Welcome to my home page. Software Runs The World!

The  growth rate and demand for jobs requiring up to date computer skills has continued to outpace the yearly supply of new college graduates. The shortage of talent has resulted in a job market that offers talented degreed professionals a choice among many jobs at a starting salary that exceeds most other professions. My goal at Elon is to help develop the computing skills of Elon students to enable them to either have their pick among these many high paying  jobs or to attend graduate school to further their education. ( I am extremely pleased that 100 percent of all graduates in 2010 and 2011 were employed in the computer industry in the job of their choice or attending graduate school for an advanced degree in Computer Science.)

From 1983 until July  2001, I developed software for industry. I have managed the whole software development process from software product requirements development, architecture design, subsystem design, implementation, test, documentation, maintenance and customer support. In the process, I have worked with and hired many student interns and graduates  from a variety of institutions and I know the skill sets that are needed and expected.  Accordingly, my courses at Elon mix course content with hands on use of the latest software, productivity tools and software development methodologies. 

In 2002, The Computing Sciences Department at Elon made a very progressive move and extended the curriculum to offer students a unique opportunity to become immersed in either or both computer science and computer information systems. The department now offers a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Information Systems. Each of these majors is a nice balance of concepts and hands on programming and provides a solid foundation for either graduate school or the job market.

In 2003, The Computing Sciences Department at Elon led the development of a Multimedia Authoring Minor. This interdisciplinary minor is taught by the Art, Computing Sciences and English Departments.

In 2004, The Computing Sciences Department at Elon added a BS in CIS. Elon is now the only school in North Carolina offering a BA and BS in both Computer Science and Computer Information Systems. Elon provides these under a single department which facilitates the development and maintenance of a solid curriculum and offers students flexible curriculum opportunities.

In 2006, The Computing Sciences Department added a grid node of 8 machines, added the latest in dual monitor stations to all lab machines and taught new innovative programs on intelligent decision making using grid services and on virtual worlds using Second Life.

In 2007, The Computing Sciences Department installed 12 dual monitor MacPro desktops in the dedicated computing lab for majors and created a new lab for computer networking. The Department updated the curricula for Computer Information Systems and Computer Science to stay at the leading edge of technology.

In 2008, The Computing Sciences Department installed 16 new desktop Dell computers in the Duke 304 networking lab, added three 23" Apple monitors to the Duke 305 Carpenter computing lab and updated the grid node of 8 machines with new processors.

In 2009, The Computing Sciences Department purchased 4 Android Developer unlocked phones for mobile computing. These mobile devices were used in two classes. The department purchased smart mobile devices for each faculty member. Four received Apple 32 gig Touch devices and one received a Kindle.

In 2010, The Computing Sciences Department purchased 4 additional Android unlocked phones (2 - ION and 2 - Nexus) for use in the mobile computing class and used Google Appengine with Servlets/JSP in the Advanced Programming class and Google Appengine with JavaServer Faces 2.0 in the Computer Science III class. The department purchased IPad devices for five faculty and additional 23 inch flat screen monitors for four faculty to support dual displays.

In 2011, The Computing Sciences Department replaced all twelve computers in the student computing lab (Carpenter Lab)  with an emphasis on multiple monitors for improved productivity and mimicking environments seen in many software houses. The department installed ten new 27inch IMac desktops with 12 gigabytes of memory. Each  IMac has two additional 21 inch displays for a total of three displays. In addition, the department purchased two Apple Mac Pro desktops with 10 gigabytes of memory and 2.8GHz quad-core Intel Xeon processors. One desktop was connected to a four 23 inch monitor display and the other to a 42 inch display. All desktops support both the Apple OS X Snow Leopard and Windows 7. The department also purchased 3 Xoom Tablets for use in mobile computing.

In 2012, The Computing Sciences Department has upgraded the computer lab to run Apple OS X Lion and the CSC 430 Advanced Programming Course will use the IBM Enterprise Cloud for Java Enterprise Edition 6 Servlet/JSP and JPA development. IBM has graciously provided free cloud based access to use their latest Rational Application Developer V8 and WebSphere Application Server V8.

I welcome the chance to work with the Elon students and the entire Elon community. My door is always open. Please stop by at any time and say hello. Though I have scheduled office hours listed in the table below, I am generally on campus and can gladly meet at other times by setting up an appointment.