A Room of His Own
Donations for the naming came from more than a dozen individual and corporate admirers.
“‘SAL 322’ will be known from now on as the Barry Boehm Conference Room,” said Yanis Yortsos, senior associate dean for academic affairs in the USC Viterbi School.
“I don’t know of anyone with a more complete set of arenas in which he is a leader,” Yortsos said. “Industry at TRW and Rand … government at DARPA … and academia at, we’re proud to say, the computer science department of the Viterbi School of Engineering.”
A longtime faculty member and highly regarded computer scientist, Boehm is best known for his work in value-based software engineering.
He created a method for integrating a software system’s process models, product models, property models and success models, called “model-based system architecting and software engineering,” also known as M-BASE.
He invented many value-based software methods, such as the “constructive cost model” (COCOMO), the “spiral model,” “Theory W,” a win-win approach to software management, and “requirements determination,” which formed the foundations for software risk management and software quality factor analysis.
Boehm also advanced two software engineering environments: the TRW software productivity system and the “quantum leap” environment. (TRW was acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2002.)
“He is an incredibly brilliant man,” said Betsy Clark, a senior consultant at Software Metrics Inc., in Haymarket, Va. “I really admire how he has reached out to industry to get them involved … it makes everything we [computer engineers] do that much more relevant.”
Boehm founded USC’s Center for Software Engineering in 1993 to provide an environment for research and teaching in the areas of large-scale software design and development processes.
The center also began to develop generic and domain specific software architectures, software engineering tools and environments, cooperative system designs and software engineering economics.
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Los Angeles ran an op-ed by Bill Deverell of the USC College about looking to the past in order to move on to the future. “You can do better, Los Angeles. You’ve heard it before: admonishment from the lecture hall pulpit or the pages of a book or magazine. History matters. You should pay closer attention,” Deverell wrote. “The history of Los Angeles reflects and illuminates American and world history all at once. With a little effort, something powerful happens: historical sensibility provides perspective on the here and now. Who wouldn’t want that?” The column is the first in a series for the magazine’s new CityThink section, L.A. Observed reported.
SoCal Minds featured the USC Good Neighbors Campaign, in which USC faculty and staff donate money for programs benefiting the neighborhoods surrounding the USC campus. The program was launched under the direction of USC President Steven B. Sample in reaction to the Los Angeles riots, the story noted. The campaign raised a record-breaking $1.2 million in donations this past year, despite tough economic times, the article stated. The story reported that several university units had 100 percent participation, including the USC Rossier School, KUSC-FM, the USC Fisher Museum of Art, the Office of the Treasurer, the Office of the Senior Vice President, Administration, the Health Sciences Libraries and USCard Services.
CNN cited research conducted by Adam Rose of the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development for USC’s Homeland Security Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events. Rose’s study found that the standard economic costs of the 9/11 attacks, estimated at $25 billion, were exceeded by the costs of behavioral reactions far from the site of the attack (for example, an additional $85 billion due to a decrease in demand for air travel).
Variety reported that the 22nd annual USC Libraries Scripter Award was given to “Up in the Air” novelist Walter Kirn and to USC alumnus Jason Reitman and Shelton Turner, who adapted Kirn’s book for the screen. In his acceptance speech, Reitman noted that his father, Ivan Reitman, used USC’s Doheny Memorial Library as a stand-in for the New York Public Library in “Ghostbusters.” The Wrap noted that Catherine Quinlan, dean of USC Libraries, emceed the ceremony.
National Public Radio’s “13.7” ran a commentary by K.C. Cole of the USC Annenberg School about the role of science in diplomacy. “We all know that the technology produced from scientific research can make international conflicts more deadly than ever. But can science help stop war?” Cole said. She mentioned that she recently took part in a USC Center on Public Diplomacy conference on science diplomacy and the prevention of conflict.
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