WPI Computer Science 1975-1979

Milestones

Number of Faculty, BS Degrees and MS Degrees

faculty bsdegrees msdegrees
Number of Faculty Number of BS Degrees Number of MS Degrees

Faculty

Norm Sondak, Dept Head
Steve Alpert, Dept Head
Ray Scott
John Stubbe
David Hammel
Donald Mick
John Sistare
Mary Hardell
Jacques Bouvard
Leonard Lipner
James Perry
Dennis Barlow
Joseph Soetens
Greg Scragg
Robert Kinicki
Adrian (Jay) Zimmer

Staff

Madeleine Dudley

Faculty and Alums Share Memories

"Looking back - the large decks of punched cards for the Systems Programming Class and others on the RCA Spectra that took so long to run and the Teletypes in the basement of Stratton - compared to today's technology we were in "the days of iron programmers and wooden computers" to use Prof. Sondak's line." -- '76

"I recall in Fall 1975: one of the Hollerith card punch machines would often have a sign "out of order". One day I questioned my assumption of what it meant. Turns out the machine was ok, a clever soul (or group) in effect had reserved it for exclusive use!" -- '78

"The faculty! Profs. Scott and Hardell were so welcoming to a transfer student and liberally spent time helping me craft my educational and professional choices. Too much time spent in the "Terminal Room", imagine email in 1975 already; ahead of the curve." -- '75

"The mid-70's were a heady time in the department. Computer Science was a new discipline and we had students from both Math and EE in classes with us. In addition, it was my first close association with foreign students. Most impressive were the Chinese students who would finish every test or quiz and then pull out a Chinese / English dictionary to be sure they correctly understood the question. They did the test twice in the time I did it once." -- '76

"Having to submit all our programs on punch cards and wait for the jobs to be run and having the cards and printed output returned to the cubby holes at WACCC in the basement of the Gordon Library certainly seems like it was a long, long; long time ago. How things have changed!" -- '79

"Computer science was not viewed by a number of my peers outside of the department as a real engineering discipline, mechanical engineering was the king! Still; I saw it as the gateway to the future and the faculty opened my eyes to countless possibilities beyond Fortran programming using the Watfor compiler on the Spectra 70 mainframe. I also remember waiting in long lines to use one of the 24 or so terminals around campus as well as Mary Hardell working with all of us by the WACCC keypunch machines as we tried to get our assembler and Cobol programs working. Beyond computer system architecture; I missed out on the compiler and graphics courses offered every other year and wish I had stayed with the application system modeling course." -- '77

Faculty and Alums Identify WPI People Who Made a Personal Impact

"Professor Mary Hardell - she kept me from giving up." -- '76

"Mary Hardell, the only female in the faculty and wonderful to learn from and emulate." -- '75

"Prof. Joseph Soetens provided a very-needed "real world" flavor to the CS program. He was always available, always practical; and always supportive. And almost never seen without a cigar. :-)" -- '78

"Norm Sondak and Ray Scott. It's hard to separate them this many years later. Both set a standard for excellence and integrity that reinforced what I already brought to WPI from my parents and prior education." -- '76

"Prof. Joseph Soetens was my primary advisor and my MQP advisor. Since I was one of the few who chose "commercial applications" as my focus, Prof. Soetens was a great advisor. I remember sitting in his office during office hours reviewing my progress on my MQP when he got a call from a former student (Peter Hallock) who was asking about possible summer hires for the place he was working. He put the phone aside and immediately asked if I was interested. I said I was. And that turned into my first programming job! And I ended up working with Peter and the company he worked for as my first full-time programming job after I graduated." -- '79

"Norman Sondak, Leonard Lipner" -- '77

Photos

Click on image for larger photo.
5.jpg 2.jpg MaryHardell_8081.JPG BobKinicki_8081.JPG
Norman Sondak Stephen Alpert Mary Hardell Bob Kinicki
JamesPerry_8384.JPG 3.jpg 4.jpg GregScragg_8081.JPG
James Perry Richard Ribak Ramon Scott Greg Scragg
AdrianZimmer_8283.jpg 1979XbobXk3.jpg UA001_01_0508_06440.jpg
Adrian (Jay) Zimmer Bob Kinicki hiking Carter Dome Greg Scragg and man stand in a room with computers