Questionnaire 09.04.07

1. your name:
Keith Maull

2. the intended topic area for your PhD:
semantic digital libraries, automatic/machine semantic metadata assignment of digital resources, explore how to bring higher value to human intelligence to the assignment problem

3. most important reason for you personally to get a PhD
I cannot deny the fact that this is something I put on pause 10 years ago. I have been given an opening to complete what I always knew was inevitable. I also owe a great deal to some undergraduate mentors (no longer living) who pushed me to consider it a viable and worthwhile option.

4. name three computer scientist which YOU consider most important for the field and what you consider their contribution
4.1.
Don Knuth
His unrelenting rigor and focus on the mathematical foundations of computer science took algorithm analysis to the next level.

4.2.
Alan Kay
He was an still is a visionary with an eye to the practical, human component of computers and our interactions with them. UIs, HCI - he was a pioneer in the way we work with computers.

4.3.
Tim Berners-Lee
The Web. Without his vision and implementers mind, the web might have been a few years delayed for the "rest of the world".

5. name the three most important, professionally relevant books which you have read
5.1.
Foundations of Computer Science; Aho & Ullman

5.2.
Design Patterns : Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software; Gamma, Helm, Vlissides, Johnson

5.3.
The C Programming Language; Kernighan and Ritchie

6. assuming you will collaborate with researchers and explore ideas outside of CS during your PhD studies — which domains are the most likely candidates for this effort
6.1.
Education

6.2.
Library/Information Management Sciences

6.3.
Philosophy

7. briefly characterize your own digital literacy:
7.1. which programming language do you know (mention them in an order of decreasing familiarity)
Java, PHP, C/C++, XSL, Scheme, HTML, Javascript, Delphi, SQL, Perl

7.2. describe the top three projects (problem, programming language used, for what) which you have done in the past

[1] When I was at HP, I worked on a remote diagnostic system based on probabilistic diagnostic models. The problem we wanted to solved was how to lower the costs and time to repair systems in the field. This was in 1998 and was quite a bit ahead of it's time, since now such systems are commonplace and deployed on everything from cell phones to desktops. We used HTTP, RMI and Java as core technologies. I worked on the front end UI for the system.

[2] My MS thesis work involved building a model, architecture and system implementation to allow for re-purposing digital educational resources and pedagogical units. This was primarily designed to allow educators to discover, compose and re-use resources which had already been used within relevant pedagogical contexts that likely met their own criteria and goals. Languages used were Java, XSL, JSP, Javascript, HTML.

[3] The current project will probably eclipse the other two. The problem is : build an institutional repository for 10 academic and 1 public library using open source software and taking into account the specific needs for each institution which will include >6TB of content and perhaps over 200K discrete digital objects with the future object store growing well beyond 1 million objects. Languages used : whatever solves the problems encountered ( currently PHP, Java, Perl, XSL ).

7.3. which are the top three applications that you are familiar with (e.g. Photoshop, Canvas, Dreamweaver, iMovie, ….)?
Eclipse IDE, MS Word, Photoshop

8. List your three favorite topics that you would like to see discussed in this course!
8.1.
Where is CS heading as a field (research, curriculum, innovations)? Are we due for an overhaul in our curriculum?

8.2.
New areas/directions where CS research might develop? What are some opportunities ripe for applications/solutions?

8.3
Industry Innovation vs. Academic Innovation in Computing and Technology : How to make cross-pollination more effective and efficient. Exploring the greatest hits and greatest misses, and what we can learn from them.

Last modified 3 September 2007 at 8:43 pm by K:M