Implementing the converging technologies initiative at Union means bringing together students from engineering and the liberal arts so that they graduate with a broad background that goes beyond that provided by their traditional major.
CT at Union has four areas:
Bioengineering, which
combines the analytical and experimental methods of engineering and computer science with the biological sciences to achieve a better understanding of biological phenomena and to develop new techniques and devices.
Mechatronics, which brings together electrical, mechanical, and computational systems in the study of basic mechanical design, systems analysis,
control systems, and decision analysis. Mechatroncis is used throughout industry today
in automatic control and robotic devices.
Nanotechnology, which is
the convergence of chemistry, physics, biology, computer science, and engineering
to create and use materials, devices, and systems through the control of matter at
the level of atoms and
molecular structures.
Pervasive computing, which
is the convergence of digital communication and computational systems, focusing on such topics as wireless networks, information transmission, and information processing.
The College's converging technologies website (www.ct.union.edu) contains extensive information about the initiative, including
courses and examples of
student projects.
March 8 was a day the campus turned blue-IBM blue-as three senior vice presidents (all alumni) came to campus to talk technology with hundreds of students, faculty, and staff members.
The three-John E. Kelly III '76, Steven A. Mills '73, and Robert W. Moffat, Jr. '78-were kept busy with events ranging from a panel discussion in a crowded Nott Memorial to individual meetings with faculty members (and, in Moffat's case, with his old track coach, Ted Bick).
A highlight of the day
was the announcement that the College will receive a donation from IBM of $1
million in technical support aimed at helping under-
graduate students gain access to leading-edge technology.
President Hull said the
support, available for a
wide array of academic disciplines, recognizes the inter-
disciplinary approach inherent in Union's liberal arts and engineering tradition.
“While many such programs are aimed at graduate students, this one is aimed at our under-
graduate community,” the president said. “It builds on our groundbreaking converging technologies effort and makes it possible for a larger number of undergraduates to gain classroom and laboratory experiences that expose them to, and teach them about, the impact of technology across multiple disciplines.”
Faculty in the liberal arts and engineering are introducing the converging technologies concepts of bioengineering, mechatronics, nanotechnology, and pervasive computing into the curriculum. The initiative has three aims: to introduce converging technologies courses open to all students, to create new upper-level courses for science and engineering majors, and to prepare new content in existing courses to emphasize converging technologies concepts.
IBM will assist the College through a combination of software access, software development, visiting faculty, and a variety of sophisticated equipment, such as an atomic force microscope for a nanotechnology materials lab and several high-powered computer workstations. Union also will gain, for faculty and student research, access to an IBM supercomputer located at the University at Albany.
Kelly, senior vice president and group executive of IBM Technology Group, said the support is part of IBM's ongoing desire to enhance a strong technical presence at select leading colleges and universities. “This is an investment in the future of the College, the
Capital District, and New York State,” he said.
Kelly said the partnership with Union will further promote the sharing of technical knowledge and the formation of joint programs between RPI in Troy and the University at Albany.
In the past ten years, IBM has made similar support awards to more than 100
different colleges and universities throughout the world. Donations of equipment alone have totaled more than $150 million in market value.
The supercomputer at
University at Albany, which Union now will have access to, is an IBM RS/6000
supercomputer, a system extensively
used by university researchers
as they confront the daunting
science and technology challenges associated with the
development of new
generations of computer chips. The
targeted portfolio of
computer devices
ranges from the more “traditional” microprocessor and memory type computer chips to the emerging areas of biochips, micro- and
nanosystems,
and ultra-high frequency
communication devices and
associated equipment.
The hour-and-a-half panel discussion covered a wide range of topics, and a recurring theme was the opportunities offered by the College's distinctive combination of the liberal arts and engineering.
Mills, senior vice president and group executive of IBM's Software Group, recalled that when he was a student here, he loved to write. “I avoided courses that included final exams, but loved to write papers. What I do now involves classifying, organizing, structuring, and communicating, which, of course, is what is involved in writing papers. That kind of broad background has served me very well.”
Moffat, senior vice president and group executive of the Personal Systems and Integrated Supply Chain, agreed.
“One of the reasons I came to Union was to take advantage of both the technical and the liberal arts. And when I was here, I was able to interact with a student body of different interests. I spent three years in France for IBM, and in the past thirty days I've visited sixteen countries, so the kind of experiences I had here have been very important.”
On the broad topic of converging technologies, Kelly said that one of its subsets, nanotechnology, is the next major science and technology field that will evolve. “If we manipulate single atoms, it will open up a whole new set of applications. In particular, I see two big areas-the semiconductor industry and biomedical nanosensors.”
Kelly complimented the College on its converging technologies initiative.
“No matter what your field, you have to understand technology to a certain level, and the issues and opportunities associated with it,” he said. “What you're doing here
with converging technologies is a bold move that is not being done any- where else.”
Robert W. Moffat, Jr. '78 (seated), John E. Kelly III '76, and Steven A. Mills '73 join President Hull and student hosts at IBM Day on campus
John E. Kelly III '76
Senior Vice President and Group Executive, Technology Group
John E. Kelly III is senior vice president and group executive, IBM Technology Group, responsible for developing, manufacturing, and marketing IBM's microelectronics and storage technology products.
Before assuming his current role in September 2000, Kelly was general manager of IBM's Microelectronics Division, responsible for IBM's worldwide microelectronics business, which offers customers the world's most advanced semiconductor products and designs.
Kelly joined IBM in 1980. Between 1980 and 1990, he held numerous management and technical positions related to the development and manufacturing of IBM's advanced semiconductor technologies. In 1990, he was named director of IBM's Semiconductor Research and Development Center. In 1994, he was appointed vice president of business process reengineering for the Microelectronics Division. In 1995, he was named vice president of systems, technology and science for the IBM Research Division, responsible for the company's most advanced research activities. The following year, he was named vice president of strategy, technology and operations for the Microelectronics Division. In 1997, he was appointed vice president of server development (from work stations to supercomputers), and in 1999 he became general manager of the Microelectronics Division.
Kelly, a native of Albany, has his B.S. in physics and earned advanced degrees in materials engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and a board member and former chairman of the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).
Steven A. Mills '73
Senior Vice President and Group Executive, Software Group
Steven A. Mills was appointed senior vice president and group executive, IBM software, in July 2000. He is responsible for shaping IBM's overall software strategy and directing IBM's approximately $13 billion (1999) software business, which contributes fifteen percent of IBM's total revenue and one-third of its profits.
Mills has played a leading role in the rapid growth of IBM Software Group since its inception in 1995. He was general manager of IBM Software Group Strategy and Solutions, responsible for IBM's strategy for middleware and software solutions for e-business as well as managing business units for Business Intelligence Solutions, Pervasive Computing, ISP and e-Commerce Solutions, and Solution Technologies.
He joined IBM in 1974 as a sales trainee in New York City and was a marketing representative until 1980. In 1981, he joined the business planning staff of the Data Processing Division and became manager of that function a year later. In 1984, he was named administrative assistant to the IBM vice president and assistant group executive on plans and controls in the Information Systems Group.
He became director of planning in the Information Systems and Communications Group in 1985, where he was responsible for business planning and strategy for IBM's personal computer and com-
munications products. In 1986, he was one of the executives responsible for starting IBM Publishing Systems Business Unit. He became director of financial planning at corporate headquarters in 1988.
He joined the programming systems line of business in 1989 as programming systems director of operations. He was named assistant general manager, finance and planning, for that organization in 1990, and in 1992 became general manager of the division's Santa Teresa Laboratory, the company's software development facility.
Robert W. Moffat, Jr. '78
Senior Vice President and Group Executive, Personal Systems and Integrated Supply Chain
Robert W. Moffat, Jr., heads IBM's Personal and Printing Systems Group, which consists of three worldwide business units: Personal Computing Division, Retail Store Solutions Division, and Printing Systems Division. In addition, he leads the company's Integrated Supply Chain organization, which is responsible for end-to-end supply chain operations, including procurement, manufacturing, distribution, and logistics for all IBM systems worldwide.
Before this appointment in Feburary, Moffat was general manager of IBM's Personal Systems Group, where he was responsible for worldwide sales, development, manufacturing, and marketing of IBM's x Series servers, IBM NetVista desktop PCs, and IBM's ThinkPad family of mobile computers. Before that, he was vice president, finance and planning, for the Enterprise Systems Group.
Moffat joined IBM in 1978 and has spent the majority of his career in the PC business, where he has held a number of executive positions, including general manager of manufacturing, fulfillment and procurement initiatives. He is the pioneer of the Advanced Fulfillment Initiative, co-location and channel collaboration initiatives, which were awarded the 1999 Franz Edelman Award for achievement in operational research and management sciences.
He is also credited with dramatically improving the group's internal operations, quality, and asset efficiency while lowering costs. Other positions include assistant general manager, finance, planning, and business support
for the IBM PC Company in Europe; controller of customer fulfillment; and vice president of finance and planning.
Moffat, an economics major at Union, was the Division III NCAA champion in the 400 meters in 1978, with a time of 46.89, and was named an All-American.
Some Union-IBM connections
The Watson family-founder of IBM-has been represented at Union's Commencement several times. Thomas J. Watson, Sr., was the commencement speaker in 1953, when he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree, and Thomas J. Watson, Jr., was the commencement speaker in 1984, when he received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. John N. Irwin II, the son of the one of the sisters of Thomas J. Watson, Sr., and a U.S. ambassador to France, received an honorary degree in 1963.
Seniors at Union are eligible for Watson Fellowships, a program established by Thomas J. Watson, Jr., in 1968. The prestigious fellowships support a year of self-directed study abroad, and Union was one of twenty-five outstanding small liberal arts colleges invited to participate in the program (there are now fifty participating institutions). Forty-four Union students have been awarded Watson Fellowships.
One of the College's named professorships is the Thomas J. Watson, Sr., and Emma
Watson Day Distinguished Professorship in Engineering. Instrumental in creating the professorship was Richard G. Day '39, a cousin of Thomas J. Watson, Jr., and a member of the College's Board of Trustees from 1973 to 1989, when he became a trustee emeritus. He died in 1991.
A grant from IBM established the IBM Scholarship Fund to support an endowed scholarship for women and minority engineering students.
College records show that more than 400 alumni are employed by IBM, and the College has received more than $1.6 million in matching gifts from the company.
Prof. Greenberg with students in his honors seminar
“It was a rainy day,” says Alyssa Azran '03, “and I was walking from the library to the campus center, when all of a sudden Professor Greenberg came up behind me and hit me with an umbrella for no reason.
“But I did not file any charges against him,” she smiles, “because this is a false memory.”
She's dramatizing a point: We all think we remember events that never actually occurred. These memories may have stemmed from stories we heard other people telling, or from watching television, or even from being led by
an interviewer.
Here is an example:
The eyewitness takes the stand. The defense attorney begins asking questions in a leading way. Then he interrupts, treating the eyewitness like a suspect and asking closed questions (“Did the man you saw have blue or brown eyes? Was he young or old?”). When he does ask an open-ended question (“Tell me what happened next”), he interrupts after seven seconds.
Not the way to go, assuming he wants useful information from the witness, who is
the main source in the case. Especially since this witness
is five years old.
Eyewitness testimony in children was the subject of an experimental honors seminar in the Psychology Department led by Seth Greenberg, Gilbert R. Livingston Professor of Psychology. He says the topic was chosen because it has public policy implications.
“We brought in national experts in research psychology
-people who are helping shape research and public policy,” he says. “Our idea was to 'up the ante'-to promote intellectual discussion in the classroom, to create an environ-
ment where motivated students could ask interesting questions and engage the speakers in conversation and debate.”
Thirteen sophomores, juniors, and seniors were handpicked for the course, and they found that the consequences of not understanding how we remember can be huge. Stephanie Block '03 says she was amazed at how easily memories can be implanted and how inaccurate eyewitness testimony is. “It appalls me that the legal system is so dependent on eyewitness testimony and that it's so inaccurate.”
Daryl McLeod '02 agrees: “Most people don't understand how corruptible the human mind is. And interviewers don't realize how easily they can corrupt witnesses' memories. This obviously has a huge bearing in a trial situation. And it affects aspects of our everyday life. For me, it's a
little unsettling that there's a possibility that events in my life that I was once certain occurred are potentially mere false memories.”
And Tina Canary '02 was surprised to learn how influential an interview technique can be-and how much an interviewer can manipulate testimony.
The term began with weeks of preparation, including readings of original research, reviews, lectures, and attending two movies-The Crucible, to get a sense of how rumors are passed and how people come to believe their own lies, and Memento, to see how people can trick themselves with their own memories. Every Tuesday two students would lead a discussion on the readings. “When someone asked an intriguing question, I would ask them to write it down for the speaker to address,” explains Greenberg. “The speaker came Thursday and gave a presentation which often ran over by an hour or two, because students had so many questions.”
McLeod recalls, “A lot of us were nervous-these were big names, and we were coming up with ideas they hadn't thought of. It was a great opportunity for us to speak directly with these researchers. It was a really interactive experience.” A biopsychology major, he plans to go to
medical school.
One of the visiting experts was Ron Fisher, who developed the cognitive interview technique and has been training police and special investigators in using it. As he explains, “Police receive almost no training in witness interviewing. This is their primary responsibility, and yet they don't understand the psychological process of getting information from someone else. Not surprisingly, they make mistakes.
“Police officers get their jobs because they're dominant, controlling guys,” he continues. “They're used to doing most of the talking. They ask leading questions and they are intimidating,” which means the witness tends to stop
volunteering information.
The best interviewers, he explains, are those who ask the fewest questions-and who listen while the witness is speaking. It's important to allow the witness to convey information in the way it was initially experienced, asking him or her to describe the layout of room, and re-creating the scene as much as possible. Eye contact, while valuable at the beginning of an interview to establish rapport, can easily be disruptive. In fact, it often helps to have witnesses close their eyes, in part to block out environmental distraction. Because memories are context-specific and associative, the more ways witnesses can think about the event, the better. Witnesses should also be encouraged not to edit their remarks.
Fisher says that in one week of learning this cognitive interview technique, anyone can overcome years of conditioning and get more accurate information than from a
standard police interview.
Fisher criticized the tactic of discrediting a witness by attacking the weakest link. When witnesses testimony is ruled out, jurors decide the case based on less information. This can result in a serious bias, usually against the prosecution. It also encourages courtroom discourse to be about peripheral issues. “If the witness saw the accused in the act of committing a crime, what difference does it make if she can't remember whether three or four shots were fired? But that's what defense attorneys focus on. There's an underlying assumption that if you forget how many shots were fired, you could forget anything. But the mind doesn't work that way.”
Research on eyewitness
testimony is also about getting psychological research into the law, where awareness of human psychology has not kept up with the latest findings. A U.S. Supreme Court justice, for example, recently said that a witness's level of confidence should be considered in what courts should be willing to accept. Yet research has shown there is no relationship between confidence level and accuracy of memory.
Robyn Fivush, another
visiting researcher, is an expert in early memory and connections to narrative, trauma, and coping-as in how children who lived through Hurricane Andrew remember and talk about this traumatic event.
“Early memories are a developmental matter,” said Fivush, “but they're also cultural. We all need the right cues to retrieve memories. Kids develop through interaction with parents, and there are individual differences in how families reminisce together. Some parents model information retrieval better and encourage it more.”
Eyewitnesses of abuse, on the other hand, are often from families where the abuse isn't discussed-and families that are usually less communicative all around. “The very kids we need to testify credibly may be at the highest risk of not doing so,” Fivush says. “The big lesson in doing forensic interviews is to be very careful how you ask questions.”
Says Greenberg, “For the students, this course helped open doors. They got a very human idea of what graduate study would be like. And they were energized, seeing how playing with ideas can be fun. They learned that psychology is not just an isolated discipline as they learned about visitors' professions.”
For Block, who has always been interested in psychology as well as law and children, the course was perfect. This spring, she is an intern in the special victims unit in the
district's attorney's office in nearby Troy, working with battered women and physically and sexually abused children. “I'm interviewing these children, and, thanks to the seminar, I feel very prepared.”
She adds that the course was the best she has taken. “No textbook or lecture can compare with having the prime researchers in the field right there in the classroom. Some actually got research ideas from the questions we asked.”
To Greenberg, the seminar was as good as the best graduate seminars-dynamic, intellectually curious, well prepared.
“It was a unique experience for all of us,” he says. “It got kids really thinking and talking, not just absorbing received wisdom. This is liberal education at its best-intellectual, lengthy, perceptive, informed, educated discussions confronting issues with no easy answers.”
