The Department of Computer Science at Stony Brook University was established in 1969, making the department one of the oldest in the US. Faculty in the department have contributed breakthroughs in many research areas of computer science, such as graphics, algorithms, cybersecurity, concurrency, and languages. The faculty represent a primary source of the history of computing, a valuable asset that this team assignment seeks to preserve and archive.
Historians have essentially two sources of data for understanding the past. Primary sources include interviews with history-makers and their original documents (such as journal papers). Secondary sources include newspaper and magazine articles, textbooks, and the like, not authored by the subject. Other sources include public records, such as government data. Oral histories are among the most powerful narrative devices for relating past events, as they give expression to the stories of eyewitnesses.
The midterm team project for the semester is to identify a historically significant contribution in IT made by an SBU faculty member from either Computer Science or Information Systems, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or Applied Math. Data to be collected would include the publications about the invention or discovery, photographs or videos of events related to the discovery or invention (such as demos or screenshots), code snippets or formulas, and eyewitness accounts of the process of discovery or the development of the technology.
Context for the invention or discovery is important. What research area in computer science is the breakthrough situated? What was the problem to be solved? When was the discovery made, and what other work was being done on the problem at that time? How long was the development process and who worked on it, and what were their roles? How was the project funded? What details can you find out about the process? Was it a series of trials and errors? Was there a breakthrough moment? What was the impact of the discovery or invention? What other work did it pave the way for?
When your team has assembled as much data as you can find, and after you have reviewed it, the team secretary should reach out to the inventor by email and attempt to fill in the gaps by posing several open-ended questions about their recollections. Request a 15-minute in-person interview during their office hours, or some other convenient time for them, and ask if the interview can be recorded. The faculty are very busy, and there may not be enough time to schedule the interview. In that case their responses to your questions by email will suffice. We are looking for approximately two or three paragraphs that you can include in your report that come from the primary source.
Your report will be submitted through Brightspace as a MS Word document or PDF, approximately 1000 words (2 pages), 3/4 inch margins, single spaced, 12 point Times Roman text. The citation format is up to you (MLA, APA, etc). Your report should have photographs or illustrations (not part of the page count) and if it includes archival video, then include a link to the video (Google Drive, YouTube) at the end of the report. The report should include team member names, roles (researcher, interviewer, videographer), and SBU contact info (email) at the end of the report as well, along with references.
Your team will also create a slide presentation for your living history report. No more than 10 slides, it should showcase the inventor and the innovation, and put the discovery in the context of research in that domain. The title slide should have the team member names and email addresses, and there should be a slide at the end with links to references. The slide presentation will be an attachment to the report submitted through Brightspace.
Example student project: Professor Rob Kelly interviewed about the simulator for the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) Apollo project moon landing
4.5mb of data = 62,500 punchcards
Your first task is to decide who on your team will be the team secretary. This person will be in charge of contacting the faculty member by email using the template below. If a response is not forthcoming, a follow-up should be sent a week later.
Everyone on the team is expected to contribute to the report, and you will share the same grade. How you divide the labor is up to you, but research and writing are the two main tasks, besides conducting and editing the interview, and preparing a presentation.
The secretary will be responsible for submitting the report to Brightspace. Turnitin will be used to check submissions, so do not quote at length, even if the material is cited in the report’s references.
Interview request template:
To: (Professor’s email)
CC: (Your teammates emails), comphist@cs.stonybrook.edu
Subject: Request for an interview
"Dear Professor ____________,
I am a student in CSE 301, the History of Computing course. For the midterm project my team has been asked to investigate an invention developed, or a discovery made, here at Stony Brook. We have selected your project, "_______________", and we would like to ask you a few questions about it, so we can include your quotes in our report. If we can meet with you (at your convenience), a 10-15 minute interview would be preferred, but if that is not possible, your responses by email will suffice.
We would like to know:
1. ________________________ (maybe a question about the discovery or invention process)
2. ________________________ (maybe a question about the impact of the discovery)
3. ________________________ (maybe a question about future research in this area)
Thank you for your time and consideration."
Suggested questions - will vary from project to project - choose a few:
1) What was the biggest challenge you overcame in your discovery?
2) What future work do you plan to pursue related to this discovery?
3) What role did teamwork or collaboration play in your discovery?
4) What do you think are the big implications of this discovery in your research area?
5) Which computer scientists had the most impact on you and your work?
6) What advice do you have for aspiring researchers?
You should contact your researcher promptly to give them the most time to respond.
Research interests of SBU CS faculty
https://www.cs.stonybrook.edu/research
CS 35th Anniversary brochure, with a brief history of the department and notable research contributions and publications
https://www3.cs.stonybrook.edu/~tony/comphist/cs35book_all.pdf
Slides from the Faculty Research Seminar Series
Prof. Michalis Polychronakis, "Protecting Our Online Privacy"
Prof. Andrew Schartz, "Discovering Psychological and Health Insights from Social Media Language"
Prof. Steve Skiena and the first tablet computer
http://bit-player.org/2010/which-steve-invented-the-ipad
Prof. Emeritus Theo Pavlidis and the 2D barcode (PDF417)
https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=100278
Reality Deck
http://www3.cs.stonybrook.edu/~mueller/papers/CGA-RealityDeck.pdf
Rubric:
Research
Relevant documentation is obtained (publications, code samples,
etc)
The research area/domain is defined
Information is solicited from the inventor and /or collaborators
Background/related information and relevant research is
investigated
References are provided
1 point each
Report
Identifies the inventor and a significant invention
Describes the innovation or discovery sufficiently for a non-technical audience
Includes primary source material (interview, original documents, photographs)
Places the invention in the context of research in that domain
Followed formatting instructions
1 point each
Presentation
Logical structure for the narrative
Effectively uses visual materials to tell the story
Provides essential details with an economy of text
Relates the significance of the discovery to the audience
Followed formatting instructions
1 point each
