• Distinguished Teacher

Sometimes dreams do come true as evidenced by recent enhancements in Wittenberg’s computer science program.

For years, the department has worked to expand its resources, research opportunities and course offerings, including a new minor in computational science, in order to enrich the educational experience for its students.

The department has also encouraged collaborative research across disciplines and off campus. Three computer science majors, for example, recently worked with the biology department to study bioinformatics.

Another major applied GIS technology to assist Springfield’s Center City Association.

Additionally, Wittenberg’s new partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory Materials and Manufacturing Directorate at the base will provide unprecedented opportunities for future students.

“We’ve had the best undergraduate researchers we’ve seen in years,” explained Jim Noyes, professor of computer science.

At the same time, the department’s new high-tech home in the Barbara Deer Kuss Science Center is undergoing a transformation that promises to distinguishWittenberg and its computer science program for years to come.

In May, a Unix operating system was installed, which will be supported by the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC).

The system, a cluster of small high-end computers consisting of 29 AMD opteron processors, 12 dual and one quad linked together with 32/64 BIT architecture, will support all the science departments.

The cluster offers faculty and students the opportunity to engage in parallel processing as they work on realistic, current computational problems.

In addition, the department’s three faculty members provide a wealth of expertise in distinct areas for students.

Noyes specializes in artificial intelligence and scientific computing, while Nancy Saks, associate professor of computer science, serves as “the ‘system specialist’ and C++ language guru,” according to Brian Shelburne, professor of computer science and department chair, who specializes in computer architectures, theory of computation and computer graphics.

The department hopes to add a fourth member with expertise in computer networks, so that it can offer courses in cryptology, computer networking, database management, neural networks, mathematical optimization and data mining — one of today’s hot topics.

The range of career opportunities now available also necessitates the need for a fourth person.

The department also hopes to increase the number of computer science majors and create a computational science major, as well as establish more partnerships with technology companies such as Lexis-Nexis.

Lastly, the faculty would like to see the field become a more pronounced component of the liberal arts at Wittenberg.

“Comp 150, where we teach C++ programming is the perfect liberal arts course,” Shelburne explained, “because it stresses abstract thinking, training for the mind.”

– Phyllis Eberts ’00