---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1996-97 ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES REPORT Please make two copies of this statement and supporting materials. Give one copy to your department chair and send the other to the Office of the Provost by Thursday, April 17. Please include an updated curriculum vitae (CV) if you have not submitted one within the past year. Your chair will then forward a completed departmental set to the Office of the Provost. These reports will be one of the elements considered when 1997-98 salaries are set. I. NAME AND DEPARTMENT **************** Timothy J. Hickey, Computer Science II. INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES A. List courses taught throughout the year, including summer 1997 courses. In team-taught courses, please provide details of your specific responsibilities. Please discuss, if applicable, new courses and programs created, new pedagogical materials and techniques, and supervision of teaching assistants. **************************************************************** Autumn 1996 CS21a -- Data Structures and the Fundamentals of Computing 59 undergrads, 5 grads, 4 LabAssistants, 2 Teaching Assistants CS22a -- Fundamentals of Programming 58 undergrads, 5 grads, 4 LabAssistants, 2 Teaching Assistants TYP Math -- 8 TYP students Spring 1996 CS160 -- Parallel Computing 10 undergrads, 2 MA, 7 PhD, 2 Teaching Assistants TYP Math -- 8 TYP students NEW PEDAGOGICAL MATERIALS This semester I have been working with an undergraduate to develop a Java applet called JScheme for use in the CS2a course "Introduction to Computer Science", next year. The current version of the applet is available from my web page: http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~tim The JScheme applet allows anyone with web access to write and run programs in a simple high-level language (Scheme) which has been extended to include some of the Java graphics and windows capabilities. We plan to use this tool to teach the essential concepts of programming to the non-majors in CS2a. I am also developing a plan for teaching a group independent study course next Autumn in which the students develop similar applets for the C and Java languages. This course would serve several pedagogical aims. First, the students involved in the project would gain a deeper understanding into the principles of compiler design and they would also gain experience in cooperative problem solving. Second, the fruits of their efforts, the C and Java interpreter applets, could have a significant impact on the way introductory Computer Science is taught in the US and around the world. Currently, C and Java compilers are purchased with a licence limiting the number of people who can use it at any one time. The approach we are investigating is the development of pedagogical versions of the software which would be distributed over the internet and would run on any computer that Netscape runs on (Mac, PC, Unix, DEC, ...). Our C and Java interpreters would only implement the subset of the language necessary for teaching an introductory course and so would be small enough to be down-loaded over the net. **************************************************************** B. Please describe your involvement in the direction of reading courses, theses, dissertations, and other student research projects (undergraduate and graduate). **************************************************************** Summer 1996 Sponsored two Summer Oddysey Students: Alex Wisner-Gross, and Nirav Shaw Autumn 1996 -- Sponsored 3 independent study courses CS98a -- Independent Study on Object-Oriented Constraints (L. Wang) CS210 -- Graduate Independent Study on SIMD Constraint Solving (H. Xu) CS210 -- Graduate Independent Study on Visual Constraints (Y. Zhao) Spring 1996 -- Sponsored 1 independent concentration course on Japanese Language processing tools ICON 99D -- Independent Concentration (B. Ward) **************************************************************** C. Please list numbers and categories (first year, graduate, etc.) of advisees, and comment on other relevant advising and/or interactions with students outside the classroom. List the times and days of your scheduled office hours. **************************************************************** 6 -- First year advisees 32 -- Concentrators: 32 2 -- Masters students: (Ying Zhao, Hao Xu) 1 -- PhD student: (Qun Ju) **************************************************************** III. PUBLICATIONS, RESEARCH, AND ARTISTIC CREATIONS A. List publications that have appeared from March, 1996 to the present (with inclusive page references for articles). Please use standard form: (author(s) or editor(s), title, number of pages, publisher, location, date). In the creative arts, please list and describe artistic creations, performances or exhibitions. **************************************************************** NONE **************************************************************** B. List completed manuscript(s) accepted for publication, specifying journal or publisher and anticipated publication date. For artistic work, please provide information about forthcoming exhibitions or performances. **************************************************************** NONE **************************************************************** C. For ongoing work, please describe progress made since the last activities report. Be as specific as possible. **************************************************************** My research focus for the past few years has been the development of high-level languages for solving scientific computing problems in a way that automatically handles all error analysis, from the experimental measurement errors to the roundoff errors of machine computation. The approach I've been studying is called interval arithmetic constraint solving. The key idea is to represent a scientific computing problem as a large system of constraints relating the variables of the model (which can be functions and parameters of differential equations), and then solving these constraints by assigning intervals to all variables and using the constraints to "narrow" these intervals. I have recently submitted a paper which presents, and proves the correctness of, several methods for narrowing the multiplication constraint (X*Y=Z). "Efficient Implementation of Arithmetic Narrowing using IEEE Arithmetic" T. Hickey and Q. Ju, This paper has been submitted for publication in the Proceedings of the 1997 International Conference in Logic Programming The paper and all software described in the paper can be found at the following URL: http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~tim/smath.html For the past 18 months I have been actively engaged in extending the standard mathematical function library to the domain of interval arithmetic and interval constraints. This work is very interesting in that it requires us to take the best empirical methods from the extensive numerical analysis literature and modify them so that rather than returning relatively precise values, they return provably correct and tight upper and lower bounds on the values. This multi-year project is nearing completion and I expect to release the first version of the library this summer. A paper describing the library and proving its correctness is currently in preparation. Further references to this work can be found at the abovementioned URL http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~tim/smath.html **************************************************************** (OVER) ----------------------------------------------------------------- IV. DEPARTMENTAL AND UNIVERSITY SERVICE Please detail your contributions to departmental and University activities (service on committees, panel presentations, fund-raising, administrative positions, etc.). **************************************************************** * Undergraduate Advising Head * Freshman Advisor * Wien committee * Faculty Search Committee * Graduate Student Admissions Committee **************************************************************** V. GRANTS Please list grant applications, renewals, and awards from March, 1996 to the present. Include granting agency, title of project, period of grant, and total amount. **************************************************************** NSF CCR-9403427, "Parallel Processors for Constraint Programming" was renewed and expires Spring '97 **************************************************************** VI. AWARDS AND HONORS Please list awards and honors received since March, 1996. **************************************************************** NONE **************************************************************** VII. PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE OF THE UNIVERSITY A. List and/or describe lectures given, involvement in professional societies, legislative testimony, etc. If none, indicate non-applicable. **************************************************************** NONE **************************************************************** B. List courses taught at other institutions for which you received payment (March, 1996 to present). Please provide name of institution, term, course(s) taught, days and hours per week. If none, indicate non-applicable. **************************************************************** NONE **************************************************************** VIII. EMPLOYMENT/CONSULTANT WORK OUTSIDE OF THE UNIVERSITY A. List any other employment and/or consultant arrangements that you have outside of Brandeis (March, 1996 to present). Please provide name of company, corporation or institution. Please append summaries of relevant parts of contracts, letters of appointment or consulting agreements. Do any of these arrangements provide present or future equity interest possibilities to you and do you receive any research support from any of these organizations? If none, indicate non-applicable. **************************************************************** NONE **************************************************************** B. List management or fiduciary activities in which you have a role as an officer, director, trustee, supervisor, or founder with respect to any organization or group which has a relationship to, sells to, or purchases from Brandeis University. If none, indicate non-applicable. **************************************************************** NONE **************************************************************** Please feel free to provide any other information relevant to your 1997-98 activities and contributions to the University.