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hyperlink DEPAUL
A publication for alumni of the College of Computing and Digital Media
F a l l 2 0 1 1 Vo l . 1 4 N o . 1
Anniversary of 9/11 an opportunity to recognize veteran alumni, students
J
Jeffery Camp (M.S. ’03) was driving to work as he listened to the events of Sept. 11, 2001, unfold on the radio. At the
time, Camp, who served in the U.S. Army from 1983 to 1990, was a commander in the Illinois Army National Guard.
“Within three months, we were alerted for deployment and
on our way to Europe to provide force protection to the service-
men and servicewomen and their families,” recalls Camp, who
received his master’s degree in information systems in 2003.
“I am now a battalion commander in the Illinois Army
National Guard,” says Camp. “My degree has put me head
and shoulders over other officers in my rank and has directly
attributed to my success in both careers.” Camp, a business
unit executive at IBM, says, “I have a much better
understanding of the customer’s IT pain-points and what
it takes to solve them.”
Todd Miller (B.S. ’09), who served in the U.S. Air Force
from 1991 to 1998, received his bachelor’s degree in information
systems and is pursuing a master’s in computer, information
and network security.
“Everyone, from my advisors to the financial aid staff who Jeffery Camp (M.S. ’03) with Afghan soldiers
helped me coordinate GI Bill benefits, was extremely helpful,”
he says. “One of the important things I’ve learned is that a
holistic, liberal arts education is invaluable compared with a strictly technical program.”
As he reflects on 9/11, Miller says freedom does not come free. “Those who put themselves on the line believe in that
freedom to an extent that many cannot comprehend. Let’s do what we can to never forget them; they need us as much as we
need them.”
In general, between fall 2009 and spring 2011, DePaul’s population of students receiving federal Veterans Affairs
benefits has increased dramatically, from 158 active participants to 351. The biggest increase was among students who are
post-9/11 veterans, says Megan Burda, veteran affairs coordinator in the Office of Financial Aid. Burda, who came to DePaul
in 2009, works specifically with those students.
“From the time the post-9/11 legislation started in 2009 until now, and even this upcoming academic year, our
post-9/11 veteran population has grown significantly,” she says. Although there is no mechanism to capture precise data
regarding the veteran population at DePaul because some veterans don’t claim their benefits while others don’t report their
veteran status, Burda says there were approximately 74 active post-9/11 veteran students in 2009 and 242 active post-9/11
veteran students during the 2010-11 academic year.
The Office of Veterans Affairs, a component of Adult Student Affairs, works closely with offices throughout the
university to provide veteran students with guidance and support. The office—which is staffed with current students who
are veterans and who conduct outreach and community building for student veterans—recently received a grant from the
Tawani Foundation for its Transition Assistance Program, which launched in July. According to Haydee Nunez, director of the
Office of Adult Student Affairs and Loop Campus Initiatives, the program was designed with substantial input from current
veteran students and helps veteran students acclimate to student life.
DePaul marked Veterans Day by participating in the Remembrance Day National Roll Call on Nov. 11.
Notes from the dean David Miller
Get ready for the bright future ahead
It’s a good time to be a coder in Chicago.
The economy has not suddenly recovered to 2006 levels (who knew that we would
refer to 2006 as the good old days?), and there is still some negative press on trends in the
IT sector (http://bit.ly/oMfCHt). However, we are seeing an unusual amount of recruitment
activity on campus and an increasing number of encouraging articles (/rrJln2, /nTzyJB, /rnuw5R—add http://bit.ly
to all links).
What excites me is the palpable sense that Chicago is seeing an amazing growth in entrepreneurial activity and the
development of a tech community to drive innovation. That sense is not based just on Groupon and GrubHub getting head-
lines (/nlZUZn, /oNUorK) or on LightBank investing more in Chicago (/nhMwhu). Many signs point in the same direction.
Hackathons, unconferences and
development camps are on the rise.
CDM was the premier sponsor for “I’m more excited about the prospects
SocialDevCamp Chicago (/qAFODp)
in August. Held at our Lincoln Park
for the future of computing in Chicago
Campus, the event attracted more than than I’ve been in the last 30 years.”
400 registrants. Chicago Ideas Week
(/r4gt5w) just concluded its first run.
Support for startups is increasing significantly. For example, Excelerate Labs holds a summer accelerator for startups
that boasts an impressive list of mentors (/r00XGJ). A newly announced startup center backed by a group led by new
World Ventures CEO J. B. Pritzker (/p2g0oz) should prove to be an exciting addition.
A quick scan of tech meetups in the Chicago area at Meetup.com shows 800+ members in groups devoted to
MongoDB, Cassandra, Hadoop and big data, and more than 3,000 members in groups for alternative programming
languages (Erlang, Scala, Clojure, Ruby/Rails, node.js, javascript).
Technori (/oBb7V2), with 1,275 members, describes itself as a meetup of “impassioned entrepreneurs, developers,
designers, tech companies, investors and general tech enthusiasts who have a deep love for Chicago and who want to see
our emerging tech community flourish.”
Built in Chicago (/nkEky8), with 5,436 members, says it is “an awesome community of entrepreneurs, engineers,
marketers, developers, designers, investors, technologists and academics working hard to create the next big Web or mobile
business.” It has an impressive list of startups (/q3MOUN).
Iain Roberts, co-leader of the Chicago studio of international design firm IDEO, in an interview for Crain’s Blogs
(/r8RPeA), states clearly what I’ve heard repeatedly from tech leaders in Chicago:
“We seem to be at the brink of a very large opportunity here in Chicago, and our challenge is to hold onto the [entrepreneur-
ial talent evident at Excelerate] and to make sure we provide fertile ground so that those 10 companies and the other 100 that
are behind them will want to stay here and grow their businesses because they have access to mentor networks, to a talent pool,
to resources and funding. If we can provide that as a community, then we’ll continue to see a snowball effect of this happening in
Chicago.”
Our job at CDM is to help increase the talent pool that this movement requires. Over the last several years, we’ve
changed our graduate degrees: computer science refocused on application development, especially for mobile apps and
cloud computing; information systems introduced an array of concentrations that allow students to support organizations
at all levels to gain strategic and tactical competitive advantage; and telecommunications (renamed network engineering
and management) reorganized its curriculum to reflect the massive changes in the telecommunications field. The School
of Computing faculty members are revamping the undergraduate curricula to ensure that our students remain competitive
in the changing landscape of Chicago high-tech.
I’m more excited about the prospects for the future of computing in Chicago than I’ve been in the last 30 years.
I plan to grab a copy of “Seven Languages in Seven Weeks” (/pIqFHa), sit back and enjoy the ride. Join me.
Exposing Chicago Public Schools students to computing—thanks to NSF grant
T
here’s a big difference between driver’s educa- and other “toys” that the teachers can use with their
tion and auto shop. Much of the introductory students. Dettori’s co-principal investigators are Dale Reed,
computer curriculum in the Chicago Public Schools lecturer in computer science and director of undergraduate
(CPS) is more like driver’s ed: keyboarding, Web search recruiting at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Theresa
skills, how to use Steinbach, associate
Microsoft Office. CDM professor of computer
Associate Dean and science at DePaul, and
Associate Professor Lucia Don Yanek, chair of
Dettori wants to add an the computer science
element of “auto shop.” department at North-
She and her collabora- side College Prep, a
tors seek to create an CPS magnet school.
introductory high school “We are hoping
computer science course, to bootstrap so that in
called A Taste of Com- a year or two, teachers
puting, that will attract can help train other
students to the creative teachers,” Dettori says.
side of the discipline The training also is
Among those involved in the grant project are (from left):
and perhaps inspire them Otha Jordan of CTE InfoTech; Ron Greenberg of Loyola being recorded so that
to come to CDM or other University Chicago; Brenda Wilkinson of CTE InfoTech; Lucia teachers can take it
Dettori of DePaul CDM; Dale Reed of the University of Illinois
colleges as computer online. In addition to
at Chicago; and Don Yanek of Northside College Prep.
science majors. Not pictured is Theresa Steinbach of DePaul CDM. the stipends, teachers
“The market needs will receive professional
more computing gradu- development credit.
ates,” Dettori says. “And we need a larger percentage of The project builds off another NSF-funded activity
women and minorities, who are severely underrepresented done in the Los Angeles Unified School District
in computing. We do a great job teaching computer science through UCLA. Its Exploring Computer Science curricu-
at the college level, but it’s too late by then. Recruitment lum, a one-year course for 10th- to 12th-graders who have
has to start in grade school or high school.” completed Algebra 1, focuses on developing high-level
Training teachers is the key to accomplishing that ambi- computing skills and using those skills for creative real-
tious goal. Dettori is the principal investigator on a three- world applications. The teachers take a week of intensive
year $900,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to training in the summer to get them ready to teach the first
give at least 50 CPS teachers the training and tools they need semester’s worth of material and then meet quarterly for
to delve into genuine computer science. A portion of the Saturday workshops that cover the units for the second half
grant ($176,000) is awarded to Associate Professor Ron of the year. The Chicago program will have a similar struc-
Greenberg at Loyola University Chicago, who will be respon- ture, and the participating teachers also will have an online
sible for the evaluation of the project. community where they can share best practices and tips.
The course will cover problem solving, human The grant period started Sept. 1, but Dettori says initial
computer interaction, Web design, game programming, teacher training actually began this past summer. “We
data modeling and robotics. couldn’t go full force, but we decided we would go ahead
The grant will support training sessions for the teachers anyway because it’s the right thing to do.”
as well as the purchase of robotics kits, wearable technology,
New faculty hired to handle growth
CDM welcomes nine new full-time faculty members this fall, reflecting its rapid growth, especially in the area of
media. “We’ve been requesting appropriate faculty resources to handle our growth, and we’ve been lucky to receive support
at a time when many universities are not able to expand,” says Dean David Miller.
Professor Katie Salen holds an M.F from the Rhode Island School of Design and
.A.
most recently worked as a professor at Parsons The New School for Design in New
York. She’s the executive director of Institute of Play, a not-for-profit organization focused
on the relationship between games and learning. She’s also the executive director of design
at Quest to Learn, a New York City public school that builds much of its unique curriculum
around that same relationship.
Bringing a games-based educational model to Chicago is her current mission, and
she helped start the charter school ChicagoQuest, which opened this fall on the North Side Salen
with an inaugural class of 300 sixth- and seventh-graders. It will extend eventually to 12th
grade and serve about 800 students. “We’re trying to recognize that the work culture has “We’re trying
changed, and we have to look at kids as problem-solvers rather than test-takers,” Salen says. to recognize
“They have to be adaptive and flexible and have facility with lots of different kinds of tools.” that the work
ChicagoQuest is overseen by Chicago International Charter School, the largest charter culture has
school operator in Illinois. changed, and
Salen is delighted to be affiliated with DePaul’s burgeoning game design program and we have to
hopes to tap CDM students and graduates for the talent to contribute to her research and look at kids
ChicagoQuest. as problem-
Also new to DePaul: solvers
Johanna Dery, assistant professor, holds an M.F in animation from Goddard College
.A. rather than
and has worked as an adjunct faculty member at Roger Williams University and Rhode
test-takers.”
Island College.
—Salen
Alexander Rasin, assistant professor, holds a Ph.D. from Brown University and has research
interests in database design, column store databases, data warehouses, benchmarking,
distributed systems, fault tolerance, high availability and streaming databases.
Doris Rusch, assistant professor, holds a D.Phil. from the University of Vienna and is a co-founder of game developer
and consultancy Game Gestalt.
Brian Schrank, assistant professor, holds a Ph.D. in digital media from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where
he also taught, and is the founder of game development company Videogameo Studio.
Four new full-time faculty members have previous CDM associations:
Peter Biagi, cinematographer in residence, holds a B.A. from Columbia College Chicago and has worked on many
television shows and films. He’s been an adjunct faculty member since 2010.
Nichole Pinkard, associate professor, holds a Ph.D. in learning sciences from Northwestern University and has been
a visiting associate professor since 2009. She founded the Digital Youth Network, an organization to increase computer
literacy that is supported by grants from the MacArthur Foundation and the Gates Foundation.
John Psathas, assistant professor, holds an M.F in digital cinema from DePaul and has been an adjunct faculty
.A.
member since 2009.
Rob Steel, assistant professor, holds an M.M. in composition from Northwestern University and has been a full-time
instructor at CDM since 2008.
news bytes
Social Development Camp: Dean David Miller gave the welcoming address at SocialDevCamp Chicago—a summer
camp about making the most of the social Web—that was co-hosted by CDM and took place on the Lincoln Park
Campus the weekend of Aug. 26. Approximately 400 people attended the three-day event for social app and platform
developers, mobile developers, strategists, evangelists and enthusiasts. Speakers included Alexis Ohanian, co-founder
of Reddit; Julien Smith, co-author of “Trust Agents”; and Alex Wilhelm, editor of The Next Web.
Chicago International Film Festival:
CDM hosted a documentary film panel
on Oct. 14 as part of its sponsorship of
the Chicago International Film Festival.
Assistant Professor Ron Fernandez moder-
ated a panel discussion on the status of
non-fiction cinema with visiting filmmak-
ers and members of the local documentary
community. Also, films from graduate stu-
dents Arlaric Rocha and James Choi were
selected for the festival. Choi is a producer
on “Joint Body,” a drama about a recent
parolee who comes to the aid of an exotic
dancer. Rocha directed “Winter,” a short Associate Professor JoAnne Zielinski (left) and Assistant Dean Liz
Friedman with actor Dennis Farina from “The Last Rites of Joe May,” which
film about a prisoner on a chain gang who’s
was screened at the Chicago International Film Festival’s opening night.
dreaming of escape when his chain breaks.
Spotlight on game program: DePaul’s computer game development program was one of five collegiate game-design
programs featured in the July issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine. The magazine highlighted notable faculty
members and the success of the student-created “Octodad” in its profile. Other schools included in the guide were
University of Southern California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Utah and Full Sail University.
IPD certificates: The Institute for Professional Development (IPD) has launched a 10-week in-depth program in
Cloud Computing with Amazon Web Services. The next session of this program is scheduled to begin in January 2012.
The Cloud Computing with Amazon Web Services program is designed for IT professionals who are new to
the cloud computing environment. Students will learn how to design, build, launch, deploy and scale an application
using Amazon Web Services and different development tools.
For more information, visit www.cdm.depaul.edu/ipd/Programs/Pages/CloudComputing-AWS.aspx.
IPD also started offering a 10-week IPv6 program in the fall. The next session of the fully online course will begin
in January. The program will provide IT professionals with a comprehensive introduction to the key technologies,
decisions and processes required to transition an organization from an IPv4-only network to a dual IPv4/IPv6 network
infrastructure. The program is ideally suited for IT managers, network managers, administrators and engineers, as
well as others who must manage or participate in the transitioning of a corporate network to IPv6.
More information is available at www.cdm.depaul.edu/ipd/Programs/Pages/IPv6.aspx.
Commencement: Isabel Wilkerson received an honorary degree and spoke at the joint CDM and College of
Communication commencement ceremony on June 12. The first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for
journalism, she is the author of a highly praised book on the Great Migration of African-Americans to the North.
continued on next page
depaul.edu/hyperlink 5
news bytes
continued from previous page
Visiting artist series: Chuck Viane (COM
B.S.C. ’67), president of global distribution for
Disney Studios, and Paula Wagner, producer and
former studio executive, spoke at DePaul this
fall as part of the School of Cinema and Interactive
Media Visiting Artists Series. Viane’s conversation
on Sept. 23 focused on the past, present and future
of global theatrical distribution and explored how
changing technological, economic and cultural
forces affect which movies are released, promoted
and distributed. On Sept. 30, Wagner—who part-
nered with Tom Cruise to launch Cruise/Wagner
Productions and is developing and producing films
through her new production company, Chestnut
Ridge—discussed her journey and roles in the film
Associate Professor JoAnne Zielinski (l)
industry: actress, agent, studio producer, studio with Disney Studios executive Chuck Viane
head, independent producer and entrepreneur.
‘Octodad’ sequel in the works: The group of
DePaul students who created the award-winning
game “Octodad” have formed a company to make
a commercial sequel, “Octodad 2.” The new game
continues the adventures of Octodad, an octopus
trying to convince his human family that he is a
regular human dad. The company, Young Horses,
launched a successful campaign on the Web
site Kickstarter to fund their project.
For more information, visit octodadgame.com.
‘Octodad’ screenshot
Student films screened: More than 400 people
attended the Premiere VI Film Festival, which recognizes and celebrates the finest films produced and created by students
of the DePaul community. More than 100 films were submitted, and 15 films were screened at the festival, which took
place in June at the Music Box Theatre. Premiere VII is set for June 1, 2012. “There’s definitely something good happening
at this program, and this upcoming festival will feature some of the most accomplished works created at CDM to date,”
says Dan Klein, an instructor in the School of Cinema and Interactive Media.
Distinguished paper: Marek Gibiec (M.S. ’10), Adam Czauderna (M.S. ’10) and Associate Professor Jane Cleland-Huang
were awarded an ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award at the International Conference on Automated Software
Engineering in Belgium. Their work was part of a long-term project funded by the National Science Foundation and Siemens
Corporate Research to automate the software traceability process through the application of machine learning and data-
mining techniques. The work described in this particular paper utilizes novel Web-mining techniques to modify the terms
found in the HIPAA technical safeguards in order to improve the ability to automatically trace these safeguards into the
specifications of health care-related products. The ultimate goal of the research is to automate the task of demonstrating
compliance of complex and safety-critical software systems to relevant regulatory codes. This is the second ACM SIGSOFT
Distinguished Paper award received by this research team in 2010.
Alumni profile
Ron de Lange (M.S. ’86)
CDM education opened many doors
for CEO of telecommunications firm
Residence:
Cary, N.C.
Occupation:
De Lange is president and CEO of Tekelec, a telecommunications networking applications company that connects
people and devices to the mobile Internet. Tekelec makes it possible for service providers, such as AT&T and Verizon
Wireless, to deliver apps, video, Web pages, text messages and voice across any mobile device.
Education:
After graduating from Chicago Christian High School in Palos Heights, Ill., de Lange attended DeVry University, where
he earned a Bachelor of Science in electronics engineering technology, and then DePaul, where he earned a Master
of Science in computer science. “As a hardware engineer, designing something new seemed like a long and tedious
process, but with software, I could see the results immediately,” de Lange says. “Visiting DePaul’s computer science
lab led me to believe that the only thing holding me back was my own imagination. I was hooked.” Later in his career,
he completed executive education programs at the Yale School of Management and The Wharton School at the
University of Pennsylvania.
Vital stats:
De Lange joined Tekelec as president and general manager of the company’s Network Signaling Group in July 2005 and
served in that capacity until October 2007, when he became executive vice president of global product solutions. Prior
to joining Tekelec, de Lange was at Lucent Technologies for 24 years and served in several executive roles.
What I like most about my job is:
“I have the opportunity to lead an incredibly talented global company that’s improving communications in every corner
of the world. Our technology helps mobile and fixed service providers create new services, improve the quality of
existing services and make mobile technology more affordable. It’s extremely rewarding to know that our technology
makes a difference not only to our customers (the service providers), but ultimately to all of their subscribers.”
The biggest challenge I face in my job is:
“We have to design products that not only meet our customers’ needs today, but also several years from now. The
problems they’re facing, like the explosion of mobile data traffic, require technology solutions that won’t become obsolete
as they upgrade their networks. We have to design solutions that are all about the subscriber and putting them in control
of their personalized experience over any device—cellphone, tablet, e-reader—of their choosing. It takes a rigorous
research and development process, a visionary team and a culture of innovation to achieve this year after year.”
My DePaul CDM experience helped me by:
“Providing a top-notch education in the then-emerging area of computing and networking. This opened the door to
a vast number of opportunities that ultimately enabled me to blend my insatiable curiosity around technology and
a desire to run a business. I’m also never tired of correcting people here in North Carolina that I’m a Blue Demons fan
and not a Blue Devils fan.”
The words I live by are:
“Let me stand before my creator and take any consequences there might be to living my life in truth and balance with
my spirit.”—Melissa Etheridge
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The hyperlink editorial board consists of CDM
faculty members Lucia Dettori and Daniela Stan Raicu;
Carmen Marti of Advancement; Yolanda Mondragon
and Jill Trinkle of CDM; and Ruhan Memishi and
Carol Sadtler of University Communications.
Copy editor is Maria Hench.
Mayor Emanuel marks 100 days in office with technology jobs announcement at CDM
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel marked his 100th day in
office Aug. 23 with an announcement at DePaul University’s
College of Computing and Digital Media (CDM) that the
global information technology consulting firm EMC Corp.
would open a new office in Chicago, employing 200 people.
The announcement was held at DePaul because of the
university’s existing partnership with EMC, one of the world’s
leading information management consulting firms specializing
in data management and cloud computing strategy. Through
the EMC Academic Alliance, CDM offers classes that incor-
porate content produced by the company on emerging trends
in information technology, including network design, data
storage technologies and business continuity, among others.
Emanuel (l) Joining Emanuel for the announcement were Joe Tucci,
chairman and CEO of EMC, a Massachusetts-based company
with 50,000 employees in more than 80 countries; the Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., president of DePaul; and CDM
Dean David Miller.
Noting that neither public funds nor stimulus money was used as an inducement for the company to establish a Chicago
office, Emanuel said, “The kids out of DePaul [are] a stimulus.” He added that companies locating to the city would gain from
“a workforce with a fabulous work ethic” as well as the city’s strong transportation network and central location. Since Emanuel
took office, six other companies have pledged to bring a combined 4,200 new private-sector jobs to downtown Chicago.
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