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Faculty Notes Continued
Ben Burrell
I also have been planning for a new honors course I'll be teaching next year on mobile computing using App Inventor (see http://appinventor.mit.edu/teach/). This easy to use environment for creating apps for the Android was developed by Google and has since moved to MIT. It is a web app that has a drag and drop interface for screen design and programming (the latter is similar to Scratch) and a built-in emulator for an Android phone. A very nice learning environment for non-majors! To help prepare for the course I attended several related talks at the SIGCSE conference (this is the annual ACM conference for computer science educators) in Raleigh in March. My plan is to have students develop a dozen or so different apps that fully explore the programming features of the Android phone as well as their own final project. So, it looks like the summer will also be busy!
The Alumni Corner
Robert Fidler is a 1988 graduate of our Computer Science program. After graduating, Robert received a master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Virginia. He began his career with INRI, a small defense contractor, in the Hampton Roads area. After eight years, he moved to Fredericksburg to create an INRI presence at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, VA. He currently works for SimVentions, another small defense contractor, in Fredericksburg, VA, as a Principal Software Engineer. Robert started his career as a main line developer and eventually led several software development projects. Today, he works on US Navy programs in the Electronic Warfare domain and provides software engineering and architecture expertise to his customers. His projects have ranged from small programs to multi-billion dollar software efforts, providing an assortment of perspectives on the software development life cycle.
Like many parents, Robert and his wife, Tristin, spend much of their free time following their three children from activity to activity. Robert is also active in his church and as a Scout leader. When he can find time, he enjoys woodworking and home improvement projects.