Computer Science

It might not have looked like it, but there was a war going on yesterday between midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy and the "Red Team" at the nearby National Security Agency at Fort Meade. The Red Team -- a group of NSA hackers tasked with breaking into U.S. government and military information systems to expose vulnerabilities -- was "attacking" servers set up by computer science and information technology majors at the Annapolis military college. The midshipmen, in turn, were trying to defend their network.

A debate over the use of electronic voting machines in Maryland generally has focused on words such as "security," "interpretive code" and "hacking." The arguments tend to pit the reliability and safety of one machine against the other and compare the veracity and experience of expert vs. expert. They are earnestly written, articulately defended and, in many cases, factually accurate. Unfortunately, they are also largely beside the point. This isn't surprising: There are powerful commercial and political interests vying for the upper hand, with much prestige and profit at stake.

Awards Lillie Shockney, an instructor of surgery and administrative director of the Johns Hopkins Avon Foundation's Breast Center, has been awarded the Susan G. Komen Foundation's Professor of Survivorship award. She is the first non-physician to receive the award, which includes a $20,000 gift to help cancer survivors. Shockney, who has worked at Hopkins since 1983, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992 when she was 38 years old, and again two years later. She became a leading advocate for breast cancer survivors and has written three books on the subject.

When Myers Abraham Davis decided he wanted to spend two years buried in a lab, laboring over a sophisticated computer science project, he had never so much as taken a computer programming class or written one line of a program. The teenager couldn't type without looking at his hands. In other words, Abe was just being Abe. People who know the Polytechnic Institute senior say he loves challenges that carry a whiff of impossibility - and he's very determined. If this were a movie, there would be a montage at this point set to a pulsating soundtrack.

Steven Joseph Offenbacher, a software-systems engineer, died Jan. 1 of an apparent heart attack at his Ellicott City home. He was 45. Mr. Offenbacher worked for the past year at Northrop Grumman in Linthicum. Before that, he worked for five years in the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. "He loved working with computers," said his wife of 13 years, the former Laura O'Connor. "It intrigued him." Mr. Offenbacher was born in Washington and was raised in Camp Springs. A 1978 graduate of Bishop McNamara High School in Forestville, he earned a bachelor's degree in computer science in 1995 from the University of Maryland, University College, and a master's degree in computer science in 1999 from the Johns Hopkins University.

Doug Edwards and Ron Garret are feeling lucky. The two ex-Google employees' new blog, Xooglers - xooglers.blogspot.com - has become an instant hit among those who are eager for a rare look under the hood of one of the hottest companies on the planet. Edwards, a former marketing director, and Garret, the former lead engineer on Google's AdWords project, share insider stories about the company's trademark eccentricity, marvel over the sheer brainpower among the work force and express frustrations typical of ex-employees no longer entirely star-struck by their former employer.

Jerre D. Noe, 82, a banking computerization expert who helped develop technology that enabled early computers to read checks, died Nov. 12 in Seattle of mesothelioma. He was the first chairman of the University of Washington's Center for Computer Science and Engineering, and retired in 1989. Dr. Noe earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, worked on radar research in Europe during World War II and earned a doctorate from Stanford University.

COLLEGE PARK - Allow Rob Sherwood to explain his assignment. "I buy pizza for people," the University of Maryland graduate student says. Sherwood is Google's official pizza ambassador at the university, which means he essentially has a blank check from the Internet-search company to buy his classmates pepperoni pies. Google officials aren't paying for the food out of the goodness of their hearts. The company is always on the lookout for up-and-coming computer programming talent, and it apparently figures that the inventor of the next generation of Gmail might think of Google fondly because a few slices tided her over during midterms.

A North County High School junior has become one of the first in the nation to reach the top ranks of college-bound students on the new SAT. Nathan L. Giles, 16, of Linthicum discovered last week that he'd scored a perfect 2,400 on the new SAT administered in March. He is one of five students in Maryland and 107 nationwide to achieve the score. "I pretty much didn't believe it," Giles said. "I figured I would wait for the paper in case they made a mistake." The College Board, which administers the college entrance exam, changed its format this year, adding an essay and other components to the standard lineup of math and verbal multiple-choice sections.