PING! NEWS FROM ALUM
The best part of putting together the newsletter was the delightful, large response I got in response to my request for updates from
alum last December. Many of your names brought forth good memories of faces and classes from the past 30 years. If I missed your e-
mail or you missed my request (or I inadvertently slipped a mistake into your listing) please send something to me now! I apologize
for the tiny font—but that’s what I get for insisting on all the news!
All my best, Michael (main@colorado.edu)
∎ 1972 ∎ DAVE KASIK (MS) is a senior technical fellow at Boeing where he’s having great fun doing visualization and interactive
techniques worldwide. ∎ 1976 ∎ DEAN SCHULZ (MA 1969, PhD 1976) is president of Conceptual Assets, Inc., which provides
system and software development as well as consulting on intellectual property. He was recently awarded his 14th U.S. patent. Their
∎ 1980 ∎ BECKY POSTELL (JONES at graduation) recently left her position at IBM in Lexington, KY. She’d like to return to Boulder
soon. After his degree at CU, ALLAOUA REFOUFI (MS) completed a PhD in the area of natural language processing at the University
of Sheffield. He is presently a professor in computer science at the University of Setif, Algeria, where he conducts research in natural
language processing, ontologies, and web services. He is the father of two children, a girl(21) and a boy(18). ∎ 1982 ∎ TOM ERTL
(MS) is a professor of computer science at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, where he recently hosted a visit from our very own
into the next few years, having their eyes on Ireland or maybe Japan this year. ∎ 1987 ∎ RONALD OLSHAUSEN (MS) went on to earn
an MBA in finance from Indiana University and build a career in computational finance, a synthesis of computer science and
structured finance. For the past decade he has run his own company, Olshausen Consulting LLC, with offices in New York, London,
and Vancouver (Canada). They build massively parallel computational engines for investment banks for the valuation and risk
analysis of structured credit products. The work occurs using massive, multi-terabyte data warehouses coupled with grid computing
technology to model the predicted behaviour of complex financial instruments—“Absolutely fascinating stuff,” says Ronald. He says
Switzerland, and Germany. ∎ 1989 ∎ ATHMAN BOUGUETTAYA (PhD) began has been a faculty member at Queensland University
of Technology in Brisbane, CU, Virginia Tech and Purdue. He is now a science leader in the area of service computing at the
Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization in Canberra. He continues as an adjunct professor at the Australian
∎ 1990 ∎ BASSAM SALIBA (BS) is chief executive officer of the software firm Equiom, Inc. (equiom.com) in Bellevue, WA. BINDU
(RUFUS) WAVELL (BS) is vice president of engineering at Zia Consulting in Boulder, where they has focused on document
blood and/or urine tests. One example of his work was the co–authored paper “Computational prediction of human proteins that can be
secreted into the bloodstream,” in the journal Bioinformatics. ∎ 1992 ∎ STEFAN CARMIEN (BS 1992, MS 2002, PhD 2006) is a
senior researcher in neuroengineering for the Fatronik-Technalia Foundation in San Sebastián, Spain. He lives in the Basque province
of Gipuzkoa where he is known as ikertzaile nagusia, neuroingeniaritza. He works on cognitive orthotics for persons in early onset
Alzheimer disease, with a goal of helping them live in their home long as possible. DALE BARNARD (BS) is sole proprietor of Box of
puppy, Zelda, in addition to his beloved 11 year old Kelpie Chip). GEORGE RABATIN (BS) is a systems manager at Amazon.com
where he manages operations for the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com). CHAD SCATES (BS) is a partner in Cardinal Peek, a
Lafayette engineering firm. GERRY STAHL (PhD) is a tenured associate professor at Drexel University in Philaddelphia. He is the
∎ 1995 ∎ SREERUPA (RUPA) DAS (PhD) is a software engineer (level 4) at Lockheed Martin in Oviedo, FL. She moved there last
year after 13 years with AT&T/Lucent/Avaya in Colorado. During those 13 years, she was married and had two children, a girl (1998)
and a boy (2003). She tells us that getting uprooted from Colorado was not easy at all, especially as they arrived midst of Hurricane
Fay. They were not drowned or washed away, and now their kids love it, though Rupa dearly miss the Rockies and the lovely
mountain scenery on the west horizon. On the job front, she is doing research in machine learning, statistics and prognostic health
management (of machinery). Other accomplishments include several patents pending. JULES DIBIASE (PhD) is director of digital
media at standuptocancer.org in Venice, CA. She has a new baby, Isabella Margherita, born November 4. MELODI (MEL) MOSLEY
Lausanne. He is now senior vice president and head of medium voltage drives at The ABB Group in Switzerland. He says that his
body gets older, but his brain won’t accept: broken rips and broken Achilles tenden are the results. WILL THORNBURG (BS) is a
systems administrator with Sun, loving life in Boulder, and awaiting Oracle’s acquisition of Sun to complete. He says the cultures of
the two companies seem to be similar. ∎ 1996 ∎ MARC ANDERSON (BS) completed his PhD in chemistry at UC Santa Cruz in 2001.
He is presently an assistant professor at San Francisco State University where he is performing research that combines his computer
science and chemistry training to address difficult problems in chemical informatics and drug discovery. DANIEL CARROLL (MS) is
happy in his long-time job as network administrator at Mesa State College in Grand Junction. STAN JAMES (BS) received his masters
∎ 2000 ∎ JAMES BALASALLE (BS) is owner of Animus Software in Boulder and is researching GPUs with Matt Rutherford at
Denver University. JULIEN CHASTANG (MS) is a software engineer (level III) at NCAR/UCAR in Boulder. Lately, he’s excited about
functional programming (e.g. Clojure). MICHAEL DIAZ (BS) has been a quality assurance architect at CA (formerly Computer
Associates) for ten years. He’s now able to work from the home that he shares with his lovely wife Lynne, a young daughter, and a
second child on the way. MARK LEWIS (MS) got his masters degree in computer science while working on a PhD in astrophysics,
which he completed in 2001. He is now associate professor of computer science at Trinity University in San Antonio, where he loves
using Greenfoot for graphics and game programming in the CS1 course. NICK NIELSEN (BS) is a senior software architect at
baby girls, Laurel (3) and Aubrey (9 months). LAUREN PENNEY (BS) is now a PhD student in Learning Sciences at Northwestern
University with an emphasis on technology and after-school programs. Prior to that, she worked at several Boys & Girls Clubs
teaching kids about the cool stuff you can do with technology (she especially loved the Computer Clubhouse in Boston). JAY
STRAMEL (BS) is chief technical officer at Dolphin Micro, Inc., a software contracting and consulting company in Broomfield.
∎ 2002 ∎ JIM BARKLEY (BS) is a senior software engineer at the MITRE Corporation where he is the principle investigator for a
program manager for the North Dallas .NET User Group in Dallas Just got into competitive cycling in the last year, which is pretty
easy to do in the city. I’m a few blocks from Central Park and there are lots of bike races in there. JILL KAMIENSKI (BS) is a senior
multi-discipline systems engineer at the MITRE Corporation and the Center for Advanced Aviation System Development near
Washington, DC. She’s working on a masters degree in aeronautical science and human factors. Her time is spent designing and
conducting human-in-the-loop experiments, analyzing the results, and presenting the results to the FAA. The experiments explore
worked at a Christian K-12 school for Bolivian nationals teaching computers to high school students and also working on several
computer projects including a website for the project as well as a database to track attendance. Additionally, he helped co-lead the
youth group in the church. Currently, he’s preparing for a move to a suburb of San Jose, Costa Rica, to work at the Latin America
regional office of International Teams providing technical support of their network, helping other missionaries and staff to
troubleshoot their computer problems as well as developing numerous websites for the various ministries. I will also have a minor
goal of vegetable-oil powered cars with two vehicles for his family (wvopowered.przebinda.com). And thanks to Rick Osborne, he’s
also learned to fly—an enjoyable and practical way to travel on the weekends. ALEX VOGENTHALER (BS) lives in New York City
where he is a product manager for Google. He just got into competitive cycling in the last year, which is pretty easy to do when living
a few blocks from Central Park. B.J. WILLIAMS (BS) is a senior software engineer for Raytheon in Centennial, CO. He moved to that
position after working for a couple years in California for the video game industry (Activision and Electronic Arts) and Northrup
photography and cocktail making. CODY MUNGER (BS) has been moving from job to job and from apartment to house to condo every
six months (Boulder to Louisville to Dillon to Carson City to Reno). He says he’s currently the Adobe Flex “Jedi Knight” (an
advantage when you get to name your job position) at PowerDEX, Inc. Prior to that position, he worked at 3G Studios and released his
first software title, Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Ultimatum 2009 for the Wii. He enjoys road trips, hiking, snowboarding, climbing, and
national parks—and hopes to find himself back in Colorado, California or Washington State soon. JEFF POZNANOVIC (BS) is
currently a masters student with a focus on parallel computing at the University of Edinburgh. Last year he studied in Italy, and he
previously worked at Cray, Inc. and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. When he and his wife aren’t busy with work/studies, they
∎ 2005 ∎ NELS ANDERSON (BS) is a gameplay programmer at Hothead Games in Vancouver, Canada, where he also earned his MS
degree at the University of British Columbia. Last year, he was married to Tila Brown—“a Vancouver local and amazing woman,”
says Nels. TROY KOELLING (BS) is a tech lead and software engineer (Level II) at Apple in Cupertino, CA. He’s been at the firm for
four years, filed two patents, and is getting married this spring. GAURAV KULKARNI (BS) is an IT architect performing end-to-end
enterprise systems designs at IBM in Colorado. He has three patents pending for automated creation of virtual worlds based on
existing physical environments. He and his wife of two years just bought their first home. SARAH MACUMBER (BS) just moved to
Seattle where she is an applications engineer for CD-adapco (cd-adapco.com). DAN MAYER (BS) is president and founder of Devver
(devver.net), which is his second startup since graduation. Through the TechStars program in Boulder he raised startup funding from
O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and is now working daily on the new product. CHRISTY PREDAINA (BS) is a systems engineer for
Northrop Grumman in Virginia. She is presently one of five engineers selected for the newest class of the Northrop Grumman’s
Systems Engineering Associates program (SEA), a highly selective two-year long series of rotational assignments designed to
software engineer for Google. JASON HELD (BS) is a web developer at SageFire (sagefire.com) in Boulder. You can find his blog at
heldit.com. JYH-HOW HUANG (PhD) is a post-doctoral researcher at the National Taiwan University. Last year, he summited Everest,
which concludes his seven summits project to climb and summit the highest peaks in each of the seven continents. ∎ 2009 ∎
GEORGE ENGELBRECHT (BS) is a computer engineer with the National Telecommunications and Information Administraton in
Denver. MICHAEL HABINSKY (BS) is a software engineer at Webscan, Inc. (webscaninc.com) where he enjoys investigating and