The UCF Report, Vol. 10 No. 19, March 23, 1988

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UCF REPORT
Volume 10, Number 19
For Faculty and Staff
March 23,1988
Simple solution
Mind-boggling formulas hold no qualms for Dr. R. C. Choudhary, at
board, and Lokenath Debnath, who chairs the Mathematics Department at UCF. Choudhary, who occupies the same chair at Ranchi University, located in northern India, is spending the spring semester at
UCF as a Fulbright Fellow, teaching and researching problems in applied mathematics.
Research for POD
IST-developed software
replaces human readers
Teamwork between a UCF faculty researcher and high tech users in the
neighboring Central Florida Research
Park shows how well the intended symbiotic relationship can work.
Computer Science Associate Professor Jim Driscoll, assigned to the Institute
for Simulation and Training (1ST) as a
data base expert, saw a problem he
thought could be solved by using computers instead of people.
Working with former military officers
who had been reading documents to assign key words for indexing, Driscoll
wrote a grant proposal. The Training and
Performance Data Center of the Department of Defense, with an office located in
Central Florida Research Park, agreed to
underwrite a year's research.
Driscoll and associates tackled military
documents that stack up by the thousands and made computers "read" them
and assign key words. The resulting
software program could do the job much
faster and more reliably than humans.
This week Driscoll will address a natural
language processing session of the
LONDON TRIP
UCF, in conjunction with the Institute for
Readers Theatre, offers a three-weeks
London workshop with credit classes in
nearly a dozen subjects, from scriptmak-
ing to bilingual readers theatre. The
$1,495 package (transatlantic travel not
included) begins July 17 atthe University
of London's Wellington Hall. Extended
Studies, x2123, has details.
RIAO 88 conference at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, explaining the
project and presenting a technical paper.
His project coworkers and co-authors
of the paper called, An Application of Artificial Intelligence Techniques to Automated Keywording, are David Rajala from
the Joint Doctrine Center, MacDill AFB;
William Shaffer and Donald W. Thomas,
both project managers at 1ST.
For more than a year the project paid
half of Driscoll's salary and provided employment for three student programmers.
One of the students has since become a
full-time employee of 1ST.
UCF's Institute for Statistics has been
funded both by 1ST and TPDC to evaluate
the system and to determine if it can be
made to work even better. Linda Malone,
director of the Department of Statistics,
is project investigator for the effqrt.
Driscoll's 1ST sabbatical ends in May ,
but he plans to continue research in an
intriguing field the past year's research
has opened to him.
"The research that I was able to do is a
fine example of how well 1ST has established a bridge between high tech users
and the University's wealth of research
talent.
"I was called in as a data base expert to
document an existing system and in the
process observed a problem that could
be solved. 1ST provides an environment
where faculty can see real world problems and have the opportunity to propose
solutions.
All the University
invited to witness
groundbreaking 88
Historical moment of 21 years ago to be
reenacted on campus green April 5
All the University community is invited
to witness the 2 p.m. April 5 ceremony to
honor the original campus groundbreaking.
Many of the participants of the historic
moment on March 19, 1967 when the
first shovel of dirt was turned for the first
building on campus will return for the re-
enactment 21 years later. It will be the
highlight ceremony of the year-long celebration of the first historic milestone of
the University's history, the day the enabling legislation became law.
Following the format of the original
groundbreaking ceremony, the April 5 re-
enactment will bring together people who
were state and national figures of two
decades ago.
Edward J. Gurney of Winter Park, who
was a member of Congress at the time,
and later U.S. senator, is to be a guest,
along with Fifth District Court of Appeals
Judge Winifred Sharp, whose mother,
Beth Johnson of Orlando was the first
woman state senator and a key legislator in getting a state university for Central Florida; Dr. Louis C. Murray of Orlan
do, member of the Board of Regents at
the time of the 1967 groundbreaking; Dr.
Leon G. van Wert, member of the Citizens Advisory Council for Florida Technological University; Robert Elrod of
Windermere, former state senator, and
Cecilia Bryant, Jacksonville lawyer,
member the of Board of Regents today
and daughter of Farris Bryant, governor
of Florida who signed the enabling act.
The main speaker will be the same one
who delivered the address 21 years ago,
former Governor Claude R. Kirk Jr.
UCF's founding president, Charles N.
Millican, will return to recognize founders
and subscribers.  His successor, Trevor
Colbourn, will preside over the occasion
and provide introductions.
The ceremony will take place on the
Green between the Chemistry Building
and Health and Physics Building with
some roles of original participants taken
by their replacements.
Parking Lot 8 will be closed at midnight
on April 4 to be available for guests attending the reenactment. It will be reopened to students at 4 p.m. on April 5.
25th ANNIVERSARY EVENTS
Founders' Day Groundbreaking
April 5
President's Review (ROTC)
April 14
SGA Banquet and Dance
April 22
President's Circle Dinner
April/May
Legislative Recognition
April/May
Graduation
May 2
Staff Council Banquet and Dance
May 20
Alumni Banquet
June
Student Birthday Party
September
USPS Recognition Event
Fall
Faculty Convocation
Fall
O. J. Forum
October
Threshhold Run
Oct 8
Homecoming
Oct. 10-15,19
City and County Recognition
Oct. 10-15,19
Town and Gown Gala Ball
Nov.12
YEARS
1963-1988