The 2008-2009 period will

long be remembered as a

time when the stock market

lost half its value, large

multinationals teetered on

the edge of bankruptcy, and

the US economy suffered a

meltdown. UNCW was not

immune to these events, and

spending restrictions, hiring

freezes, and cutbacks

dominated campus

conversations. The good

news is that, despite the

adverse circumstances, the

computer science department

had another solid year that

featured notable

accomplishments from both

students and faculty.

The Face Aging Group

continued its impressive

record of securing funding

for its research activities

from a diverse group of

sponsors, including the

Federal Bureau of

Investigation. Their efforts

have led to the creation of a

program in Identity Sciences

at UNCW.

The USeIT project, funded

by a multi-year grant from

the National Science

Foundation, introduced

modeling using Etoys

software to students and

teachers in many middle and

high-school classrooms in

New Hanover, Pender and

Brunswick Counties. Now in

its third year, the USeIT

project has directly benefited

75 teachers and 150 student

participants and indirectly

engaged over 1,000 students

in Southeastern North

Carolina. Departmental

research activities resulted in

numerous publications and

presentations that are

detailed under Faculty

Focus. This includes five

publications which featured

six student co-authors and

presenters.

The department made

headway in other areas as

well. The department‟s

proposal for an

undergraduate major in

Information Technology (IT)

was approved by UNCW.

The IT major mimics at the

undergraduate level the

successful partnership

between the computer

science department and the

information systems and

operations management

department at the graduate

level and is currently

awaiting approval by UNC

General Administration. The

2008-09 academic year also

saw an increase in the

number of directed

independent studies, that

allow motivated students to

team up with dedicated

faculty to craft a personal,

often intense, learning

experience.

Building on its legacy of

service to the community,

the computer science

department offered a Squeak

Etoys camp to middle-school

students in June 2009.

Following her tradition of

actively supporting the

department, former chair and

associate professor emerita

Dr. Barbara Greim sponsored

several campers through a

generous scholarship.

Looking forward, the 2009-10

academic year promises to be

busy. Like computer science

departments nationwide, our

department is seeing a

resurgence of interest in

computer science. We plan to

continue to refine the learning

outcomes assessment process

that we started last year.

Among other things, the

department plans to seek

accreditation for its

undergraduate computer

science program, a significant

undertaking by any measure.

These are all indicators of a

strong program, working hard

to become stronger. As

always, I invite you to be a

part of this process in any

way that you can.

Sridhar Narayan, Ph.D.

professor & chair

Teaching Research Service

News Bytes

U N I V E R S I T Y O F N O R T H C A R O L I N A W I L M I N G T O N Fall 2009

Volume 11, Number 1

Special points of

interest:

Dr. Vetter and

Mobile Education,

LLC (p. 3)

Karl Ricanek and

Eric Patterson’s

Face Aging Group

(p. 4)

Squeak Etoys Camp

(p. 3)

Faculty Focus 2

Student Showcase 4

Awesome Alumni

4

UPE Initiation 6

2008-09 Graduates 7

Faculty Trivia 7

Inside this issue:

Look for the

UNCW Computer

Science group on

Facebook!

Communications

Technology (CCICT) at

the Caribbean Academy

of Sciences in Kingston,

Jamaica.

Laurie Patterson

presented “General

Software Competency: Is

There Still a Need for

Software Training?,” at

the 2008 World Congress

in Computer Science,

Computer Engineering,

and Applied Computing:

The 2008 International

Conference on Frontiers

in Education: Computer

Science and Computer

Engineering in Las

Vegas, Nev.

(continued on p. 6)

News Bytes Volume 11, Number 1

Page 2

Curry Guinn presented

"Improving Upon

Semantic Classification of

Spoken Diary Entries

Using Pragmatic Context

Information," at the 2008

International Conference

on Artificial Intelligence

(ICAI) in Las Vegas, Nev.

He also presented "The

Parallelization of

Membrane Computers to

Find Optimal Solutions to

Cost-Based Abduction," at

the 2008 International

Conference on Genetic and

Evolutionary Methods in

Las Vegas, Nev.

David Berman’s paper

“Brother Avoiding Round

Robin Doubles

Tournaments II” with

Malcolm Greig and

Douglas Smith will appear

in Ars Combinatoria (July

2009).

Another paper by David

Berman, Norman Finizio

and Douglas Smith

“Splittable Whist

Tournament Designs” will

appear in Congressus

Numerantium (2009).

Ron Vetter presented

“Building Mobile

Messaging Applications

with SMS” an ACM

Distinguished Lecture at

Duke University in

Durham, N.C. (February

2009). (See also p. 3)

Laurie Patterson, Ron

Vetter, Tom Janicki and

Brian Reinicke published

“Majoring in a Virtual

Environment: Merging CS

and IS into IT” in the

proceedings of the 2009

World Congress in

Computer Science,

Computer Engineering,

and Applied Computing.

Sridhar Narayan and

Gene Tagliarini were

co-authors on three

papers which were

accepted at the Society

for Information

Technology and Teacher

Education‟s 20th

International Conference,

in Charleston, S.C.:

“Integrating the Vernier

LabPro™ with Squeak

Etoys”, “Creating Virtual

Laboratories Using

Squeak Etoys” and

“STEM Learning in

Middle School with

Games and Simulations.”

Gene Tagliarini also co-

authored “ITEST-Student

Created Games and

Simulations Panel”,

which was presented at

the same conference.

Karl Ricanek presented

“The Changing Face:

Developing a Diachronic

Biometric for the Visible

Face Modality” at the

University of Maryland

Department of Computer

Science in College Park,

Md. and "Review of

Facial Aging" at the IEEE

1st International

Workshop on Robust

Biometrics in Honolulu,

Hawaii.

Eric Patterson

presented "Dynamic

Expression Recognition

for Biometric

Identification and

Behavior Profiling” at the

IEEE 1st International

Workshop on Robust

Biometrics in Honolulu,

Hawaii.

Eric Patterson, Karl

Ricanek and Midori

Albert co-authored a

book chapter in

Craniofacial Aging:

Voeller Wiley

Handbook of Science

and Technology for

Homeland Defense,

John Phillips (Ed.).

Devon Simmonds

presented “In Support of

an Aspect-Oriented

Approach to Migrating

Distributed

Applications” at the

Caribbean Conference

on Information and

Faculty Focus

Special congratulations for the

following accomplishments:

Sridhar Narayan was reappointed to a second four-year term as computer science department

chair.

Karl Ricanek, Eric Patterson and Midori Albert (Anthropology) were awarded $335,665 for their proposed project “Center for Academic

Studies in Identity Sciences.”

Karl Ricanek and the UNCW Face Aging Group were awarded over $500,000 in grant money

this year.

Clayton Ferner and Barry Wilkinson received $149,924 for their NSF Grant "Collaborative Research: Enhancing Teaching of Grid Comput-

ing to Undergraduate Students by using a

Workflow Editor."

Laurie Patterson received funding from FRIENDS of UNCW in the amount of $1,756 to purchase An Epson Stylus Pro 9600 Series printer which is

capable of printing posters.

News Bytes Volume 11, Number 1

Page 3

Squeak Etoys Camp

Jack Tompkins led an-

other popular and suc-

cessful summer camp

during June 2009. What

does Etoys teach?

Computer Fluency Most schools teach

"computer literacy," al-

though this rarely

amounts to more than

word processing, web

browsing, and simple

presentations.

Etoys enables genuine

computer fluency, allow-

ing students to both read

and write the language

of the computer.

Scripting requires chil-

dren to break problems

down and make solu-

tions explicit. Results are

obvious and immediate,

which encourages dis-

covery.

Sketching and Scripting

With Etoys, children can

draw their own sketches

then bring them to life by

writing "scripts" that tell

the sketches what to do.

Children can then put

sketches and text in digi-

tal books with multiple

pages, allowing them to

create interactive stories

to share with the world.

Powerful Built-In Tools With Etoys, children can

explore powerful built-in

tools such as the sound

analyzers shown above.

Children can then design

their own guitar tuners

and explore the multiple

dimensions of our sur-

rounding world. Go to

squeakland.org for more

information.

Mobile Education LLC Takes Off, Wins Award

Ron Vetter and Jeff

Brown were awarded the

second place honor in

AT&T‟s first “Big Mo-

bile On Campus Chal-

lenge,” a national higher

education contest for

creative mobile applica-

tion development. In a

competition against Stan-

ford University, the Uni-

versity of California

Berkeley, Georgia Tech

and numerous other pres-

tigious colleges,

the UNCW team was

honored for the interac-

tive mobile program

"Dub Hunt," a scavenger

hunt game for university

students using text mes-

sages.

Dub Hunt is a scavenger

hunt game in which

teams of students receive

text message questions

about the UNCW cam-

pus. As teams find an-

swers, they text them,

and the game software

evaluates their answers

for correctness. The

UNCW Division of Stu-

dent Affairs, the Office

of Transition Programs

and student orientation

leaders helped to design

questions for the database

and test early versions of

the game.

Dub Hunt is just one of

the many components of

Mobile Education, LLC a

company founded in

2007 by Vetter and

Brown in partnership

with UNCW. Mobile

Education develops inter-

active text message appli-

cations for the UNCW

(continued on p. 5)

Wesley Williams and

Beth Snead presented

"Integrating the Vernier

LabPro™ with Squeak

Etoys", co– authored by

Daniel Heywood „08,

Gene Tagliarini, Srid-

har Narayan, Shelby

Morge and Karen Hill at

the Society for Informa-

tion Technology and

Teacher Education 20th

International Confer-

ence, Charleston, S.C.

Philip Whisenhunt and

Ricardo Valeo partici-

pated in the fourth an-

nual CSURF showcase for

undergraduate research.

Heather Jenkins, David

Anderson, Hogan Hagy

and Haeden Howland all

completed internships this

year.

Kyle Holt attended a sum-

mer school program on

multicore programming at

the University of Illinois‟

Universal Parallel Com-

puting Research Center.

The following students

completed their respective

DIS programs:

Teresa Freitas: “Grid

Computing with

GridNexus;” Ricky Valea

and Drew Swinson:

“iPhone Development;”

Jeremy Parker:

“Animation Production

Pipeline” and Clarence

Wade Grant: “Ethical

Computer Hacking.”

Jason Vandeventer, Ben

Barbour, Lyle Scott,

Will Wharton and Keith

Haertel attended the

ACM Southeast Confer-

ence at Clemson last

March.

News Bytes Volume 11, Number 1

Page 4

Awesome Alumni

Allen Rawls MSCIS „08

will attend Clemson‟s

Ph.D. program beginning

fall „09. Congratulations,

Allen!

Missy Seaman „03 works

for Sageworks, Inc., a

financial analysis software

company in Raleigh, N.C.

Jarod Rodriguez „95 is a

technology account

manager for

GlaxoSmithKline and is

involved in their

NetApp.com project.

Student Showcase Computer Science Students’ Accomplishments

University, Clemson

University and North

Carolina A&T State

University to form an

IARPA sponsored Cen-

ter for Advanced Stud-

ies in Identity Sciences

(CASIS). They have

been featured on

MSNBC: “Lying About

Your Age? A Computer

Can Tell”

(http://tinyurl.com/mqt2

qg) and on WECT‟s

news broadcasts

(http://tinyurl.com/n7e7

6x.)

using the accuracy and

reliability of FR tech-

nologies.

UNCW‟s Face Aging

Group, led by Karl Ri-

canek and Eric Patter-

son, have developed

models to age adult im-

ages up to 70 years old.

Their solution is also ca-

pable of de-aging a per-

son's photo. The models

developed follow the

natural morphological

process of the craniofa-

cial complex.

This group partners with

biometric researchers

from Carnegie Mellon

UNCW’s Face Aging Group Gains Publicity

Face recognition (FR) re-

search and technologies

focus largely on capabili-

ties of computer algo-

rithms to match stored,

gallery images to digital

images acquired from

video sequences or still

images for use in security

and law enforcement ven-

ues. These algorithms try

to reverse-engineer the

innate human ability to

recognize a familiar hu-

man face. However, one

major aspect of this tech-

nology that has yet to be

thoroughly explored is the

effects of age-related cra-

niofacial

morphol-

ogic

changes

A summer 2008

survey, conducted by

the National

Association of

Colleges and

Employers (NACE), of

new college

graduates found that

Computer Science

majors earn the

second highest

starting salaries

behind Chemical

Engineering.

community, such as the

ability to request and re-

trieve a grade, campus

event calendar listings,

dining and retail coupons,

shuttle bus locations, and

more.

The mobile challenge was

established to identify in-

novative and creative mo-

bile applications that en-

hance academic perform-

ance, build campus com-

munity and help improve

campus security opera-

tions.

Vetter said "Winning this

award is exciting because

it demonstrates that inno-

vative technology devel-

opments are happening at

UNCW and that those de-

velopments are on par

with efforts across the

country."

On a broader scale, Mo-

bile Education, LLC de-

velops innovative, real-

time, two-way short mes-

sage service (SMS) based

applications. Their pri-

mary goal is to provide

clients with the capability

to send and receive a wide

range of mobile phone

information services using

bi-directional text mes-

sages via common short

codes using readily avail-

able cell phone and cellu-

lar network technologies.

Several computer science

students have been given

access to Mobile Educa-

tion‟s computing platform

in order to develop text

message applications as

part of their undergraduate

and graduate studies.

Shaun Border and Wade

Grant each developed an

interface to Microsoft's

Outlook Mobile Service

(one was .NET based and

the other Java based)

which enables email to be

sent via text message and

text messages to be sent

back into the email sys-

tem. Bill Shipman devel-

oped an anonymous tip

system whereby users

could text tips to the cam-

pus police department.

This type of student ac-

cess to Mobile Education's

servers has been, and will

continue to be, a win-win

situation for both this new

faculty startup company

and the UNCW commu-

nity alike.

Web sites:

Mobile Education LLC –

http://myMobEd.com

UNCW Mobile Services –

http://www.uncw.edu/

mobile

Dub Hunt –

http://DubHunt.com

Mobile Coupons –

http://

CouponsToYourPhone.com

Don’t miss the newly revised UNCW-ACM Web site: http://student.uncw.edu/org/acm/

Mobile Education, LLC (continued from p. 3)

News Bytes Volume 11, Number 1

Page 5

Ron Vetter and Jeff

Brown’s team was

recognized by

Chancellor DePaolo

in a recent “Good

News” memo, where

Dub Hunt was

honored for its

second place finish

behind Stanford but

ahead of Berkeley!

NCREN,” with Barry

Wilkinson in the

Proceedings of the 2009

International Conference

on Frontiers in

Education: Computer

Science and Computer

Engineering (FECS'09),

WORLDCOMP'09; and

“Independent Loop

Suppression to Reduce

Message Size for

Upsilon Pi Epsilon‟s three officers for 2008-09 (pictured at left)

inducted 14 new students into the local chapter of the

international computer science honor society.

Congratulations to Sean Garmon, Wesley Williams, Ashley

Vereyken, Kyle Snell, Sarah Peck, Matthew Mascherin, Haeden

Howland, Hogan Hagy, Justin Denning, Christopher Cotton,

Maziar Boddoohi, Brian Bullard, Patricia Best and Amil

Abdallah (all pictured below.)

News Bytes Volume 11, Number 1

Page 6

Advisory Committee .

Jack Tompkins led

another successful

summer Squeak Etoys

camp. (See p. 3 for

details.)

Clayton Ferner had two

papers accepted: “Pair-

Teaching a course on

Grid Computing from

Two Campuses on

Faculty Focus (continued from p. 2)

Michael Haizlip, Beth Snead, Wade Grant.

Message Passing Code,”

with Jerry Martin in the

Proceedings of the 2009

International Conference

on Parallel and

Distributed Processing

Techniques and

Applications

(PDPTA'09),

WORLDCOMP'09.

Gur Saran Adhar spent

a month during summer

2008 in Germany with

scholars at Kiel

University in a study of

randomized parallel

algorithms to solve

intractable problems in

computer science.

Ralph Bradley served

as chair of the University

Faculty Trivia:

1) Who was the headline, “Nerd Wins

Kayak Race,” referring to regarding a

first place finish in the 5th Annual

Wrightsville Beach Sea Kayak 3-mile

Fun Race, November 2008?

2) Can you spot a member of the faculty at

the Stop Hunger Now event last fall in

the photo at the right?

3) What special skill does Dr. Vetter have?

A) Riding a unicycle

B) Juggling (with fire!)

C) Walking on six-foot stilts

D) All of the above

4) Which faculty member can be spotted

riding an '02 VRod with a snake skin

seat, Screamin' Eagle pipes and a high

performance intake?

Did You Know That?

1) Curry Guinn 2) Karl Ricanek 3) D 4) Jack Tompkins

Trivia answers:

News Bytes Volume 11, Number 1

Page 7

Casey Tucker

Computer Science

Chairs Scholarship

Elizabeth Snead

Fletcher R. Norris

Scholarship

Wesley Williams

David Bristol

Scholarship

Camilio Alvarez

Bookstore/Textbook

Scholarship

Patricia Best

Bookstore/Textbook

Scholarship

2009 Award

Recipients

Congratulations to Our Recent Graduates!

Fall 2008 Graduates

Master‟s Degrees: Kevin Daniel Matthews, William

John Shipman, Steven Barry Sutton

Bachelor‟s Degrees: Jaewoong Kim (cum laude),

Brent Saylor Kleinert, William Larry Peeden (magna

cum laude), Jordan Edward Pike, Melea Lann Wil-

liams.

Spring and Summer 2009 Graduates

Master‟s Degrees: Michael Parker Moran, Sarah

Elizabeth Peck.

Bachelor‟s Degrees: Teresa Nurit Freitas, Cla-

rence Wade Grant, Michael James Haizlip

(magna cum laude), Heather Renee Jenkins (cum

laude), Michael Charles Last, Sean Faust Teare,

Derek Allyn Wilson, Herbert C. Bland, Matthew

T. Miller.

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U N I V E R S I T Y O F N O R T H C A R O L I N A W I L M I N G T O N