Using a Model Railroad to teach Software Engineering  -- February 17, 1999

Twin Cities SIGAda presents:

                    Dr. John McCormick
                University of Northern Iowa

            Teaching Realtime using Electric Trains:

   A Using a Model Railroad to teach Software Engineering and Ada

Get a FREE Ada CDROM.
See details following meeting announcement.

               6:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 17, 1998
               University of St. Thomas, OSS Room LL18
               St. Paul Campus (directions below)

Our February meeting is scheduled for February 17th at
the University of St. Thomas.  We will be in the OSS
building on the corner of Cretin and Grand Avenue.
The meeting starts at 6:00 PM and will last no longer than
2 hours. The topic is Realtime Programming using an
Electric Train set and Ada.

There is currently an acute need for software engineering professionals.
How do we attract talented students to this exciting yet demanding career?
Computer science educators can help recruit and educate good students by
providing sound academic programs that put a real thrill into computing.
With this goal in mind, the Computer Science Department at the State
University of New York at Plattsburgh developed a study option in computer
controlled systems.  This study option was created especially for
undergraduate students interested in the engineering of embedded and
real-time systems.  John's talk will describe this highly successful
curriculum with an emphasis on the capstone course where seniors specify,
design, and implement the software to control a large model railroad.
John will have slides and a video showing some aspects of the
model railroad.

About the Speaker:

John has taught Ada for many years, first at SUNY, Plattsburgh,
and now here in the midwest at the University of Nothern Iowa.
John teaches Ada in his two foundation courses
(CS1 and CS2; authored his own textoobks)
as well as in his realtime course.

Directions to St. Thomas:

Take I94 to the Cretin Avenue exit in St.Paul.
Turn south off the exit, towards the Mississippi River.
There are traffic lights at Marshal and Summit Avenues.
The first street after Summit is Grand, turn right on Grand,
it becomes the road into the parking lot.
If you do not have a St. Thomas parking sticker,
you will need to park at a parking meter.
OSS is the building immediately to the north of the parking meters.
LL18 is on the bottom floor; take the stairway in the NE corner of
the building to the basement, then look for posted directions to the room.
Please contact Paul Stachour if you need additional directions.

Free Offer:

The first two individuals to respond to Mark Glewwe,
publicity, [log in to unmask]
with their name and intention to attend this February 17th
TCSIGAda meeting, and show up at the meeting, will win a free
Walnut Creek Ada 2-CDROM, with a listed value of $35.
This offer is available to anyone who has *not* previously
attended a TCSIGAda meeting.

For information about TCACMSIGAda, call (612)-884-5977 or visit
www.tcsigada.org.  For a more nicly formatted version of the
announcment, visit www.tcsigada.org/meeting/feb99mtg.htm.