Steve Kollmansberger
Professor of Computer Information Systems
South Puget Sound Community College

Whilst developing creativity,
also cultivate receptivity.
Retain the mind like that of a child,
which flows like running water.
When considering any thing,
do not lose its opposite.
When thinking of the finite,
do not forget infinity;
Act with honour, but retain humility.
(Tao Te Ching, 25)

New Course Development

Along with colleagues, developed new courses to improve curriculum, student learning, retention and aid in recruitment efforts.

• CIS 187: Computer Graphics and Animation
• CIS 169: Requirements Analysis
• CIS 199: Practical Applications of Artificial Intelligence (honors)
• CIS 235: Silverlight
• CIS 269: Software Maintenance
• CS 120: Computer Graphics and Animation [re-made for general audience]

Teaching

He begins from the center and not from the fringe. He imparts an understanding of the basic principles of the art before going on to the meticulous details, and he refuses to break down the [assignments] into a one-two-three drill so as to make the student a robot.
(Alan Watts, speaking on the definition of a master teacher)

Fall 2009: University of Washington Tacoma Instructor Fellowship

Otherwise, a variety of programming and database classes since 2003.

Education

• M.S., Oregon State University
• B.S., Whitworth College

Select Non-Teaching Work Experience

• NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory - Summer programming internship with IDL and image manipulation
• Axonus Technology Group - Custom VB.NET, SQL and ASP.NET programming for several clients
• Whitworth College - Assistant Network Administrator with NT 4.0 and Exchange; Research Assistant

Interest Areas

• Computer Science Education
• Programming Languages, esp. Functional Programming and Multi-Paradigm Programming
• Type Checking and Error Prevention in Programming
• Usability of Programming Languages and Systems
• Database Systems
• End-user Programming

Past Projects

• Online Tutoring System: A tool for intro programming students to work on understanding how the computer processes instructions.
• Department Survey: Developed online survey software used by CIS department, including reporting tools.
• Data Reduction Manager: Improving software used by JPL/NASA to analyze images taken from ground-based telescopes
• Gencel: A program generator for correct spreadsheets. Spreadsheet correctness can be enforced by deriving instances of a spreadsheet from a template.
• Type Change Inference: Type error messages in functional programming languages leave much to be desired. We created a system which provides concrete suggestions to correct the type errors in a program, much like a spell checker gives you specific words which will correct your spelling error.
• Probabilistic Programming: Many simulations applications require the use of probability and uncertainty. However, modeling this oftens involves overhead (such as random number generators) which are orthogonal to the actual problem domain. We present a method for integrating uncertainty into programming.
• Simulating micro-RNA Evolution: In conjuction with the Center for Gene Research, we devised a means of simulating biological processes with a straightforward representation that can be understood by biologists. The test-bed for developing such an approach is the simulation of micro-RNA evolution.
• Gatekeeper: Online in/out board used by multiple major companies and government agencies.

Publications

• Helping Students Build a Mental Model of Computation, Steve Kollmansberger
  15th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE), 2010
• A Domain-Specific Embedded Language for Probabilistic Programming, Steve Kollmansberger
  Master's Thesis, Dec 2005
• Modeling Genome Evolution with a DSEL for Probabilistic Programming, Martin Erwig and Steve Kollmansberger
  8th Int. Symp. on Practical Aspects of Declarative Languages, LNCS 3819, 134-149, 2006
• Probabilistic Functional Programming in Haskell, Martin Erwig and Steve Kollmansberger
  Journal of Functional Programming, Vol 16, No 1, 21-34, 2006
• Gencel: A Program Generator for Correct Spreadsheets, Martin Erwig and Robin Abraham and Irene Cooperstein and Steve Kollmansberger
  Journal of Functional Programming, 2006, to appear
• Visual Specifications of Correct Spreadsheets, Robin Abraham and Martin Erwig and Steve Kollmansberger and Ethan Seifert
  IEEE Int. Symp. on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, 189-196, 2005
• Automatic Generation and Maintenance of Correct Spreadsheets, Martin Erwig and Robin Abraham and Irene Cooperstein and Steve Kollmansberger
  27th IEEE Int. Conf. on Software Engineering , 136-145, 2005
• IM-Agents for Patient Monitoring and Diagnostics, S. L. Mabry, S. J. Kollmansberger, T. Etters and K. L. Jones
  15th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2002
• Intelligent Agent Generation with the DNA-MAS Genetic Programming System, S. J. Kollmansberger and S. L. Mabry
  6th IASTED Int. Conf. on Artificial Intelligence and Soft Computing, 2002
• DNA-MAS: A Genetically Programmed Multi-Agent System, S. L. Mabry and S. J. Kollmansberger
  IASTED Int. Conf. on Intelligent Systems and Control, 2001

Professional Presentations

• Presented research at JPL 2006
• Presented publication at PADL 2006
• Presented research at VL/HCC 2004 Doctoral Consortium
• Presented publication at ASC 2002
• Presented publication at ISC 2001

Service

If there is no service, [there will be] no advice.
(The Most Excellent Mirror -- Samadhi)

• CIS Department Website 2009
• Land Survey Professor Screening Committee 2009
• High school recruitment 2007/2008
• Strategic Enrollment Management sub-group
• Reviewer for AVI 2006
• Reviewer for VL/HCC 2005
• Reviewer for The Haskell Workshop