Software Engineering Blog

This month's blog is to introduce Dr. James D. Mooney, Emeritus Faculty member with the Lane Department Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at WVU.  Formerly the Program Director of this program having retired in 2014, Dr. Mooney, LCSEE Professor Emeritus, is the professor for the advanced course CS 533 Portable Software and core course SENG 520 Software Analysis and Design in the WVU Online Software Engineering Program.  Please watch his brief video introduction to learn more about him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlaiglAzeKg.  You may also read more about him at his website at  http://www.statler.wvu.edu/faculty-staff/emeriti-faculty/james-mooney. 

His education is from two note-worthy academic institutions with a Ph.D., Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State University, 1977, an M.S., Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State University, 1969, and a B.S., Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame, 1968.

I would like to introduce to you Dr. Katerina Goseva-Postojanova. She is a Professor at the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV. Her research interests are in software engineering, cybersecuirty, and data analytics. She has published over 100 journal and conference articles on these topics. She received the National Science Foundation CAREER award in February 2005. She has served as a Principal Investigator on various NSF, NASA, WVU Research Corporation, NASA West Virginia Space Grant Consortium, CACC, and Motorola funded projects. Since 2013 she is serving as a Faculty Coordinator of the Master of Science in Software Engineering Program, which in 2017 has been ranked 10th by U.S. News & World Report. She also serves as the Chair for LCSEE Area 4 Committee on Software Knowledge/Engineering.  She served as a Program Chair of the 18th International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE 2007) and as a Guest Editor of the Special Sections of the IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering and IEEE Transactions on Reliability. She has served on program and organizing committees of many international conferences and workshops. She is a Senior Member of IEEE and a member of ACM.

It has been two full years since my last blog post and a lot has transpired in our program since that time.  Our program has been ranked 30th in 2015 and now 10th in 2016 by US News and World Report for Best Online Computer Information Technology Program in the nation.  Details of this announcement can be found at the US News & World Report website.  Statler College released a news report which included quotes about the ranking from WVU Administrators, including one from myself.

I just realized I ran out of time this month to write my blog post. And, I really didn’t have any ideas as to what to write. Then, it dawned on me. I don’t have any time. Isn’t that what we all say. It seems today, we live in such a demanding world that we never have any time to live, breath, or just do the normal human things everyone wants to do.

The recent commercial from MasterCard rings clear in my head where the 1st or 2nd grade kids quote statistics that state over 400,000,000 vacation days go unused every year. They just want time with their families too.

“Steady as She Goes!” is a nautical statement given usually by the Captain of a ship to the Helmsman to steer as needed to keep the ship on course. Of course, the ship is referred to as a she because it refers to the captain and the ship as if in a marriage. Most of what we do in life is a lot like this, working to keep the ship (our lives) on course. Whether we are taking classes to complete a degree or working toward advancement at work, reducing the change to a steady change and not extreme helps to make life a bit more tolerable.

When demands from work, home, and classes are pressing hard against the ship and time in each day grows shorter, it becomes very evident that the work of the Helmsman is a valuable one. First, we must recognize the simplicity of the command, Steady. When waves and winds hit the ship from various angles and strengths, knowing how to keep the work balanced becomes more difficult than in calm seas. Second, the word “goes” has much more meaning than we may first think. It isn’t to let the ship flounder where it may wish but rather keep focused upon the course. What direction are you heading? If you have stopped to think about that lately perhaps additional education is exactly the course where you would like to lead your ship.