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"Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes."
— Prof. E. W. Dijkstra

"People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware."
— Alan Kay

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Professional Information

Education

M.S. Computer Science, University of Kansas, 1988
B.S. Mathematics & Computer Science, Pittsburg State University, 1986

Work Experience

Lecturer, School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering
Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, 2007-present.

Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Physics
Rockhurst University, Kansas City, Missouri, 2005-2007.

Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Physics
Rockhurst University, Kansas City, Missouri, 2000-2005.

Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science/Mathematics/Physics
Missouri Western State College, St. Joseph, Missouri, 1998-2000.

Software Consultant
TouchNet Information Systems, Lenexa, KS, 1997-1999

Lecturer, Department of Computer Science-Information Systems
Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, Kansas, 1997-1998

Senior Software Engineer
TouchNet Information Systems, Inc., Lenexa, Kansas, 1996-1997

System Analyst, Hospital Information Systems
University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas, 1994-1996

Software Engineer
Garmin International, Olathe, Kansas, 1992-1994

Development Engineer
AlliedSignal Aerospace (Now Honeywell), Olathe, Kansas, 1988-1992

MIS Intern
NCR, Wichita, KS, 1987

Graduate Teaching Assistant
University of Kansas, Dept. of Computer Science, Lawrence, KS, 1986-1988

Professional Interests

My principal teaching interests are in embedded systems, digital logic, computer architecture and organization, introductory programming, and data structures and algorithms.

Most of my scholarly work now is focused on undergraduate computer science education. I am interested in developing tools and techniques which help students learn concepts in introductory programming and other undergraduate computer science courses.

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Personal Information

I was born and raised in a rural part of SE Kansas, and lived all of my life in Kansas and Missouri before moving to Phoenix in 2007. I spent the first nine years of my career toiling in a dank subterranean cubicle slinging code for my corporate overlords before I escaped to academia where I have been very happy since. My fourteen-year teaching career has taken me to four different institutions and I hope ASU will be the last.

I like to a read a lot (soley nonfiction: economics, politics, science, and religion are my favorites); hang out at the library, bookstores, various coffee shops (especially Lux which as far as I know, has the best coffee in Phoenix); listen to music (anything but c&w, pop, and hip-hop/rap, but primarily reggae/world music, industrial, trance, and new age/ambient); drink the best coffee in the world when I can at the Broadway Cafe in Kansas City; exercise (weightlifting and hiking); and visit friends and family in Kansas and Missouri. I learned to SCUBA dive years ago, but haven't been diving for quite a while. My main hobby is pottery. I like to throw pots on the wheel; it is much cheaper than therapy. Sometimes when the pots I make come out looking like crap, I throw them on the floor or against a wall. That, too, is also cheaper than therapy.

I've recently gotten into Zen meditation at the Desert Lotus Zen Community in SE Phoenix, and although Buddhism intrigues me, I attend the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Phoenix.

I am a Myer's-Briggs type INTP—for what it's worth.

My links page contains pointers to other stuff I find useful or interesting, and here are some interesting quotations and phrases.