Computer Science

L. Kristan Presnell, an assistant professor of computer science at Anne Arundel Community College, has been named the 1995 Maryland Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.She was chosen from 15 nominees at 13 two- and four-year state colleges and universities. The Millersville resident also was among 546 faculty members nominated for U.S. Professors of the Year honors.Ms. Presnell had students in her Introduction to UNIX courses keep in-class journals that she used to track their progress and problems.

At funeral services for Nathan Krasnopoler held at Sol Levinson and Bros. Funeral Home on Aug. 12, the 20-year-old was remembered by a Johns Hopkins University professor for his "keen and incisive intellect. " Mr. Krasnopoler died Aug. 10 at Gilchrist Center in Columbia from a severe irreversible brain injury that he sustained Feb. 20 after being hit by a motorist while riding his bicycle on West University Parkway near the Hopkins Homewood campus. "Nathan was very bright, very creative and very self-motivated," said Edward R. Scheinerman, professor in the Johns Hopkins University Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, who is also vice dean of engineering education at the Whiting School of Engineering.

When Michael Beynon was deciding where to pursue his doctorate in computer sciences, he went down the list in U.S News and World Report's annual rankings. He found the University of Maryland, College Park in the top 25 and decided to apply."I think it was in the mid-teens," he said of the 1994 numbers. "So those U.S. News rankings are important."In the latest rankings of graduate schools and programs, released last week, UMCP's computer science department is tied for 11th with the California Institute of Technology.

Chris Ashworth had studied computer science but never written an entire piece of software when a North Carolina theater production company asked for his help. What he came up with would be a huge hit with creative professionals who design elaborate stage productions across the world. The theater company needed software that could help manage sound effects for a play while running on an Apple computer. Ashworth was a computer science graduate student in North Carolina, and he and a friend built one for them in a little over a month.

THERE'S MIXED news about the status of girls and women in science and math. Females have made significant progress during the past 20 years in medicine and the biological sciences. But the gender gap hasn't closed in technology and engineering, and in computer science it has widened. These are among the findings of a report issued yesterday by the National Council for Research on Women. Among the report's lowlights: In 1996, women constituted 45 percent of the work force in the United States but held only 12 percent of science and engineering jobs in business and industry - this at a time when U.S. firms couldn't fill technically advanced jobs.

Steven A. McGinley was not the class clown in his South Carroll High School graduating class.But he's made up for lost time since then.After graduating in 1991, McGinley planned to become a computer scientist, but he couldn't resist the lure of greasepaint. He sought to bring new depth and meaning to familiar stage roles such as Hamlet, King Lear and Willy Loman.Instead, he got serious about professional clowning.The former Mount Airy resident, a 1996 graduate of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Clown College, is again enrolled in a class full of clowns, mimes and theater students at the Jacques Lecoq School of Mime and Theater in Paris.

Towson University graduate student Marcus Gates could turn his political science degree into a teaching certificate in high school social studies. Instead, he's set his sights on elementary school."

The student: Christina Bonebreak, 17 School: River Hill High School Achievement: Christina placed second in the Space Technology category at the NASA/GSFC (National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Goddard Space Flight Center) Virtual Science Fair. Her project, a computer program that plots stars, has received several other awards, including first place for best use of computer science and best use of mathematics from the National Security Agency at the Baltimore Science Fair at Towson University.

F rances Bowman of Perryville asks: "What kind of education does a meteorologist need?" It's no cakewalk. The National Weather Service wants a bachelor's degree in meteorology or atmospheric science. Course work must include thermodynamics, analysis and prediction, remote sensing, physics and calculus. Then choose three: hydrology, statistics, chemistry, oceanography, climatology, aeronomy or computer science.

The student: Svetlana Yarosh, 18 School: Centennial High School Special achievement: Yarosh was one of 18 Howard County high school students named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists. School activities: She is a member of the National Honor Society and the Art Service. College plans: Yarosh will attend the University of Pennsylvania or Princeton University. She hopes to major in computer science or art.

Chris Ashworth had studied computer science but never written an entire piece of software when a North Carolina theater production company asked for his help. What he came up with would be a huge hit with creative professionals who design elaborate stage productions across the world. The theater company needed software that could help manage sound effects for a play while running on an Apple computer. Ashworth was a computer science graduate student in North Carolina, and he and a friend built one for them in a little over a month.

F rances Bowman of Perryville asks: "What kind of education does a meteorologist need?" It's no cakewalk. The National Weather Service wants a bachelor's degree in meteorology or atmospheric science. Course work must include thermodynamics, analysis and prediction, remote sensing, physics and calculus. Then choose three: hydrology, statistics, chemistry, oceanography, climatology, aeronomy or computer science.

A reader wrote in an e-mail that her third-grade daughter is already saying girls just aren't good at math. "Where in the heck did she get that?" the reader wrote. "Are there any resources for parents who want their girls to not fall into that trap?" I sent the question to Penny Rheingans, associate professor of computer science and interim director of the Center for Women and Information Technology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Rheingans wrote that this is largely a problem of perception, and that girls actually perform as well as boys at math at least through high school.

Cecil to offer classes for 'Kollege' kids Cecil College's Kids in "Kollege" summer program, offering a variety of classes for children ages 7 to 12, will be held for four consecutive weeks starting July 7 on the North East campus. Children and their parents can select from 60 classes in science fiction, sports, art, music, dance, writing, science and history. Campers may select up to four classes each week, and can participate in one, two, three or all four weeks. Sessions are from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. weekdays and include field trips, guest speakers and demonstrations.

Growing up on the water in Annapolis, Diane Greene loved to sail her dinghy. She mastered windsurfing when the sport was new. She studied naval architecture and, as a young woman, lived in Hawaii designing windsurfing gear. Today, Greene, at 52, is best known for navigating VMware Inc., a company that might best be likened to a nuclear submarine. For years VMware operated in the obscure depths of computer science, gradually developing the know-how and market for its esoteric "virtualization" software.

You wouldn't think checkers could get so complicated. After working for six years with a network of up to 200 computers, Jonathan Schaeffer says he has developed a program that can never lose at checkers. At best, a human (or computer) opponent can achieve a draw. The program was designed with help from some of the world's top checkers players, but the computers did what no player could ever do: analyze 64 million positions on the board each second. "We've taken things to beyond what humans can do," said Schaeffer, chairman of the computer science department at the University of Alberta in Canada.

The student: Aneesha Griffin, 17 School: River Hill High School Special achievement: Aneesha is one of two students from her high school to be recognized as a National Merit semifinalist. Favorite subject: Math Educational future: She is planning to attend a competitive four-year college and major in computer science. How she describes herself: Dedicated, hard-working, diverse Hobby: Softball Her reaction when she found out she was a semifinalist: "I was surprised. I didn't expect it, but I think it will help me get into college."

Faith Shen is one of the few, the proud, the employed members of the college class of 1992, the largest class in history.Ms. Shen graduated in May with a degree in chemistry from the University of Maryland College Park, and within two weeks she had landed a job with the National Cancer Institute in Frederick.Ms. Shen's sister, who graduated from the same school in 1991 with an electrical engineering degree, is still jobless. Ms. Shen's boyfriend has a similar story. He earned an electrical engineering degree from UM three years ago but couldn't find a job and went on to graduate school.

A team including a University of Maryland Baltimore County graduate student won the grand prize yesterday in an international competition to design more accurate voting machines. Judges at the VoComp University Voting Systems Competition in Portland, Ore., selected the four-person "Punchscan" team that included UMBC computer science graduate student Richard T. Carback III. One of four finalists, Punchscan designed, implemented and tested a complete voting system at a student election at the University of Ottawa, said Alan T. Sherman, a UMBC computer science professor who also works with the school's National Center for the Study of Elections.