Campus.News: Features

Corporate IT managers—at places such as eBay or General Electric—face a daunting task of developing complex software applications rapidly.

New software gets more and more complex and must be developed on the fly. Yet current approaches are not suited for delivering high-quality software quickly, says Lally School Professor Thiagarajan Ravichandran.

Ravichandran says the situation won't change until component-based software development (CBD) catches on. CBD uses prefabricated components. That's the way computer hardware is built: each new computer, although greatly improved, is largely made up of pre-existing components supplied by manufacturers around the world. This modular approach allows economies of scale that have reduced hardware prices.

But enterprise software applications are pretty much built from the ground up, without off-the-shelf components.

CBD has been touted for years; but it's been resisted, says Ravichandran, who studied 105 companies that ranged from no adoption to full adoption of CBD.
In research that will be published in the "best papers proceedings" of the upcoming Academy of Management Conference, Ravichandran shows that CBD assimilation is thwarted by knowledge barriers, technology uncertainty, and adoption risks. To lower these barriers, component vendors will have to create a confident and educated customer base that is willing to take risks with a new but extremely promising technology.

Ravichandran says vendors—and the software industry itself—must take steps to reduce both the learning burden and the adoption risks that customer organizations will have to bear in switching to CBD.

Rensselaer will hold Commencement 2002 on the Harkness Field, followed by a campus barbecue/picnic for graduates, guests, and faculty, President Shirley Ann Jackson has announced.

"I am pleased to announce that Commencement is coming back to a campus setting that lends itself to the meaning and spirit of the day," Jackson said. "An outdoor Commencement, and a barbecue on the main campus, will be our way to extend our congratulations to our graduates and bid them a festive farewell."

Commencement moved from the Field House to the Pepsi Arena in 1999 due to space constraints. The Harkness Field location will provide the same capacity as the Pepsi Arena for graduates and guests. The Field House, with remote transmission to the Armory, will serve as a back-up venue.

For Japanese-American dancer Tomie Hahn, dance and music are not separate entities—thanks to a new wireless interactive dance system created by her husband, Curtis Bahn, assistant professor of arts at Rensselaer.

Bahn's SSpeaPer (the Sensor-Speaker-Performer) system allows Hahn to create and blend various sounds by using her body motion. As she dances, the actions of her body drive an interactive music algorithm.

"My body initiates and controls all the elements of the available sounds. I can also manipulate the sounds in various ways. I can decide which sounds I want by basically pressing a button," says Hahn, assistant professor of music at Tufts University, where she teaches ethnomusicology. "In this way, there is no difference between music and dance. It is one thing—because my body has become the instrument. That kind of physical immersion in the music is revolutionary. I'm sort of a walking sound machine," she says.

As Hahn dances, gestural information is sent by radio to the interactive computer music system. Electronic sounds are then broadcast back to small speakers mounted on her body. Hahn controls the sounds through sensors in each of her palms that measure finger pressure and the amount of tilt in her arms.

Artists from as far away as Australia and Turkey will learn more about SSPeaPer and other artistic technologies during a two-week, international workshop, "Dance and Interactive Technology," held at Ohio State University (OSU) June 18-30.

Bahn, Hahn, and Dan Trueman, assistant professor of music and director of the Digital Music Studio at Colgate University, will conduct experiments and rehearsals for the Interactive Performance Series workshop that will culminate in a public performance on Saturday, June 30.

The workshop is co-sponsored by the OSU Dance Technology Program and the Wexner Center for the Arts.

The number of zebra mussels found in Lake George has declined dramatically since last year, when Rensselaer researchers and volunteers began manually pulling the troublesome mollusks from the water.

The time-consuming, labor-intensive effort appears to be paying off. In the spring of last year, shortly after the first adult zebra mussels were discovered in the popular recreational lake, divers collected more than 19,000 of them. Last fall's harvest netted 1,800. Since April of this year, however, divers have pulled only 352 mussels.

"Of course, I can't guarantee that all of the zebra mussels are gone from Lake George. That would be premature. But I am optimistic, based on the numbers, that we got most of them at this site," said Sandra Nierzwicki-Bauer, professor of biology and director of the Darrin Fresh Water Institute.

More good news is the size of the mussels pulled this year: All are too large to have been born in 2000 or 2001. Last year's harvest seems to have culled the mussels before they reproduced, and they have not been found elsewhere in the lake.

Zebra mussel larvae were first found in Lake George in 1995, but researchers believed that lake chemistry—probably low calcium and pH levels—kept them from maturing. A culvert carrying storm runoff with high calcium levels may account for the proliferation of adult mussels at the site on the southeastern shore.

The mussels are a European invader already well established in Lake Champlain and the Hudson River. They can choke drinking-water pumps, foul outboard motors, and deter tourists. The mussels may have entered Lake George while attached to boats, boat trailers, anchors, bait buckets, or on equipment used in the construction of a nearby boardwalk.

A new design for Institute stationery has been introduced by the Office of Marketing and Media Relations. The design, which will be used on all letterheads, envelopes, business cards, and other documents conforms to the new set of graphic standards available to the entire campus on the Web .

The change in stationery design has not affected the cost. Letterhead and envelopes can be ordered with either a black and red logo or a black-only logo. All business cards use the black and red logo.

To place orders for new stationery, contact Pat Moirin at Institute Printing Services at 6421.

It is not necessary to discard stationery you currently have in stock. Use what you have in the current design and order new materials on your usual schedule.

"We have attempted to make the new stationery as flexible as possible to meet the varied needs of the Rensselaer campus," said Tom Torello, director of marketing. "The Office of Marketing and Media Relations and Institute Printing Services are committed to working with you to see that all of your specific information needs are accommodated within the new design."

Electronic templates for the new letterhead are available at the graphic resources Web site. Templates for Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect are available. Directions for creating templates in other word processing programs are also provided.

If you have any questions regarding the new stationery or the graphic standards, contact Torello at torelt@rpi.edu.

Rensselaer Graduates Net High Salaries, Despite Economic Downturn

Despite a downturn in the economy and an end to the dot.com boom, Rensselaer graduates in high-tech fields are commanding even higher salaries than last year, says Tom Tarantelli, director of the Career Development Center.

Students armed with a bachelor's degree in computer science have reported salaries as high as $80,000. Those who have a master's degree in computer science have commanded starting salaries as high as $95,000.

And MBA majors, whose average reporting salary is $73,929, have received offers as high as $125,000.

And MBA majors, whose average reporting salary is $73,929, have received offers as high as $125,000.

"Without a doubt, information technology is the leader in shaping career trends," Tarantelli says. "We had a very good job recruiting year. For those graduates finding jobs in high-tech research fields, salaries are up 5 percent on average from last year. Our graduates seem to have the combination of leadership skills and technical skills—the kinds of skills that corporations are really prizing."

Although lucrative, the recruiting atmosphere was very different than last year, Tarantelli adds. "This year we had a lot of the major, more conventional employers on campus, which was very different than last year when 'dot com' companies were doing most of the recruiting," he says.

The most recruited majors at Rensselaer are computer science, computer and systems engineering, civil engineering, and electrical engineering. Major companies recruiting at Rensselaer include IBM, GE, GM, and Ford, Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting), Lockheed Martin, Factset, United Technologies, and Teradyne.

Other majors that have sparked increased interest among recruiters are in mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering, and management.

The future of good jobs also looks bright for next batch of graduating students, Tarantelli says. Job fairs and company recruitment opportunities are fully booked through the fall.

Rensselaer alumnus Anthony J. Tether '64 has been named director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). DARPA is the principal agency within the Department of Defense for research, development, and demonstration of concepts, devices, and systems that provide highly advanced military capabilities.

As director, Tether is responsible for management of the agency's projects for high-payoff innovative research and development. Until his appointment, Tether was chief executive officer and president of The Sequoia Group, which he founded in 1996 to provide program management and strategy development services to government and industry. From 1994 to 1996, Tether served as chief executive officer for Dynamics Technology Inc. From 1992 to 1999, he was vice president of Science Applications International Corporation's (SAIC) Advanced Technology Sector, and then vice president and general manager for range systems at SAIC.

Tether earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer in 1964, and his master of science (1965) and doctorate (1969) in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He has served on Army Science Boards and Defense Science Boards and on the Office of National Drug Control Policy Research and Development Committee. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and is listed in several Who's Who publications. In 1986, he was honored with both the National Intelligence Medal and the Department of Defense Civilian Meritorious Service Medal.

When technology was delivered to the tiny Nigerian village of Umuluwe, the result was a day of celebration, singing, and dancing.

Economics professors Stephen Onyeiwu and John Gowdy, along with Raluca Iorgulescu, a graduate student in ecological economics, presented four donated laptops to Chief Jonathan B. Kezie to much fanfare.

"The women began singing and dancing upon receiving the computers," Gowdy said. "The chief hugged me and said 'God sent you here to help us…."

Umuluwe is Onyeiwu's native home. Most villagers are subsistence farmers who have an income of about $10 per year. Although the village has only sporadic electricity, Gowdy and Onyeiwu hope to devise a strategy to connect schoolchildren to the Internet, possibly via satellite. Education, explains Onyeiwu, is a top priority in his hometown.

"They feel computers are important in a modern educational system and that bringing in computers from the outside will help the kids learn better," Onyeiwu said. "They see the laptops as an aspect of modern technology."

The laptops are currently in the village community center and the students will begin exploring the basics of navigating Windows 98.