Oct 3, 2009 (Sat), 9 am – 1 pm

National Electronics Museum,

1745 W NURSERY RD, LINTHICUM HEIGHTS, MD 21090

Speaker: Edward R. (Ted) Byrne

Catching up with Computer Software

Abstract

During the past 25 years we have been invaded by computers, big, small and smaller.  Today, computers sneak into almost every aspect of our lives.

During that same time, software design and programming have also completely changed, but not because the computers needed some new kind of instructions. Rather, software generation has changed because we humans haven't changed and so we need more help to keep up.

In this lecture we will review the steps leading up to the Object-Oriented software concept, which is the heart of almost any programming language today. We will cover in detail what Object- Oriented programming is, using, as examples, the evolution from C to C++, Java and C#.

Software programming has also evolved from an artistic craft to an outsourced commodity, making specification methods valuable capabilities. The specification of software projects has evolved along with the languages and we will describe the standard Object-Oriented Universal Modeling Language (UML). UML and its supporting software tools, allow us to model and specify what software projects are to do in a way both clients and developers can understand.

Edward R. (Ted) Byrne

Speaker Bio

Ted Byrne received his BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from Notre Dame University and his PhD in Systems Science from Polytechnic Institute of New York. After serving two years in the US Air Force as an engineer, he was discharged as a Captain, and began a 35 year career creating computer software for the telephone company laboratories. He holds one of the first US patents for software.

In 1992 he began another career as a teacher and consultant in software development practices and programming. He has taught for New Jersey Institute of Technology, Drew University, and the IEEE itself. He specializes in C, C++, Windows programming and Object-Oriented Design, to adult working programmers, often employees of defense industries.

Over the past several years he has begun a third career concentrating on computer-controlled medical information and diagnostic systems.

He is a senior life member of IEEE where his particular interest is Software Engineering. He recently retired from the Management Board of the IEEE Software Engineering Standards Committee and was chairperson of the Software Requirements Standard, ANSI/IEEE 830.

He lives in Chestertown, Maryland, He is married and has four children and six grandchildren. One of his sons is a doctor in the Baltimore area and a son-in-law is one of the delegates representing district 36, the eastern shore, in the Maryland legislature. He writes a column for a model train magazine.