2012 Outstanding Computer Science Alumni Honored

09-28-2012

The Department of Computer Science and the College of Science recognized the 2012 Computer Science Outstanding Alumni on Friday, September 28. Alumni Robert Balog (B.S. '87), Ronald Boisvert (M.S. '77 and Ph.D. '79), and Marc Shinbrood (B.S. '72) were joined by faculty, staff, and students for an awards presentation and reception in celebration of their great achievements.

 

Robert Balog:

Robert Balog assumed the role of senior vice president of engineering for KVH Industries, overseeing all of KVH's satellite, guidance, and stabilization engineering efforts, in October 2008. Previously, he served as KVH's vice president of engineering (satellite products). Before joining KVH in February 2005, Balog served as president of Automation Services, an engineering contract services company, and as vice president of engineering at ADE Corporation in Massachusetts. Balog also held a number of other positions, including general manager and vice president of R&D, over the course of ten years at Speedline Technologies in Franklin, Massachusetts. He has been a member of the Surface Mount Equipment Manufacturers Association Board of Directors, serving as chairman along with numerous other positions. Additionally, Balog is the recipient of 10 U.S. patents.

Balog earned his bachelor's degree in computer science from Purdue University in 1987.

Ronald Boisvert:

Ronald Boisvert leads the Applied and Computational Mathematics Division of the Information Technology Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He has been at NIST (formerly the National Bureau of Standards) since 1979. His research interests include numerical solution of partial differential equations, mathematical software, and information services that support computational science. He contributed to the development of the original ELLPACK system for elliptic boundary value problems, the NBS Core Math Library, VFFTPACK (for vectorized FFTs), VFNLIB (for vectorized Bessel functions), the Guide to Available Mathematical Software, and the Matrix Market. He is one of the principal editors for the NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of the ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software (1992-2005), Co-Chair of the Numerics Working Group of the Java Grande Forum (1998-2003), and Chair of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 2.5 on Numerical Software (2000-2012). He is currently Co-Chair of the Publications Board of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). He has several distinctions, including the U.S. Department of Commerce Silver Medal for Meritorious Federal Service (1992) and Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement (2011). He has also received the Outstanding Contribution to ACM Award (2000) and the Keene State College Alumni Achievement Award (2002). He was named an ACM Distinguished Scientist in 2006, and received the IFIP Silver Core distinction in 2007. He is a member of the ACM, SIAM, the American Mathematical Society, and the IEEE Computer Society.

Boisvert earned his master's degree and his doctorate in computer science from Purdue University in 1977 and 1979, respectively.

Marc Shinbrood:

Marc Shinbrood is currently Vice President of the Web Application Firewall business unit at Trustwave Holdings Inc. He has been in the vendor software and appliance business environment for over 35 years, and for the last 15 years he has focused on enterprise-level software and appliance security solutions. Prior to Trustwave, Shinbrood was CEO and Chairman of Breach Security. Currently he is responsible for the Trustwave WebDefend Web application firewall business and its more than 400 customers. He has served in every conceivable role with a computer software company, including serving as CEO or principal operating officer five times. He is the author of numerous articles and videos, a frequent speaker at industry events and venture capital conferences and was an Associate Technical Editor for Midrange Computing magazine.

Shinbrood earned his bachelor's degree in computer science from Purdue University in 1972. He was a member of the first graduating class of computer science undergraduates at Purdue.