Well, we've started out the year with new fish and new computers. Read on.

<<Department News>>

Finally, the MacQuarium has residents again. Markus Haas presented the department with a gift of three tiny neon tetras. Living in the shell of an outdated computer does not seem to bother them; they're growing quickly. But now we have a mystery. Barb and Ashley locked up the department on Friday night. Three tetras swam in the MacQuarium. Monday morning - there were only two... Honestly, we have no idea what happened to the third one.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the department, Dr. Hicks teamed up with the Education Department to develop a Multimedia Computers in Education Laboratory. They provided the equipment; we provided the expertise and classes. Dr. Hicks is in the process of configuring two PowerMac 7500s, a Hewlett Packard ScanJet, VCR/camcorder combination and a Kodak Digital Camera. The laboratory will be housed in Halsell 339.

The selection process for the NSF Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates has begun. We've had quite a response this time, so picking ten students will be challenging.

Paradigm Simulation, Inc. has been very generous to the Department lately. They donated the updated versions of Vega, Lynx, and Performa to the department for research students' use. The donation was equivalent to approximately $30,000 worth of software. We sincerely thank Paradigm Simulation for their generosity.

Professor Robert Hiromoto of the Computer Science Division of the University of Texas at San Antonio came to deliver a lecture to CS department faculty and students. His talk, on the pros and cons of parallel processing, was part of the interchange program that UTSA Computer Science and Trinity Computer Science have established. Professors from one university visit the other to share information and discuss issues in Computer Science.

Now you can read The Monitor on the World Wide Web. Go to www.cs.trinity.edu and look under "Newsletter". We'll have all published issues of The Monitor there. While you're at the site, you'll notice that Trinity University's presence on the Web is growing. More and more departments and students are adding webpages, making their own little Trinity Hill in cyberspace.

Finally, student dorms are being wired for ethernet access. The installment should be complete for Fall 1996. For a small fee, students can access the TU servers, email, and the Internet without being limited by modem lines, which makes everyone excited.

<<Student News>>

Paradigm, Inc. awarded three of our students the new scholarship established last semester. Mark Lewis, Tyler Thompson, and Doug Conyers will receive funding for their final years at Trinity as they continue researching Virtual Reality and simulation development. The scholarship also provides the opportunity for recipients to intern at Paradigm during the summer. Tyler and Mark have accepted that offer. Congratulations to all three scholarship recipients.

The following students had their papers accepted by the National Conference on Undergraduate Research:

Tyler Thompson,

Object Oriented Virtual Reality Shells for Dynamic

Real-Time Environments

Mark Lewis,

Automated Polygon Count Reduction of Object Models for Real-Time Graphic Rendering

Douglas Conyers,

Adding Intelligent Inductive Inference to Real-Time Simulation Modeling

Andrew Arana,

The Evolution of Recognizers for Regular and Context-Free Languages Using Genetic Programming

Markus Haas,

Investigation of Optimal Virtual Object Positioning Algorithms"

Cullen Jackson,

Rorschach Graphical Interface Development

Diana Doner,

Concurrent Versus Sequential Rendering of Graphic Images

Wade Huber,

VR Cloner: A User Cloning System for Virtual Worlds

All eight will attend the NCUR Conference in Asheville, North Carolina next month.

Former students are returning to the Department, bringing their employers with them. Mr. Ron Toupal of Paradigm Simulation has been a frequent visitor here, but recently, we've welcomed Mr. Chuck Homola of DSC Communications and Mr. Bob Eckstein of Motorola. Thanks to all three and their respective corporations for taking an interest in our departments and our students. If any alumni reading this would like to visit, please contact Dr. Pitts or any of the other professors. We would like to see you again.

This spring, fourteen students will graduate with a B.S. in Computer Science. All who wished to attend graduate school have been accepted. For the others, Price Waterhouse, Anderson Consulting, Southwest Research, Paradigm Simulation, Motorola, and DSC Communications have extended offers to our graduates.

May 1996 Graduates

Andrew Arana

Michael Coleman

Diana Doner

Chad Fleming

Ryan Gullahorn

Wade Huber

Cullen Jackson

Suzanne Kerr

Mark Lewis

Daniel Martin

John Pair

Jon Pope

Steve Sengele

Jeff Wolan

<<Faculty News>>

Dr. Pitts will attend the SCS Simulation MultiConference in New Orleans, LA during April 8-11. The paper he is presenting was co-authored by Tyler Thompson and is titled, "Time: the Fourth Dimension in Virtual Modeling." Three other students also will have papers published in the Conference Proceedings:

Doug Conyers

Virtual Time Machine Real- Time Growth of Graphical Flora

Markus Haas

Construction of L-system and Plasma Cloud Algorithms for Placing Plants in a Condition Dependent Virtual World

Mark Lewis

Applying Dynamic Loading to Hierarchical Meshes for Real- Time Viewing of Large Virtual Landscapes

Dr. Howland published a paper entitled, "Using J as an Expository Language in the Teaching of Computer

Science to Liberal Arts Students," which will be presented at the International Conference, APL96, July 28 through August 1, 1996, University of Lancaster, United Kingdom. This conference is sponsored by ACM SIGAPL.

Dr. Pitts has been appointed secretary to a new University committee: the Information and Technology Committee. Their task is to develop and monitor policies dealing information systems and computer on campus. Right now, their main task is to develop a policy concerning the content of World Wide Web pages, and debate over what will designate "official" Trinity homepages.

Dr. Howland will make a panel presentation on how to win programming contests at

the Seventh Annual South Central Small College Computing Conference, April 19-20, at Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, Texas.

In the same light, Dr. Howland will be conference Chair of the 8th Annual South Central Small College Computing Conference, held in San Antonio during April 1997. Dr. Konstam will be local arrangements chair, so it seems both professors have a lot of work ahead of them.

At the Consortium for Computing

in Small Colleges Seventh Annual South Central Conference (April 19 and 20), Dr. Eggen will be busy. He's presenting his paper "Parallel Processing in Small Colleges," and moderating a technical paper session at this same conference.

Dr. Pitts visited the Conopus Club, an organization of San Antonio executives and professionals, where he gave a lecture on the impact computers make in everyday life and their effect on future society. The lecture was well-received and, in fact, several members of the Konopus Club, accompanied by Dr. Calgaard visited the CS Department for a tour of our facilities and research results.

And that's the news!

"The best way to resist temptation is to give in to it." - Oscar Wilde

Written and Produced by Ashley Smith

Trinity University

Department of Computer Science

715 Stadium Drive

San Antonio, TX 78212-7200