The Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will celebrate the newest inductees into the Nebraska Hall of Computing on April 10.
The 2015 group includes eight members with ties to the state who have made significant contributions to one or more of the fields of computer and information science and engineering, the development and utilization of computing technology and computing education.
"This year the hall is inducting an extremely accomplished and diverse group of professionals," said Matthew Dwyer, chair of the university's computer science and engineering department. "The inductees include founders and executive officers of companies that have used computing across a range of industries and have employed many thousands, academics who are highly respected for both their research and educational impacts, and research fellows of two of the most influential computing companies in history.”
This year's honorees include:
> Jeffrey S. Raikes, co-founder of the Raikes Foundation and former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Raikes was president of Microsoft's business division and was a member of the company's senior leadership team that set strategy and direction for one of the United States' most important firms.
> George F. Haddix, a leader in the establishment and growth of software and services companies in Nebraska and the Midwest. He also has been a strong advocate of STEM education initiatives in secondary and higher education.
> Jose "Joe" Inguanzo, co-founder of Professional Research Consultants Inc., which is today the industry's largest privately held minority-owned health care-exclusive custom market research consultancy.
> Ronald Lockard, CEO and founder of Curazene, a biotech research firm. He is the founder of information technology firm TMI, which developed one of the first interactive transaction processing systems for the insurance industry. He also founded Transaction Application Group, an insurance third-party administration firm.
> Larry Peterson, professor of computer science at Princeton University and co-author of the bestselling networking textbook "Computer Networks: A Systems Approach." His research focuses on the design, implementation and deployment of internet-scale distributed systems.
> Thomas L. Seevers, IBM Fellow emeritus and a visiting professor at UNL. He has played an important role at IBM in the information technology industry for nearly five decades, focused mainly in the area of architectural methods and insight.
> Sharad Seth, emeritus professor of computer science and engineering at UNL. During his 42-year career at the university, he led an interdisciplinary research center and was a trusted mentor. He is noted for his research in VLSI testing, for improving the quality of manufactured digital devices, as well as pioneering work in document image analysis regarding page layout and web tables.
> Patricia Wirth, AT&T Fellow. Her research and contributions into the modeling and analysis of telecommunications and computer systems have led to world-class performance of the global AT&T network. She was the first woman to be named an AT&T Fellow, AT&T’s highest honor.
In addition to an invite-only induction ceremony at the Cornhusker Hotel, this year's inductees will hold a roundtable for CSE students at 2 p.m. April 10 in Avery Hall, where they will discuss how they built on their formal education to create a career with impact and what they see as opportunities for today's students to follow in their footsteps.
The Nebraska Hall of Computing is sponsored by the Computer Science and Engineering Department. To nominate a deserving individual, those interested can go to http://cse.unl.edu/hallofcomputing.
