Software Licensing and Business Relations as
well as Assistant Director of Computing of Instruction and Research IT
Services.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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After Messina left UC, Shafie began working for the UC
computing center full-time. His area of work was in <span class="st">bio-statistical
development which made use of his math skills and his interest in science. UC’s
College of Medicine had a need for people to help with analyzing the data from
many of their experimental trials that they were conducting. That role had been
recently vacated when Ted Sterling and Sy Pollack who left UC in 1966. </span>UC
was one of the first institutions to develop statistical software, but had no
entrepreneur to take them to the next level. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Shafie was interviewed by Al Tuchfarber (interviewed Feb 6,
2008; no audio; covered below) who was a graduate student in the Political
Science department who was also doing bio-statistics for the Medical Computing
Center’s Medical (MCC) Computing Services (MCS) division. Tuchfarber eventually
completed his PhD and took on additional roles at UC and went on to become a
professor of political science. When Shafie started working in MCS they were
using some of the statistical routines that Sterling and Pollack had developed
in the Medcomp project (see post “The beginnings of medical computing at UC and
its first programmers”). They also used UCLA’s BMD (later BMDP) and were one of
the earliest users of SAS (<span class="st">statistical analysis system</span>)
which came out of North Carolina. UC also uses SPSS (Statistical Package for
the Social Sciences) which was developed by 3 Stanford students in 1968 who
couldn’t find any tools to do the kind of statistical analysis <span class="st">related
to political and social sciences. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="st">John Varady was brought in to oversee
computing at UC in 1966 in part because of his strong bio-statistical background.
</span>After
he left, Bob Caster was put in charge of the computing facilities at UC. Eventually,
Shafie’s role moved from being only for the College of Medicine to serving the
university-at-large. He became one of the resident data analysts at UC and he
taught a seminar course on statistical analysis using a computer-oriented approach
which was taken from a book title written by AA Afifi. The statistics group started
accumulation a large library of statistical routines and packages that could be
used by everyone. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Shafie worked with SAS Graph (I used this when I was at
CG&E) and one of the early versions had a bug and one of his student
workers figured out what was causing it and fixed it. They contacted SAS to
tell about it. Later, that student went to work for SAS. UC was his life and he
really enjoyed working here and all the challenges that it presented. He got
involved in several email systems including the one that came with BITNET.
Later UC used UCLA/MAIL*. Shafie help led an effort to develop UC’s homegrown
email system called Bearcat Online (BOL).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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*“UCLA/MAIL Now Available for Testing on TSO”, <b>Technical Update</b>, Summer-1991 V17N4 –
This was being incorporated into UCMAIL system, but could be used independently
for TSO users.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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UC got into software licensing early on and Shafie worked on
the administration of this. It was a complex system to navigate through as all
vendors had a different set of parameters that they worked under. Academic
influence over IT has changed to include the use of technology to enhance
education with includes teaching labs. He was involved in establishing UC’s
first IBM PC computer lab located in 149 McMicken Hall and first desktop
publishing lab using Apple Macs in Annie Laws Auditorium which now where the
CECH Library extension is located.*<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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*<b>Technical Update</b>
Oct 1, 1987 V14N1 – The was a PC lab with 32 computers plus 16 VAX workstations.
The Mac lab was scheduled to open in the Winter-1998 Quarter. It had 16 Macs,
24 PCs, and VAX connectivity. Shafie mentioned how DEC (king of the
mini-computer) missed the PC revolution how he showed a DEC sales person that
no one was using the VAX machines, but instead the PCs. DEC did come out with
its own PC called the Rainbow, but it was too little too late and eventually
they were bought out by Compaq which was then bought out by HP.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<u>Bob Caster:<o:p></o:p></u></div>
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Shafie greatly admired Caster for his pioneering spirit and
leadership. Caster created a unique culture amongst the techies and support groups
who worked for him and when he left there was some bitterness toward the
administration. Caster dared to challenge the conventual wisdom and moved away
from IBM and brought in the 7<sup>th</sup> Amdahl computer produced. Caster’s
organization became the contractor for all of the EPA. One of the contracts
that Shafie worked on was a survey of dental practices and education in US. The
contracts division was very big, but after Caster left, the division slowly dissipated
and once UC lost the EPA contract he disappeared after the last contract was
fulfilled.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Educom: <o:p></o:p></u></div>
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Educom was the administrative side of computing in higher
education and Bob Caster was very involved in this organization. In 1993 UC was
host for their annual conference and Shafie was the local chair. On the
academic side there was CAUSE and in 1998 Educom and CAUSE joined together to
create EduCause. (Shafie remembered attending one of the national conferences
in Washington DC which was probably the held in 1988. Duke University has some
historical records pertaining to Educom <a href="http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/uaeducom/"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;">-- </span>library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/uaeducom</a>).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<u>ACM SIG UCCS:<o:p></o:p></u></div>
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In the Fall of 1990, Shafie chaired ACM The Special Interest
Group on University and College Computing Services (SIGUCCS) Conference which
was held in Cincinnati. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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1. “<i>Technical Update</i>
Takes SIGUCCS Newsletter Award”Technical Update Nov 2, 1987 V14N2 – at the 9<sup>th</sup>
annual ACM SIGUCCS Newsletter Contest.<o:p></o:p></div>
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2. “1990 ACM/SIGUCCS Conference in Cincinnati 30 September –
3 October”, Technical Update, Winter 1989-90, V16N2 – Amin Shafie, Assistant
Director of Academic Computing Services was the chair. The theme was “New
Centerings in Computing Services.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3. “Moving BITnet Users from One Operating System to
Another: Problems and Solution”, Ben Hawkins, Programmer/Analyst, Academic
Computing Services, University of Cincinnati; this paper was for the 1990 ACM
SIGUCCS Conference held in Cincinnati.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
4. “<i>Connect</i> News”,
Technical Update, Winter 1990-91, V17N2 – <i>Connect</i>
magazine was awarded excellence for editorial writing. Dennis Ryan was the person
in-charge of the group.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<u>OHECC:<o:p></o:p></u></div>
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Ohio Higher Education Computing Council <span class="st">(OHECC) was founded in 1971</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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/**************************<o:p></o:p></div>
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Al Tuchfarber (interviewed Feb 6, 2008, no audio)<o:p></o:p></div>
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He was a graduate of Moeller High School in 1965<o:p></o:p></div>
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He worked at UC from Jun 1970 – Jan 2009 <o:p></o:p></div>
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Professor of Political Science<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Director Institute for Policy Research<o:p></o:p></div>
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Founder/Director Institute for Health Policy & Health
Services Research<o:p></o:p></div>
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In 1976, he was a member of the ORVYL Users Group member and
a member of Academic Computing Services (ACS) and an adjunct assistant
professor of political science.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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He was in charge of the Behavioral Sciences Lab for a number
of years as well.<o:p></o:p></div>
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</div>
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The two paragraphs below are based off of the following two article.</div>
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<u>“Behavioral
Science Laboratory Offers Statistics and Seminars”, The News Record, Oct 10,
1972 <o:p></o:p></u></div>
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<u>“BSL: A Valuable Resource”, SWORCC Off Line Dec 1976 V1N7 <o:p></o:p></u></div>
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<br /></div>
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BSL
was formed in 1971 by Bob Wessel who was the Vice Provost for Graduate Studies
and Bill Klecka who was a political science professor. Klecka became the
director in 1972 and had come from Northwestern University and he modeled UC’s
center after theirs. The center handled between 175-200 clients a month during
the school year. Besides Al Tuchfarber, assistant director, Mike Dreskin, chief
statistical consultant, and Sandy Kraus, office supervisor helped oversee the
day-to-day operation and the student workers. Shafie said that Klecka was a
pioneer and went on to become<span class="st"> a systems analyst at Procter &
Gamble after a dispute that occurred at UC.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />
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Behavioral
Sciences Laboratory was designed for students and faculty members who wanted
help with research projects or with data collection for unfunded research
studies. It was originally located on the 14<sup>th</sup> floor of Crosley
Tower then moved to the Pharmacy Building. The staff’s job was to teach users
the different computing techniques and programs for their work. The center served
as a repository for census data as well as public opinion studies, voting
records, election data, and a host of other data related to the social
sciences. It also has several outside clients such as the Cincinnati Metro,
Cincinnati City Manager’s Office, Urban League, and several law enforcement
organizations. The center also conducted seminars on the different statistical
tools that UC had. Shafie was involved in teaching some of those seminars.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCzIG3u7H5khGqfENGl25667OwWscRvcjyXEpCUsf5ewb-kT7_hWSDXSxcjyik1c3F9xUrr19FFIqT8o_RdHxnAvf86NPE20ApnYJZmScyeEE3PRdqRVgQUzgafeUtVhQmwaCJeFyF58BG/s1600/DSCF0006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCzIG3u7H5khGqfENGl25667OwWscRvcjyXEpCUsf5ewb-kT7_hWSDXSxcjyik1c3F9xUrr19FFIqT8o_RdHxnAvf86NPE20ApnYJZmScyeEE3PRdqRVgQUzgafeUtVhQmwaCJeFyF58BG/s320/DSCF0006.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Amin Sharie</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJlzzfKyrkbWnbd-Pzb5qBk86DdM98hqR8vWiB12J0LQ2NO1fGTTHO_t2734qpQH7C0XVcbK4PtbVkeNKtNL2Q9JnNVFKCARd6nPsc-ipAwLjz0je5t3reBNCiHdL21meUSVDSpDGcQnZq/s1600/Tuchfaraber-1976Sworccoffline.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="231" data-original-width="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJlzzfKyrkbWnbd-Pzb5qBk86DdM98hqR8vWiB12J0LQ2NO1fGTTHO_t2734qpQH7C0XVcbK4PtbVkeNKtNL2Q9JnNVFKCARd6nPsc-ipAwLjz0je5t3reBNCiHdL21meUSVDSpDGcQnZq/s1600/Tuchfaraber-1976Sworccoffline.PNG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Al Tuchfarber from the 1976 SWORCC Offline article</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-50548837647981047552017-07-17T17:50:00.000-04:002019-05-09T06:49:15.851-04:00The day will come when we’re going to change, but not today<div class="MsoNormal">
Bruce McBreen (interviewed July 17, 2007)<o:p></o:p><br />
1940 - Aug 18, 2014</div>
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<br /></div>
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Bruce McBreen graduated from Roger Bacon High School in 1958
(same year UC got its first computer and my high school). From high school, he went straight to work
for the city of Cincinnati in their start-up data processing (DP) department. Cincinnati
had unit record equipment (possibly the model 20). He went to unit record
school and later learned how to program in RPG (Report Program Generator) which
was the language developed for the IBM 1401 which the Administrative Data
Processing (ADP) department at UC had. One the systems that he supported at the
city’s DP department was called Project CLEAR which was a Police Network system
and used RCA Spectra 70 equipment with a tape operating system. Because of the
nature of the OS, programs took a longtime to compile. He was working on a
system for doing Cincinnati’s income tax when his brother called and told him
about a position at UC and after 10 years he decided it was the day for a
change. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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McBreen was hired in 1968 by Bob Caster as a programmer and
soon after he started working on his accounting degree in UC’s Evening College which
took 8 years. UC had just gotten their IBM 360/40 and 1410 (or 1401). He programmed
in PL/1. Some COBOL was being used, but IBM had influenced UC to move toward
this language. He liked programming with PL/1. Coding back in those days was
multiple-step process. The programmer would handwrite code on an IBM coding pad
(I remember them) and then handed them to the keypunch operators who were
mostly women. The keypunch operators were located in the sub-basement of
Beecher Hall (where University Pavilion is located) and the programmers were in
Proctor Hall (College of Nursing) so a courier system was put in place. Once
the cards were returned to the programmers the code had to be tested for
correctness assuming it had compiled cleanly in the first place. Color-coded
top cards were used to indicate jobs that had priority with different colors
used on different days. It wasn’t until the 1990s that UC got rid of their
keypunch machines. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When SWORCC was formed in 1972, he found himself driving
back and forth between UC and Miami U a fair amount of time. He was also
involved in the DARS student registration system that was developed at Miami
University by Jack Southard. His team worked on the DARS Priority Registration
System. It allowed an authorized person to access student records using a CICS
online terminal via their social security number so that person could correct
scheduling errors. McBreen was the project manager, Tom Koerner was the systems
analyst, and Roger Hess was the programmer on this project [1]. In 1976 McBreen
was promoted to Assistant Director of the Computer Systems Division along with
Mel Yudofsky and Howard Wooods and by 1979, McBreen was the supervisor of new
systems development. It was written in PL/1 using an ISAM file structure. UC
started using CICS by 1973 [2] and like any new software product for the time, the
manuals* were poorly written (that was the norm back in those days and there was
no Internet to search for information or examples). It was a lot of
trial-and-error, but they got it to work. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
*Tech-writers like MaryRita Cooper (see my post <i>Her goal was to be a writer, but she become a techie who wrote</i>) have a unique skill set that many tech companies began to recognize as an important component to selling successful software products in the 1980s and 90s. If customers can't figure out how to use your product in a reasonable amount of time, they will move to a competitor even if that product is not as good because at least they can figure out how to get it to work. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
During the development of the student system, McBreen would
work through the night if necessary to keep it on track. His wife would feel his
toothbrush to see if he came home that night. Too many administrators in the
mix and deadlines that made no sense. Student system was a CICS system written
in PL/1 using VSAM file system and went online in 1980. McBreen had a great
group of systems programmers working for him. Besides managing systems that
were developed at UC, he was also involved the purchasing of systems and in
particular the CUFS system. He was involved the trips to evaluate the system. He
wasn’t convinced that the system was right for UC, but in the end the committee
did vote for it. This was the last big thing he was involved in with the university
side of UC. McBreen mentioned, that even with CUFS, the financial department at
UC still had their own system which entailed them downloading from the
mainframe to their mini-computer system. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Around 1981-82, he was asked to move to the Hospital to help
with problems with the computing system. Going to hospital was a big role
change for him. Part of the problem was the computer needed more memory, but they
also had to change the timeout period that was set for how long a terminal
session could hold unto the memory. Basically, users were leaving their
terminals that still had a display of information which amounted to a lock on
the system. Another challenge he encountered was old equipment and systems that
administrators wanted to keep going. One day he asked a question about why not
upgrade and the response was “<i>The day
will come when we’re going to change, but not today.” </i>Of course, the
problem was (and is even so today) nobody (or at least it seems that way) has
the time, money, and willingness to address current problems, especially when
things seem to be working smoothly enough. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
McBreen talked about a medical system called the Health
Information System (HIS) that was developed UC’s Contract Services Division
(CSD) starting in 1980. It also was a CICS system. [3] UC then licensed the
code so it could be sold with UC getting a share of the royalties. Eventually, LanVision
systems grew out of that endeavor and was eventually folded in Streamline
Health Solutions. The people involved with this were: Chris Cameron, Jack
Cunningham, Vicki Weber, Teresa Drewes, Judy Taylor, Jim Lohman, Malati Bagadi,
Mark Strum, and Bob Laux (interviewed Sep 21, 2006). LanVision is also
mentioned in the UC Medical Center Plans for IAIMS 2002 report with University
Hospital being the beta site for LanVision’s accessANYware electronic medical
record (EMR) application.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Two other issues that he got involved with was should UC
computing be a centralized or decentralized system and how do handle
charge-backs to departments that use your services. These are still issues even
today within companies. Today, UC is a federated system with colleges having independence
to make IT-related decisions, but coordination is done between both the administrative
side of the university and the college. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When PCs came more and more into play some of the mystery of
computing disappeared and now the masses could learn it on their own and
develop their own applications. McBreen was a mainframe guru and he saw how
things were changing and passing him by. In 1990, he began working for the
hospital on a part-time basis until in 1996 that day had finally come for a
more permanent life change. In his thirty-eight year career, he saw computing
move from pre-computer days using unit record equipment to the mainframe
(keypunching and batch jobs to online programming using CICS) to mini-computers
and finally PCs. Learning went from “figure it out yourself” because manuals
were incomplete to just google it. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>References:<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
[1] “DARS On-Line Error Correction”, SWORCC OffLine June
1975, V1N6<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
[2] Medical Computing Services Advisory Committee Meeting,
June 27, 1973<o:p></o:p></div>
[3] “Major Milestone Met on Schedule on UCCC Health
Department Contract”, UCCC Newsletter, March-April, 1981 V2N2.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-16268947805759140512017-07-11T21:47:00.002-04:002017-07-18T20:33:06.809-04:00He helped led Cincom to its 50th anniversary <div class="MsoNormal">
Jerry Shawhan (interviewed July 20, 2007)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He earned his BS degree (1958) in Metallurgical Engineering
and his Ph.D. (1966) in Mathematics from the UC. Dissertation: Contributions to
the Theory of Tensor Products on Linear Equations and Linear Inequalities;
Advisor: Arno Jaeger<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>A timeline of his career of UC (dates are based up of
News Record articles, Tech Update Newsletter, and interview; dates may not be
exact, but are close):<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1961 – begins working for UC as an assistant registrar <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1966 – completes his PhD in math<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1967 – Assistant VP for Academic Affairs under Hoke Greene
(Stella Potter and Hoke S. Greene Scholarship in Chemistry)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1968 – Director of Institutional Studies & Assistant
Professor of Mathematics<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1970 – Chaired task force to study Fall quarter re-opening
of classes after the riots that forced UC to close in May as a result of the
Kent State shootings which occurred on May 4, 1970. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1971 – worked for the Ohio Board of Regents <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1975 – served on the Raymond Walters College (now UC Blue
Ash) Executive Committee and the RWC Buildings & Grounds subcommittee<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1978 – Assistant Director for Business Affairs working under
Mike Ullman (who became the CEO of J.C. Penney and was UC’s commencement
speaker in 2006 the year my 2<sup>nd</sup> oldest son graduated from UC)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1982 – Director of Campus Planning and Construction<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1983 – Assistant VP for Business Affairs and Director of
Campus Planning & Construction; adjunct associate professor of mathematics;
retires from UC and starts a new career at Cincom Systems as treasurer and
group executive<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jerry Shawhan grew up in Madisonville. One of his best
friends and Tom Nies and they played on the same knothole baseball team as kids
when they were 9-10 years old. Shawhan was a pitcher and Nies was a 3<sup>rd</sup>
baseman on the team. Their friendship continued for a life time even after they
had started their new careers after college. Shawhan graduated from Purcell
High School in 1953 at the age of 15 as a product of the Latin school system
(see interview with Tom Nies) where he started at St. Francis de Sales Grade
School. He took a test in the 6<sup>th</sup> grade which qualified for this
special program. Then for one year he went to St. Francis de Sales completing both
7<sup>th</sup> and 8<sup>th</sup> grades. Then he moved onto Purcell He then
entered Purcell as a sophomore and completed his schooling in three years. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Shawhan got a scholarship to UC for his freshman year, but
did not really know what he wanted to do in terms of a major and with him life.
He cooped at NCR (then in Dayton) and describe it as a “tremendous experience”.
Shawhan did 4 coops at NCR Metallurgical Research Lab and worked on the manufacturing
of the magnetic cores for the first NCR computers. One of his “fun tasks” was
to make a tic-tac-toe machines using those cores for testing purposes. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After graduation, he worked for R.K. LeBlond Machine Tool
Company for a year. The LeBlond facility is now the site of the Rookwood Pavilion
in Norwood and the old smoke stack is still standing. After the experience, it
convinced him that being a metallurgical engineer was not going to his career. He
discovered that he loved math and figured he should become a math teacher so he
set about pursuing that goal. He went back to graduate school full-time in 1959
for his first two years working on his PhD in math. However, he ran out of
money and he was asked to teach math in A&S, as luck would have it, the
registrar at UC who offered him a job as an assistant registrar for more money.
That experience is what really started him on his life-long administrative career.
He had UC basketball logos on his office computer and was a loyal fan. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He started as a student during the post-Korean War period
and all universities were experiencing unprecedented growth which presented
many challenges and that included UC. More students were entering college and
space was limited. One of his jobs was to assign classrooms for the courses. Shawhan
remembers that in 1959 UC stated mail-in registration system. He also remembers
Bob Hoffer who was the assistant VP for Business under Ralph Bursiek who was a
UC executive vice-president (Bursiek served UC for 50 years [1]). One-day
Hoffer took him to the top floor of Van Wormer where the administrative
computing department had their punched card machines. He worked at UC from
1961-83 and taught as a math adjunct professor during that time as well. He
taught calculus and differential equations. Shawhan worked for a while under
Mike Ullman and found him to be a very sharp minded person and great leader. Shawhan
also knew who my father-in-law was. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
[1] The News Record, Friday, January 9, 1976<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Cincom:<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1983 Tom Nies needed an upper level administrator to oversee
the business side of Cincom so Shawhan left UC to work with his old friend. He
had no planned on leaving UC, but this career moved worked out better than he
had anticipated. The work was new and exciting for him and he commented that it
was that way when he had first started working at UC back in 1961. When he came
to Cincom, one the first tasks that he was involved with was upgrading Cincom’s
IBM computer system. At the time of the interview, Cincom was involved with web
hosting, call center management, Smalltalk, outsourcing, SOX and quality
related software development, knowledge-based systems, and SAP development. At
the time of the interview, he was in his 25<sup>th</sup> year at Cincom.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>I started work for
Cincom in 1985 and left in 1989 and returned in 1993 for a little over a year.
Cincom had earned a good reputation for its database and development tools in
the mainframe arena and I taught those products to our customer base traveling
mostly in the US and Canada. Cincom will celebrates it 50th anniversary in 2018.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u>People mentioned and
UC’s trip to becoming a state-funded institution:<o:p></o:p></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>C. Tom Innis:<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Taught stats in Business Administration and for a while
worked for Shawhan<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Several of the reports he wrote for Shawhan are listed
below:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1. Report on general purpose classroom space at the University
of Cincinnati (University of Cincinnati. Dept. of Institutional Studies), 1969<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2. Report on class size analysis, autumn quarter, 1969-70
(University of Cincinnati. Dept. of Institutional Studies), 1969<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3. Report on survival data for undergraduate students
(University of Cincinnati. Dept. of Institutional Studies), 1973<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Paul Herget:<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He knew Paul Herget and referred to him as “machine language
Paul” because of his ability to program in machine language which would have been
very difficult to do even today. He felt Herget was a genius and said the mathematics
and computer programs he had developed for keeping track of minor planets was
revolutionary for its time. Jerry would have lunch with Paul at the UC Faculty
Club and they had a lot of great conversations on a wide variety of subjects. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Warren Bennis and Paul Herget didn’t get along. (Part of
that might have been because of what Herget saw as the eventual loss of the Observatory’s
independence as UC creep toward becoming a state institution. In 1979, the
Observatory was moved under the control of the Physics department and
eventually complete independence in the late 1990s.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Don Bruegman (see interview with Ron Flaxmeyer): <o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Shawhan worked with Don Bruegmann (SWORCC) on the design of
some the administrative and financial systems that were used at UC. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Walter Baude:<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Shawhan took an econ class from him. He was hard of seeing,
but that did not stop him from trying to write a program that could model the
stock market and thus help in predicting its highs and lows. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Warren Bennis:<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.aspx?id=20204">www.uc.edu/news/NR.aspx?id=20204</a>
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Date: 8/3/2014<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The article notes that Bennis had recently passed away and
that he led the university its arduous journey in becoming a state institution
in 1977. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On another note, I found a copy of the contract between UC
and Miami that established the Southwest Ohio Regional Computer Center
(SWORCC). It was signed on August 16, 1972 by Bennis and Ralph Bursiek along with
their Miami University counterparts who signed the copy the next day. The agreement
had gone into effect on July 1, 1972 and had a termination date of June 30,
1975. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>A brief history of UC becoming a state supported university:<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 1939 some of the public universities in Ohio (Bowling
Green State University, Kent State University, Ohio University, Miami
University, and The Ohio State University) banded together to create the Inter-University
Council (IUC <a href="http://www.iuc-ohio.org/">www.iuc-ohio.org</a>) for their shared
benefit. Today, there are 14 institutions including UC. In 1963, the Ohio
General Assembly passed HB 214 creating the Ohio Board of Regents as the
state’s higher education planning and coordinating board. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
During multiple interviews, people talked about UC becoming
a part of the University System of Ohio (USO). I knew UC became a state
institution in 1977, but there had been a lot of transitioning for the previous
10 years that I never really realized. Warren Bennis was the UC president that
led UC through most of this period and several people have described that a
trying time in terms of UC moving from being a city (Cincinnati) supported
university to a state one. One of the fallouts of this agreement was that the
observatory lost its funding and support from UC which had been part of a deal
made years before. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The following summary comes from the January 9, 1976 News
Record articles: “Senate, House pave way for state control of UC” by Marc
Scheineson and “A brief history of UC’s drive toward full-state status” also by
Scheineson. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The articles detail some of the politics that also came into
play during this period. It appears that UC was hoping to maintain some
autonomy from the State, but basically had to capitulate in order to get the
same funding as other state-supported institutions. The original date for UC to
full-state was July 1, 1976, but that was pushed back a year later. Since UC
had been a Cincinnati-supported institution, the citizens had to approve of
this transition as well. Because I lived in the city, my parents paid a lower
tuition rate than those who lived outside of Cincinnati boundaries. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When Shawhan was in institutional research, one of his jobs
was to get reports on research efforts of the faculty for the state which had
to do with the state’s effort to produce their costing models for when UC would
go fully state. He spent two and half years working in Columbus (1971-73) for
the Ohio Board of Regents helping in this transition.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1967 – State of Ohio provides money to UC for freshmen,
sophomores, all graduate students including in law and medicine. There was no
state money for juniors and seniors except in the College of Pharmacy (then had
an undergrad program) and the College of Nursing and Health.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1971 – UC began the process of renegotiating this subsidy to
include all upper division students.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1977 – HB 744 made UC the 12<sup>th</sup> fully funded
institution in the State of Ohio and Warren Bennis steps down as the president
of the UC. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7lJlMP05Sd6kS0IypDGRjunkK6bxW2uVJAe6WBDWPyYINp3pY4fWhrYetlgTMFa_6SXpxhxFXBeL1K1vPf07L55qAbaIhNDCZc-pI_iw9zPt0F4xQLahJXeadRlBSvE8zlRQjfKU8uNbU/s1600/UCTH_1978-Shawhan.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="341" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7lJlMP05Sd6kS0IypDGRjunkK6bxW2uVJAe6WBDWPyYINp3pY4fWhrYetlgTMFa_6SXpxhxFXBeL1K1vPf07L55qAbaIhNDCZc-pI_iw9zPt0F4xQLahJXeadRlBSvE8zlRQjfKU8uNbU/s320/UCTH_1978-Shawhan.PNG" width="195" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UC This Week, May 23, 1978; Jerry Shawhan and Mike Ullman</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-27276625887709493292017-07-09T14:28:00.000-04:002017-07-13T09:43:23.441-04:00A Computing Education Innovator and Mentor<div class="MsoNormal">
Jeff Gordon (interviewed June 10, 2005 via email by Laura
Waiss, edited by the author for clarity)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the Spring-1979 quarter, I took a programming course in
BASIC from Jeff Gordon. I had taken a couple of FORTRAN classes back in my
undergrad years, but found keypunching a challenge and thus programming no much
fun. The class was taught using TRS-80 (aka Trash-80s) microcomputer using a
cassette tape drive for storing our programs. It was a great class and he was
the person who really helped me move into the computing field. His step-son
would later graduate from our program.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>1. When did you become interested
in computers?</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
I became interested in 1976 when
the first TRS-80 came out. It was a tape based system (no disk drives then) and
I had to design a way to get the tapes to load and save without constantly
pressing the play and record buttons because the tape decks would wear out
otherwise. One of the funny things was that I taught a class at 4pm but
CG&E would change the power grid at around 4:15 pm daily. ...the change in
the grid would be enough for the tape decks to sense it and ruin the tape. I
had to get them to change the grid daily at 4pm on the days I taught, otherwise
the students' work would all be lost.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>2. What degrees do you have? From
what colleges? </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
I have a B.S. in mathematics from
Emory University and an M.Ed. and Ph.D. in mathematics education from the
University of Illinois.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>3. What have you contributed to the
Computer World? </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Probably my most important software
development areas were the Mathematics Exploration Toolkit from IBM....it was
sort of Mathematica for high school students. Nowadays I can't imagine teaching
any high school mathematics without at least a function grapher. We
fundamentally changed the way high school students solve equations.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
My other great achievement was
the computer simulation "Managing the Experience of Labor and
Delivery". It made a lot of money for the University of Cincinnati and has
forced UC to look at how resources are allocated for software development. One
of the arguments I had with our past president was "if I use a computer to
create material which is put on dead wood (books) the faculty gets all the
royalties but if I use that same computer and put it on cheap plastic (CD) the
university gets the lions share." Somewhere that has to be equalized. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>4. What was your 1st computer? When
was this? </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The first computer I worked with
was a TRS-80. My first owned computer was an Apple II+.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>5. What was it like in your
department before computers, and now what changes how they made? </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Before computers, when I would
teach mathematics education, my visual aid was one of those screens that you
pull down and run the blackboard eraser over and it creates a chalk grid for
graphing<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>6. What year did you bring
computers into the college? </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
1977 but one of the most
interesting pieces was I bought a projection screen system and put that in the
front of the room so I could use it as an electronic blackboard. The thing was
made of wood (cabinet) had 3 gun colors in it and projected onto an attached
metalicized reflective screen. When we went to a room full of Apple IIe's in
Blegen (Library) it became very popular. I had a lot of trouble with Purchasing buying
it. They asked, "why are you purchasing the display equipment of a
bar?" And I replied, "because I am sick and tired of using the
projection equipment of a bowling alley." They bought me the projector.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>7. How much did they cost? </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
They were about 2000 apiece...a lot
of money back in 1977 <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>8. How big were they? </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
They weren't that big...the
keyboard housed the computer and the tape drives were external. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>9. Who else was with you that
helped influence, or showed as much interest in bringing in computers? </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
We had a number of faculty who were
interested early adopters. Glenn Markle used them right away.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
(Glenn Markle, Jeff Gordon, and Ted
Fowler all served on masters’ thesis committee.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>10. Were you the 1st department to
have computers? If not, who was? </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
We actually beat Engineering in
creating the first computer lab on campus by about 6 months. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>11. Were you the 1<sup>st</sup> department
to have a network? If not, who was? </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
I think we were. I wasn't on the
college network committee at the time but we were just in the process of
putting in a campus digital phone switch. I overheard our plans to put in a
network and got that temporarily put on hold until the digital switch was in.
Then we didn't have to run our own cables. It was pretty primitive but at the
time seemed very advanced.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>12. What were the hardware
specifications on those computers? </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The TRS-80s had 16K of RAM,
cassette tape drives, and a black and white screen. A few years later we bought
a room full of Apple IIe's...they were color and had floppy disk drives but had
problems of their own.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>13. What kind of software was being
used? </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
We wrote our own software in BASIC <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>14. What kinds of classes were
being taught on the computer? </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
I taught people how to write their
own drill and practice material. Later we included predator prey simulations.
Later MECC was created in Minnesota to make Apple software which we acquired
and used in our methods classes.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
(MECC -- Minnesota Educational
Computing Consortium (1973-99); I attended at MECC’82 conference while I was at
Lockland High School and Steve Jobs was one the keynote speakers with the other
being Alan Kay. I remember he also played the guitar at the reception. One of
the most famous software packages to come from that group was The Oregon Trail.)
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>15. What were the main functions
for the education faculty and students to use the computers? </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
We created our own software at
first. Later we used MECC materials and designed inductive instruction around
it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>16. How many computers were in the
education department? </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Our first lab had 4 computers. Our
Apple lab had about 13. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>17. How many servers? </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Servers weren't available then. In
fact, we didn't get into networked computing until we got a grant from IBM and
moved the lab over to 412a Teachers College. That was in the mid 80s.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>18. What made you decide to bring
computers in to the education department? </b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
I realized their power and that they
could do things better than teachers could in some areas. I am big in letting
the computers do what it does best and letting the teachers do what they do
best.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>19. Who introduced you to
computers? </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Nobody...I introduced myself. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>UC articles relating to Dr. Jeff Gordon and his work at UC<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1984 - he was the acting director of Computer-Based
Instruction Systems (CBIS) which had newly been created. (Sometimes the “B” was
written in lower-case so the organization was written as CbIS)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1989 - the CBIS group joined the Academic Computing Services
Division of UCCC<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1992 - he was
appointed the director of CBIS<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<u>Logo:<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Jeff taught a class on Logo Turtle
Graphics 1983<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
I read a book by Seymour Papert entitled
“Mindstorms: Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas” in 1980. In 1982, I began
teaching Apple Logo to students in grades 4-8 in the summer while teaching
BASIC at the high school level. I remember giving a talk at UC on Logo
programming at a conference that Jeff had put together. I showed a program that
one of my 4<sup>th</sup> graders had coded and people were astounded by what he
had done. That student of my would later attend UC and played on the basketball
team including the 1992 Final Four team. His name is John Jacobs (Withrow-1991).
Today Logo has been replaced by other software tools and is not very prevalent
in the k-12 environment. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_Hlk487348565"><u>Computer-based
Instructional Systems: <o:p></o:p></u></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Computer-based Instructional
Systems, Rick Anderson, Technical Update, Nov 1, 1984, V11 N2<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Computer-based Instructional
Systems (CBIS) was created in 1984 by the “Provost’s Office as a university
consulting group to help colleges, departments, and programs develop
computer-assisted instruction (CAI).” It also had the intention of enhancing
students’ problem-solving skills. There were focus areas of the group:
electronic classrooms, interactive video for instruction or simulations, analog/digital
labs where instruments were directly connected to a computer, and word
processing. Additional areas of help were: finding external funding for large
CAI projects, training faculty who wanted to extend their teaching via microcomputer
usage, and coordinate all university CAI-related work.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Note: Until this time there was no
real organized effort to use PCs at UC. This is partly due to the fact the
mainframe and mini-computers (mostly the DEC VAX) had penetrated the campus and
were well established (with the attitude of why do I want to work with a toy
when I have a real computer that does real data processing). However, that
usage was mostly amongst the engineering, medical, business, and science areas
and not in the realm of the arts, education or non-scientific areas. When I started
teaching at Lockland High School in 1980, they had an IMSAI 8080 that ran a
time-share version of the NorthStar/NorthShare operating system that allowed me
to have two terminals hanging off one processing unit. I taught a BASIC
programming class using this, but next year we created a computer lab that had Apple
II Plus computers. UC was behind the game in terms of microcomputer usage and
it was the artists, designers, writers, educators (such as Jeff Gordon), and
other non-technical professors that embraced this innovative technology. It
took Henry Ford to open the automobile to the masses and it was Steve Jobs and
Bill Gates that did this in the computer arena. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<u>UC Interactive Video Group<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
UCIVG Offers Advice, UC
Microcomputer Monitor, Spring 1986, V2 N3<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The article starts out with two
interesting and different scenarios: one involving a legal interview with an
angry teenager and the other with an elderly man in the emergency room who is
seeking help and has vomited blood (see “The Case of Frank Hall” below.) Jeff Gordon
described the UCIVG as a non-official group at UC, but was hoping to could
become a leader in the creation of interactive videodiscs. The article briefly describes
his work on a project to help law students become better interviewers of
clients. It describes in more detail his work with Larry Mieczkowski who was
the director of Education and Development for Integrated Academic Information
Management Systems of MCIC. This project also involved Jonathan Kopke (who is
covered in more detail in an earlier post) as he worked in the Medical Computer
Services at UC and was a top-notch programmer and one of the writers of the
PiranhaCorp articles. The project they worked on was related to the handling of
gastrointestinal problems. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
A second article in the same
newsletter entitled “Academic and Medical Divisions Still Involved with Micros”
describes the resources that one can use for help in using microcomputers for
their projects. It also mentions the Faculty Staff Computer Literacy Program
which was in its 3<sup>rd</sup> year. It mentions but does not identify that
some of the Medical Computer Services staff were involved with the UCIVG and
were exploring ways to apply artificial intelligence in the medical field. The
contact persons listed were Amin Shafie who was the Assistant Director of the
Academic Computer Services group and Jonathan Kopke, Senior Systems Engineer,
who was the primary microcomputer support the medical campus.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<u>PC PILOT:<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
PC PILOT Available Through Site
License, UC Microcomputer Monitor, Fall 1986, V3 N1<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
PC PILOT was a language for
developing computer-based instruction and it stood for Programming Inquiry,
Learning, or Teaching and there was even an IEEE standard established for it.
There were 19 basic commands which was enough to allow someone to develop a
computer-based learning system. In 1983, PC Pilot was the only such authoring
language around [1]. There were several projects using PC PILOT at UC: the
College of Nursining and Health, the College of Law, and the College of
Medicine through the Medical Center Information and Communications. The medical
college’s project was used to teach Index Medicus (replaced by MEDLINE). UC had
a site license and there was no additional fee for runtime distributions of any
courseware that was developed in PC PILOT. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
[1] CAI Development: The Experience
of the University of North Carolina Courseware Development Project, Dominguez,
F and Hazen, M, CALICO Journal, V5 N2<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<u>Radiology:<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Innovative Radiologist Develops “Image-Base”,
UC Microcomputer Monitor, Spring 1987, V3 N3<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The article is about Hugh Hawkins who
was an assistant clinical professor of radiology. He was dealing with tens of
thousands of radiologic images and trying to find ones that showed cancerous
kidney tumors was similar to finding the proverbial needle in a haystack and
even harder if you had to go through each straw in a sequential manner. With
the help of Jeff Gordon and Jonathan Kopke, he used a videodisc system and a
database to allow him search for a specific image. Together the three
innovators created a BASIC language – dBASE III (with some assembler code) image
retrieval system that had to have rivaled any such system of its day. Hawkins
demonstrated this at a radiologist conference and it was an enormous success.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<u>The Case of Frank Hall:<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Interactive Videodisc Drama Debuts
in College of Medicine Classes, UC Microcomputer Monitor, Spring 1987, V3 N3<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The article starts out with a
patient vomiting and then choking on his own blood. This scenario was called “The
Case of Frank Hall” and it was developed using videodisc technology for medical
schools to help train future doctors. The article goes on to point out that UC
was only one of 3 test sites in the country for this new approach. The use of
videodisc changed the sequential format the tapes required and allowed multiple
situations based upon choices made. It was created by William G. Harless
(passed away in 2014) of the National Library of Medicine who was the creator
of the first natural language computer patient simulator (<a href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/william_harless_death.html">www.nlm.nih.gov/news/william_harless_death.html</a>).
The website has a 1985 picture of Harless and his simulation of Frank Hall. Harless’
budget for the medical drama cost was over $250,000. In this article, Roger
Verny who was the director of the Health Services Library is quoted “The
opportunity to be one of three test sites for this program allows us to
experiment with innovative instructional technology which will benefit student
learning.” That statement holds true today as UC continues to explore innovative
technology that can be used in creative ways teach students of the 21<sup>st</sup>
century. A few years ago, gaming engines were being used to create better
medical simulations. (John Holloway did this – he was one of the speakers at
the 50 Years of Computing at UC conference in 2008.) Today, medical simulations
are being developed for virtual reality headsets as the new technology replaces
the old.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<u>Mary Smith and Dr. Green
Simulation:<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Futuristic Scenario Helps
Information Services Planning, UC Microcomputer Monitor, Spring 1987, V3 N3,
Nancy Lorenzi (This was an overview of her original scenario that appeared in
the 1983 issue of the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
What is interesting about this article
is that it was dated 1995 (12 ahead of its original writing). Some of the key
technologies predicted to come into play were the microcomputer and videodiscs.
Also, handprints that were computered-scan were required for entry into a
restricted areas of the hospital. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<u>IBM HealthCare Consortium:<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
UC Participates in IBM Healthcare
Consortium, UC Microcomputer Monitor, Spring 1988, V4 N3<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
UC was one of 14 universities to
participate in the IBM HealthCare Consortium. Part of the requirement to be in
this group was that they had to develop 5 interactive videodisc programs in the
allied health area that ran on IBM’s InfoWindow computer-aided instruction system.
The configuration included a touch screen and videodisc capability. What UC got
was two of these systems along with the videodiscs that other developed and technical
support and training from IBM. UC had plans to add an additional five systems
in the near future with one of them being attached to a large-screen projector
of use in a large classroom. According to the book written by Christine Bolwell
[2], the InfoWindow system hardware was the standard for those developing
videodisc applications in 1987. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The 5 projects that UC was
sponsoring were:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
1. Labor and Delivery, College of
Nursing and Heath, Dr. Betsy Weiner and Barbara Gilman<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
2. Problem Solving in Pharmacy
Practice, College of Pharmacy, Dr. William Fant (interviewed Feb 12, 2008)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
3. Diagnosis and Management of
Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Adolescents, Adolescent Center for Education,
Ellen Marino and Dr. Joseph L. Rauh<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
4. Blood Product Ordering, Hoxworth
Blood Center, Susan Wilkinson, Dr. Colin Macpherson, and Dr. Kay Zelenski-Low<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
5. A topic in AIDS education to be
decided, East Central AIDS Education and Training Center, Roger Verny<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
[2] “Nursing Education: A Promising
Market for Interactive Video” Bolwell, C, Stewart Publishing, 1990<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<u>Classware:<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
CITS Offers Classware: A Web Environment for Courses,
Technical Update, Fall 1997, V24 N1 <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Classware was introduced to the UC
community in 1997 by the Academic Information Technology Services (AITS) unit
of the Center for Information Technology Services (CITS) and the Center for
Academic Technologies (CAT). This was a homegrown system and was later replaced
by Blackboard. The initial release supported course syllabus, class
assignments, course resources, lecture notes, image databases, chat areas,
automated course-based distribution lists, live audio, and video broadcasts. It
was missing a remote access capability which was being developed according to
the article.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Paul Foster and Jeff Gordon were listed as the contact
persons. Paul has been very heavily involved with Blackboard even today. Jeff
Gordon had put a lot of work into the development of Classware and shortly after
Blackboard was announced as its replacement, Jeff Gordon left UC for Vanderbilt
University. What was happening at UC and businesses alike, was that internally
produced software was being discontinued in favor of 3<sup>rd</sup> party
tools. This allowed businesses to reduce some of their IT costs, but it does
not mean that vendors tools come cheaply or that they were as effective of the
home-grown ones were. UC’s CUFS was replaced by SAP and UniverSIS was replaced
by Oracle’s PeopleSoft (at UC we call it Catalyst). These systems required a
lot of customization to get them to do what UC needed and they still require
substantial support so it is not a 1-to-1 reduction in terms of personnel when
3<sup>rd</sup> party software is purchased.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCUPtqmQvyPzTkIZe4IFHKpRWNH8UlBQ2FbZ_GyraMn-o2XVEP9BwvXumGbKYyy5BXy4sHTfe3zyLq5taAkJVbga9SObBpNIyofpML_ThSEphy-wnHvEVn8o79fqqNGnMjgGBNTbite_6w/s1600/JeffGordon-RichardAnderson-1986UCMMV2N3.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="383" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCUPtqmQvyPzTkIZe4IFHKpRWNH8UlBQ2FbZ_GyraMn-o2XVEP9BwvXumGbKYyy5BXy4sHTfe3zyLq5taAkJVbga9SObBpNIyofpML_ThSEphy-wnHvEVn8o79fqqNGnMjgGBNTbite_6w/s320/JeffGordon-RichardAnderson-1986UCMMV2N3.PNG" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jeff Gordon (left) and Richard Anderson (right)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAkf9fZq1Rn5DgGXfJ446L8og0kZk-Qa4kMvxEMPKQKMrsJ944yPvjbUcBnLiMGUe0rFWPlkjOrgA8q3k4PvRqI7H5kFlvWyi4nV1FOh1CykavIIC4z2EPRn84k_UTq_bjay1tFqmglLL5/s1600/Kopke-LarryMieczkowski.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="561" data-original-width="386" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAkf9fZq1Rn5DgGXfJ446L8og0kZk-Qa4kMvxEMPKQKMrsJ944yPvjbUcBnLiMGUe0rFWPlkjOrgA8q3k4PvRqI7H5kFlvWyi4nV1FOh1CykavIIC4z2EPRn84k_UTq_bjay1tFqmglLL5/s320/Kopke-LarryMieczkowski.PNG" width="220" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Larry Mieczkowski (foreground) and Jonathan Kopke (background)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-48882006842312225022017-07-08T15:39:00.001-04:002017-07-13T09:43:12.458-04:00An alum who became a leader in the tech field and was a great-grand child of a Bearcat <div class="MsoNormal">
Steve Cross (interviewed June 26, 2006)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1974 he graduated from UC. His major was in electrical
engineering with an emphasis on control theory<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He grew up the Cleveland area, but his parents were from
here. His father (1950 chemical engineer), his two brothers (law school and
medical school), and wife all graduated from UC. He had a nephew and niece who
were attending UC at the time of this interview. His cousin, Karen Monzel, was
the associate dean in DAAP. But the family link to UC goes back to the late
1800s as his great grandfather went to medical school after the Civil War
graduating from UC in 1873. He was a surgeon or “barber” during the Civil War. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When he was a senior at Madison High School, he didn’t
really know what he wanted to do, but his math teacher, recommended he go to
engineering college. UC was the right distance away from the Cleveland area and
he had some family in the Cincinnati area which did help. His girlfriend (now
wife) went to Miami University and switched to UC after her freshman year. He
felt cooping was a good component of his education, but tried to stay in the
Cincinnati area for his coops to be near her. (True love) He did two coops at
the medical school. Part of his duties were to support the medical broadcasting
station and he even filmed surgeries that would later be broadcasted over the
system. His last coop was a double coop as a digital design engineer for a
small company designing a system for testing motors. That experience well
prepared him for a Boolean algebra and digital design course he took
afterwards. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During his pre-junior year (engineer is a 5-year coop
program) he took his first programming class. It was a 1-credit hour course in
FORTRAN. His instructor worked nights at the computer center. Steve learned a
lot about infinite DO loops (and humility) as he managed to crash the computer
one evening when his instructor was on duty. He may not have done as well as he
would have liked, but his interest in programming continued. He would go to Crosley
Tower where there was a teletype machine and worked on developing his FORTRAN
skills. (I remember taking a FORTRAN course from the math department in the
summer of 1974 and I would go to Crosley and used the teletype machine because
it was better than having to keypunch your code.) <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Like a lot of those that I interviewed, the Vietnam War influenced
his career. In 1969, he had a low draft number so he joined the Air Force ROTC
at UC. The commander of the unit was send down from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
to help recruit engineers for the military. It turned out to an excellent
choice for him. His first assignment was at Wright-Patt. His first boss called
him up and told him he would be a software engineer. He started out coding in
assembly language coding for radar systems and embedded devices. He started
working on his master’s degree during that time starting at Ohio State, but
then transferring to the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT). He also
became a test pilot, but flew in the back seat as his eyes were bad, but his
engineering skills were what the Air Force wanted. After that he was asked if
he would like to pursue his PhD and so he settled on the University of Illinois.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The associate dean of engineering was Bob Delcamp (Dean
Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering, passed away on
Saturday, January 7, 2012, at the age of 92 -- <a href="http://ceas.uc.edu/news/delcamp.html">http://ceas.uc.edu/news/delcamp.html</a>).
Delcamp was Cross’ father’s chemistry instructor. Cross switched majors several
times and Delcamp suggested he take a few psychology courses to learn more
about the human factors side of engineering. His <span class="vmod">doctoral
research was on the man-machine interface as related to the planes and the
pilots who flew them. He found himself getting involved in artificial
intelligence (AI) particularly in </span>man-machine decision making<span class="vmod">. He went back to AFIT and taught for them where he created a series
of courses related to AI. He worked with someone from the army who had worked
in natural language processing and they both worked well together making it an
exciting time for some teaching new ground-breaking courses. </span>He shared
an office with Hal Carter (interviewed June 5, 2005 by my son Brian) while at
AFIT. Carter was the head of the Electric and Computing Engineering department at
UC and while at AFIT, he helped Cross sell the need for developing an AI
program. <span class="vmod"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="vmod">Later, he was sent to Montgomery, AL for additional
officer and leadership training. It was great experience for him and his
family. He got assigned to </span>DARPA from 1989-94. He was put in charge of
research funding and AI. His group did work for the military during the first
Gulf War (1990-91) developing some sophisticate AI related software. He collaborated
with Pat Winston of MIT and IT expert. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a result of this experience, he got to meet a lot of
leaders in the AI field and was eventually asked to head up the Software
Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University. He spent nine years
at CMU first at their Robotics Institute and then SEI. One of the initiatives
that came out of SEI was called SPIN for Software Improvement Process Network
that Watts Humphrey (father of software quality) developed. (In 2003, Watts
Humphrey came to Cincinnati promoting SPIN and the creation of a local chapter.
I served on its board for a couple of years, but by 2009 it had faded away.) At
SEI he oversaw the creation of the CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration)
which incorporated the best of software engineering and systems engineering principles.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
SEI also pushed architecture representation similar to John
Zachmann’s framework (I attended a couple of different presentations by Zackmann
that he gave at the local DAMA chapter.) and they had one of the early cybersecurity
response team frameworks. SEI was supporting over 100 emergency response teams
chapters in the world by the time he left in 2003. Cross talked about the big
DDOS (distributed denial of service) attack in February 2000 attack (by Michael
Calce aka MafiaBoy). SEI was heavily involved in helping get it resolved. The
goal was to create a grassroots network to help deal with these kinds of
cyberattacks. They also got into financial-related crimes. There were two
secret service agents assigned to them. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">He was recruited by Georgia Tech and moved out of
the IT space and into leading and managing their research efforts</span>Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-32062700585606471492017-07-04T22:56:00.001-04:002019-05-09T06:47:57.777-04:00Her goal was to be a writer, but she become a techie who wrote<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">MaryRita
Cooper (interviewed Juy 9, 2007)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="st"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">She passed away March 7, 2013 at the age of 62; she
was the wife of the late Gary N. Bruce who passed away in 1998.</span></span><em><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><o:p></o:p></span></em></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">MaryRita
grew up in Chattanooga and in 1973 she entered the University of Tennessee at
Chattanooga (she referred to it as UC, but it became part the UT system 1969,
but I am guessing that many native residents used the older name out of habit
and not wanting to let go – I do this as well) where she majored in English. Four
years later, she came to the University of Cincinnati to pursue her graduate
degree in English. As luck would have it, that was when SWORCC was being
dissolved between UC and Miami, but the name still continued as they had a lot
of contracts with the federal government and other entities. There were plenty
of contracts that required people with her writing skills so she was hired as a
graduate assistant to write documentation. Her first office space was in the
storage room located in the sub-sub-basement of Beecher. Eventually, she got
moved up to the sub-basement where the keypunch area was located. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Back
in those days, most computer manuals were impossible to decipher (I can attest
to that). The first manual she wrote was an introduction to IBM JCL (Job
Control Language aka JCHell; I taught a course on this when I worked at
Cincinnati Gas and Electric now Duke Energy). She liked what she did and dropped out of grad school and went
full-time. She was a tech writer for the first 4-5 years. She wrote tutorials
on how to program in WATFOR and WATBOL which were development systems for FORTRAN
and COBOL that were designed to make programming easier for novice programmer.
She worked in the UCCC Academic Computing Services division (ACS) consultants’
office and she found herself answering more and more programming related
questions from students and eventually was asked to become a programming
consultant. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">She
was the editor of the Technical Update from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s it
was her baby. She wanted to use some form of desktop publishing, but a lot of
the work was done by literally cut and paste. When she left the role, UC did
get some software to help with the layout of the newsletter. Her writing skill
and technical were well melded.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
1984, UC had invested in a DEC VAX system which included a system called All-in-1
(or All-in-One) which included email, database, and word processing software
(she thought that it had a spreadsheet component as well, but she wasn’t sure).
She helped CCM convert their DataEase databases to run under the MASS-11 manager
system. (At the time of this interview, UC’s risk management group was still
using DataEase.) She even taught a class on word processing using DEC’s VAX MASS-11
in 1985. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">After
the VAX All-in-1 project, she moved in the team that did desktop support. They
supported WordPerfect, Lotus, DataEase, DOS, and whatever else was thrown their
way. They did installations of any software a user bought and training on the
main software packages that were being used at UC. There was one point were
everybody had to replace their modems so she spent a lot of time supporting
that switch. When the College and University Finacial System, CUFS [1] (replaced
by UCFlex in 2005) all purchase orders now had to done online. She was one of
the persons responsible for ensuring that personnel could connect their PCs to
the mainframe through an ADI (Asynchronous Data Interface) telephone link using
ProComm UC242 [2] in order to use CUFS. This system came online in the 1989-90
fiscal year (July 1, 1989). It was a mainframe based system that was purchased
from American Management Systems and consisted of 3 main areas: accounting,
budget control, and purchasing. UC was the largest institution using CUFS
extended purchasing systems [3]. In preparing to support the new CUFS system UC
upgraded their Amdahl computer to model 5880 which gave UC 40% more capacity
[4]. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">She
enjoyed developing and training computer courses for the academic group, but
that soon changed. Around 1986, president Steger wanted UC to be fully networked
including all the campuses with one of the goals being so they could communicate
via email (or at times spelled e-mail) versus phone or campus mail system. She
was asked to help on its development and implementation. She left the ACS group
and joined a small group of people that had been given a big task. Not all the
deans wanted to implement an email system particularly, the dean at Raymond Walters
College (now UC Blue Ash), but the dean of the College of Medicine was all in
favor so much so that he even ran email contests to get his faculty to use it. Some
of the prizes were dinner for two or a couple bottles of an expensive wine. This
was done randomly and usually awarded to the first person who responded. She
conducted a lot of classes on how to use the email system and ran into a few
who openly refused to learn the material as they did not want to change. (Note:
Raymond Walters College installed a VAX 11/80 in 1984 and VAX machines lasted
well into the 1990s.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
the late 70s, PCs entered the scene and a new set of challenges emerged. She
got her first microcomputer in 1979; it was an Apple II. Her husband, Gary
Bruce, was the president of the Cincinnati Applesiders User Group which is the
only remaining PC organization still operating -see <a href="http://cincyitreview.blogspot.com/2016/07/applesiders.html">cincyitreview.blogspot.com/2016/07/applesiders.html</a>.
I went to some of these meetings when they were held at the UC Medical College
building. Gary was into graphics and that was the forte of Apple especially
with the introduction of the Macintosh. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">(Side
Note: I took a BASIC programming from Jeff Gordon in the education department
back in 1979. The class was taught on the TRS-80, but we also got a chance to
use the few Apples they had. In 1981, I established Lockland High School’s first
computer lab at and it was equiped with Apple Plus machines. The use of PCs
grew faster at the k-12 environments that universities in part because they had
systems in place and many people were comfortable with them, but by 1984 UC,
moved into the mainstream of microcomputer technology. One other interesting
find: in the UCCC Technical Update, Jan 2, 1985, Vol XI, No 4, there is a short
article about how Drexel University had decided to require all of their
incoming freshmen to purchase the Apple Macintosh no matter what their major
was. Dr. Allan Smith from Drexel gave a talk on UC about this decision.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
first Census of Microcomputers and usage at UC was done during the 1982-83
school year and was done learn how the use of PCs was growing and in what
areas. This survey was done for the next 2 years. By 1987 it was estimated that
UC had over 2500 PCs on all of its campuses [3]. During the 1983-84 school
year, the Microcomputer Subcommittee of the Academic Computer Advisory
Committee (MS-ACAC) was formed (see the UC Microcomputer Monitor, 1984, V1N1). The
committee was chaired by Dan Wheeler from the College of Education (CECH
today). It included: Paula Dubeck, Jonathan Kramer, Soleda Leung, Carl Mills,
John McKinney, Alvin Shapiro, Sam Sherrill, Glenn Wells, and Andy Zingis. Even
the UC Bookstore started selling different brands of PCs such as Zenith, IBM
(UCCC recommended this), Commodore, and DEC Rainbows (but not Apple). It is
interesting that UCCC did not recommend the Apple even though it was the most prevalent
micro on campus (according to their survey) at that time and that may have in
part of the perceived notion that anything IBM was superior (and how could two
guys in a garage create anything that would truly revolutionize the world.) The
other interesting thing that resulted from this survey was that her group were
given the task of supporting the PCs at UC (only they were never told this and
only learned about it from an announcement that was sent to the entire UC
community.) UC’s first electronic classroom was put into Dyer Hall (now part of
the Teachers-Dyer Complex) in 1984 [5].<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Having
been a part of the English department, she knew the professors there including Austin
Wright who was a well know author and had received and Mrs. AB
"Dolly" Cohen Award for excellence in teaching in 1967 and the George
Rieveschl Jr. Award for excellence in scholarly or creative work in 1974. He
asked her to teach him how to use Wylbur (teleprocessing system used at UC)
which had a text processing component. He let her know years later how much he
appreciated what she had taught him. Being able to easily move text around
changed his writing process and his creativity. He was willing to take risk and
learn something new that the younger generation was growing up on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">She
left UC in 1990 went to work for the Cincinnati Public Schools who had a JTPA grant
(Job Training Partnership Act of 1982 and was repealed by the Workforce
Investment Act of 1998 during the administration of President Bill Clinton).
Her job entailed training people who were downsized. When she was still working
for SWORCC, the organization went through a whole series of downsizing so she
understood the affect it had on people. Lucky for her, she was in academic
computing and protected, but she knew many of the people who were let go. It
was hard on everyone. (I was downsized from CG&E and later Cincom and
remember the pain of losing one’s job, but if this hadn’t happened, I probably
would not have done this research.) She administered a Novell network and
trained people in WordPerfect, Desk Top Publishing, dBase 3, DOS, and a few
other pieces of software. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Following
her work with JTPA, she managed a food coop in the Finneytown area which was
located on Northbend Road. She had been very active in the food coop movement beginning
in the 1970s which formed the Federation of Ohio River Cooperatives based in
Columbus. It was around for 25-30 years. Phone systems, cash registers, and the
like are really computer systems and she put her hardware and software skill
together to oversee the daily operation of the store. However, it was
eventually merged with another cooperative and so she looked elsewhere. Her
next job was at MicroCenter as a contractor working in their education center. She
designed and wrote curriculum for them and taught classes as on NT networking and
database development with Access. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">UC
was still in the back of mind and she contacted her former boss, Dennis Ryan to
find out about a position she was considering. He told her that was the wrong
one for her that they had an opening that fit better with her interests and
skill set so she returned to UC in 1997. By that time, UCCC had been renamed
CITS. She took over support of the data warehouse system that had been used for
student data for reporting. She learned GQL which later became BIQuery. Finally,
she was involved in the SAP project and her last position at UC was the SAP Business
Warehouse Administrator. The student data warehouse contained all student
information that had come from the older systems: STARS, SIS, and UniverSIS.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Finally,
she talked about how much fun she had working with the crazy tech people on
writing the PiranhaCorp column that appeared in the UC Microcomputer Monitor (and
later Connect) magazine. The team would meet in the in the hospital cafeteria
for lunch in a small area off to the side so they could brainstorm their ideas.
It was a wonderful time when people could express their frustrations technology
and see its humorous side. (See the post on PiranhaCorp for more details -- <a href="http://uccomputinghistory.blogspot.com/2017/07/piranhacorp-worlds-leading-distributor.html">http://uccomputinghistory.blogspot.com/2017/07/piranhacorp-worlds-leading-distributor.html</a>.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">References:<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[1]
CUFS takes off the gloves, Connect, 1990 V6N2, Winter Quarter<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[2]
New and Improved ProComm Available: ProComm UC242, Technical Update, Feb 1,
1989, V15N5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[3]
Computers and computerized services from Purchasing, G. Robert Deubell, Asst VP
for Admin Services, Connect, 1990 V6N3 Spring Quarter<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[4]
From the Director, Technical Update, Oct 1, 1987, V14N1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[5]
New Micro Facilities Are Built, Microcomputer Monitor, Fall-1984, V1N1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-86111020652386312682017-07-02T10:52:00.000-04:002017-09-24T14:13:05.782-04:00PiranhaCorp, the World’s Leading Distributor of User-Hostile Computer Products<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
Regular Readers Will Recall: The Short, Incomplete, and Twisted History of
PiranhaCorp, the World’s Leading Distributor of User-Hostile Computer Products<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
is a summary of a series of article that were written by a group of intrepid
computer geeks from UC’s Computing Center (aka UC2C) led by Jonathan Kopke who
was a senior systems engineer. These articles appeared in UCCC’s Connect
Magazine and its predecessor the UC Microcomputer Monitor. Some (and certainly
not all) of the members of the PiranhaCorp board were: Ron Lake, Guisse Boyd,
Mike Morris, MaryRita Cooper, Greg Roth, Mark Faulkner, Carol Faulkner, Dennis
Ryan, Dave Bosse, Ted Morris, Dave Dennis, Sue Kittrell, and others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
1985 some of the computing center consultants were discussing some of the
problems they had with the computer companies and users they dealt with. The
mascot for PiranhaCorp was a disemboweled fish called Ahab which was really a
carp, but who knew.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Issues:<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Issue
1: Software Review: PiranhaWare, published in the UC Microcomputer Monitor,
V2N1, Fall Quarter, 1985<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Issue
2: Further Warnings Issued Concerning PiranhaCorp, published in the UC
Microcomputer Monitor, V2N2, Winter Quarter, 1985-86<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Issue
3: Industry Still Carping about PiranhaWare, published in the UC Microcomputer
Monitor, V3N2, Winter Quarter, 1986-87<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Issue
4: PiranhaCorp Spawns New Product Line, published in the UC Microcomputer
Monitor, V3N3, Spring Quarter, 1987<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Issue
5: PiranhaCorp Makes DO with BASIC Compiler, published in the UC Microcomputer
Monitor, V4N1, Fall Quarter, 1987<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Issue
6: PiranhaCorp Announces Help Line, published in the UC Microcomputer Monitor,
V4N2, Winter Quarter, 1987-88<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Issue
7: PiranhaCorp Files Sharkskin Suit, published in the UC Microcomputer Monitor,
V5N1, Fall Quarter, 1988<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Issue
8: PiranhaCorp Introduces Blyte Magazine, published in the UC Microcomputer
Monitor, V5N2, Winter Quarter, 1988-89<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Issue
9: First Impressions of New PiranhaCorp Opera, published in the UC
Microcomputer Monitor, V5N5, Spring Quarter, 1989<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Issue
10: PiranhaCorp Stages Limerick Contest, published in the Connect (note the
magazine name change), V6N1, Fall Quarter, 1989<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Issue
11: This LAN Is Your LAN, published in the Connect, V6N2, Winter Quarter,
1989-90<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Issue
12: PiranhaCorp Drops A Letter Bomb, published in the Connect, V6N3, Spring
Quarter, 1990<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Issue
13: PiranhaCorp Publishes Travel Guide, published in the Connect, V7N1, Fall
Quarter, 1990<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Issue
14: Oh, Say Can You C?, published in the Connect, V7N2, Winter Quarter, 1990-91<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Issue
15: PiranhaCorp’s Mystery in One Ax, published in the Connect, V7N3, Spring
Quarter, 1991<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Issue
16: PiranhaCorp Anniversary Brings Flash of Memories, Nov 2008; written for the
50<sup>th</sup> anniversary celebration of UC getting its first computer in
1958<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PiranhaCorp’s
forte was in producing “user-hostile software” and it never disappointed. For
example, it was reported that “while Apple Corporation previously held the record
for useless advice because they put the instructions on how to locate the user's
manual in the user's manual, PiranhaWare doesn't have a user's manual.” Their
helpline number was 911 and a one sheet documentation was written in
Portuguese, Arabic, and Lithuanian. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Some
of PiranhaCorp’s products were: PiranhaWorld, PiranhaCalc, PiranhaWare,
PiranhaFile, PiranhaClean, PiranhaThesaurus, PiranhaNet, PiranhaDOS, PiranhaKey,
PiranhaDate, PiranhaLand, PiranhaMail, and Promised-LAN, Piranha Local Area
Network B (aka PLAN-B). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PiranhaCalc
was described as being Kiwi Shoe Polish while Lotus 1-2-3 was described as
being Chateau Lafitte Rothschild. PiranhaClean was describes as being the “the
janitorial management system that really bites the dust” and PiranhaDate was the
“appointment calendar that works like there’s no tomorrow”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">PiranhaDOS
was a “set of OVATIVE extensions to the popular operating system”. (You need to read the entire article to see the </span>rhythm of it.<span style="font-size: 12pt;">) Some of the new commands were ERASE/W for erase
and weep and FLOORMAT C:. PiranhaCorp PBASIC included some new commands such
SCRATCH, SNIFF, DO OVER, DO IT_YOURSELF, DO WITHOUT, a whole host of other DO
commands including the HOWDY_DO and the last line of a pBASIC program had to
end in ADIEU. One of the more famous pBASIC error messages was “Hard Disk
Erased – Strike Any Key to Continue”.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Issue 5: PiranhaCorp Makes DO with BASIC Compiler, as I am sure most of the articles, has a very real-world experience component to it. Kopke wrote a three page memo entitled "Known Bugs in Data General BASIC, Revision 4.3" along with an additional one related to Baud rate issues. His first version was published June 13, 1979 and this latest edition was Nov 6, 1980. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The following is a list of some of the bugs ("features") he documented:</span></span></div>
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1. Swapping does not occur during the execution of any matrix statement, and does not resume if the user escapes during the execution of a matrix statement.<br />
2. An undefined string used as the format for a PRINT USING statement causes the system to crash.<br />
3. Using a sequential file statement to write to a random access file causes the file to be enlarged to 8.5 million bytes. This process takes 10 minutes, during which it is impossible to escape and during which no other user can do anything.<br />
4. A DELAY statement alters the value of SYS(14). SYS(14) is the amount of time remaining for a TINPUT statement. It is set by a TIME statement. If there is a DELAY statement between the TIME statement and the TINPUT statement, the TINPUT statement will not time out for nearly two hours.<br />
5. The ON ESC THEN GOTO statement allows a user to write a program which does not end and cannot be stop.<br />
6. If two users encounter TINPUT statements at the same time, it is possible for BASIC to exchange their prompts.<br />
7. If one user of a shared directory BYEs out, the directory is RELEASED, even though another user is still logged on. Furthermore, it the system manager BYEs out of a directory, the directory is RELEASED, even though a user is logged into the directory on a normal user's terminal. In either case, the remaining user will get the UNKNOWN DIRECTORY SPECIFIER error whenever he attempts to load a program.<br />
8. The BASIC System Manager's Guide describes how to write a program to modify BASIC.ID, the file of account IDs. No such program will work, since BASIC.ID is never closed while BASIC is running.<br />
9. The ILLEGAL FILE NAME error can get stuck "on". The only known cure for the problem once it develops is to KILL BASIC and re-boot it.<br />
<br />
Two additional bug listings had to do with the 4060 Multiplexors in the Nova 840 and allowable Baud rates which had to no more that 1200. ("Problems Encountered in Using Higher Baud Rates with the Nova 840"; dated Oct 27, 1980)<br />
1. A known bug in BASIC 4.3 gets worse beyond 2400 Baud. It has been previously known that the DELAY statement interferes with the TINPUT statement (see above). However, for some unknown reason, at speeds faster than 2400 Baud, if a program executes a DELAY and then sets the TIME and executes a TINPUT, the user gets locked out of Nova. The user cannot ESCAPE from the program, and the timer does not decrement for the timed input until another user sends a message to the disabled terminal. All of the existing plotting program have this problem, which could be eliminated procedurally, if it were not for problem two.<br />
2. At 4800 Baud and above, the HP 2648 terminal cannot keep up with BASIC when they are in their Tektronix Compatibility mode. At 9600 Baud, the Tektronix 4010 terminal cannot keep up with BASIC when they are plooting.<br />
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PiranhaCorp
had their own school with a list of some of their satisfied customers which
included: the Osborne Computer Company, the Cincinnati Stingers, and the
DeLorean Motorcar Company. The accommodations for the attendees were tents. It
was stated this way: “Persons who had not yet begun their training were housed
in “Future Tents”, while those who had successfully completed the course were
accommodated in the “Past Perfect Tents.” A test was given to the students with
one of the questions being “How many programmers does it take to change a light
bulb?” Answer: none – that’s hardware. Attendees were also given a keyboard
template (a $49.95 value) that pointed out the location of the “ANY” key. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Some
of the more memorable sayings of PiranhaCorp:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">1.
Real Programmer Don't Need Menus (main motto)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">2.
The Road To Hell ls Paved With Our Inventions<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">3.
The Quality Goes In Before The Name Falls Off<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">4.
PiranhaCorp is the company that takes a sacking and keeps on hacking<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">5.
PiranhaCorp spelled backwards is ProcahnaRip<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">6.
We Never Stop Saying SO WHAT<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">7.
Computer professionals as a group are not as dangerous as, say, used car
salespersons. After all, in the used car business, they know when they’re lying
to you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Finally,
the last edition marked the 23<sup>rd</sup> anniversary of PiranhaCorp’s
existence in which the company decided to make a documentary called “No Country
for Old Programmers”. But it was the last sentence of the article that really
hits home. “the PiranhaCorp Board of Directors notes with great comfort that,
although Mike and Ron and Gussie didn’t live until the company’s Twenty-Third
Anniversary, they did make it to the last line of the Twenty-Third Psalm.” (The
LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">(It
was a time of innocence, fun, and giddiness that resulted from their
experiences dealing with software, hardware, companies, management, and users.)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">/***************************************************************************</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In 1962, Jackson Granholm wrote an article entitled How to Design a Kludge about a fictitious computer company called Kludge Komputer Korporation (KKK). It was a direct attack on IBM and some of their inefficiencies as observed by Granholm. Others picked up on this theme and wrote additional articles. These stories appeared in Datamation magazine. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Kludge had six guiding principles for software development. I have taken the liberty to upgrade to modern day standards, but they are mostly intact.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: times new roman, serif;">Six Guiding Principles of Kludge Komputer Korp (edited to match today’s reality)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman, serif;">1. Hop aboard all the current tech band wagons that way you can't lose</span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman, serif;">2. Always release preliminary undebugged version of the software – let the customers debug them</span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman, serif;">3. No ‘field tested’ version of the company's software should be compatible with other systems</span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman, serif;">4. Join and actively support any and all government sponsored and international magical tech efforts</span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman, serif;">5. Never write a useful training manual for any system.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman, serif;">6. If you must supply an upgrade or a patch, do it under duress.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0_4a4EO-Y5NeMRVrXS1Qoxyi_a6pdAYTKAD32D2r5RwHdDgA7FmL-1i1fQZAsUW4pWpxN-jo9ths2OCUC3Uk528KlM48jGctYeKkWC7caSIGQZPH6ER8PCq1GiRUC-mGxgPcQgNW8ejpm/s1600/slide0001_image096.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="766" data-original-width="561" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0_4a4EO-Y5NeMRVrXS1Qoxyi_a6pdAYTKAD32D2r5RwHdDgA7FmL-1i1fQZAsUW4pWpxN-jo9ths2OCUC3Uk528KlM48jGctYeKkWC7caSIGQZPH6ER8PCq1GiRUC-mGxgPcQgNW8ejpm/s400/slide0001_image096.png" width="292" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The PiranhaCorp Posse: appeared in the UC Microcomputer Monitor 1986 Fall Edition<br />
As best can be determined: front - Carol Faulkner, to her right - Ron Lake, to the far left - MaryRita Cooper, right - Sue Kittrell, in the back were Dave Bosse, Ted Morris, Dave Dennis; that leaves at least one person unidentified.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-19136956148270380992017-07-01T14:07:00.003-04:002017-07-02T10:53:13.309-04:00He served his nation, the veterans, and the medical community with distinction<div class="MsoNormal">
Albert Frederick Muhleman, Jr (interviewed Feb 5, 2008)<o:p></o:p></div>
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He passed away September 4, 2011 at the age of 70.<o:p></o:p></div>
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At time of interview he worked for Cincinnati VA Medical
Center and University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He graduated from
Girard High School in the Youngstown, OH area in 1958 (Janet Del Bene also
graduated from GHS.) From a young age, his goal was to be a doctor. He got his
undergrad degree in chemistry (Del Bene came to UC in 1965 to start work on her
PhD in chemistry.) UC had a special program for students who were in premed. Muhleman
was able to start med school in senior year at UC so he got an early start
earned his bachelor’s degree in 1962 and his MD in 1965. He had Hans Jaffe (Del
Bene’s PhD advisor) for one of his classes. <o:p></o:p></div>
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From there, he went to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit for 4
years which he described as a “top-drawer” institution somewhere between the
Cleveland Clinc and Mayo Clinic. Today it is just as highly regarded. The
hospital saw close to 900,000 visits per year and had about 900 beds, 170 physicians
on staff and another 500 physicians in training. His area of study was in
internal medicine. He then returned to UC and did a year fellowship in
hematology in 1969-70. <o:p></o:p></div>
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He briefly talked about Ken Kizer who did a lot to make both
the Henry Ford Hospital and VA great. At the VA he was the one who amongst
other things oversaw the deployment of their electronic health record
management system. The VA development one of the first such systems and
patients had access to their medical information whether they were vacationing
in Alaska and later in Florida.<o:p></o:p></div>
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During that time period, the Vietnam War was going on it
impacted those in the medical field including doctors who were needed for
support both in Vietnam and at home. He had classmates who had suffered from
polio and were in braces get drafted. (My father-in-law was stricken with polio
the day he got his draft notice for the Korean War.) In any case no one who was
at the draft age went unaffected by this war. Indeed, many of the people I
interviewed spoke about how this war changed their career paths. Many doctors
served their time mostly here in the states, but it all depended. (I had four
older brothers who were of that age and all of them managed to avoid going to
Vietnam. Two of them did join the military, but managed to avoid going to
Vietnam. A neighbor down the street from us lost their only son in the war).
Mulheman’s experience changed him as well as he became a veteran himself. He
served for two years including a year at Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam where the Army’s
6th Convalescent Center was housed. Upon his return, he served a year at Lockbourne
Air Force Base near Columbus, Ohio (later renamed Rickenbacker Air Force Base).
<o:p></o:p></div>
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He came back and did a second year of hematology and
oncology training at UC. In 1973, he joined the VA and became the chief of
hematology there. He also did a lot of teaching for the College of Medicine. In
1981, he took over the Introductory Clinical Practice 2 (ICP2) which was taught
to the sophomore med students. The course was integrated with microbiology,
pathology, pharmacology, physical diagnosis, and a couple of other areas. For
nearly the next 25 years, he directed that course. When he was semi-retirement
from the VA, UC’s College of Medicine asked him to be the interim director of
hematology which he did for 3 years. He retired from the VA, but would go to
work for them as a WOC (without compensation). He loved his work and working
with technology. <o:p></o:p></div>
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His first encounter with computers was at the Ford Hospital.
The Chief of Ophthalmology, Dr. Jack S. Guyton, became very interested in
computers. He became one of the primary players at the hospital in establishing
their billing program. Muhleman felt that ophthalmology was a natural fit with
computing. Computers have advance tremendously including the hardware
components including the use of digital cameras. Being able to construct images
from digital code. He foresaw the day that cameras could take the place of
someone’s eyes. Light falls on your retina and causes a chemical reaction (a
sort of digital code) which then leads the brain to form an image. It is now 2017
and a friend of my wife’s who is going blind was told about an experimental
procedure where a small camera would be implanted in the eye and connected to
the optic nerve to reproduce sight. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Muhleman really didn’t do much with computers until the
early 1980s when PCs came into the mainstream. He could see a lot of
possibilities for computers in medical education as well as in medical
informatics such as data management, electronic charts for patients, electronic
medical records, and prescription management. This field had been controlled by
the mainframe and limited to a few people and now it would be opened to
everyone who had a vision of how this new technology could be use. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In 1985, he went down to Micro World Computer Store and
bought an IBM-AT for about $3500 with an 80286 processor and a 40 meg Priam hard
drive which when sold separately costed $1200. His computer used DOS and had
5.25 floppy. He could buy a box of ten 1.2 meg floppies that were double sided
for $100. (Oh, how one longs for the good old days.) <o:p></o:p></div>
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One of the first online services for doctors was called
Physicians Online (I was not able to find any information about this in my
searches.) which was to help doctors stay up-to-date with changes in the
medical field. (Note: see the book “A History of Online Information Services”
by Charles P. Bourne and Trudi Bellardo Hahn for a very complete story.) Before
he had to go to the library to find this information and even access some of
the current journals. He also bought his son and daughter an IBM PC Jr computer
which wasn’t much a computer, but it got them interested. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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When his son was working on his masters (UC for his
undergrad and then went to Miami for his MBA), he took the old PC-AT computer
to Miami with him. The computer still had his old medical software on it which
would come in handy later on. One day, Muhleman was paged by a resident
physician who had a problem with a patient how had rheumatoid arthritis with ralph
syndrome. She asked him if he could help. Since he was very close to place his
son was staying in Oxford, he used the old PC-AT and was able to log into
Physicians Online and researched the best way to handle the situation. He then
wrote notes for her on how to handle the situation. He was 40 plus miles away
from the hospital, but was able to give assistant. This incident prompted
Muhleman to have a discussion with John Hutton and Roger Guard about how they
could best integrate computers into medical students’ curriculum. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The VA was also making use of computers and built their own Electronic
Health Record (EHR) system using MUMPS (Massachusetts General Hospital Utility
Multi-Programming System and also referred to as M programming language). It
was all internal and all unified product. It was a text-based e-records system.
He learned how to use Procomm to log into the VA and accessed the VISTA chart
(Veterans Information Systems and Technology Architecture). Through a Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA) request, the source code was put into open source. A
few years back, I attended a talk at the Ohio Linux Fest had a medical track
which addressed the use of the VA’s VISTA and CPRS and how some hospitals were
making use of these tools. Susan Rose, MSN RN-BS, was one of the speakers. She
was excellent. Muhleman mentioned that the Europeans had adapted parts of the
VA system.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Muhleman talked about Vince Devita and his work with the National
Cancer Institute (NCI) and the PDQ (Physician Desk Query). PDQ is a database
filled with cancer-related information. See <a href="http://www.cancer.gov/publications/pdq">www.cancer.gov/publications/pdq</a>
for more information. Basically, it was meant to be a system that doctors,
researchers, and patients could access. This database contained information on
all types of cancers that could be accessed by health professionals. Paul
Herget (UC’s preeminent astronomer) got involved with a cancer registry
database system in 1965 when his first wife, Harriet, was diagnosed with
cancer. He developed the system for the Cancer Control Council Neoplastic
Disease Registry (see <a href="http://www.paulherget.org/">www.paulherget.org</a>).
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The PDQ had one section for physicians and another for
patients. The patient part was shorter so as not to overwhelm patients with too
much information. Doctors could print this information and give it to the
patient for his/her review as well as a way of generating discussion between
the doctor(s) and patient. He showed me an example of how the charting system
worked. Eventually, this system was updated from a text-based system to a GUI
or windows system which allowed for a more interactive and visualization of the
disease for the patient. The new system was called CPRS (Computerized Patient
Record System). All the VA hospitals were instructed to bring forward all the
records they had from 1995 forward into the new system. It took a lot of work,
but it was done. Over the years the VA has become one of the best in terms of
electronic health records management systems. However, the one thing that the
system lacks is a billing system since the VA did not need that. Muhleman figured
that the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati (no longer in existance) spent
over $250 million on their own system and it still did not match what the VA
VISTA was capable of doing. The cost quote to the Health Alliance for them to
get the VA’s system was $2500, but that did not include maintenance of code or
support. That offer was turned down. The VA health care system is homogenous
whereas my own health care is a hodge-podge of providers including a mix of
unrelated pharmacies, physical therapy, specialists, diagnostic centers, labs,
etc. The Indian Health Service also used the VA system.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Muhleman also talked about how the imaging technology has
developed to point where it all computerized and images are immediately
available for diagnosis. All order-entry is done on the computer. What he described
nine years ago is pretty much the fact for most health care in terms of it
being managed through various computer systems. Of course, that brings up
another issue of privacy and security. And with the advent of ransomware,
several hospitals have been attacked and in one case forced to shut down until
they could recover. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today’s students are very computer literate and they have to
be able to use some basic tools such as MS Office and whatever Electronic Medical
Record (EMR) system is being used in their place of work. A little more than a
year ago, I visited a doctor who upon entering the room had someone else with
him who I first assumed was student doctor as I have had met some before on
visits to different doctors’ offices. However, this person was the IT guy (in
this case gal) who was there to help the doctor with the new EMR system. Of
course, I found somewhat humorous. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He talked very extensively about how the system worked and
some of the enhancements that had been made to the system and how patient care
for veterans (at least on the computer side) was very good. This system
extended beyond the doctor’s office or hospital and changed the way home health
care was administered. He started using a headset and mouth piece for remote
consultations with the visiting nurse who was a someone’s home. This
information was automatically entered into the system. He hadn’t pulled a paper
record in more than 3 years as everything was now electronic. His hope was that
the health system would continue to innovate and advance people’s lives. He
mentioned UpToDate (<a href="http://www.uptodate.com/">www.uptodate.com</a>) which
is a subscription-based professional reviewed medical reference system for
aiding medical personal in making the best possible point-of-care decisions. It
has a review of most diseases and possible treatments. UC’s Medical Library has
a subscription. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">His father had just passed away at the age of 94 and
his mother passed away a couple years just short of her 90<sup>th</sup> birthday.
He was an only child. About 7-10 years ago, he started using Quicken so that he
could manage his parents’ finances for them as well as for himself. His wife
worked at the Llanfair Retirement Center (now Ohio Living Llanfair) in College
Hill (where I grew up). His parents moved from Girard into Llanfair. He did
well to adapt to the computing technology and he was able to see how the technology would change his profession and <b>he embraced it</b>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXHlh4esVRCBQFCpzwypINccihLyBFmSt0hscaDYYbdjwfhNo1mymqA0c1Vi71vhERRkumh8uCgc9hNu53nWZU__NMaCpIpYguk4hEssOZxZmTPrgZnBRiBZzTuTycMMjrNvD5Sqp3CItt/s1600/MuhlemanPic1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXHlh4esVRCBQFCpzwypINccihLyBFmSt0hscaDYYbdjwfhNo1mymqA0c1Vi71vhERRkumh8uCgc9hNu53nWZU__NMaCpIpYguk4hEssOZxZmTPrgZnBRiBZzTuTycMMjrNvD5Sqp3CItt/s1600/MuhlemanPic1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr. Albert F. Muhleman<br />
This photo was taken from his website which is not longer available.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-90263848943632922352017-06-30T09:40:00.001-04:002017-07-02T10:52:54.847-04:00She helped create the brand identities for some of the top Silicon Valley companies<div class="MsoNormal">
Peggy Burke (interviewed March 5, 2007)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Peggy graduated from St. Ursula High School and then in
design at UC. She was 1 of 10 kids. Her brothers went to St. X and her oldest
sister went to Scared Heart Academy (no longer exists) and when her family
moved to Mt. Washington area some of the younger ones went to the local public
schools. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the time of the interview, she sat on the board of the
Computer History Museum - <a href="http://www.computerhistory.org/">www.computerhistory.org/</a>
- located in Mountain View, California at the time of this interview. She
founded 1185 Design company - <a href="http://www.1185design.com/">www.1185design.com</a>.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The following DAAP associated persons were interviewed for
this project: John Labadie, John Hancock, Ben Britton, David Edelman, Gerry
Michaud, and Mihn Troung. My daughter graduated from DAAP majoring in fashion
design. In one of her jobs she did UX (user experience) and mobile app design
working with programmers in an agile environment.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She graduated from DAAP (then just DAA) in 1980 with a BS in
Graphic Design. When she was taking classes, she also worked at the DAAP library
for $60 a month. This and her coop jobs helped pay the bills. She worked at
Cincom in their design department as a cooped. Cincom was founded by UC grad, Tom
Nies (interviewed April 1, 2005), and where I worked for several years as well.
That was her first introduction to computers, software, geeks, and the tech
industry. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After graduation, she moved to Chicago for about a year and then
back to Cincinnati. In 1983, she moved to California and worked at Boole and
Babbage which was a software company (they were bought out by BMC Software in
1998). Her job title was Art Director. Their software was designed for use on
the IBM mainframe, but the company failed to stay up with the constant changes
and their software became somewhat outdated. She had started an internal design
group while working for them with a goal of starting her own company. The work
she did at Boole and Babbage convince her that she could do it alone and on her
29<sup>th</sup> birthday, November 1985, she launched her own business. She had
30 people in her company at that time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All her potential clients were located in Silicon Valley and
one of her first clients was Cisco. Her company became their agency of record
when Cisco were just getting started. At that time Cisco was a 200-person and a
$64 million-dollar company. She worked most of the major companies in the area
and was witness to the emergence of many innovative technologies and companies.
She had living in Silicon Valley for the past 23 years at the time of the
interview. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She was invited to serve on the Computer History Museum’s board
because she had produced the identities and brands of a lot of these companies.
She also got involved with the venture capital community. Oftentimes, they
would send the incubating companies to 1185 Design for help bringing out their unique
characteristics and designing their website. Her experiences made her well
versed in all the different computer technologies. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Her husband, Dennis Boyle, was from Michigan and he
graduated from the University of Notre Dame (where he ran track and cross
country) and later from Stanford. He started a company along with David Kelley
which merged with two other companies to become IDEO (founded in 1991). IDEO
was the company that designed the first mouse for Apple and the Palm Pilot handhelds
(aka Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) for Palm Inc (become a part of 3Com and
later HP). Dennis was involved in the design and development of the Palm V. (Bob
Schlemmer taught a course for our department on how to program them. This was
just before smart phones emerged with the Apple iPhone being release in 2007). At
the time of the interview, Dennis was working with P&G on product
innovation and spent a fair amount of time in Cincinnati. He and others from
IDEO are highlighted in the book “Designing Interactions” (MIT Press) by Bill
Moggridge.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Burke starting teaching for Stanford in the areas of branding
and design. She really enjoyed teaching and found it very rewarding. She served
as a judge at an innovation challenge competition that was held at Stanford and
she was very impressed with the ideas that many of the young innovators had
come up with. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She also mentioned Tony Zingale (interviewed Feb 8, 2008).
He had been the president of Mercury which was acquired by HP. Zingale came to
UC and gave a very nice talk on his journey from UC to Silicon Valley.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
IDEO has at least three UC connections that I could find (I am sure there are more):
Geoff Baldwin, Jim Tappel, and Alison McNair. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Baldwin graduated from DAAP with a bachelor's degree in industrial
design and is the Design Director and Co-Lead of IDEO's New York studio.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tappel is an Associate Professor at UC’s Division of
Experience-Based Learning and Career Education. He is responsible for finding
coop positions and managing the aerospace engineering students career
experiences. He worked for 10-years at IDEO. He shares an Innovative Uses of
Technology in Teaching Award for his work on UC’s first MOOC (2014) entitled “Innovation
and Design Thinking” along with BJ Zirger, Eugene Rutz, and Drew Boyd.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
McNair is a student in DAAP majoring in graphic communication design with a marketing minor and a certificate in mobile application development (which is out of our department -- School of IT). She was a fellow in the IDEO + Open Music Initiative summer lab which involve her working with the MIT Media Lab and Berklee Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship. She used design thinking as a means for helping solve problems in the music industry.</div>
Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-51975278947164723222017-06-29T13:50:00.000-04:002017-06-29T13:50:51.834-04:00He left high school a computer neophyte and left UC a college professor<div class="MsoNormal">
Bob Mays (interviewed January 29, 2008)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 1954 (year I was born), Mays graduated from high school and
started work at Goodyear Atomic (GAT) in Piketon, Ohio. The Portsmouth Gaseous
Diffusion Plant or Piketon Uranium Enrichment Project was started by the AEC in
1952 with some of the construction being completed by 1954 and lasting until
1956 – see Wikipedia article; the plant continued as a uranium enrichment plant
until 2001 – see <a href="http://www.portsvirtualmuseum.org/">www.portsvirtualmuseum.org/</a>.
I remember as a kid driving pass that plant on our way to Pike Lake State Park
for our family vacation and even today I drive pass the site on the way to
Virginia to visit relatives. Decontamination and decommissioning of the site
began in 2011 – see <a href="https://energy.gov/pppo/portsmouth-site">energy.gov/pppo/portsmouth-site</a>.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At Piketon, he worked on an IBM 602-A tabulator (aka
calculating punch machine) for doing payroll. Programming was done through
board wiring. Paul Herget wrote the book on how to program the 602. There was
also a IBM 402 and 407 Accounting Machine. The 407 was the last of its kind to
be built by IBM. It was called a reproducer as they punch out totals for
further processing. Had a huge control panel on it. He went to IBM school in
Charleston, WV to learn board wiring for each of the different machines. Later
they got an IBM Card-Program Electronic Calculator (CPC) which used the 402 and
later versions worked with the 407. The CPC-II used the IBM 605 connected with
the 407. All the instructions were done via punched cards and the data was also
stored on punched cards. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All of this changed when they got the IBM 650 (which was UC’s
first computer, 1958). It did not have a printer connected to it so they had to
use the 402 or the 407 to do any printing. The 602-A wasn’t always the most
accurate machine and they would run their programs through twice before
accepting the results, but the 650 was much better machine and that problem
went away. The problem with the 650 was that it was vacuum tube machine which
were constantly burning out and they generated a lot of heat. They had an IBM
service rep onsite during the day. Basically, if they machine could run for
about 45 minutes without any failures, they were able to get their program runs
finished without having to redo them. What took them a week to do now could be
completed in less than 1 hour. If there was a power failure, they had to pull
the covers off and use fans to cool down the processing unit. That was even a
problem had at UC <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He left Goodyear in 1964 and came to UC. He was good in math
in high school and he had 4 children at the time and felt that they should have
a chance of going to college so he took the job at UC in part because of the
tuition remission for full-time employees. UC got an IBM 1410 and he became a
full-time programmer. He also started to take classes at UC which took him 7yrs
to get his associates, 4 years later for his bachelors, and 10 years later he
got his masters. He was teaching full-time by that time at Clermont College and
needed his masters in order to get tenure. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He got hired on at UC when IBM began to make some changes to
the current computing system and everybody quit except Ralph Haney and Ron
Flaxmeyer. He was the right person at the right time as normally have no degree
would have disqualified him, but his computing skill set was second to none. He
answers a small ad in the paper and applied for the position. In October, he interviewed
with Bob Hoefer, the controller, and Dean Versic. He asked for $7500/year
salary, but took $6700. He negotiated to have UC pay for his moving expenses
(less than $150) and he got a starting date of January so he could collect
money for 3-weeks of unused vacation from Goodyear. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Kay McHugh (see the posts from Ron Flaxmeyer and Mel
Yudofsky concerning her) was in charge of Administrative Data Processing, but
she was replaced by Ralph Haney. Bill Meyer was hired at that time and was from
Deer Park. He eventually left and moved to California. They became good
friends. Dick Kay was hired without any experience, but had been to school. The
three of them went to Cleveland to work on and learn about the IBM 1410 as it
had no arrived at UC. They would drive up on Mondays and usually returned on
Friday. For him there were many parallels between Goodyear and UC which worked
in his favor. Finally, the 1410 was installed and they set about trying to automate
the manual systems using SPS (Symbolic Programming System, a precursor to
Autocoder), Autocoder (a precursor to COBOL) and eventually COBOL. When he
programmed on the 650, he coded in SOAP (which is nothing like the XML version
of today). He understood the hardware and how it worked, but his forte was in
programming. They were a group of 3 programmers plus Mel Yudofsky and Dave Oberlin
who was a student programmer. They paid him $1.25/hr which equates to more than
$13/hr in 2017. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When UC went from a city supported university to a state
supported university things really changed. This occurred in 1976-77 although
it had been slowly phased over several years beginning in 1969. The state had a
lot of reporting requirements that they had to produce. This required more
staff and more computing power. Because of this Bob Caster was brought in to
led the group. He mentioned John Gehring who was the registrar at the time and
his group used a lot of the computing for handling the ever-growing number of
students and courses. One of the first big projects was creating an “online” registration
system. Students went to the Field House to get their punched cards and later
to Dyer Hall (now Teachers-Dyer Complex). Then students would go to the
processing center, turn their cards in, wait for a printout, and walk over to
the registrar’s office to pay the bill. Eventually, an online system was
developed where students could phone in their course requests and of course
today it is truly an online process. Back in those days the grades were done
using a punched card system. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For quite a few years, UC was a COBOL shop and then IBM convinced
them to switch to PL/1 which cause problems as it was supposed to the one
language for everybody (<span class="st">Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi
krimpatul</span>). It didn’t work out that way plus there weren’t as
many PL/1 programmers as COBOL coders and either everyone had to be retrained
on the new system or an organization was forced to pay higher salaries for
those who knew PL/1 (a similar situation exists today with evolving
technologies). <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
UC tried to stay as close to cutting edge in terms of IT
technology and the included switching from the IBM mainframe to the Amdahl as a
more sophisticated computer and it was air-cooled. UC obtained the 7<sup>th</sup>
Amdahl computer made. Mays even met Gene Amdahl in California and he traveled along
with Joe Lanwehr to the University of Michgan and Texas A&M to examine
their Amdahl configurations and learn how they managed the transition. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
From 1964-80 he was in administrative computing and then
moved over to UC Clermont. Mays left with Bob Caster for the University of Connecticut,
but didn’t like it and returned to UC after a year. When he returned, he came
back as a full-time faculty member at Clermont. He mentioned Bill Swisher who
was the Assistant Manager at that time. (Swisher was a math professor (1975 – 98)
at Clermont and left UC in 1998 and became the IT Director at Thomas More
College). UC Clermont had a DEC computer, but Mays was unable to recall the
exact model. He taught programming technology intro course which included: BASIC,
COBOL, PL/1. He also taught a course in systems analysis. Their program was
similar to what was taught at the former University College (main campus) and
Raymond Walters College (now UC Blue Ash). He knew Dan Dell (who was also a
good friend of my father-in-law) as he was one of the first persons he met when
he came to Cincinnati and it was Dan that got Bob over to Clermont. Bob was
hired as an assistant professor even though he did not have masters. He started
out working on a vocational education, but switch to business education. It
took him 3 years at College of Education. He retired in January 1995 after 30
years at UC and 13 years at Clermont. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mays fondly remembered Paul Herget and he really enjoyed
working with him. Herget was a good friend to those who worked in the computing
center. He went to Herget’s going away party and that night Herget passed away
(August 27, 1981) in his sleep. He remembered that Hans Jaffe did his work at
night and would call Mays in the middle of the night if something wasn’t
working. But overall, he enjoyed with Jaffe as well. Mays mentioned that Alex
Fraser and his son Alan were instrumental in the development of computing at UC. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQp84SJ_BJ7kX-mlriKEUd3gd2vHHJpMezs6uuqHHjKsONxrgrNoqv0wiiPdYTwsfYHPnBMJlNontMehFqMpVNe7gqSifdaUfU_UWrGvvAXC2YpvCBxn5MyEvrLGRllMvvNnfNc1PAUpOO/s1600/BobMays-1974.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="348" data-original-width="344" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQp84SJ_BJ7kX-mlriKEUd3gd2vHHJpMezs6uuqHHjKsONxrgrNoqv0wiiPdYTwsfYHPnBMJlNontMehFqMpVNe7gqSifdaUfU_UWrGvvAXC2YpvCBxn5MyEvrLGRllMvvNnfNc1PAUpOO/s320/BobMays-1974.PNG" width="316" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bob Mays from SWORCC Offline Magazine, 1974 V1 N1. (a short summary of the article) He was promoted to Program Manager in 1967 and to Manager of Administrative Data Processing (ADP) in 1969. In 1967, he was responsible for the design and implementation of the packet (where students submitted their courses using punched cards) processing registration system. When SWORCC was created, he became the Director of Services. He lived with his wife, Pat, and 5 sons in Forest Park.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-65529198042297409502017-06-28T11:12:00.000-04:002018-03-11T20:02:50.025-04:00The astronomer who advanced the use of mathematics through computer programming<div class="MsoNormal">
André Deprit (researched)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I did an independent study under Dr. Deprit when I was an
undergraduate student at UC in the 1975 Winter quarter. The topic of my research
and report was on a paper written by John Vinti entitled “Classical Solution of
the Two-Body Problem If the Gravitational Constant Diminishes Inversely with the
Age of the Universe”. Even today that would be an interesting topic. I met with
him several times, but I can’t really say we connected. Besides having the
opportunity to work with him we shared one other commonality as we both lived
in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) at one point in our lives. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, there were those at UC who became life-long friends
with him. One of those was Shannon Coffey (a UC grad who went to work at the Naval
Research Lab) who along with two other colleagues wrote Deprit’s obituary [1]. Mark
Harlow knew him and Ken Meyer told me a bit about his time here at UC. Ken talk
about one of the areas in which Deprit had accelerated was in the creation of
mathematical software with the Mechanized Algebraic Operations (MAO) being an
example. After stints at the University of Louvain, Boeing, and NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center he came to UC in 1972 which was the same year I started as
an undergrad. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
From what I understand, he was supposed to have replace Paul
Herget as the director of UC Observatory (now the Cincinnati Observatory and no
longer affiliated with UC) and the Minor Planet Center, but he and Herget had a
clash of personalities. Even then, he remained at UC until 1979 and had
developed a following of UC faculty and students. He left UC for a position
with NIST where he remained until his retirement in 1997. My encounter with
Deprit was cordial. The fact that he was willing to let me do a research paper
for him says he certainly cared about students including undergraduates. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Both Deprit and Herget were awarded the James Craig Watson
Medal (Herget 1965 and Deprit 1972), the Dirk Brouwer Award (Herget 1980 and
Deprit 1986) and were fellows of the National Academy of Sciences so UC was
blessed to have had such talented faculty in the field of astronomy. The
Cincinnati Enquirer, April 30, 1972 edition noted Deprit’s winning of the
Watson Medal and that he would start at UC in the summer. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A 1974 Cincinnati Enquirer article [2] entitled “Making Airwaves
Safe by Satellite” featured some of the research that Deprit was working in
using “talking stars” (satellites) that would keep track of planes in the sky.
Deprit was described as a “computer wizard” which he was. The article also
mentions that what he was working on had drawn criticism from other
researchers. What he was working on was a modern-day GPS system which we all
take for granted. His forte was in his ability to write computer subroutines of
complex mathematics that could easily be applied to solving everyday problems. The
article also mentions the Nov 20, 1967 plane (TWA Flight 128) crash at the
Greater Cincinnati Airport in which 70 lives were lost and how Deprit hoped
this new technology would help prevent such tragedies from happening. (I
remember that crash and the impact it had on region.) Another interesting
aspect of the article was that Deprit used the term “microcomputer” which
really wasn’t a term many people understand much less used until several years
later when Apple was started. Another area or research that Deprit was involved
in was that of calculating time as accurately as possible and he took hand calculations
done by Delaunay (Charles-Eugene) and moved them to a computerized system.
(Note: the article says Delaunay did these calculations in the mid-1880s but he
had passed away in 1872 and a Wikipedia article says his work was published in
the 1860s.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am struck by one paper that Deprit authored himself
entitled “Celestial Mechanics: Never Say No to a Computer” [3]. This paper
covers a lot of history including the work done by Delaunay mentioned above as
it was written for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 50<sup>th</sup>
anniversary. He mentions all the key contemporary astronomers of his day and a
fair number of UC-related persons with the exception of Paul Herget. Those with
a UC connection that he mentions are: Shannon Coffey (who was completing his
PhD), Ken Meyer, David Richardson, Dieter Schmidt, Peter Musen (hired by Herget
to help with the Minor Planet Center), Derral Mulholland (PhD student under
Herget), and Walter Poplarchek (joint paper they authored). I feel that to some degree the "computer" was him.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Deprit authored several papers with UC connected people
including Shannon Coffery, Eugene Rabe and Walter Poplarchek. One of Deprit’s
PhD students was Julian Palmore whom Ken Meyer mentioned to me in his interview
with me. Ken Siedelmann (PhD student of Herget) worked with Deprit at the US Naval Observatory. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is no doubt in my mind that he was brilliant astronomer,
mathematician, and computer scientist. My only regret is that I did not take
the opportunity that was given to me to work with him more. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<u>From Dave Bosse concerning the relationship between Herget and Deprit:</u><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Andre was a real computer nuthead
and I'm not sure of the circumstances of his tenure at UC; whether his
appointment was with the Physics dept, Math dept, or Engineering. It could have
been any of them, he had contacts everywhere, and everyone knew him. He was one
of the sharpest people I've ever met.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The (very sketchy) points I
remember, was that Deprit came here to assist/guide Dr. Herget. Dr. Herget's
techniques (of orbital computation) were refinements and improvements of
Gauss's method with computational techniques developed by Dr. Herget in the
'30s and '40s. Deprit came in with a more modern '70s approach, both
mathematically and computationally. To be truthful, Dr. Herget's methods were
becoming dated and newer techniques were being advanced. (Check out V.S.O.P
(Secular Variations of Planetary Orbits) by Pierre Bretagnon).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Anyway, Herget and Deprit got along
like a Mack truck and a slow dog. It just didn't work. Paul was not about to
change anything. Herget wouldn't let Deprit anywhere near the minor planet data
(most of it was still on cards, one of the first things I did when I started at
SWORCC was to help Dr. Herget get his data migrated to tape), so Andre busied
himself with other interests all related to computers. I don't think I ever
heard him talk about Astronomy at all. He left UC in the mid to late '70s and I
have seen his name referenced all over the web, doing work for NASA, winning
awards,...<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
That was the beginning of the end
for Dr. Herget. By 1978 he was forced to retire due to "age" (he was
already donating his salary back to the University as he had stock in IBM from
way, way back.) and the Minor Planet Center was transferred to Brian Marsden at
Harvard, where he and the MPC still reside. Harvard had been drooling to
acquire the MPC from the day it was assigned to Cincinnati. They had some
difficulties at first, trying to match Herget's results, which tickled Paul to
no end. Brian M. has since gotten on track and is doing bang-up job at Harvard,
and there was really no way for Herget's methods to do the job today. In 1947,
the MPC kept track of less than 2000 asteroids. In 1978, when the MPC went to
Harvard, there were just less than 10,000. Marsden is now keeping track of
almost a quarter million objects.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Dr. Herget stayed on at the
Computing Center (purely out of respect), and came in almost every day, doing
computing for radiation research and some other projects. He was talking about
getting a PC (The IBM had just come out, and he knew that I had one of the
first Apple II's in Cincinnati), when a brain aneurysm took him in August of
1981. We were at a departure party at Daniel's Pub, drinking and having a good
time with a lot of Computer folk. He said he had a headache and was going home.
He went home, went to sleep and never woke up.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>References:<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
[1] Andrė Deprit, Alfriend, K, Coffey, S, and Elipe, A, The
Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, Vol. 54, No. 2, April–June 2006,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
[2] “Making Airwaves Safe by Satellite, UC Scientist Working
on System to Pinpoint Aircraft Locations”, John W. Chace, Cincinnati Enquirer,
Nov 23, 1974<o:p></o:p></div>
[3] “Never Say No to a Computer”, Deprit, A, Journal of
Guidance and Control, Vol 4 No 6, Nov-Dec 1981<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-59941215944257081402017-06-27T22:10:00.002-04:002017-06-27T22:10:55.784-04:00He helped two companies become leaders in IT<div class="MsoNormal">
Fred Bay (interviewed on March 14, 2008)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fred Bay was from Marietta, OH – John Hall was as well
(interviewed Dec 29, 2006 see “A pioneer in silicon and ultra-low-power
technologies …” post; in the early 1970s, Hall foresaw the marriage of computers
and machines)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He came to UC in 1959 and graduated in 1964 with his BSEE
and he stayed an extra year to complete his MBA. One of the places he cooped was at the Atomic Energy
Commission (AEC). Upon graduation, he was hired by GE and sent to Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
There he met Jack Welch (later the CEO of GE). Fred knew he was fast-tracker.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
UC bought one of HP’s first computers, but he was not sure
of the exact model (it may have been the HP-5450 system as detailed in an
article by David Brown [1] or one of the 2100 series computer which came out in
1966; Mark Harlow also talked about this). It was brought in by Brown, who
worked in UC’s Structural Dynamics Research Lab in the Mechanical Engineering
Department. This was the start of a close UC-HP relationship. Fred saw the old
machine when he was visiting the engineering department a few years back. It
was no longer being used, but nonetheless, it was still there.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He left GE and went to work at AVCO (later Cincinnati
Electronics) where he worked on military electronics, later heading up their Manufacturing
Engineering Group and Production Control Group, and ended up as the facilities manager
by the time he left. He left there and started his own company in 1976, but
that only lasted 2 years. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 1978, he started work for HP and was one of four who
opened the Cincinnati HP office in 1979. For a short while he was calling on
GE, but eventually he moved into the P&G account and helped them grow their
world-wide business. Eventually, HP had grown P&G into their largest
account in the world beating out IBM. He sold them the first HP laser printer
was had a cost of $110,000. This was not the desktop kind, but more of the
industrial kind and was placed at P&G’s Technical Center in Sharonville. In
1984 HP release its first desk LaserJet printers which had a cost of about
$3,500. By 1990, HP had a LaserJet for under $1,000. Bay was instrumental in
getting the HP3000 mini-computer system into P&G as they<span class="st">
bought number 10,000. He managed the P&G account for about 12 years. In early
2003, P&G outsourced their IT operation to HP. </span>He moved onto become
the <span class="st">district sales manager for HP in Cincinnati.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He mentioned that an HP office in Japan won the Deming award
in Japan which got P&G’s attention. <span class="st">It was headline news
throughout Japan. According to HP’s news magazine “Measure”, Jan-Feb 1983 issue
the Yokogawa-HP office was awarded 1982 </span><em>Deming Prize</em><span class="st"> gold medal for quality. Dr. W. Edwards Deming had a profound impact
on Japan after World War II in terms of quality control and development and
this award was very prestige. The award was established in 1951.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
John Young was HP president started in HP labs and under his
leadership HP was able to grow to new heights. Bay remembered how P&G
wanted to computerize their sales force so the HP– laptop computer was used. Down
at the Queen City Club a demo was given all the key P&G leaders including
John Pepper, the future CEO of P&G, attended. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bay also remembered the idea of a computer kiosk. The
concept was that products could be shown to the customers via a computer kiosk
of sorts and then they could order what they wanted. This was of course before
the days of the Internet. He also remembers the early attempts at having a
computer in your refrigerator that kept track of the items in it and then the
refrigerator could create and order a shopping list and delivered to one’s
house. (a group of my seniors developed such a system as part of their capstone
project for the 2016-17 school year. Today, that sounds like something old, but
back then it was revolutionary. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HP developed a touchscreen system for P&G that was one
of the first attempts at this technology. The touchscreen moved into the
manufacturing area before it moved into the office area. HP also got into
networking and systems products such as OpenView (in 2007, HP OpenView was
rebranded as HP BTO (Business Technology Optimization) Software (see Wikipedia
article)). HP Labs was very well respected for their innovations including work
on natural languages and artificial intelligence. Areas that are hot topics in
today’s world. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Eventually, he was moved from the P&G account to
European accounts and did lots of travel in Europe and later to South America. He
felt very fortunate to be involved with P&G and felt he helped them move forward
(and HP) advance technologically. He also felt that the business education that
he got from UC was just as valuable as his engineering and two of his sons who
are engineers also have their MBA. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>A few other UC grads that worked at HP at the time of the
interview:<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mark Linesch – HP Houston (interviewed July 16, 2007)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sam Lucente -- HP Palo Alto <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bill Weaver – had served as the vice president
of HP's west region enterprise sales; while at UC he was the Mr. Bearcat (Purcell
High School grad)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
[1] The Modern Era of Experimental Modal Analysis One
Historical Perspective by David L. Brown and Randall J. Allemang, University of
Cincinnati, Sound and Vibration/January 2007; this report details more of the UC-SDRL
– HP relationship<o:p></o:p></div>
Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-2510506048202529142017-06-26T21:56:00.000-04:002017-07-10T15:53:02.956-04:00His love of math led to a life-time of giving back to the computing world<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Paul
Messina – interviewed Feb 8, 2008<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Amin
Shafie was the person who first told me about Paul Messina.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ph.D.
University of Cincinnati 1972; Dissertation: On Asymptotic Estimation for
Certain Plane Elliptic Singular Perturbation Problems with Discontinuous
Dirichlet Conditions; Advisor: Roger E. Messick<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Messina
was born in Italy, lived in Guatemala and Panama (on a banana plantation which
was owned by <em>Chiquita</em> Banana then United Fruit Company). He came to US
to go to a boarding school in St. Louis for high school. He went to The College
of Wooster for his undergrad degree and had a keen interest in math and
physics. He speaks Italian, Spanish, and English. When he lived in Panama he
got interested in astronomy, but at night the mosquitoes were very bad so it
was a bit difficult to observe the stars, but that interest was able to emerge
later in his life when he got to work with a group of first-class astronomers
in developing the virtual astronomical observatory.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Paul
Messina came to UC from Wooster College planning on obtaining his masters in
math and not much else. He was awarded a Charles Phelps Taft Dissertation
Fellowship. After his first year, he decided he like math so much that he
wanted to get his PhD as well. He and his wife also decided to start a family
so he applied for a full-time position at UC that would allow him time to
complete his PhD as well. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">He
was hired by John Varady (see interview), UC’s Computing Center director, to
help the faculty with the math subroutines. Varady subsequently left UC a few
months after hiring Messina and was replace by Bob Caster (see interview) who
helped form the Southwest Ohio Regional Computing Center (SWORCC) (see report)
which was a partnership between UC and Miami University. Messina was involved
in producing a brochure about SWORCC for the UC community. I came across a memo
that Paul had written to Bob Caster requesting about a programming project that
Paul wanted to get approved by the Computer Policy Committee. He also mentioned
that the project would take about 5 hours for Rick Bialac to debug. Bialac got
his bachelors from UC in Information Systems and was a professor of IS at XU
from 1979-89. Messina also worked with Paul Herget (see report) while at UC and
enjoyed working with him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
order to complete his dissertation, he took a month off from SWORCC. He
graduated in August 1972 and left UC in June 1973. By the time Paul left UC, he
had not only earned his PhD, but had served as the Director of Academic
Computing. This administrative experience that he gained at UC would prove
invaluable during the rest of his career.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Paul
had a fair amount of computer experience during his undergrad days starting
between his sophomore and junior year in college. Wooster had recently acquired
their first computer, an IBM 1620 (1964 [1]), which was made available to
students during the off-hours. His senior thesis involved programming where he
wrote an application about how to predict the success rate of those entering
college. He also did two summer internships at P&G working in their
computer department. Bob Herbold (see interview) was his supervisor his second
year there. They stayed in touch even during the time Herbold was at Microsoft.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Messina
told me that “a lot of his computing knowledge was self-learning” and he
certainly epitomized the concept of life-long learning. He was ready to move on
to new challenges. He had six job offers and he decided to go with Argonne
National Laboratory in Chicago after he almost took a position with William and
Mary. He found that new challenges at Argonne to be a constant and he loved his
work. He felt fortunate in that upper management were willing to put him in charge
of projects and divisions. He created division of Mathematics and Computer
Science and become its first director. In the early 1980s, he became very
interested in parallel computing and went to DC to meet with directors to
discuss this. At that time, the two fastest computers were the IBM 360-195 and
the CDC 7600 which was the faster of the two.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">From
1979–1984 Walter E. Massey was the director of Argonne and supported Messina as
best he could. A lot of advance software was developed at Argonne and continues
to be even today. Paul was bestowed the honor of being an Argonne Distinguished
Fellow -- <a href="http://www.alcf.anl.gov/articles/paul-messina-named-argonne-distinguished-fellow">www.alcf.anl.gov/articles/paul-messina-named-argonne-distinguished-fellow</a>.
Although Messina enjoyed his job at
Argonne, the bureaucracy could be challenging at time. At Argonne, he worked
with Jack Dongara whom he described as a computer superstar. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
if happened, a new opportunity arose and a new career. He got involved with
parallel computing in 1981 from a meeting at the Department of Energy. Paul
felt it was of keen importance. He was able to get a grant to set up a research
lab for parallel computing work known as the Advanced Computing Research
Facility. He was looking for developing a system that had real-world
applications, but the funding was cut when the newly appointed cabinet director
under President Reagan decided to stop any new endeavors from moving forward. Paul
organized a workshop at Argonne on parallel computing and one of the attendees
was from Caltech. Geoffrey Fox (now at Indiana) was a leading proponent of
parallel computing at Caltech and someone that felt that Messina had a lot to
offer. Paul liked the small and informal setting at Caltech and felt it allowed
him an opportunity to grow. His years there were fantastic. Caltech had very
good ties with IBM and he was given some startup money for research from them. After
retiring, Paul would collaborate with Fox and others to conduct the
International Summer School on Grid Computing 2003 in Italy [2].<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">At
Caltech, he had a fair number of achievements including working with NASA’s JPL
where his group was involved in developing software for their parallel
computing. He got to work with Intel working on one of the fastest computers at
that time known as the Intel Touchstone Delta system. (See Wikipedia article on
the Intel Paragon and the paper entitled “Computational Science Experiences on
the Intel Touchstone DELTA Supercomputer” by R. Stevens, Argonne National Lab,
Compcon Spring 1992.) He created a consortium of 13 different institutions (including
NASA, NSF, DARPA, DOE, several universities, and several research labs) to
further the advancement of parallel computing. He got to know Gordon Moore who
earned his PhD in Chemistry from Caltech and of course a co-founder of Intel<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">NSF
had a program that involved science and technology centers. Paul was involved
in two of the proposals. Caltech got a joint grant along with Rice University
and Ken Kennedy. Paul got to know Kennedy and got to collaborate with some very
good researchers for 11 years (1989 – 2000). He helped get Kennedy on (1<sup>st</sup>
chair) President Clinton’s IT advisory council known as the President's
Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC). Kennedy passed away in 2007.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Messina
was also involved with the gigabit test bed which was an initiative started by Bob
Kahn. Kahn had created his own non-profit Corporation for National Research
Institute (CNRI) and had served as the director of DARPA for 13 years. In 1989
Kahn contacted Messina about this work. His work on this project proved very
valuable as he was able to demonstrate the viability of such a system along
with how it could be best managed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Early
in his career spent time in DC to learn how the NSF grant system work. He came
to appreciate the work they did which formed a desire of his to give back to
the computing community. In 1998 he decided to payback the computing community
for its generosity toward him so he decided to work with the DOE on the
Advanced Scientific Computing Initiative (ASCI). It had a budget of $650
million a year. It was a classified project as it dealt with nuclear reactions.
He got led the program for two years. He was very much appreciated for his work
there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Messina
retired from Caltech in 2002, but found his life as busy as ever until one of
sons became very ill. He put everything on hold and moved to Chicago to take
care of him. This gave him a new perspective on life. Additional places where he
had the privilege of working: CERN, Information Sciences Institute of the
University of Southern California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University
of Naples, and serving on the Cyberinfrastructure Advisory Panel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Retirement
never slowed Paul down as he went to the UK and worked with Dr. Sir John Taylor
who was the head of the Research Councils UK (RCUK) -- Science and Engineering
Research Council (SERC). It is a sort of NSF+NIH combination amongst other
things. Taylor wanted to fund e-science (see eScience Institute and eScience
Labs) which was called cyberinfrastructure in the US. Cyberinfrastructure is a
term first used by the US National Science Foundation (NSF), and it typically
is used to refer to information technology systems that provide particularly
powerful and advanced capabilities for the advancement of science.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">One
of the persons, Messina mentioned was James Wilkinson. Wilkinson was
interviewed by Henry S. Tropp on June 27, 1973 for the National Museum of
American History. He worked with people at from Los Alamos, San Diego Supercomputer
Center, JPL, and CERN just to name a few of the places he has been. He got to
see how supercomputers were being used in weapons research and how NASA used
them to help in the exploration of our solar system.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Some of his
favorite projects that he worked on:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">1.
University of San Diego Vector machines vs Caltech parallel machines<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">2.
Data JPL spots on earth geologically LANDSAT mixing topo data and seismic data to
put together a 3D map of the world which took 2 years to get done.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">3.
Combine ocean and atmospheric climate model – worked with Chris Malone at Los
Alamos<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">4.
National Virtual Observatory –was one of favorite projects of all time (nowadays
VAO - Virtual Astronomical Observatory see <a href="http://www.virtualobservatory.org/">www.virtualobservatory.org</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="color: windowtext;"> or</span></span> <a href="http://www.usvao.org/">www.usvao.org</a>).
In the late 90s Tom Prince, friend from Caltech, approached Paul about the
project. Paul worked with Alex Szalay and was involved for couple of years as a
co-PI. He led the $10 Million NSF Grant to Fund "National Virtual Observatory".
Roy Williams took over his place when Paul left Caltech.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">5.
Data grid and Open Grid work -- grid computing lets scientists in multiple
institutions easily and rapidly share data and other problem-solving resources.
See Middleware And Grid Infrastructure Coordination Committee (MAGIC) and The
Global Grid Forum (GGF).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">References:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[1]
Wooster Alumni & Friends Distinguished Alumni Award Ed and Lynne McCreight
'66s -- <a href="http://www.woosteralumni.org/s/1090/index.aspx?sid=1090&gid=1&pgid=426">http://www.woosteralumni.org/s/1090/index.aspx?sid=1090&gid=1&pgid=426</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[2]
Welcome and Logistics Paul Messina Argonne National Laboratory, CERN, and
USC-ISI July 14, 2003<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
International Summer School on Grid Computing 2003 -- <a href="http://www.dma.unina.it/~murli/SummerSchool/">www.dma.unina.it/~murli/SummerSchool/</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[3]
Panel on “For a Massive Number of Massively Parallel Machines: What are the
Target Applications, Who are the Target Users, and What New R&D is Needed
to Hit the Target???” -- ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/3743/10941/00508123.pdf<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[4]
Cyberinfrastructure: Promises and Challenges Paul Messina Argonne National
Laboratory, CERN, and USC-ISI October 14, 2003 -- <a href="https://meetings.internet2.edu/2003-fall-mm/detail/1069/">meetings.internet2.edu/2003-fall-mm/detail/1069/</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
recent term cyberinfrastructure refers to an infrastructure based upon
computer, information and communication technology (increasingly) required for
discovery, dissemination, and preservation of knowledge<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[5]
Paul Messina -- <a href="https://insidehpc.com/2014/09/paul-messina-named-argonne-distinguished-fellow/">insidehpc.com/2014/09/paul-messina-named-argonne-distinguished-fellow/</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[6]
ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY AND THE EMERGENCE OF COMPUTER AND COMPUTATIONAL
SCIENCE, 1946-1992, A Thesis in History by Charles Nelson Yood 2005; Messina is
mentioned a fair number of times in this report<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[7]
Profile: Paul Messina: A man who gets things done, John Murphy profiles Paul
Messina, former director of the Center for Advanced Computing Research at
CalTech, Scientific Computing World: November / December 2002<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-41632302521155169622017-05-18T17:35:00.001-04:002017-06-27T16:07:34.701-04:00The Intrepid Inventor Who Understood the Use of Random Numbers<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Elvin
Steep interviewed Feb 4, 2008 (he </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">passed
away on Friday, April 21, 2017 at the age of 68)</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">A
June 8, 1990 UC This Week article describes Elvin Stepp as an “intrepid
inventor” who solved the “case of (the) howling speaker” that had confounded
the Navy. It had to do with a telephone being in close proximity of a public
address system. Whenever the phone was used, a loud noise was generated through
the speaker. With the help of a colleague from Cincinnati Electronics, Gary Claypoole,
he was a able to solve the problem in part by using pseudo-random number
generator that was used to suppress the feedback and echoing. This led to his
six (of seven) patent and he was recognized Design News for his achievement. He
knew he wanted to be an electrical engineer from the time he was little kid.
Electricity and machinery fascinated him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
1966 graduated, Stepp from Walnut Hills High School and in September he started
classes at UC. He majored in electrical engineering and cooped at Texas
Instruments (TI) (started on 9/11/1967) where he worked with TI’s newest transistors.
When he was in high school he was introduced to electronics and now he was
working for one of the leading companies in this space. He loved the work
environment and he learned a lot there. After graduation, he went back to TI as
a full-time employee. However, the 1960s saw the Vietnam War and the race to
the moon. The former defining a low point for the US and the latter a feat of
engineering that shows what team work, science, and determination can produce. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Many
of the people that I interviewed talked about how the Vietnam War affected
them. In 1971, Elvin felt that he would be drafted so he applied for grad
school (and was accepted) to avoid having to serve. As it was, he had just a
high enough number so he would have avoided being sent to Vietnam. Went to grad
school on a fellowship, but decided not to pursue his PhD and was ABD (all but
dissertation). He had a National Defense Act Fellowship to work on his PhD.
However, he left UC and went back to work at TI in September 1972. As luck
would have it, the economy went south and TI was affected. He returned to UC
and completed his master’s thesis under Carl Everett in 1973. As fortune would
have it, he was offered a job at Cincinnati Electronics Corp. in Evendale on
Glendale-Milford Road near the GE Aircraft Engine plant. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">At
Cincinnati Electronics, he worked on cell phone development and learned a lot
about the state of the art digital communications. Some of his colleagues at CEC
were teaching part-time at OMI College of Applied Science* (originally O stood
for Ohio) and eventually, he too became an evening adjunct professor at OCAS.
He started in the Fall 1976 and taught electro-mechanical devices. It was a
subject that he enjoyed teaching. He taught from 5:30-11pm doing 2 lectures and
2 labs several nights a week with a short break in-between. In 1980, there was
an opening at OCAS and he started teaching in that September as a full-time
assistant professor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
an undergrad, Stepp took FORTRAN programming from Claire Hulley and a course
that used the analog computer that Carl Everett taught. He programmed on an Electronic
Associates Incorporated (EAI) hybrid computer that was used for solving differential
equations. Programming was done using a patchboard system. Later, the college obtained
an IBM 1130 computing system which he also learned how to operate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Jack
Spille, who was the dean at OCAS at that time, taught FORTRAN. Ron Ciminero, a
friend and colleague, taught a fair number computer-related courses as well. Ciminero
was a Unix and C guru and many of his students owed their job to his dedication
courses. Pat Garrett was the Dept. Head at OCAS for the first few years when
Elvin had started teaching at OCAS. Garrett later moved over to the College of
Engineering on the Clifton campus. Garrett taught a Microcomputer I/O and Elvin
took over that course when Garrett moved over to the main campus. Elvin changed
the direction of the course to be more Micro-controller focused using Intel
hardware. Eventually, the course morphed into an embedded systems course.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Stepp
was at UC when academics and students alike wanted to have word “computer” as
part of the name of the electrical department and degree. UC even tried to
consolidate several of the computer-related departments. For instance, the
computer science program was moved from the College of Arts and Science to the
electrical department in the engineering college in 1996. Initially, there was
a desire to create a new computer-related degree at OCAS. Several of the
faculty who taught computing courses got together, but no one could seem to
agree on how this should be done. The electrical department decided to proceed
on its own and created the Computer Engineering Technology degree. Stepp did a
lot of the curriculum design and development as well as the documentation that
was needed to obtain the Ohio Board of Regents approval. The new CET degree
started in 1996.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Meanwhile
the Math, Physics, and Computing Technology Department created the Information
Engineering Technology (IET) degree in 1998 which was a 2+2 degree which meant
that students could enter the program after 2-years of college and get a BS IET
degree. The IET program was the precursor to the current Information Technology
degree at UC. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">*OCAS
traces it beginning back to 1828 and became a part of UC in the late 1960s. The
college was located downtown at the Emery building and in 1988 moved to the
former Edgecliff College campus. It was eventually merged with the College of
Engineering in 2009 to form the College of Engineering and Applied Science or
CEAS.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTd0hzlmF0fGaKG8AAOrzr9X02Fi6vC0OU33enrswAK0ZnT9Duaf3mP8n8dcpNgnEAGe19BCydvCjPnxFCqbUcvJRyRxVB2crBzrcvzJpQbHUi07CPs2cTucYW01NdbrhwHGzPFt02JyK8/s1600/SteppElvin.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTd0hzlmF0fGaKG8AAOrzr9X02Fi6vC0OU33enrswAK0ZnT9Duaf3mP8n8dcpNgnEAGe19BCydvCjPnxFCqbUcvJRyRxVB2crBzrcvzJpQbHUi07CPs2cTucYW01NdbrhwHGzPFt02JyK8/s320/SteppElvin.PNG" width="264" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCwqHKRgp8G-nR9VjfZXO5xBPDfdaJKn7ULh2w6ttxWd2yyAwlZ7zmDhOEmU4HinzPH6zNTp_6gvCwLNJwgx1g9m2qxuCx5w0M62GFSeePBnQoSAryiGhved39i392rdCg1botS03MiozG/s1600/SteppElvin_Party.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="317" data-original-width="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCwqHKRgp8G-nR9VjfZXO5xBPDfdaJKn7ULh2w6ttxWd2yyAwlZ7zmDhOEmU4HinzPH6zNTp_6gvCwLNJwgx1g9m2qxuCx5w0M62GFSeePBnQoSAryiGhved39i392rdCg1botS03MiozG/s1600/SteppElvin_Party.PNG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elvin Stepp at George Suckarieh's house in 2015</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-53582805998536254002016-12-30T15:25:00.001-05:002017-07-06T12:44:18.962-04:00Tap Dancing on Jello: From Chemistry to a Computer Maestro Extraordinaire <div class="MsoNormal">
Ron Lake (Interviewed June 29, 2007) -- He passed away on
June 23, 2008.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Job title: Information Technology Data Security
Administrator & HIPAA Security Officer<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Company: The Health Alliance (THA) – this organization
existed from 1994- 2010.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ron Lake went to undergrad at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn,
NY. Pratt had a small chemistry department, but one of his professors, Marvin
Charton (a renowned computational chemist), had done some collaboration work with
Jaffe and that was enough motivation for the young Lake to look at UC. He came
to UC as a chemistry graduate student in 1967. He worked under Hans Jaffe who
was one of the Big 3 computer users at UC. Jaffe coded in machine language as
he felt it was more efficient and faster. Ron also knew Janet Del Bene as she was
there at the same time. His area of focus was in quantum chemistry. All of his research
work involved using the computer for his calculations. He wrote his code in
FORTRAN. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He had to delay his schooling due to having a low draft number during the Vietnam War. He was, however, able to get a deferment by becoming
a teacher and he taught at Hughes High School for 2-1/2 years before returning to
UC. He had hopes of completing his graduate studies where he completed his master’s
degree in chemistry, but in 1974 he decided to pursue a career the computer field
and got a job at UC contracts division as a programmer. As a graduate student,
he had worked as a consultant in UC’s Computer Center and even did some work
for Neil Armstrong who was a professor of aeronautical engineering from 1971-79.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One week into his job and he was sent to Michigan to work on
an EPA clean air project and later projects related to the Safe Drinking Water
Act. His first project was for the Motor Vehicle Pollution Center in Ann Arbor.
This application system was used to “organize and analyze fuel economy data for
1975 light duty vehicles and to produce the 1975 EPA Fuel Economy Guide” (UCCC
Newsletter, Nov-Dec, 1981). The Oct 3, 1978 issue of UC This Week highlighted
the work that he and Ellen Miller did involving a computer system for monitoring
the quality of a community’s drinking water. This was a $2.9 million contract
with the EPA. The program was called the Model State Information System (MSIS)
and had been installed in 23 states at the time of the article. One of the
challenges was making sure the code ran on all the different computing systems
such as IBM, Univac, and Honeywell. (We have a similar problem today in terms
of developing apps for mobile devices.) UC also had to develop all the related
training for the system which was done in conjunction with the Faculty Resource
Center.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His background in chemistry served him well as many of the
regulatory rules required this knowledge to successfully implement computer
programs for monitoring the nation’s water supply. The Government didn’t know
their own regulations and Ron became an expert on the Safe Drinking Act
regulations and his chemistry background played a big part in this. His
expertise took him to Minnesota, California, Oklahoma, and many other places. It
was in Oklahoma where he first learned how to "tap-dance on jello"* as the COBOL
programs that had been written had never been successfully compiled much less
tested, but it had to be installed as per the deadline. Working through many
long days/nights, they not only got it successfully installed, but working as
well.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
*Ron learned both the expression and how to "dance" from Dan Meurer who has a long history of working at UC including being an adjunct professor.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When the new EPA building which is across Martin Luther King
Street from UC, was dedicated, President Ford attended a part of the official
ceremony. While working for the EPA, Ron got to know Greg Fish (biology –
computer modeling) who had taken a course taught by Ron during his graduate
school days. They became life-long friends. Ron also did a lot of statistical
work using SAS and SPSS. At the EPA, he did a lot of plotting which was very
primitive at the time and this led him to doing some of his work using an early
version of AutoCAD. One of his jobs involved the Maxey Flat Low Level
Radioactive Waste Facility, KY where the containment system leaked. He was the project
manager for the Quality Assurance part of the system. He remembered eating at Buds
Chicken Shack when he visited the facility. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When UC lost the EPA, Ron was asked by Jerry York to help
out on the medical computing side. His first assignment was to take over Cincinnati
General Hospital’s Health Information System (HIS). The initial system was not
successful so he had to draw from his past experience working with “jello” in
order to put it back on track. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Later he worked with an IBM spinoff from Duke University’s
Medical Center called PCS/ADS or Patient Care System/Application Development
System. (See the book “The History of Medical Informations in the United
States” edited by Morris F. Collen, Marion J Ball. This book also includes a
chaptered that was written by Morris F. Collen and Nancy Lorenzi entitled
“Information Systems for Clinical Subspecialities”). Ron was the project manager
on this and chief tech guy. The system used a special scripting language for
coding, sat on top of CICS, and used light pens with 3270 terminals. It was
called CGIS for Cincinnati General Information System. Later, IBM marketed it and
Mark Mussman was the person handled that side of things. UC got royalties for
each sale. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He was also involved in the implementation and support of
the LASTWORD system which was an integrated medical software application for both
the clinical and financial areas; Note: Malcom Gleser, one of the high school
students who worked for Ted Sterling was the one of the founders of PHAMIS
which originally developed the system in the 1980s; PHAMIS was acquired
by IDX (IDX was later acquired by GE) and the product was rebranded as Carecast.
Ron remarked that the "pioneering work interface engine" was far superior to the
CGIS system.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The March 17, 1989 issue of UC This Week highlighted the
work the Ron did with the Explorer Post 548 which was sponsored by UC Computer
Center. Dan Meurer was also involved with this outreach with the group that had
19 high school students. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In his last position at UC, Ron worked for Roger Guard;
although, they had the same goal in mind, they did not see eye-to-eye on how to
implement the plan. It was Roger who started the AIT&L department (Academic
Information Technology & Library) on the East campus and he certainly
helped revolutionized the library and IT for the medical campus. However, Ron
left after dispute with Roger Guard and went to Dayton for 9 months and then
came back was had been working for the past 9 years with Health Alliance at the
time of this interview. Interestingly enough, he was hired by some the same people
who had worked for him.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><b>Ron remembered:</b><o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
… there being an IBM 1401 computer in Wherry Hall on the
East Campus. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
… traveling with Joe Landwehr to Sunnyvale, CA to verify
that their applications would work on the Amdahl (#7) that UC was going to
purchase.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
… doing some of the statistical analysis on the controversial
whole-body radiation treatment experiment.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
… working with an early PC relational database system called
DataEase.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
… driving in a the blizzard of 1977 to the airport to so
that a tape could sent to Greg Fish who was working in Florida.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
… instituting a charge back system for internal customers.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
… working on the Y2K conversion of programs that happened as
the year 2000 approached with predictions of doom and gloom.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
… <b>most fondly helping to develop the Piranha Corp articles with Jonathan
Kopke and others</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><b>A few of the people he mentioned:</b><o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ginger Toeffel<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ron Burch<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tom Koerner <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ron Flaxmeyer <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Amin Shafie<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Alex and Alan Fraser<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dan Meuer – was from Cincinnati Bell; he was the Project Tech
for all the code on the Burroughs and Univac side<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bev Upton – she was the secretary for Henry Brasey<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Shannon McFarland – was CIO at the Cincinnati EPA office <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bob Caster – the director of SWORCC<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mike Ullman – become the CEO of JCPenney<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jack Krebs – worked with Jerry York; Ron reported to Jack
for a time<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gus Bahr who had passed away – he wrote FORTRAN programs for
the radiology department<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Don Harrison -- Sr VP Office on the East campus which
included supporting the College of Medicine via the Medical Computing Services –
it was his job to put them back on track<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bruce McBreen -- reported to Howe<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nancy Lorenzi – IAIMS Integrated Advanced Information
Management Systems; Nancy got this started via a grant<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Andre Deprit – a UC astronomer who worked with Jaffe <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Richard Elder – was a chemistry professor of Ron’s; he wrote
chemistry and x-ray related computer programs; Elder gave a talk entitled "Use
of Computers in Chemistry" at the meeting of the Southern Ohio Chapter of
the American Society for Information Science at Shuller's Wigwam, in Feb 1979.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Richard Howe – Assoc Sen VP and CIO of UC East campus November
1992 – June 1995; led the development of tele-medicine; reported to Don Harrison;
Howe has hoped to be CIO of the Health Alliance, but it did not work out so he
left UC.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpEI4g7AZwCVffeWh6ue6d-XfK4fvlDcfT8myIz4ePeah2Xq1tJ-PfPhxwA6CFhfkjUVWEDQdMlKKiXy0S-WuR-ifvvjfmoEx705mxni7lW5kqyA7shNpICC6YAxZ_Mb3Cg8kFxGYh9mpz/s1600/LakeRon-1981.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpEI4g7AZwCVffeWh6ue6d-XfK4fvlDcfT8myIz4ePeah2Xq1tJ-PfPhxwA6CFhfkjUVWEDQdMlKKiXy0S-WuR-ifvvjfmoEx705mxni7lW5kqyA7shNpICC6YAxZ_Mb3Cg8kFxGYh9mpz/s1600/LakeRon-1981.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ron Lake 1981 photo</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-44678284204303579482016-08-13T20:02:00.000-04:002017-06-27T16:07:21.957-04:00Do what you love – not want you think you should do<div class="MsoNormal">
Debbie Denise (interviewed on July 1, 2007)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Debbie Denise is from Dayton, Ohio and graduated from Julienne
High School (now Chaminade Julienne). She graduated from UC with a BFA in
Broadcasting. Her original plan was to take the related pre-med courses at UC,
stay involved in theater as she had done this in high school and at Kings
Island, and eventually go to med school at UC. She went from dreaming about
being a doctor to bringing innovation to the movie industry by using some of the
latest computing technologies to enhance the art of film making. The last thing
she saw herself while a student at UC was leading a team that would win the
Best Visual Effects Academy Awards for two movies: Forest Gump and Death
Becomes Her.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Her first year at UC, the campus was invaded by a massive
number of cicadas. On a more somber note, it was also the year of the Kent State
shootings which prompted riots on campuses across the US including UC which
closed down for 2 weeks in May. Others that I have interviewed also talked
about this tumultuous time in the nation and at UC. In high school she exceled
in science and theater, but was encouraged by her parents to enter into the
medical field. She found some of the science freshman classes disheartening and
particularly remembers the chemistry class where grades were determined by a
bell-shaped curve. She got As but felt as if she really learned nothing. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What changed her direction in life was going to the tryouts
at CCM for the play West Side Story. She was the lead female dancer in her high
school version so figured she would at least get a small part in UC one. That
didn’t happen, but as a result of not being picked she got to know Jack Rouse
who was the head of the department that included the TV & Film program
(today it is called eMedia). It was Rouse who encouraged her to change her life
course and use her love of science and theater to get into the entertainment
industry. Rouse was a chemistry major who was loved the entertainment arts and
got his doctorate in film from Michigan. (Rouse is very influential in the arts scene here in Cincinnati).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The title of this entry is from the words Rouse said to her after a discussion they had one day. Those words still resonate with her today. She transferred to
CCM which put her a quarter behind thus she finished up at UC in the summer. In
1973, her senior year, she won a Ziv Award for her travails. What she like
about her science courses was the time spent working in the lab where you had a
problem to solve that required creativity and excellent time-management skills in order to complete the task on time. This all translated well into her career after she left UC. Her first job was with ABC where she got her first exposure to computers. She told me that “Understanding the technical along with management skills is needed in the
film industry if you want to be successful.” Take out the word "film" as I would say this tends to be true even for our students.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Her first work on computing systems was on some of the early
video editing systems. Later, while living in the Silicon Valley area, she
discovered the power of the Apple Mac and saw the potential that it offered her
industry especially with the development of game rendering engines. Computer
revolution exploded and she was living in the area that was leading the nation.
Before this technology it was an all-day process to render the videos from
shots that were done during the day. She said that in her area of production there
is a need for people who have experience with Linux and can program in C++. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>People Mentioned</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Robert May</u><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Denise described May as a dreamer and visionary. He has founded
several companies including MOJO, Ikonic, and RingzTV and is involved with the
TED talks. She met him in the 1980s and produced a video about this dream
called “The Talking Map” which was on a device that he had envisioned that
would allow you to have a map of a city which show one the locations of
restaurants, museums, etc. Of course today, that is common place, but back then
it was a dream. GPS grew out of the early satellite days when Sputnik was put
into orbit in 1957. UC astronomer Paul Herget and his colleague, Ray Duncombe,
were the ones who successfully worked out the orbit of Sputnik. From there, it
was just a matter of time before the reverse was done where a satellite could
be used to work out one’s position on earth. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Richard Saul Wurman</u><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Wurman is the person who created the TED talks (Technical
and Energetic and Design Conference). Denise describes Wurman as a forward
thinker and someone she greatly admires. Wurman and May are friends and both collaborated
on developing the TED talks system that has become very popular.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Stuart Baird</u><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Denise also mentioned working with Stuart Baird who is noted
for some of his films such as the 1978 Superman, Gorillas in the Mist (which I
can relate to as I visited Rwanda and took the Gorilla tour) and Star Trek:
Nemesis.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>John Labadie</u><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
She knew Labadie and I interviewed him and he was the one
who recommended me to her. Labadie was also a speaker the 2008 50 Years of
Computing at UC Conference. His talk was entitled “The Rise of Photoshop OR
Pixel-Based Visualization and the Devolution of Truth.”<o:p></o:p></div>
Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-70276426195031387102016-07-11T22:40:00.000-04:002017-07-09T20:25:09.491-04:00Being in the microcomputer business is like going 55 miles an hour 3 feet from a cliff*<div class="MsoNormal">
Andy (Andris) Zingis (researched)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jay Yorcis (March 8, 2006) and Emmanuel Wilson (2007) were
interviewed. William Brown also contributed his remembrances.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
/*************************************************************<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jay Yorcis<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Andy Zingis started out at seminary school, but he found he
vocation was in computing. He was fluent in German. He also knew French and
Italian. In 1991 Jay and Andy took a trip to Germany. On the trip they got lost
and Jay had to read a sign to Andy only Jay’s pronunciation of the words was
all wrong. Andy could read white text on a black background, but reading signs
from afar was out of the question. It was one those trips that will always be
remembered by Jay. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Zingis felt at home with computers. First he mastered
keypunch programming and later he learned how to program the PCs using BASIC.
He also mastered some of the early PC software for doing word processing,
database management, and spreadsheet calculations. While working at the library,
he created a dBase database to handle all the equipment in the media lab. He
was one of the founders of the Cincinnati Computer Club which was started in
1977. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He loved the CP/M operating system (and later Dr. DOS) and
all things related to the Morrow computer. Andy was a dealer for Morrow Design
computers and he actually met George Morrow. Later Andy used the Kaypro
computer which was one of the first luggable PCs. It also used the CP/M
operating system. Kaypro’s success caused in part the demise Morrow Designs
computers, but Andy’s love was deeper than a brand name. He liked the WordStar
which was an early word processing software, SuperCalc spreadsheet, and dBase
database.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He was also giving of himself and helped Liz Hamilton who worked
in the Library then later CITS. She was blind in one eye and then lost sight in
the other in 1993. Andy helped her through this transition. She learned how to
design web pages using HTML. A Cincinnati Post article dated March 11, 1996
details her story.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Henry Brasey took Andy under his wing after he left the
library and joined CITS. This is also shown in the 1976 News Record article
about the IBM computer at UC. (see below)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jay Yorcis was student in 1968 at U College, got his
associates, and started working for UC in 1973 for Media Services which was
located in Zimmer Auditorium. Not long after meeting Andy, he purchased an
S-100 NorthStar with a Hazelteen terminal and learned to use Wordstar. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
/*****************************************************************<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Emmanuel Wilson<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Emmanuel first met Andy in 1977. Andy was a German major
graduate student. He did word processing on the mainframe before they were
available on the PCs. He had learned to first program using punched cards. Due
inpart to his poor eyesight, he became an excellent typist and was very adept
at using a Teletype machine for entering his code. Andy learned how to program
in FORTRAN, COBOL, and PL/1. He embraced the life-long learner mantra and was
always taking computer related classes. (see William Brown’s story below)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Andy was very fond of George Morrow and his witty saying and
Andy adapted some of them to his own making – called Andyisms. He liked the
Morrow PC and even sold them for a while. On the software side of things, he used
a suite of software called MicroMate which ran under CP/M. He did not like the
Mac as he felt that real programmers should type in commands and not point and
click as it insolated them too much from what was really happening. While he
was in charge of the Language Lab he obtained a set of foreign fonts and
software for doing translations. He tried to get the language professors to try
this new tools, but he was mostly met with skepticism. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Andy learned by having people read to him or using an eye
piece to read the material himself. He developed a close relationship with the
chemistry department and worked with Craig Moore who was blind chemistry
graduate student who was working on his PhD. Craig and Andy were highlighted in
a 1981 UC This Week article (see below). Craig Moore went to work for NASA and
helped facilitate a program that NASA ran for blind and visually impaired children.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Andy was also interested in the Kurzweil educational system
which could do text-to-speech and was designed for the blind and visually
impaired persons. Was one of the competitors in the John Hopkins competition
mentioned below.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Andy’s mother was from Latvia and during WWII she was so malnourished
that this caused him to lose much of his sight by the time of his birth in
1944. He died in 1996 while vacationing in Italy and looking forward to his
retiring there at the age of 52. Besides his wife, Isle, he left behind a host
of others at UC who remembered his enthusiasm for all things computing.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
/*****************************************************************<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
William Brown (via email with some editing)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Andy Zingis was the best man at my wedding in 1978. We took
all evening college programming courses together. He bought the books and I read
them aloud. I graduated with a 4.0 in my IPS major from the former College of Evening
and Continuing Education (CECE).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His wife, Ilse, worked for the UC German department and now
lives in Italy where Andy died the day before they were scheduled to return
from vacation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Andy did a BUNCH of things for the UC library, and won an
award from Johns Hopkins for his braille reader (this is detail below in the UC
This Week article) even though he could not read Braille, in the least. We were
fortunate enough that all the profs for our programming courses except one,
accepted our package deal -- we would take all tests together, and whatever
grade we earned, applied to us both. PL1/COBOL/Design of a telecommunications
based system profs all accepted that. The RPG prof did not. We had a great time
with that prof and drove him nuts.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
/****************************************************************<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Others who fondly remembered Andy Zingis<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
John Steiner<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mark Harlow<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
/**************************************************************<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The News Record, Tuesday, November 13, 1973<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Computer is new classroom aid in A&S”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By Nancy Geppert<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The article is about language lab and their use of a German
computer program called Course Writer which came from Ohio State. It also
mentions Zingis as the being the director of the lab and that he had written
his own German language program called Learn. Prior to that, he had also
written applications for grading papers and an exam for his German students.
This was before PCs and students had to dial into a mainframe computer to
access the program. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
/******************************************************************<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The News Record, Tuesday, February 3, 1976<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“The IBM computer that runs the university”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By Paula Deimling<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This article is mostly about SWORCC’s mainframe which was an
IBM 360/168. Henry Brasey was the main person interviewed for the article, but Andy
is mentioned as being one of two advisors (Jerry Natoqitz was the other person)
to the Student Computer Organization Promoting Education or SCOPE. The group
was organized to as a means for students to exchange notions about computers
and their usage with campus computer personnel. The group had 112 members.
Ironically, not long after this article appear, UC decided to switch to the
Amdahl computer. A decision that was very controversial.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
/*****************************************************************<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The News Record, April 20, 1976<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As UC was preparing to become a state supported institution,
President Bennis formed a task force to evaluate the philosophy of computing at
UC. Amongst other items this group was to evaluate the UC-Miami relationship
which formed the backbone of SWORCC. Andy along with Jerry Natowizt, was the
contact person for comments or suggestions.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
/*****************************************************************<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Aug 5, 1979 Cincinnati Enquirer article <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Fun Begets Practicality for Home Computer Users”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By Mi Herzog<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 1979 Andy Zingis was the president of the Cincinnati
Computer Club which got started in 1977. He is quoted in the article regarding
the peripherals he has invested in for his IMSAI 8080 computer. (When I started
my teaching career at Lockland High School that was the computer that I used in
my computer class.) It has two terminals hanging off of it and used the
Northstar time-share operating system. Zingis mentioned that he went to gaming
parties where they would play hangman, tick-tack-toe, and lunar landing which
is a far cry from today’s gaming parties. He is quoted as saying “Computers are
the fulfillment of age-old dreams to have a machine to do one’s bidding. And
they give one the illusion of thought.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
/*****************************************************<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
UC This Week – Friday, Dec 4, 1981<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“UC associates are working on technical projects to assist
the disabled”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By Anita Bettan<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1981 was declared the International Year of Disabled Persons.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ronald W. Lane, assistant professor of interior design at
DAA (now DAAP). His goal was to enable the handicapped to function more easily on
campus and in the community. This included installing wider elevators to
support wheelchairs, easy-to-open doors, curb cuts, and coded Braille pavements.
Coded pavements were signage that indicated where a mailbox, bus stop,
police/fire call boxes, and other public facilities were located. A blind
person would know that the signage existed based upon the ridged pavement. Lane
and his students worked on the renovation of a house, owned by a local hospital,
to make it a modern handicapped accessible facility.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Andy Zingis, staff member of the Instructional Media Center,
was legally blind. He helped a blind chemistry graduate student, Craig Moore,
by creating a paperless Braille computer. Andy and Peter Tyjewski, a fellow
member of the Cincinnati Computer Club, created the system. In August 1981,
this invention placed 4<sup>th</sup> in a competition sponsored by Johns
Hopkins University for the using a computer to help the handicapped. They
described it as the “world’s first 40-character, paperless Braille
microcomputer. Andy, Peter, and Andy’s wife Ilse formed a company called Futura
to market the system. They won an Atari 800 computer which at the time was
quite the system. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
/*********************************************************<br />
Craig Moore gave an interview entitled "Blindness is no excuse not realize you dreams!"<br />
Interviewer: Dorine in 't Veld, January 2005<br />
<br />
In this interview Craig refers to Andy in talking about grad school at UC. He states:<br />
<br />
<i>I had the good fortune to meet a <b>friend </b></i><b>(Andy Zingis) </b><i>who knew about the development of paperless braille for the application of computer terminals. My </i><i>friend </i><i> </i><i>had the idea of connecting such a display to an early PC. He completed the task for my use. I believe I probably had <u>the first PC with a braille display in the world</u>. It was operational in 1981, and I don't think such devices were commercially available for another three or four years. I could then submit programs and read output from home, I could write and edit text. My first computer had 64K of memory and two 360K floppy drives. My work did not move from mainframes to PC's until the early 1990's.</i><br />
<br />
/*********************************************************</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>First National Search on Personal Computing to Aid the Handicapped </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>sponsored by John Hopkins University</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Andy Zingis placed 4th out of 30 competitors.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The competitors where:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1. Audible Tone
Readout/Digital Display by William H. Alliston<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2. Computerized
Mechanical Hand for Deaf-Blind by Winalee E. Beeson<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3. Total Talk by Deane
B. Blazie<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
4. Braille Embossing
Calculator for the Blind by David A. Des Autels<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
5. Braille Text
Embossing by Randy W. Dipner<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
6. Orator, Talking
Terminal by Peter Duran<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
7. Computer
Controlled TV Image Enlargement by Sandy H. Edmonds<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
8. SIGHT by Peggy S.
Eyrich<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
9. Introduction to
Computer with Synthesizer by Richard Gage<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
10. Random Access of Digital Voice Records by Raymond Glenn<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
11. KANSYS, Talking Operating System by Charles E.
Hallenbeck <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
12. Product Identifier for the Blind by Jay C. Hardin<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
13. APPLE Sound Outputs for the Blind by Richard Hartness<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
14. Automatic Braille Transcription System by John J.
Hoefer, Paul F. Arnold, Max Waddell<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
15. Braille-Edit by David F. Holladay<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
16. PAL TALK, Spelled-Speech Terminal by Barry R. Horowitz,
Benjamin Streepey, Dung T. Ton<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
17. Pathfinder - Navigational Aid by John C. Knight<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
18. Braille Reading Machine by Harry Kosalos<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>19. Reading Machine for the Blind by Raymond C. Kurzweil</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
20. Talking Computer Terminal by James A. Kutsch<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
21. Talking Computer and Terminal by Peter B. Maggs<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
22. Single Character Volitle Braille Output by Klaus H.
Mewes<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
23. Bar Code Product Identification by Richard J. Probst<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
24. Braille Translation System by Joseph Renzi<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
25. Computer Terminal/Musical Tone Output by David A. Ross<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
26. Vocalization of Computer Output by James S. Schaefer<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
27. Programmable Spinning Optics Technology by Sidney H.
Slavin, John L. Wilkinson<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
28. Braille Word Processor by Robert E. Stepp III<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
29. Soft Talker by John J. Yurek<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>30. Paperless Braille
Microcomputer by Andris Zingis<o:p></o:p></b><br />
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>His description:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The world's first
40-character paperless braille microcomputer gives a blind user access to all
the power of the microcomputer, as well as to any larger computer, through
teleprocessing. Mechanically latched eight-dot braille cells differentiate 255
characters with speed and accuracy. This system offers computing made easy for
the blind.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
/*******************************************************************<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
On Tuesday, September 5, 1982, Zingis was featured on
channel 12 as “a blind man who invented a braille computer”.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
/*******************************************************************</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
*This quote is from George Morrow and really exemplifies how Andy lived his life.</div>
Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-84949458696285129052016-07-10T22:25:00.000-04:002017-11-24T10:30:31.199-05:00Rise of medical informatics at Cincinnati Children's<div class="MsoNormal">
John J. Hutton (interviewed Feb 7, 2008)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
John Hutton demonstrated what life-long learner meant. He also
epitomized the statement that Steve Jobs said in his commencement speech to the
graduating students from Stanford in 2005: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish”. <o:p></o:p>Hutton became a member of our department's advisory board and know by all of us as an easy going person. He was a life-long learner, a colleague and fellow computer techie. Hutton passed away June 19, 2016.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hutton was from Appalachia having grown up in the Ashland,
KY area. He described himself as a rural Appalachian child. His love for
science and his inquisitive nature led him to Harvard where he first obtained
is bachelor’s degree in 1958 in physics and chemistry. He witnessed the shame
of the McCarthy era where scientist and others were accused of being communists
or communist sympathizers and professional reputations were ruined. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After graduation he continued his studies at Rockefeller
University, New York, NY. One of professors had even worked on the Manhattan
project which fitted well with his interest in biophysics. He also worked with
the Department of Defense in various radiation experiments. He even started
working on an advance degree in physics at the University of New York, but soon
learned that there was a need for MDs who were researchers as opposed to
practicing. He went back to Harvard where he finished his MD in 1964. His
life-long learning journey was on beginning. In 1960 he got his first computer
experience using punched cards and the FORTRAN language. It was slow and
tedious and he didn’t really enjoy it, but a small light was lite as he would
later immerse himself into computing for his final occupation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 1971 he returned to his native state where he became a
professor of medicine at the University of Kentucky and the chief of the medical
service at the VA hospital in Lexington. In 1980 he moved to San Antonio and
became the associate chief of staff at the VA hospital there. He was always new
things and find that computers were a part of it. He enjoyed his time in Texas,
but he was recruited by a friend, Bill Schubert, as the Albert B. Sabin
professor of pediatrics and vice chairman for basic science research at
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Research Foundation. (Schubert was the head of
Children’s at that time.) And so in 1984 he took on a new role that set the
stage for his final endeavor which was to build Children’s into a world leader
in biomedical research and graduate education. A few years later, Hutton took
over the reins at the College of Medicine and served as the dean until 2002. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2002 was the year he switched gears a bit and started
learning as much as he could about computers. He took courses from the former
evening college and he eventually found his way to our new Information Technology
program that was housed in the College of Applied Science He took a Java programming
from one of our department’s adjunct professors, Brandan Jones. His reason for
wanting learn what he could about programming, and others related subject
matter was that he was working on a joint effort between the College of Engineering
and Children’s Hospital to create a biomedical informatics advance degree
program. In 2004 he became the VP and Director of the Biomedical Informatics
Center. Through engineering they were able to offer a PhD degree in this
growing field where computer science and medicine came together. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He wanted learn as much as he could about the computer
techie so he was at least able to understand their job and the possibilities of
where the technology could take a growing computing discipline. Learning this
allowed him to talk with the techies. Because the research they were doing
involved people, data management become an essential aspect of their work.
There are lots of rules and regulations pertaining to just how much of a person’s
personal information is allowed to seen by researchers. Security is very
important to this group as well. His job was to get Children’s and UC into the
modern medical research world and computing resources do not come cheap. They
were able to make very good use of some open source tools.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hutton also mentioned the I2P2 (Injury and Illness
Prevention Program<b>)</b> initiative
headed up by OSHA. This is being designed for researchers and is built around data
warehouse and data mining techniques. Another areas that Hutton was interested
in was nature language processing. He was interested in using natural language
processing to aid in predicting the risk of someone committing suicide. See: https://qz.com/1001968/artificial-intelligence-can-now-predict-suicide-with-remarkable-accuracy/ as there is an effort to made this idea a reality. John Pestian (mentioned below) is featured in another article on teenage suicide prevention using Artificial Intelligence -- https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2017/09/25/teenage-suicide-is-extremely-difficult-to-predict-thats-why-some-experts-are-turning-to-machines-for-help/?utm_term=.bbd2fd09028b <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>People he mentioned<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bruce Aronow was a post-doc in bio-informatics at Children’s
and the first recipient of the Hutton Chair for Biomedical Informatics. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
John Pestian <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pestian, Aronow, and Hutton helped found the biomedical
informatics division at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mike Wagner<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He was very technical, but knew how interact with faculty in
a professional way. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Keith Marsolo<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He is involved with the quality and suitability of
electronic health records (HER)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jarek Meller <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Interviewed Feb 6, 2008 for this project.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Brandan Jones<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Posted this on Facebook (June 21 2016)<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>10 years ago, I had a non-traditional student in class, who
I assumed was taking computer programming to change careers. I was shocked when
I found out that he was the retired Dean of the College of Medicine. He told me
that he loved my teaching, and he'd happily write me a recommendation, should I
ever consider a doctoral degree. 5 years later, I decided to retake Calculus,
thinking I'd be the only non-traditional student in class. To my surprise,
there he was again, in class with me, because he wanted to study astrophysics.
We were study partners before each exam, and I said, "Dr. Hutton, I can
guarantee you're going to have a successful career." I'm very sad to read
this news. He lived life to the fullest.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_O47Di_2Y8JvkfgcMBQfibkBsTmbtZASFCAUBsgwFhJgxsJC155XsG8KZA8N2Yq4RvnMtF8tTYW5mij7Pbcjj2q24czlOWte7kSFeqwwm9EatuTmSzAzhFhm5WRxlsYek4Y6rqsl5_bu6/s1600/Hutton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_O47Di_2Y8JvkfgcMBQfibkBsTmbtZASFCAUBsgwFhJgxsJC155XsG8KZA8N2Yq4RvnMtF8tTYW5mij7Pbcjj2q24czlOWte7kSFeqwwm9EatuTmSzAzhFhm5WRxlsYek4Y6rqsl5_bu6/s1600/Hutton.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I will always remember his smile</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-38487330794300742232016-07-05T11:58:00.000-04:002017-07-14T16:25:56.862-04:00A chemist and computer scientist who worked with some the leading computational chemists<div class="MsoNormal">
Janet Del Bene (interviewed on Aug 31, 2006)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She graduated from Girard High School in the Youngstown, OH
area (Albert Muhleman also graduated from here.) She was also a speaker at the November 11, 2008 conference celebrating UC's 50th anniversary of receiving their first computer.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Her PhD was done under Hans Jaffe and Ron Huston was on her
dissertation committee; Huston also had her in one of his math classes. Jaffe was
very involved in the operations of the computer center from the beginning. She
also recalled Paul Herget who along with Jaffe were considered the two biggest
users in the early days of computing at UC.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She started UC in 1965. There was a group of experimentalists
and a group of theorists. The theorists, under Jaffe, had a small lab with AC
and there were times on some of those extra hot days when the experimentalists
would pay them a visit as back in those days most of the campus buildings did
not have AC. Her office was in the Old Chemistry building. She described
Jaffe’s group as both “computer scientists” and chemists. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She programmed in FORTRAN which she learned as an
undergraduate while at Youngstown State University (YSU). She read an IBM
tutorial book on programming and her love of math, computing, and chemistry
allowed her to blossom into a topnotch chemical theorist and a not so bad
computer scientist as some of the new advances in chemistry really required the
full understanding of algorithmic coding. YSU had an IBM 1620 at YSU which was
used by the Business and Accounting department and she would get there from 7-8
am and operated the computer herself so by the time she arrived at UC she was
comfortable with computer programming and the technical issues that existed
with early computers. UC also had a 1620 during this time period as well. In
the old days, programmers had to make multiple copies of their programs in case
a card was lost or ruined. There was a lot trial and error to set up the JCL and
other related parameters correctly.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She took on project that all her friends told her not to
take because back then it would have taken 10 years just to complete all the
necessary calculations. That was in the Spring of 1966 and in the Fall 1966
John Pople (Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Walter Kohn in 1998) gave a seminar
at UC. After that seminar she approached Dr. Jaffe on using what she had
learned. Her proposal was to modify CNDO from Pople then to CNDOS where the S
stood for Spectroscopic. She would later collaborate with Pople and others such
Isaiah Shavitt on multiple different papers related to chemical computer programming.
(Isaiah (Shi) Shavitt was a computational chemistry pioneer and first learned
to code on the EDSAC I computer.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She wrote a program on CNDOS and later it was given to the Quantum
Chemistry Program Exchange (QCPE) where the application was distributed to
others for a minimal cost. The QCPE was based at Indiana University and served
a valuable need into the 1990s. This allowed the sharing of valuable computer
programs without having others starting from scratch. Her paper “Use of the CNDO
method in spectroscopy” was one of the first ones she wrote and has been designated
as a science classic paper because of the number of citations (currently over >1500).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Writing a program required the program to keypunch the code
and then wait for a currier to pick up cards (others also mentioned this) and
then wait until the next day for the output. This meant one had better
double-check their code before sending it over. Del Bene was a UC during a time
of computing turmoil as John Varady was brought in to head up both Academic and
Medical computing. Ted Sterling who had headed up medical computing left in
disgust and so there was not the programming demand as before. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She mentioned that it may have been an IBM 1410 which did
indeed exist, but she was not entirely sure. The medical computer center did
have a 7040-1401 system that had been brought in a few years ago. In any case
it was this access to a computer that allowed her to reduce a “10 year” prediction
down to 22 months and 50 days of work.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She would spend 6 days a week from 11pm to 7am using the computer
with several others. Their first night started out a bit frustrating as they
could not got the system to fully function until Del Bene accidentally hit the
right button with her butt-cheek which I guess was the precursor to today’s
butt-dialing. At one point during the startup process they had to enter the
date in octal. They actually put in an invalid date and got the message back
that said “if you don’t know what the date is, how do you expect to run this
computer”. Later she ran into a problem with the computer where the first bit
of a floating point number was dropped. It was a rare occurrence that took some
time to resolve. By the time his program was complete it had over 2000 lines of
code and it had been all keypunched. Her code was added to by others and it
eventually grew to over 3000 lines. Her PhD thesis has a listing of the code in
the appendix. She published 5 papers on CNDOS.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She talked about computer science as today students do not
really understand how a computer works, but back in those early days a
programmer spent a lot of time no only desk-checking their code, but also
learning how the hardware actually ran the code. That has all changed as coding
is mostly one or more levels removed from the hardware. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
She also mentioned Milton Orchin who was fondly known as uncle
Milt by many of the chemistry students. In in 2001 she was visiting UC and
giving a seminar. Orchin said to her “Janet, I have a problem for you” and she
co-authored paper with him. (At the time I interviewed Orchin he was 92 years
old and was a highly regarded professor of chemistry both within UC and outside.)<o:p></o:p></div>
Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-76250013783108389652016-07-03T14:49:00.001-04:002018-02-11T13:24:02.446-05:00A Brother and Sister and the Student Information SystemTom Koerner and Mary Lee Kaiser<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tom Koerner (interviewed July 16, 2006)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Roger Bacon High School 1964<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At time of interview he had been at UC for 36 years. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After high school Tom Koerner enter UC, but only lasted for
one quarter. He just wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life. He worked
for a while and then joined the military and was stationed at Fort Hood. In
1968 he was ready to give college another try and started back at UC at the
University College where he obtained his associates in Business Data Processing
in 1970. He was able to make use of the GI Bill which allowed him to go to
school full time. Koerner did quite well in the program and it allowed him to
blossom and he took an accounting course from my father-in-law. He remembered
“The Bridge” next to TUC where music was played on Tuesdays and Thursdays with
a beer wagon at noon. (I also remembers those days.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On May 4, 1970 the Kent State shootings occurred and a few
days after he was in the keypunch room in Beecher and heard a lot of noise in the
hallway. There were student riots at UC and across the nation and over 200
universities were closed. UC was shut down from May 8 – 17. Koerner did not
participate in this action and packed up and went home until things quieted
down. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of his professors was Tom Shaber who taught economics
and computer programming in U College. Professor Shaber had class at his house
for their last econ class during the time UC was closed due to the riots. Shaber
knew Bill Meyer who led the programming department and would hire some of their
better students. Shaber was impressed with the more mature Koerner and his
programming abilities and put him in touch with Meyer. Bill Meyer then hired
him.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 1970 the new Student Information System (SIS) was being
developed and Koerner was hired to help. He worked in Beecher Hall. All new development
tools were being used and the system was considered to be fairly advance for
the time. It was a PL/1 CICS VSAM system (something that none of my students
have ever heard of). The systems analysis and programming departments were on 2<sup>nd</sup>
and 4<sup>th</sup> floors in Proctor Hall which houses the College of Nursing,
but in 1972 the group was moved to Beecher. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Programmers would write their code on coding sheets including
the necessary JCL for processing. These sheets were then sent over to keypunch
department which was located in Beecher Hall on the main campus (Beecher Hall
is where University Pavilion is located today.) The I/O center was in the
Physics building (Braunstein Hall) and programmers submitted their jobs using RJE
or remote job that would read the cards and que them up to executed on the
computer. A 24-hour turn around was the standard for coding back then.
Eventually UC got a device where programmers could type their code directly in the
computer. This was a big deal. It was dialup system and quicker than the old
24-hour turn around. He could even use it from home. He would debug from home
which beat having to drive to UC. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After graduating with his associate’s degree, Koerner
started night school and completed his BS after four more years. It was an
exciting time to be working with computers especially at UC. Bob Caster
recently became the administrative head and by 1973 UC obtained an IBM 370/165
computer. In three more years, they would switch over to the Amdahl.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back in the day, P&G was a PL/1 shop and so UC followed
their lead in writing applications in this language. The new STARS system was
rolled out in 1973 and lasted until 1999 when it was replaced by UniverSIS just
before 2000 rolled in. The new systems was based upon the Software AG toolset using
the Adabas database and Natural programming language. In 2016 this system was
replaced by an Oracle PeopleSoft system now called Catalyst.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Koerner started his career working for Administrative Data
Processing (ADP), but later moved into the Systems Analysis department which was
headed up by Don Bruegman. At the start this group was not part of SWORCC, but
eventually they were moved under the organization. Jack Rust was the assistant
director to Don and he managed the group of systems analysts (SAs). The job of the department was
to handle change requests on applications. If someone wanted a change their
department was called. They drew up the specs and then sent them to the
programming department where the changes were implemented, tested, and put into
production.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Koerner’s job entailed CICS testing, supporting the SIS
system which included enhancements such as giving priority to seniors over the
lower underclassmen in terms of registration for classes. In 1964 registration
was done at the Fieldhouse where you had a punched card for your classes. (When
I started at UC in 1972, registration was done in Dyer Hall and it was similar
in that you picked up a punched card for each class you wanted to take and
stood in line to have it processed and then another line to pay the bill.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Several interesting aspects of the computer revolution
Koerner witnessed:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1. In 1976 he saw the Apple Lisa which preceded the
Macintosh computer and remembers thinking “what does it take to program this.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2. Several versions of email at UC – Bearcat Online (BOL)
was homegrown. Before email a 3 day response time to an inquiry was acceptable,
but email changed all of that. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3. He was involved in the Y2K conversion which required a
big effort not just by UC programmers, but a host of supporting personnel as
well.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
4. He was involved in the UC Flex Project Employee Self-Service
which was part of UC’s SAP implementation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
5. He remembered getting memos via campus mail with the
expectation of a response within 3 days. Now of course that is within 3
seconds. The psychology of how people want an answer now not tomorrow. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Persons mentioned<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Carl Heilmann<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(UCCC NL 1980 V1N2 Jan-Feb -- he celebrated his 10<sup>th</sup>
at UC in 1980)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 1980 Heilman was promoted to the position of Director,
Financial Systems and Procedures in the Controller’s Office. He was a Roger
Bacon grad and UC business grad. See <a href="http://www.thinkingchicken.com/Theman.htm">http://www.thinkingchicken.com/Theman.htm</a>
for more information.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Rudy Cammerer<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Produced the Faculty Salary Survey result highlights for University
of Cincinnati’s Department of Management Services and Analytical Studies Report<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Sr. Anne Bockhorst<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She is shown on the SWORCC pictures. She later worked at the
College of Mount St. Joseph as a computer programmer. She passed away in 2011.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Jack Southard <o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He developed the DARS system at Miami University in 1983. This was
system that enabled colleges and universities to track student's progress
toward their degrees. He worked with Bruce McBreen. Southard was a programming
genius and wrote the scheduling algorithm. McBreen said that "it was a tremendous piece of code." This system is still in use (CollegeSource's u.achieve) as of 2017 which is an testament to how well it was written. Koerner and McBreen's role in this was to maintain the code.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Paul Herget<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Koerner got to know Herget from his visits to the computer
center at the Campus Services Building located in the old Sears Building on
Reading Road. Herget was always pleasant and they would talk about many
different things. Herget he still had card decks that he would carry around
with him. Caster had to fight to get Herget office space and it was a small
office. Interesting considering that it was Herget who was responsible for
bringing the computer age to UC. Herget was well liked by a many of the
programmers and he was missed when he passed away. Koerner was in the old Sears
building until 1999 which is when the group moved into University Hall.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Additional Notes<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Paper on the development of UniverSIS<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
UniverSIS: Flexible System, Easy to Change<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By Robert Miller, Bruce Johnson, and Walter W. Woolfolk<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Educause Quarterly Nov 3, 2002<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Robert Miller: Director of Information Technology Services
at UC<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bruce Johnson: retired associate professor from XU<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Walter Woolfolk: Information Systems Director for Taylor
Distributing in Cincinnati<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Side note<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
We have all experienced this at one time or another where we
meet someone we know “out-of-context” meaning you see a colleague at an event
or location where you would not expect to see that person. In this case, I had
asked Tom about his sister Kathy who is a friend of my wife and I as her son
was in the same class as ours. Tom replied that he did not know her only later
to recant that the next day. Whenever we see him, we just laugh about his
forgetting his little sister.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>/******************************************************************************/</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mary Lee Kaiser (interviewed July 13, 2007)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Graduated from Our Lady of Angels (OLA) which was later
merged into Roger Bacon<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After high school she attended Cincinnati State (then Cincinnati
Technical College or CTC) in their computer programming degree which was a coop
program, however she quit after her 3<sup>rd</sup> term and started a job at Central
Trust Bank as a document analyst. She was required to learn Assembler and did
well on a related test. Her job entailed two components: she served as the
secretary/keypunch operator and a second pair of eyes for 14 programmers.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At Central Trust the programmers were on-call 24/7 and
although she really enjoyed programming, that time commitment would have been
hard on her and her family. Back in those days, if a system failed the programmer
had to get out of bed and drive to where the data center was located. In this
case, it was located downtown which was not a real safe place in the middle of
the night. Back in those days knowing assembler was considered one those basics
tools a programmer had to know. She worked there for about a year and then her
position was downsized. As luck would have it she was able to find work in UC.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In June 1971 she started work at the registrar office at UC.
When she first started the coding was done on special coding sheets and then
sent over to data processing where they were keypunched on cards, then sent
back and submitted. The coding was hand-written for about a year and then the
remote job entry terminals were brought in. It was a big change in terms of
coding, but programmers still had to wait in line to use one of the 3 terminals
in their office. It was a bulky system, but an improvement over the old way.
After a year working full-time at UC, life happened and for the next 15 years she
worked part-time for the registrar’s office witnessing the evolution of the
student information system (SIS). She worked intermittently while managing the
family and she was eventually able to come back full time. During this time, she
was able to set her own hours and her expertise was especially needed at the
beginning of school year.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 1972 they used a printed label system to post grades and
although the label had to be peeled off, it was a big improvement what was done
before by hand. They used labels until 1985 when UC went totally computerized
student records called STARS. Before that all GPA had to be calculated by hand
and then entered into the system. If there was a grade change it meant
recalculating for that quarter and then the overall GPA. It was a long drawn
out process. In 1985 it now was automatic once the grade was changed in the
system.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With STARS advanced standing was also easier to maintain. Prior
to 1985 everything was on microfilm, but some student information was stored on
both the computerized system and microfilm. PickUp Points or PUPs requires them
to recalculate the hours students took and that was a problem when UC went from
semesters to quarters. 1963-64 school year UC went from semesters to quarters.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Notes<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1. I used STARS to look up older student records when I was
doing academic advising between 2006-08 for legacy students who were not in the
newer UniverSIS system. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2. At the time of this interview, UC was discussing switching
back to semesters which did really happen for the 2012-13 school year. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Autumn 1999 UniverSIS went live and the transition was
horrible for the registrar’s office. Unfortunately, the program was not ready,
but with the Y2K bug threatening the old STARS system had to be abandoned. It
was about a month before they could easily run a transcript for a student. The
UniverSIS was eventually replaced in 2016 by Catalyst which powered by Oracle’s
PeopleSoft.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The old STARS system would not have worked when the year
2000 came as the century was not stored with dates in many programs that were
written in those older days so the registrar's office had little choice but to
make the switch, which was not easy. She like a lot of the IT personnel were
on-call when January 1, 2000 came. They were running two systems for a long time
during that time (STARS and UniverSIS) and had to actually submit two separate
transcripts for students who were in-between the two systems. They actually had
to do screen prints as the reporting system did not work. This required
stamping each sheet of paper as well. Also they could no longer process grade
changes for anyone who had a change-of-grade of courses before Fall 1999.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They had over a 1000 of grade changes that could not be
processed until the end of the school year. But the new system was finally
corrected and by January of 2001, they had caught up with all the student grade
changes. During this transition UC was in rebuilding mode and the registrar’s
office was moved to Edwards as Beecher Hall was torn down to make way for the
new University Pavilion. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Web requests for transcripts really cut their work load and
they are able to stay caught up. The web requests are printed overnight and
went live sometime in 2003. It was printed off-site. Computerized option web
order allows the address to be printed instead of hand written and when a
student calls there is a record in the system that can easily be accessed.
Students can even order their transcripts via UPS which was also a big help. Laser
printed seals are used today where it used to be hand-stamped. She mentioned
that, one interesting aspect of all of this modern technology is the “lost art
of mailing” as students no longer know who to fill out an address on an
envelope today as they email or text everything. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<u>References:</u><br />
[1] Progress Toward Paperless Campus Helps Improve Student Services, March 10, 1998, www.uc.edu/info-services/admit.htm<br />
<br />
Synopsis (direct quotes from article):<br />
Paper will soon be "passe" in the University of Cincinnati's Admissions Office thanks to ongoing implementation of the electronic Student Information System (<b>SIS</b>) that is transforming the way students are served on campus. This week, student recruitment efforts through the Office of Admissions becomes a leaner, faster integrated effort thanks to "<b>UniverSIS</b>" which will eventually consolidate all student databases and streamline all aspects of record-keeping and student support operations.<br />
<br />
[2] Retiring Registrar Looks Back on Career; UC Registrar Lynn Barber looks back on his years with UC, starting as a chemistry student, Dawn Fuller, 1/23/2003, www.uc.edu/profiles/profile.asp?id=137<br />
<br />
Synopsis (direct quotes from article):<br />
He recalls that in the early 1980s, his staff was still working with paper student records. If a grade needed changing, a worker had to do it by typewriter or by hand. Upgrades to the old computer system led to <b>online records transcripts in 1985</b>, allowing grade changes to be made by computer.<br />
<br />
In the early 1990s, Lynn says it was a well-known fact that the entire UC student records computer system needed a major overhaul and upgrade. "We patched it together for the last time. You know, you got out your bailing wire and you rigged it up, but it wasn't going to take anymore rigging."<br />
The university explored vendor products for student services, but the offerings didn't seem to address all of the needs of UC's student information system. "So, in 1995, we decided to build our own system," says Lynn, referring to the development and implementation of <b>UniverSIS</b>, which started operation in 1999.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqIu4PYGC5i61xTQLozo4mLI6Bt5HoV4En1EovE7VhpAIHPQ4wUvsWM4PaH2ljuzCzfo3R-EK9eXE6THLUUMJdc0ytH1LgvtHveFABFIEJtfxnazTanX7d6UGYfVIzsNmP4w10hHqh6_G8/s1600/KoernerTom-SWORCC-Offline1975V1N6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="365" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqIu4PYGC5i61xTQLozo4mLI6Bt5HoV4En1EovE7VhpAIHPQ4wUvsWM4PaH2ljuzCzfo3R-EK9eXE6THLUUMJdc0ytH1LgvtHveFABFIEJtfxnazTanX7d6UGYfVIzsNmP4w10hHqh6_G8/s400/KoernerTom-SWORCC-Offline1975V1N6.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SWORCC Offline 1975 Vol 1, No 6</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2y3gBsO8YVis_zYiIEJRpwnvtIrga-2aS_oYN6VByIvftZ8UqyBQ0hXcYHYzKnM-9AZKxIfYADgJYCMLvU29M5WUxCmyxPY4JjNdbAr5UG8cs0L_cIhNht3ZvdGhtGx4MWeqJ9WcpOzEB/s1600/cobol-code-sheet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2y3gBsO8YVis_zYiIEJRpwnvtIrga-2aS_oYN6VByIvftZ8UqyBQ0hXcYHYzKnM-9AZKxIfYADgJYCMLvU29M5WUxCmyxPY4JjNdbAr5UG8cs0L_cIhNht3ZvdGhtGx4MWeqJ9WcpOzEB/s400/cobol-code-sheet.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">COBOL Coding Sheet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-5233302111418113302016-05-20T21:04:00.000-04:002016-06-30T15:06:33.050-04:0050 Years of Computing at UC ExhibitOn June 4, 2008 an exhibit was put together to celebrate the arrival of UC's first computer, an IBM-650, which arrived on campus in June 1958. It was briefly housed in Swift Hall before being moved to it's permanent place in the newly built annex of Braunstein Hall. The exhibit was on display in the CAS (College of Applied Science and now part of Engineering) which was located on the Victory Parkway campus. Michael Lichstein was the keynote speaker. Fred Siff, the CIO at UC, gave a short introduction.<br />
<br />
<b>Agenda for UC 50th Anniversary Celebration of the First Computer to Arrive on Campus</b><br />
<br />
Celebration event and exhibit kick off is set for 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, June 4, 2008, in the library of UC’s College of Applied Science (CAS), 2220 Victory Parkway, Cincinnati 45206. (The library is located just to the left of the main Administration Building.)<br />
<br />
Introduction and welcome<br />
- Fred Siff, vice president and chief information office, UC<br />
<br />
Brief overview of UC’s computing history<br />
- Russ McMahon, associate professor, information technology, and author of the forthcoming book, 50 Years of Computing at the University of Cincinnati, will deliver brief highlights of UC’s computing history, including:<br />
1. A pioneering UC program to train workers with disabilities, specifically the visually impaired, as programmers.<br />
2. Opportunities for women created because of computing advances.<br />
3. Graduates from UC who made computing history.<br />
4. Efforts by UC employees to secure the university’s domain name -- www.uc.edu.<br />
<br />
UC’s computing history changed lives<br />
- Cincinnatian Michael Lichstein was 17-years-old when he, as a blind high school student, served as the pioneering “test driver” for a nationally ground-breaking UC program to train the visually impaired as computer programmers. Other universities from as far away as California and Canada followed UC’s lead. Lichstein will briefly speak regarding: the effect of the program on his own life and the effect of the program on visually impaired individuals who signed up for UC’s program from as far away as New York State, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Washington, D.C.<br />
<br />
Close and invitation for mini-tours of historical hardware and photographs from UC’s computing history<br />
- Fred Siff, vice president and chief information office, UC<br />
<br />
Hardware on display will date back to the 1930s calculators used by UC astronomers. (The needs of UC astronomers served as the impetus for UC’s acquisition of its first computer in 1958.) Photos of that first computer will be on display as will hardware used in the 50 years since.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fred Siff giving the introduction and welcom</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2nd from left is Dave Bosse who was very instrumental in this effort. 2nd from the right is Michael Flood of IBM.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michael Lichstein giving his keynote talk</td></tr>
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<br />Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-17211212887347782662016-02-03T22:36:00.000-05:002017-06-27T16:08:52.413-04:00A mathematician and celestial-mechanists reminisces about three UC world-renown astronomers<div class="MsoNormal">
Ken Meyer (interviewed March 10, 2006 with Dieter Schmidt
and again May 7, 2007)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Attended Maderia High School and his last two days were at
Cincinnati Country Day School his last 2 years.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Meyer attended Cornell University and finished his bachelor’s
degree in engineering physics in 1960. Returning home, he received masters and
PhD degrees in mathematics from the University of Cincinnati in 1962 and 1964. He
first went to Brown University and then the University of Minnesota, but the
Queen City beckoned him to return and in 1972 he came back. This was the same
year that I started UC and my brother Doug began his university teaching. My brother
had earned all three of his degrees from Case-Western in the area of topological
dynamics which is a very abstract form of differential equations.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Meyer knew both PL/1 and C and did teach a few programming
courses, but that was not his main interest. In the early 1980s, the Math
Department purchased a Symbolics LISP machine which he described as the great boondoggle.
He and Dieter Schmidt obtained a DARPA grant at a time when DARPA was investing
in Artificial Intelligence research (see the book “The Dream Machine” by Mitchell
Waldrop). The grant supported both of them for 2 months over the summer and
then the 2<sup>nd</sup> and 3<sup>rd</sup> year of the grant they were able to pick
up two other people. Unfortunately, this specialized computer never really lived up to its
potential so the project was scrapped after the life of the grant. Interesting
tidbit of information: symbolics.com became the first .com domain on March 15, 1985 and UC got its domain in 1987.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the 1970s there was a computer science option for math
majors. This was done in part because they could not get a separate name and it
required state approval so the option was included. Walt Poplarchek helped set
up computer certificate program as a joint venture between the University
College and the Math Department. Poplarchek had started out as one of Herget’s
graduate students, but it did not work out. Later, Poplarchek was able to earn
his master’s degree in mathematics and collaborated on a paper with Andre
Deprit. Finally in 1984 a separate Computer Science department was formed and
Meyer would teach a class for them one a year. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Persons mentioned<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Paul Herget<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Meyer was very interested in celestial mechanics and so was
quite familiar with the challenges astronomers such Herget had in calculating
the orbits of the minor planets. Herget’s office was on the left side of the
new hall. Herget was not only a master of the computer, he was a human
computer. He was so in tuned with the Friden calculator that he could literally
hear the answer. In Meyer’s office was an old Marchant calculator similar to
one that Paul Herget had used (the actual Marchant is on display at the
Cincinnati Observatory). When he was a student, he had a summer job where he
used an electrical version of it. He remembered his days at UC as a grad
student in the 1960s when the Math Department located in the Physics Building next
to the computer room and Paul Herget’s office.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Herget got involved with space in the mid1950s where he did
real time calculations for the Vanguard project. Later he worked on the Mercury
manned space flights. NASA would call him up with the initial coordinates of a
capsule and he would calculate whether or not the rocket would reach a suitable
orbit. NASA would give him data base upon early sightings and then had to wait
for a definitive “Go-No Go” for least one orbit around the earth to know for
sure if a continuous orbit would happen. It took about 45 minutes to do one
loop and about the same amount of time to do one computation. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Andre Deprit<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When Meyer started his teaching career at UC in 1972, he
remembered seeing Deprit walking across the campus one day. Meyer had met
Deprit from a Celestial Mechanist summer program at University of Texas and
they shared a mutual acquaintance, Julian Palmore. Palmore earned his PhD from
Yale in 1967 and Deprit was his second advisor. Later, Meyer and Palmore worked
together at the University of Minnesota and they had authored several papers
together. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Meyer helped get Deprit transferred into the Math Department
as he was originally hired to work at the observatory, but he and Herget did
see eye-to-eye. Deprit started teaching some of their computing courses for
them as it was an option for their math students. He was an expert in PL/1,
assembler, and a few other languages and was very interested in Mechanized
Algebraic Operations (MAO) and computer aided proofs in analysis. Deprit also
worked with Schmidt on some early symbolic computation before mathematical
software such as Maple or Mathematica existed. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Ken Seidelmann<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Meyer was very familiar with Seidelmann’s work and spoke
very highly of his. Meyer had gone to a conference in Belgium and ran met a
woman who happened to be from Cincinnati. As they began to talk, it turned out
that she knew Meyer’s high school girlfriend and her husband was Ken
Seidelmann. Even then the world seemed to be a small place. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bobbie had taken the wood working courses at OCAS (Ohio
College of Applied Science) when the college was located downtown in the old
Emery building. It was a very good program and had originated from the former Ohio
Mechanics Institute (OMI was founded in 1828) which was the predecessor to the
College of Applied Science which was eventually merged with the College of
Engineering to form the College of Engineering and Applied Science or CEAS.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>References<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Chris McCord (email correspondence) -- McCord was serving as
acting associate dean for graduate affairs for the College of Arts and Sciences
during 2003-2004.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Right Angle Vol 11 Mathematics Alumni Newsletter Autumn
2003<o:p></o:p></div>
Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-53398269958173722832016-02-01T21:43:00.001-05:002018-11-25T21:12:21.672-05:00A liberal arts education from UC well prepared this Bearcat for his career<div class="MsoNormal">
Jim Selbert (interviewed June 28, 2007)<o:p></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Woodward High School 1960</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">An outreach by UC when he was a senior at Woodward sold him on becoming a bearcat. He also liked the campus back then and of course it has changed quite a bit from back then. He was at UC during the time when UC switched from a semester system to the quarter system. He majored in economics which was then located in the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences. Today, it is housed in the Lindner College of Business (LCB). In terms of the authors research, the class of 1964 produced a good number of computer pioneers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">His senior year at UC he took a FORTRAN programming course which was offered out of engineering. At first he was a bit apprehensive about the course, but he found the material fascinating. Learning how to make a computer do something had a deep psychological effect on him. He loved it and ended up writing some computer programs as part of his senior thesis. He could not remember who his professor was, possibly Carl Evert, but he does remember how helpful he was. That made all the difference. Students keypunched their programs and then feed them into a card reader to be executed on the IBM 1620 which had only 20K of memory. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Upon graduation from UC, he was accepted into MIT's Sloan School of Management. That experience proved just as valuable as the program was more of nuts-and-bolts education with enough theory for understanding and lots of practice which included computer programming. He was able to hone his programming skills and learn the </span>nuances<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> of the economics of leasing which became his area of expertise. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">His first job was with Litton </span>Industries<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> where he worked for six years answering to the treasurer. In 1971 he and a professor from UCLA, James Warren, decided to create a small company based upon software they had written for helping with leasing optimization. The product is known today as ABC for Leases. The program was originally written in FORTRAN and ran on a DEC VAX. Through a time-share system, customers would connect to their backend and run the software for a fee. Today, the model is much the same except now it done through their server-farmer located in Santa Barbara, CA. Basically, it is a Software as a Service (SaaS) model that was started well before the term was ever used. </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Around 2000, most of the system was rewritten in C++ and they added a modeling language, CALC, to it so that customers could build their customized leasing models. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Besides his real work, he is also director for Direct Relief International which is a nonprofit specializing in emergency preparedness and response. They supply emergency medical equipment and drugs worldwide to areas in need. The CEO is Thomas Tighe who work for the Peace Corps as a general counsel and later as the chief operating officer. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Not only has the bearcat created a unique piece of software, but has lend his expertise in logistics and organizational leadership in helping those in need at a time of crisis.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji8SHvebww1dlcmHj3J6TrI9e2HuYAQAPGwITLwTJVBPdT9TJjSKuyZK5hpxk84CbW-ohBn9Tr698iTkJDu9QPIuNwJfYCfV-GN30jvtkpwPuQ_2Lk3KhGAbN36QEU0VoOUvbYvi9WlOiu/s1600/UC-1963.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji8SHvebww1dlcmHj3J6TrI9e2HuYAQAPGwITLwTJVBPdT9TJjSKuyZK5hpxk84CbW-ohBn9Tr698iTkJDu9QPIuNwJfYCfV-GN30jvtkpwPuQ_2Lk3KhGAbN36QEU0VoOUvbYvi9WlOiu/s400/UC-1963.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UC campus in 1963</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012647970211887693.post-66860489575263764952016-01-30T23:10:00.002-05:002018-12-26T19:45:27.977-05:00A witness to 42 years of computing at UC and “Where’s the ANY key?”<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Ron Flaxmeyer (interviewed February 2, 2008)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cincinnati Woodward High School grad – 1958<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Other Woodward Bulldogs:<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Shannon Coffey<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Greg Fish<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Dave Neblett<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Al Scheide<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Jim Selbert<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
Delorise Staples (she actually
finished up at Hughes, but she most of her time here)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Introduction<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During Flaxmeyer's 42 years at UC, he worked for 4 different “CIOs”:
Bob Caster, Jerry York, Robyn Render and Fred Siff. (Note: Fred Siff was the
first person to officially hold the title of CIO.) He witness the fast changing
computer revolution firsthand which went from the big mainframe batch/noninteractive
processing environment with limit access to the computer to small portable and
highly interactive computers made for the masses. He started his career
programming via plugboards to wire an application to punch-card systems to
remote-job entry to interactive computing first via 3270 terminals and later
via something called a mouse using a graphical user interface (GUI). <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back the 1950s attending college was not much of an option
for the young Flaxmeyer and even if he had considered it, the cost of tuition
was too high for his family. Out of high school he worked for a medical company
downtown. In 1960s during the Vietnam War he became a member of the Army
Reserves. He started working for UC in 1962 in the Machines Record Department
and used the unit record equipment for data processing. Bill Meyer and Bob Mays
were hired in 1964-65 and they became friends. He started taking courses from
UC’s Evening College where he first obtained a certificate on computers and
later his bachelor’s degree. Bob Caster was one of his teachers. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Caster encouraged his staff to teach classes at UC in the
evening and many of them including Flaxmeyer. He taught for more than 30 years
up to the time when the College of Evening and Continuing and Education (CECE)
was merged with the College of Applied Science in the early 2000s. (The author
became the academic advisor for all IT-related majors from the former CECE during
this transition.) He taught RPG, PL/1, PL/M and other courses as well. (Programming
Language for Microcomputers was developed by Gary Kildall and so was CPM which was
an early operating system used on PCs that almost became the dominate OS instead
of DOS on PCs which is a very interesting story itself.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His computer career actually began during his time at Gibson
Greeting Cards. He started working there in the shipping department for $60 a
week, but after taking his course at UC he was able to move to the data
processing department for $64 a week. He ran the sorter for 8 hours a day. This
experience proved valuable for someone without a college degree. He saw an ad
in the paper for a job with the City of Cincinnati. He took a test for a Tabulator
Operator II and passed and so they contacted him for a job offer. He was
interviewed by Harold Crane who later worked for UC as the Personnel Manager at
SWORCC. Crane offered a job to Flaxmeyer with either the Cincinnati Police or
with UC as UC was a city operated university at that time (UC went state in
1977). His salary was $80/week along with a month vacation. In August of 1962
he began his bearcat career that would last until 2004.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>From the Machine Records
Department (MRD) to Administrative Computer Services (ACS)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Machine Records Department (MRD) was managed by Kay McHugh
when Flaxmeyer started. He mentioned that she later remarried and became
Syndor. Eventually, Ralph Haney who was McHugh’s assistant became the director
and was followed by Bob Caster. McHugh reported to the controller Bob Hoefer.
When he started MRD was located in the Administration Building, but in 1962
they moved to Beecher Hall in the late spring. Beecher was originally for the
UC women and had been recently remodeled. The building included a swimming pool
in the basement and a gym up above. The pool was filled in and became the keypunch
center where students both took classes on keypunching and other students would
type up their programs when it was not being used. The top floor (the gym)
became the registrar’s office. (The author remembers going first to Dyer to
have his class cards submitted and schedule printed out along with my tuition
bill. Then one had to walk over to Beecher and pay the bill at the Registrar’s
office.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was in 1962 that Flaxmeyer was smitten by a beautiful keypunch
operator named Judy. She eventually became his wife. Bill Meyer, a friend of
Flaxmeyer, also met his wife there. Meyer became the Associate Director of the
Systems Programming and Performance Group during the SWORRC era. Bill Meyer and
Bob Mays were some of the early hires.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Flaxmeyer stated that an IBM 407 accounting machine was
first introduced in 1949 and discontinued at the end of 1976. In 1966 the Administrative
computing got an IBM 1410 which was the administrations first computer – both
the medical college and the main campus had computers several years before. Flaxmeyer
was the first computer operator due to his previous work at Gibson and he was
given the opportunity to learn programming and that helped his career grow. He first
learned RPG and later other programming languages. UC sent him to IBM school to
learn RPG so it was a big deal. He found himself dealing more and more with the
management side of computing as his career progressed. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Flaxmeyer talked briefly about a quick & dirty one time
shot program that he worked one for converting the old accounting system to the
newer equipment. When the computer was moved to MSB, Flaxmeyer stayed behind
and continued working out of Beecher where his group handled accounting and payroll
applications<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When PCs began to infiltrate the university, he was moved
into user support services. He taught some PC-related classes to administrators
and their spouses and on more than one occasion he was get the question “Where’s
the ANY key?” as that a fairly common error message back then. Even Homer
Simpson got in the act in one of the episodes of the “Simpsons”.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>People mentioned<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>Robert W. Hoefer (1913-1997)<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hoefer graduated from Hughes High School. At UC he majored
in engineering and ran track and field thinclads at UC where he exceled in the
sprints. In 1933 he ran the 100 yard dash in 10.2 and the 220 yard dash in 22.6
and at the 1934 State AAU Championships, he won the 100 yard dash and was
second in the 220 yard dash. In 1935 he was selected by the Engineering
Tribunal of the College of Engineering and Commerce as an outstanding senior
student. He was also the President of the Student Council, Sigma Sigma Honor Society.
He lived in the Clifton area at that time. He began working for UC right after
graduation and by 1962 he was the Controller at UC and by 1974 he had been
promoted to the Associate Vice President for Management and Finance. <o:p></o:p></div>
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(Thinclads: This was the term used for those who ran track;
the earliest usage that the author could find in the Cincinnati Enquirer was
1930 with the last printed being in 1983.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<u>Don Bruegman (1935-2009)<o:p></o:p></u></div>
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Bruegman was a Walnut Hills grad (1953). He worked for UC
for 25 years and then spent 18 years at Virginia Commonwealth University as the
Senior Vice President for Administration. While at UC he worked in Systems
Department. He designed the new accounting system at UC. The design was turned
over the group of programmers that Flaxmeyer belonged to. In January 1968 edition
of the Cincinnati Alumnus, Bruegman wrote an article entitled “UC Plays the Numbers
Games”. He describes what an information system is and some of the systems being/already
implemented at UC. He states that “the Information System concept (at UC) is
just a little over a year old.” (see below for more details.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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(Note: this is the period when Bob Caster oversaw Administrative
computing and John Varady oversaw the combined Academic and Medical Computer
Centers. At that time UC had an IBM 360/50 which was installed in 1968.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<u>Paul Herget<o:p></o:p></u></div>
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Flaxmeyer, as many of those worked in the computer
department, found Dr. Herget to be one of the nicest people he ever
encountered. He was a brilliant professor, but he would talk to anybody and didn’t
care about that person’s background. Herget was very courteous to the people
who worked in the computer center. Not all professors were as pleasant as Herget
around the computing staff as some of them would openly show their disdain.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>UC initiatives<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<u>SWORCC (July 1, 1972 – July 1976)<o:p></o:p></u></div>
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SWORCC grew out of an agreement between UC and Miami
University to create a regional computing center which was something the Ohio
Board of Regents (OBR) had promoted as way for Ohio universities to have the
computing power they needed within a reasonable cost of operation. However,
money for this operation soon became an issue and Bob Caster, the director, was
able to secure several contracts with the federal government which became a
separate division. <o:p></o:p>Caster later left for the University of Connecticut along with Bob Mays and Linda Nanni. Lana Varney (also interviewed for the research) replaced Nanni.</div>
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The Contract Division was located at the Vine Street office
which was down from the VA Hospital across the street. The building no longer
exists and was located where the zoo parking lot is now. He got into that
division. It was the outside contract business that allowed SWORCC to grow and
offer better service to its members as it helped in offsetting the constant budget
cuts. UC got a major Federal contract dealing with the Clean Water Act for the
EPA. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Amdahl (the company) began talking with UC about purchasing
their computer when there were only 3 were in existence. In 1976 the Amdahl (7<sup>th</sup>
one to come out) computer was installed during a long weekend with a party held
sometime afterwards. Alas, the Amdahl was removed by 1992 and IBM moved back
in. Parts of the Amdahl computer were put in frames which can still be seen in
some of the meeting rooms at the computer center located in the Medical
Sciences Building (MSB).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<u>UC Data Warehouse<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
UC teamed up with Teradata to create UC’s first ever data
warehousing – NCR – Mark Young – medical area – administration vs research.
Back then mostly companies like Krogers or P&G that had very large
databases were using data warehouses. The UC system was used to get information
from the student data warehouse. The front-end tool used back the in the early
2000s was BI Query from Hummingbird. The Teradata implementation was not as
successful as hoped, but it allowed the UC IT technical personnel to gain some valuable
experience which has led to a successful system today. Mark Young’s interview has
more detail about this. In his interview, Mike Ehrensberger also talked about
this as he was working for Teradata during that time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<u>Information Systems in place at UC in 1968 as identified
by Don Bruegman in his article (2):<o:p></o:p></u></div>
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<u>Projects as of 1968:<o:p></o:p></u></div>
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1. An Alumni file containing data for almost fifty thousand
former students and alumni.<o:p></o:p></div>
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2. An Active Student file containing the records of up to
thirty thousand students, including Day and Evening College students as well as
those enrolled at Raymond Walters Branch (now UC Blue Ash).<o:p></o:p></div>
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3. An Admissions file including the names and pertinent data
about all students applying for admission.<o:p></o:p></div>
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4. A Financial Aid file which contains data for all students
who are receiving scholarship, fellowships, loans, etc.<o:p></o:p></div>
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5. A Payroll file used to pay close to ten thousand faculty,
staff, and students each year.<o:p></o:p></div>
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6. A Personnel file which includes pertinent personal data
about each member of the faculty and staff.<o:p></o:p></div>
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7. An Accounting file which contains up-to-the-minute financial
data for over four thousand budget accounts and two thousand restricted funds.<o:p></o:p></div>
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8. A Construction file which provides valuable data about
the financial progress of certain construction projects.<o:p></o:p></div>
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9. A Cash file which gives an investment officer day-to-day
bank balances in order that idle cash may be properly invested.<o:p></o:p></div>
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10. A Space file which includes detailed information about
the availability and use of space in every building on campus.<o:p></o:p></div>
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11. A Hospital file which includes information concerning
patient bills and the inventory of drugs and supplies.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<u>Future projects: <o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1. Library Information System<o:p></o:p></div>
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2. Student Record Information System related to computerized
scheduling of classes and students into classes<o:p></o:p></div>
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3. Job selection and placement for alumni, students, and employers<o:p></o:p></div>
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4. Business and finance <o:p></o:p></div>
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5. Student fee billing <o:p></o:p></div>
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6. Automation of purchasing and accounts payable procedures<o:p></o:p></div>
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7. Inventory control<o:p></o:p></div>
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8. Cost accounting<o:p></o:p></div>
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9. Research accounting<o:p></o:p></div>
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10. Fund raising<o:p></o:p></div>
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11. Hospital system was to be expanded to include patient
care records <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>References<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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1. See UC Records Management History – Part Three:
Automation and Records Management<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.libraries.uc.edu/arb/records-management/rm-history3.html">http://www.libraries.uc.edu/arb/records-management/rm-history3.html</a>
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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2. “UC Plays the Numbers Game”, Don Bruegman, Cincinnati
Alumnus, Jan 19, 1969<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9kNkJG0juPvT-ONi1DHJWoINhJERLg5Z_IASGidDECQv1dxWdVUr3ZgSdItEMasSFaodt9acq8JDuINOlVlyP_Sq5rPWLGKR1aH4W1FEpSyG4tObcpzO5SmQQDLg43LgJ72PAIHUQv93e/s1600/TIS-Bruegman-1968-2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9kNkJG0juPvT-ONi1DHJWoINhJERLg5Z_IASGidDECQv1dxWdVUr3ZgSdItEMasSFaodt9acq8JDuINOlVlyP_Sq5rPWLGKR1aH4W1FEpSyG4tObcpzO5SmQQDLg43LgJ72PAIHUQv93e/s640/TIS-Bruegman-1968-2.JPG" width="339" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From Don Bruegman's article found in the 1969 Cincinnati Alumnus. Pictured: Linda Nanni, Al Peters, Control and Scheduling Supervisor and Ray Heinrick, Data Center Tape Librarian.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijkD2hVnVnRdamI292C2KmKRQUf36DAhu0fv1EvVzHiM2QEAQnC4QcR9sZapTY2sLU1Sb8SDP4N0OIXB2JWFFQXr0pFNETFUdrs9FVlAICHpOZNuRVCRZKvzU_zLCQBAakJKy0xCEKZF78/s1600/TIS-Bruegman-1968-3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijkD2hVnVnRdamI292C2KmKRQUf36DAhu0fv1EvVzHiM2QEAQnC4QcR9sZapTY2sLU1Sb8SDP4N0OIXB2JWFFQXr0pFNETFUdrs9FVlAICHpOZNuRVCRZKvzU_zLCQBAakJKy0xCEKZF78/s640/TIS-Bruegman-1968-3.JPG" width="411" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Simrall Hall was located at the corner of Woodside Place and University Avenue. It was a red-brick Victorian home. In 1900 it was the home of F. L. Emmert. It housed the alumni office. It was eventually torn down to make room for the former Faculty Club and Alumni Center. This building had served as a frat house, dorm for foreign students, and the office of the dean of women. The new College of Business is being built in its spot and will open in 2019.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTVtxspPmeeVhjHV8OJvagBc5UZcMGUJu85eQAcTkmUE1w9N08RkRIEGzxyphRcQ5Olrk0j1jQhzfKXXHHIt1X3io3KZkVMgswlPsjJeH356LfP4iUFq8Bbp4oD9lEtY1Vr6eQjVodMMLE/s1600/TIS-Bruegman-1968.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTVtxspPmeeVhjHV8OJvagBc5UZcMGUJu85eQAcTkmUE1w9N08RkRIEGzxyphRcQ5Olrk0j1jQhzfKXXHHIt1X3io3KZkVMgswlPsjJeH356LfP4iUFq8Bbp4oD9lEtY1Vr6eQjVodMMLE/s640/TIS-Bruegman-1968.JPG" width="467" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pictured are Judy Wilhelm, keypunch, Shannon McFarland and David Brown.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3g8bfJMidTHIx7SNEGHIp2NB1Z4oRZVhaGCiKiiY17oehUssuAjrhISfuPLY100kyP_jH-iomDxxJWaQn5czxHZwBPkAg8fKmyW0QrhyWd3WhNj8URB5QfUKz_vFOLSQMEHsB5QhGcvfO/s1600/FlaxmeyerRon-SWORCC-OfflineV1N2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3g8bfJMidTHIx7SNEGHIp2NB1Z4oRZVhaGCiKiiY17oehUssuAjrhISfuPLY100kyP_jH-iomDxxJWaQn5czxHZwBPkAg8fKmyW0QrhyWd3WhNj8URB5QfUKz_vFOLSQMEHsB5QhGcvfO/s640/FlaxmeyerRon-SWORCC-OfflineV1N2.JPG" width="152" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SWORCC Offline Sept 1974</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
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Russ McMahonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03166273491035996819noreply@blogger.com0