This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
Through a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Lafayette will host 17 computer science, mathematics, and engineering professors for a conference this month designed to reconnect participants to research in mathematics and computer science.
Cynthia Phillips of Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, and Jeffrey Linderoth, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering at Lehigh University, will serve as principal lecturers for the DIMACS Satellite Reconnect Program, which will be held June 20-26. An NSF science and technology center based at Rutgers University, DIMACS stands for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science.
According to conference organizer Jonathan Berry, associate professor of computer science, the event seeks to stimulate the classroom teaching of collegiate computer science and mathematics, produce several instructional modules on subjects of current research interest, and provide a working network of collegiate instructors of computer science and mathematics to reinforce new instruction and scholarly activities. Participants will receive materials and gain ideas for seminar presentations and undergraduate research projects.
The faculty also are invited to develop relationships with researchers at national laboratories and those in the DIMACS program, a consortium of Princeton University, Rutgers University, AT&T Labs, Bell Labs/Lucent Technologies, NEC Research, and Telcordia Technologies.
DIMACS isdevoted to the development of the interrelated fields of discrete mathematics and theoretical computer science, considered among the most rapidly growing fields of research in mathematics and computer science, with wide applications to problems in fields such as telecommunications, networking, transportation, engineering, and cryptanalysis, as well as biology, chemistry, management, and decision-making.
Berry served as a postdoctoral fellow at the DIMACS Center and was primary lecturer at a previous DIMACS Reconnect conference held at Rutgers.
He mentored Kojo Adams ’04of Accra, Ghana, as an undergraduate research assistant at Sandia National Laboratories last year and mentored him in a yearlong research project for which Adams graduated with honors in computer science.
Berry also collaborated withcomputer science majorJoseph Crobak ’06 (Mechanicsburg, Pa.) through Lafayette’s EXCEL Scholars program to determine ways in which data can be processed in a faster, more compact manner in computer networks.
In EXCEL, students conduct research with faculty while earning a stipend. The program has helped to make Lafayette a national leader in undergraduate research. Many of the more than 160 students who participate each year share their work through articles in academic journals and/or conference presentations.
Berry guided aLafayette student team that won the University of Virginia site competition in the 2003-04 Association of Computing Machinery Mid-Atlantic Programming Contest. Overall, the College finished fifth among 73 institutions competing at nine sites – just one place short of Johns Hopkins and advancement to the world finals.
Berry regularly shares his research through academic journal articles, including two articles scheduled for publication this year, and has given talks at conferences in Italy, Sweden, San Francisco, New York, and other locations in the United States. He also has served as an academic journal and conference paper referee. His past grants and support have included a Sandia National Laboratories travel supplement this year and a contract with Sandia last year.
Prior to joining the Lafayette faculty in 2002, he taught at Elon and DePauw Universities and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His work and research experience includes positions at Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the National Bureau of Standards, Rensselaer, and General Electric.
Berry earned a Ph.D. and M.S. in computer science from Rensselaer in 1995 and 1989, respectively, and a B.S. in computer science and economics from American University in 1987.