Robert Beck

Teaching:

He teaches courses in programming languages and human computer interaction as well as courses at the interface of computing and biology and an innovative introductory course for non-technical majors.

In Spring 2007 he is teaching the advanced undergraduate elective on software development and system tools CSC 4630. This course explores filters, scripts, libraries and other helpful repositories of software tools. It is loosely based on the book Software Tools in Pascal by Kernighan and Plauger, but the course is taught using the UNIX environment and C as the primary programming language. The course will also consider various scripting languages such as Perl.

In Fall 2006 he taught the graduate human-computer interaction course CSC 8570 - User System Interface. This course explores the fundamental principles of user interface design and their foundation in models of human computer interaction. Student teams develop web page expositions of several topics including intelligent agents, user interface metrics, CSCL, advice giving systems, and voice-based interfaces.

In Spring 2006 he led the senior problem-based learning seminar. His team of students tackled the shortest superstring problem, the state and use of animation software, the efficiency of code from various languages, the role of proxy servers, and issues in database sharing.

In Spring 2004 he taught the undergraduate human-computer interaction course CSC 4730 - Human Computer Interaction. This course explores the fundamental principles of user interface design and their foundation in models of human computer interaction. Students interested in cognitive science and information science choose this course as one of their electives.

In Spring 2003 he co-taught an undergraduate interdisciplinary honors course in computational molecular biology HON 5772. His teaching partner was Dr. Wilber Baker of the Department of Biology. The course is designed around the problem-based learning paradigm and seeks to promote interaction among students in biology and computing. The course blends the view that all problems can be modeled as computations on strings of letters from an alphabet with the view that all molecular biology problems are understandable through lab work with DNA.

In Spring 2001 he was the lecturer for CSC 1010 - Tools for Text and taught one laboratory section for this course. The course presents fundamental concepts of computer science in the context of manipulating text. The course is designed for liberal arts majors and can be used to satisfy part of the mathematics and computing core requirement of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Research interests:

• Evaluation techniques and metrics for user interfaces: Current questions
• Models for computational biology: Current questions
• Models for co-evolutionary development of SOA-based software systems: Current questions
• Symbolic computation, especially for linear algebra and Lie algebras
• Algorithms for operations research
• Computing courses for non-majors

Professional organizations:

• ACM, the First Society in Computing and its special interest groups SIGCSE and SIGCHI. He is the computer science representative to Disciplinary Societies Committee of the Council of Graduate Schools working jointly with the Association of American Colleges and Universities. He is the Symposium Coordinator for SIGCSE.
• Sigma Xi: Past President of the Villanova University Chapter

University committees:

• College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) Strategic Planning Committee
• Chair, CLAS Technology Task Force. The Task Force work is outlined on its web page, accessible by clicking here.

Curriculum vitae