SPECIAL SERVICE: ESTABLISHING THE KSU COMPUTER SCIENCE PROGRAM
1973-76
During my second year (1974) at KSU, I was asked by the chair (Richard Brown) to develop a
computer science program within the Mathematics Department. Although I was hired at Kent
State University as a mathematician with significant research in functional analysis and general
topology, I had expressed interest in a computer science program because of my involvement
with computers at University of Texas during my graduate work (1963-1968).
At that time, we taught four low level service courses in computer science that the Administrative
Science Department used as part of their major in data processing.
The Administrative Science Department decided at about the same time that they wanted to take
over our four computer science courses and expand their data processing major to include a
computer science track by adding some of the more popular software courses in computer
science.
Physics decided they wanted to add computer hardware courses and a computer hardware track to
their program and to take over our assembly course so that they could add follow up courses in
computer architecture.
In order to work around the serious political conflicts between Mathematics, Administrative
Sciences, and Physics and to develop a general plan concerning how computer science should be
offered at KSU, the Educational Policies Committee appointed a committee that included
representatives from the three areas and a high level administrator. I was the representative from
Mathematics.
Progress by this committee was extremely slow, given its highly political agenda. I arranged for
regular subcommittee meetings involving only the representatives from Administrative Science,
Physics, Mathematics, and Grace Bush from the Computer Center to see if we could work things
out.
There was tremendous pressure in these meetings to let Physics have the courses it wanted and to
divide the remaining computer science courses between Mathematics and ADMS, with ADMS
getting the more popular software courses and Mathematics getting the more theoretical,
mathematically-based courses. I refused to accept this approach, as I felt it would destroy the
possibility of having a coherent computer science program that could support a Ph.D. for the
foreseeable future.
A general agreement, reached after about three years of exhausting meetings, gave ADMS only
the business-related computing courses and Physics only some electronics type courses which
were supposed to be closely related to physics. Getting an undergraduate major and the
accompanying courses approved required two additional years.
At the end of this time (1976), we had a computer science program in Mathematics but not
enough faculty to teach the new computer science courses.
1977-83
Because of my interest in this new discipline, I started teaching an increasing number of computer
science courses and a significantly decreasing number of mathematics courses.
In 1977 we made our first outside hire in the computer science area, Paul Wang in the area of
computer algebra from MIT.
The need to develop computer science courses started with the implementation of bachelor’s and
master’s level courses in the late 1970s and early 1980s. We had strong student enrollments in
these courses, as students could use them to satisfy requirements for a mathematics major prior to
approval of our computer science degrees.
Following the approval of our computer science program, I played a key role in the development
of the computer science program, not only by teaching new computer science courses but in
coordinating first the implementation of the B.S. degree program and then the implementation of
the master’s degree program in computer science.
As my faculty duties included research, over a period of time my research began to move more
into the computer science discipline beginning at first with mathematical algorithm work.
1983-84
I was on a one year sabbatical at the University of Texas at Austin Computer Science Department
and became very familiar with their computer science undergraduate and graduate program. This
was very useful in updating and expanding our program when I returned.
1984-2001
As the number of computer science faculty increased, the department formed a committee called
the Computer Science Advisory Committee (CSAC) of faculty who were teaching principally
computer science courses. It was created to oversee and coordinate the computer science program
and to make needed recommendations for changes to the undergraduate coordinator, the graduate
coordinator, and the department chair.
I served as the chair of this committee from 1984 until 1988. During that time, we developed a
Ph.D. program in computer science.
I also served as chair of the CSAC committee from 1990 until the time our new Computer
Science Department was established in 2001.
In the fall of 1993, the position of chair of CSAC was renamed “Computer Science Coordinator”
to reflect the large amount of work and responsibility associated with the position.
In addition to chairing CSAC, the duties of the Computer Science Coordinator position were
1. To implement the changes recommended by CSAC,
2. To develop the computer science course schedule,
3. To assign instructors for the CS courses,
4. To meet with potential undergraduate and graduate majors in computer science to answer their questions,
5. To evaluate applicant's (often foreign) courses and work experience,
6. To handle a wide range of information requests concerning computer science from a number of people
such as employers who wanted to advertise a computer science position, students from other departments who wanted to take a computer science course, and faculty from other departments who wanted a student to take the appropriate computer science courses in order to gain a background in computer science.
Around 1997, the new positions of Computer Science Advisor and a Computer Science Graduate
Coordinator were created and assumed several of the above duties, reducing the work overload of
this position.
As a result of my extensive involvement in establishing the various computer science programs
and the new department at Kent State, my research is in two different academic disciplines
(mathematics and computer science). Also, the extensive time commitment required to establish
the entire computer science program and attaining research status in a second discipline delayed
my promotion to full professor considerably.
The Computer Science Department was created in July, 2001. Each member of the Mathematical
Sciences Department could choose in which department they wished to serve. As I have worked
in the area of computer science since 1974, I chose Computer Science and, subsequently, was
elected to serve as the department's first (i.e., founding) chair.