This is my thirtieth year at DePaul.
I hold a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Chicago (1995). I also hold a Master's Degree in Computer Science (IIT, 1986) and a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Studies (Northwestern, 1978).
I have taught in a variety of settings, including in industry (Texas Instruments), at a community college (Triton College), and as a graduate student at U. of C. Since coming to CTI/CDM in 1995 I have taught numerous undergrad and grad courses.
My primary research area was computational complexity with interest in constructive logic, graph theory, and computability theory (until recently called recursion theory).
I have recently begun a research program in bioinformatics, specifically, using a measure called normalized compression distance (NCD) to determine the distance between pairs of strings from a set of DNA/RNA strings of related organisms and then using those pairwise distances to build phylogenetic trees.
I am also very involved with understanding how information technology is used by community-based organizations (CBOs) in providing their services. In cooperation with DePaul's Steans Center for Community-based Service Learning, I have worked with CBOs in Chicago's West Humboldt Park neighborhood. In December, 2004, and again in June, 2006, I went on faculty/staff trips to Kenya.
During the summer of 2014 I spent four weeks at the Ghana Technology University College in Accra, Ghana, co-teaching a web programming course. I hope to develop further DePaul's relationship with GTUC as both schools have much in common in terms of approaches to teaching.
Research Area
Theory, Bioinformatics
Specific Research Area
I am currently working on the Phylogenetics through Compression project. This is an effort to apply data compression techniques to produce distance measures between pairs of DNA/RNA strings and then to use those measures to construct phylogenetic trees. This springs out of the work by Li, Vitanyi, et al. applying Kolmogorov complexity theory to distance measures.
Professional Associations
IEEE