<DEPARTMENT> <NEWS>

The two new additions to the department are not machines. They're not students. They're not even human. They are Mega and Byte, the two goldfish who reside in the new

MacQuarium. Four students collaborated to hollow out a retired MacPlus and fit an aquarium inside the case. So now behind Barb's desk sits the oldest computer in the department (complete with keyboard and mouse) with the most realistic screensaver on the planet.

April is the month of thesis papers, projects, and general panic before final exams. Perhaps for that reason, it's also the month of parties. April 17 was the senior's party at Dr. Pitts' place. Surrounded by burgers, basketball, a big chocolate cake, and paper plate awards, seniors relaxed with several members of the faculty. Greg Gerard risked his life on the trampoline and everyone got to meet Big Iggy, a four-foot iguana the Pitts recently acquired. The party wrapped up around 9:30, with all the students muttering something about working on senior software projects (yeah, right!). Next on the calendar, April 29 is date for the Spring Picnic. Faculty, students, and alumni will gather down in the Meadows Pavilion on Lower Campus at 10 AM. Lunch is at noon followed by the volleyball grudge match between the students and faulty. This usually isn't much of a game, since the students haven't beaten the faculty in 14 years! HAHAHA!!

Sorry.

Dr. Pitts made me write that.

Really.

Plans are being developed to add another laboratory to the CS department. We hope to extend the current VR lab in 201B by knocking out the wall between it and the storage closet (210C). Since the storage closet shares a wall with the hallway, we can place a door in that wall so that students can have access to the VR lab while the main office is not open. Physical Plant is still drawing plans for remodeling, so no date has been set for completion.

The ballots are in but the votes haven't been counted... We've got all the applicants for the Summer Research Experience. Now it's up to the faculty to determine which ten students will make up our VR team this summer. Who knows? Trinity awarded scholarships to three high school students so that they could take a course from the university this summer. When asked, all three students elected to be members of our VR research team over any other courses the university offered. So now the department will work with thirteen students on the development of a virtual "time machine" which will allow the user to travel to any point in time in the virtual world and see developments in environment and culture. H.G. Wells would be proud.

Well, students and faculty have voiced their opinions and it has been decided. The next addition to the VR lab will be two Silicon Graphics machines: the Indigo

2 Extreme and the Indy, forming the basis for our Summer Research Program. Everybody is thrilled, to say the least. The head-mounted displays and the software to accompany the SGIs is still under debate, but the hard part is over.

<<STUDENT>>

<<NEWS>>

Tyler Thompson, sophomore, was one of 3 Trinity students to receive the Goldwater Scholarship Award in Science and Mathematics. Only 300 students nationwide are awarded this honor, which grants a sum of $7000 per year, to be applied towards the recipient's junior and senior year education. This is a great achievment for Tyler and a good reflection on our department. Congratulations! Also, Tyler was accepted at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, and will spend Fall 1995 semester in England.

Brita Munsinger was invited to attend the Computer Science Education Seminar at the University of Texas at Austin, where she presented the results of her thesis, "Learning Style and Achievement in Imperative and Functional Programming Language Courses".

As graduation approaches, most seniors worry about what to do after they turn the tassel. Well, several CS majors have nothing to worry about. Ed Fleming and Sandy Kohn accepted consulting positions at Price-Waterhouse. Arbra Bailey was also offered a consulting position at Price-Waterhouse, and received another offer from USAA for a programming position. Morgan Orceyre is looking for an apartment in San Antonio because she will be working for Southwest Research after graduation. But not everyone is moving into the workforce immediately. Robert Hough was awarded a $14,000 scholarship to Wahington and Lee Law School. Scott Walnum will move to California to get some use out of the scholarship and teaching assistant position that University of California at Davis. Good job, seniors!

Brita Munsinger is in the most unfortunate of dilemnas. She had decided to attend the University of Texas at Austin on full tuition and stipend from the National Consortium of Science and Mathematics, when she received a phone call from the National Science Foundation, who informed her that the Foundation had awarded her a Fellowship for full tuition and a $1200 monthly stipend for living expenses. So now she must choose between the good offer from the Consortium and the good offer from the Foundation. Congratulations, Brita, on the opportunity to make such a difficult decision.

Sniff. This semester, the department said good-bye to the last eligible graduate student, David Niedzielski. David completed his thesis, successfully defended his work, and was accepted to graduate with a Master's degree in Computer Science. Congratulations, David. You and your folder will be missed.

Several new majors have joined the department: Connie Hoermann, Teddy Webster, John Pair, Ryan Mitchell, Edwin Grubbs, Jeffrey Cancila, and Cullen Jackson. It's a good thing we've gained so many in the past weeks, considering that 20 CS students are due to graduate, by far the largest group of seniors this department has generated!

Student Publications

Greg Gerard

"Architecture of an Operating System Specifically Designed for Research in Virtual Reality"

Mark Lewis

"Comparison of Lyapunov Time and Crossing Times for Prediction of Orbital Instabilities"

Scott McCaskill

"Feasibility of Object-Oriented Rea` Time Animated Rendering for Virtual Reality Applications"

Pat McGonigle

"The SR Programming Language and Its Use in an Undergraduate Research Project"

Morgan Orceyre

"Animating Objects in a 3-D Virtual World"

Scott Swank

"A New Dimension in Shared Virtual Environments - Networked Sound"

Scott Walnum

"Virtual Fire Propagation in Heterogeneous Media"

<<FACULTY>>

<<NEWS>>

So much for a relaxing summer...

As if the VR research wasn't enough, Dr. Pitts is preparing to teach a course in SLAM II Simulation and Modeling for the staff and Randolph Air Force Base and possibly Kelley Air Force Base. Dr. Howland will be the conference chair for the international ACM SIGAPLF Conference (acronyms are such interesting little creatures, no?), which will be held in San Antonio on June 4-8.

Conferences

Dr. Eggen, Dr. Howland, Dr. Hicks, and Pat McGonigle attended the Small College Computing Conference in Shreveport, LA, the weekend of April 7. In addition to the papers presented, Dr. Eggen made a case for C in his panel presentation, and Dr. Howland made a presentation on using Scheme for undergraduate education. Paper titles are:

Dr. Eggen

"Numerical Methods Using Scheme"

Dr. Hicks

"The Role of the Object-Oriented Paradigm in the Undergraduate Computer Science Curricula"

Dr. Howland

"A Laboratory Computer Science Course for Liberal Arts Students"

Pat McGonigle

"The SR Concurrent Programming Language and Its Use in an Undergraduate Research Project"

In March, Dr. Myers travelled all the way to Nashville, Tenneesee to attend the Association of Computing Machinery's Computing Week. Two groups on whose boards he serves met that week: the Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education and the Consotium for Computing in Small Colleges. He also wishes to inform us that he actually visited the Grand Ole Opry. Now we know.

Dr. Pitts returned from the Simulation MultiConference in Phoenix, AZ, which took place the same weekend as the conference in Shreveport. He presented a paper entitled "Virtual Reality: Triage Training Extraordinaire"

Six students (Greg Gerard, Mark Lewis, Scott McCaskill, Morgan Orceyre, Scott Swank, and Scott Walnum to be exact) will be presenting papers at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research beginning Thursday, April 20. They left for Schnectady, NY on Wednesday.

Written and Produced by

Ashley Smith