Annual Report 2007

SEIDENBERG SCHOOL OF
COMPUTER SCIENCE AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Annual Report 2007

HIGHLIGHTS --

Although the number of events and activities subsided in 2007 after a year filled with celebrating Pace's centennial and CSIS's first full year as the Seidenberg School, there were still many accomplishments worthy of recognition.

The FIRST LEGO League Robotic Tournament attracted more participants than ever before; the annual Leadership and Service in Technology Award Reception raised a record-breaking $235,000; the Pace/SkillPROOF IT Index Report completed its first full year of publication; the first class of Seidenberg Scholars entered in the fall; the school continued to attract students from across the university to its popular service learning courses and added several new offerings; and many Pace faculty members were honored, both internally and externally, for their community service, outstanding teaching, and contributions to higher education.

At year's end, Dean Susan Merritt surprised her faculty and staff and the community at large with her decision to step down from the deanship at the conclusion of the 2007-08 academic year after 25 years of outstanding leadership.

Highlights of 2007 include:

Events -

  • A record number of middle school children ages 9-14 participated in the 4 th annual FIRST LEGO League Robotics Tournament held on the Pleasantville campus. The theme of this year's challenge was Nano Quest. In addition, Seidenberg hosted the only Junior FIRST LEGO League Tournaments for 6-9 year olds - one in Pleasantville, the other in Manhattan - to be held in New York State this year.

     
  • This year's annual Leadership and Service in Technology Award Reception honoring Naomi Seligman, a senior partner with Ostriker von Simson, Inc., and co-chair of the influential CIO Strategy Exchange, generated a record-breaking $235,000 for the benefit of the Seidenberg School 's Scholarship Fund. For the second consecutive year, Ivan G. Seidenberg, university trustee and the school's benefactor, served as guest speaker. The event, chaired by Charles Costa, CIO, Global Technology Infrastructure, and Mark Kay, CEO of StrikeForce Technologies, Inc., was held at the Global Community Digital Sandbox building in lower Manhattan .

     
  • Forty outstanding high school seniors from across the country participated in the 2nd Annual Seidenberg Summer Experience held on the New York City campus in late June. The "experience" included a whirlwind of activities, including academic challenges, a visit to the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center in Westchester , a stop at Pace's Pleasantville campus, and a taste of the Big Apple's many attractions. The purpose of the summer experience is to help identify and recruit a second group of Seidenberg Scholars who will enter Pace in fall 2008.

     
  • Through the efforts of the Seidenberg School , Pace University was redesignated one of the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education, a designation that it has held since 2004. The goals of the program established by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and promoted by the Centers, are to reduce vulnerability in our national information infrastructure by promoting higher education in information assurance (IA) and graduating professionals with IA expertise in various disciplines.
     

Faculty and Students -

  • Five outstanding computer science majors - Jose Antonio Diaz-Gonzalez, Jeffrey Marvin, Seth O'Brien, Igor Pokryshevskiy and Alex Quick - entered Pace as the first cohort of Seidenberg Scholars.

     
  • Faculty member, Catherine Dwyer, a NJIT doctoral candidate pursuing research in social networking, became a sought after expert in the field and is quoted in publications worldwide as interest in issues relating to social networking and privacy increases.

     
  • Richard Kline, PhD, who teaches CIS 102 Problem-solving with LEGO Mindstorm Robots and develops programming and robotic design challenges using LEGOs to students participating in the Seidenberg Scholars Summer Experience, was invited to serve as a technical judge at the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) World Festival held in Atlanta, GA.

     
  • Mirkeya Capellan (MS/IS '99, DPS '08) represented the Seidenberg School at the annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference held in Orlando , Florida . The conference was a gathering of 1400 women from around the world who share their experience as computing professionals and provide support to each other as they advance their careers.

 

Awards, Grants and Accomplishments -

  • Fran Allen, member of the Seidenberg Advisory Board and longtime friend of the school, was named the 2007 recipient of the Turing Award for her outstanding contributions to computer science. She is the first woman to receive this honor, the most prestigious in the field.

     
  • Jean Coppola, PhD, accepted the Isabel Brabazon Research and Evaluation Award at the International Conference on Generations United on behalf of her team that is pursuing research in the field of gerontechnology, also known as intergenerational computing. A $5,000 grant to continue research in gerontechnology accompanied the award. Darren Hayes, DPS, coordinator of Seidenberg's service learning courses and team member, also attended.

     
  • Matthew Ganis, a triple Pace alumnus - BS/CS, MBA/IS and DPS in Computing - received the Innovation in Teaching Award for an adjunct faculty member at a reception hosted by The New York Times in May. Dr. Ganis, who teaches for the Seidenberg School and the Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, was chosen by the university's Pforzheimer Center for Faculty Development and the Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology.

     
  • Seidenberg faculty/staff members - Jonathan Hill, assistant dean, Darren Hayes, CIS 101 course coordinator, and Matthew Ganis, adjunct assistant professor of computer science, were each awarded the Doctor of Professional Studies at the 2007 graduate commencement ceremony in May.

     
  • This year's Dr. Carol S. Russett Award, conferred by the Westchester/Rockland Region of the American Council on Educational Network of Women, went to Bernice Houle, associate dean. Dr. Houle was cited for her dedication to higher education, for furthering the professional development of women, and for her interest and concern for the community at-large.

     
  • Lynne Larkin, CLOUT director, accepted a New Partnership Award on behalf of the university for the technology training provided by CLOUT and the Pace Computer Learning Center to employees of the New York City Parks and Recreation Department participating in the Parks Opportunity Program.

     
  • Dean Susan Merritt and the Seidenberg School were awarded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Excellence in Social Justice Award by the Office of Diversity, Pleasantville, at the annual campus event commemorating the slain civil rights leader. The dean was cited for her leadership and the faculty and staff for numerous initiatives celebrating diversity and promoting social awareness.

     
  • Dean Susan Merritt obtained an IBM Faculty Award that will enable Pace and SkillPROOF, Inc., creators of the new quarterly Pace/SkillPROOF IT Index Report that tracks IT employment activity in New York City and Westchester County , to expand their research into other markets and locations with technology support from IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center .

     
  • Christelle Scharff, PhD, was awarded a Sustainable Vision Grant in the amount of $47,198 by the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance for "Sustainable Technology-based Entrepreneurship for the Senegalese Market."

     
  • Stuart Varden, PhD, a full-time faculty member for 18 years and now an adjunct, was named Educator of the Year by the Association of Information Technology Professionals/Special Interest Group for Education for his many years of leadership and service.


 

Programs, Courses and Partnerships -

  • A new graduate-level certificate program, the Advanced Certificate in Information and Communication Technology Strategy and Innovation, was offered for the first time this year. The aim of this program is to provide information systems professionals with a firm foundation in the strategic and innovative uses of technology. Other new graduate-level certificate offerings include the Advanced Certificate in Large Systems Computing and the Advanced Certificate in Open Source Application Development.

     
  • The Pace Computer Learning Center became an Authorized Adobe Training Center, adding to its list of premier partnerships with well-recognized and respected providers such as the Linux Red Hat Academy and the Project Management Institute. It has also established an affiliation with Netcom, a Manhattan training center, so that it can offer more technically-oriented classes to its clients.

     
  • CLOUT, the Seidenberg School program that prepares the unemployed and underemployed to seek meaningful employment utilizing PC skills, and the Pace Computer Learning Center that offers noncredit application, technical and project management training, teamed up with the City of New York Parks and Recreation Department to offer training in technology to park employees participating in the Parks Opportunity Program (POP), one of the nation's largest transitional employment programs.

     
  • Thirty-five employees of the Bank of New York celebrated the completion of one of two graduate-level programs - the Advanced Certificate in Software Development and Engineering or the Advanced Certificate in Security and Information Assurance - taught by Seidenberg on site at the bank over an 18 month period.

     
  • The Center for Historical Informatics, dedicated to the application of computer technology to preserve, access, and research historical documents and to disseminate historical scholarship was established.

     
  • Seidenberg continued to expand its service learning courses that attract undergraduate students from all schools within the university. New offerings this year included CIS 102T Intergenerational Computing, a course that has students working with young adults afflicted with cerebral palsy to help them learn practical computer skills; CIS 102W Community Empowerment through Information Systems and Technologies that has students designing and implementing systems to improve the operating efficiency of the Association for Helping Retarded Children (AHRC), a nonprofit organization that provides services to developmentally disabled individuals and their families; and CIS 102X IT and Strategic Community Planning offered in partnership with the NYC Public Library in which students apply their knowledge of a geographical tool, database organization and navigation of Google Earth to georectify historical digital maps of New York City dating back over a century.


 

Publications -

  • The Pace/SkillPROOF IT Index (PSII) Report, the quarterly report that tracks the IT job market in New York City and Westchester County first published in November 2006, completed its first full year of publication. The index has been very well received by industry professionals and educators and has sparked considerable interest in the press.

     
  • James Lawler, DPS, and Hortense Howell-Barber, Seidenberg School Advisory Board Member, co-authored Service-Oriented Architecture: SOA Strategy, Methodology and Technology, published by Taylor and Francis Group, Ltd., Auerbach Publications. The book, based on in-depth case studies, defines a practical program management methodology for deploying SOA, a new technology for gaining competitive advantage by improving business processes.

     
  • Several faculty members had book chapters published including Constance Knapp, PhD, and Linda Anstendig, PhD, "Teaching Portfolios at Pace University: A Culture in Transition," in The Teaching Portfolio: A Practical Guide to Improved Performance and Promotion/Tenure Decisions ; Richard Kline, PhD, "Melodic Query Input for Information Retrieval Systems," in Intelligent Music Information Systems: Tools and Methodologies ; and Charles Tappert, PhD, and Sung-Hyuk Cha, PhD, "Handwriting Recognition Interfaces," in Text Entry Systems (see Bibliography section for details).