The Role of IEEE Computer Society in the Information Age

• Prof. Willis K. King
• 2002 President
• IEEE Computer Society
• Department of Computer Science
• University of Houston
• Houston, TX 77204-3010
• U.S.A.
• w.king@computer.org

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Abstract

One of the commissions listed in the Vilnius Declaration is education. The role of education to achieve the goals of the Declaration is self-evident. Finding a practical, affordable way to promote education is the key to its success. The IEEE Computer Society pioneered the use of the ICT technology to deliver continuing education to its members at an affordable cost. Through the use of the internet, our members can learn at their leisure basic elements in many popular programming languages, operating systems, data base and network systems and project management, among others. They can also take a course to study elements of software engineering to help them prepare for an examination that would certify them as a qualified software engineer. The digital library provides practicing engineers and researchers key developments in the entire computing field in the last 15 years.

Based on the success in the last five years, the Computer Society plans to expand this service to cover even more ground. Members have free access to 100 Web-based training courses and in 2004 will have free access to 100 online reference books through our new Online Books program. The society plans to make its software certification the brand name recognized by industry and will expand the self-study guides and course materials to support candidates studying for the exam. Long-term plans include additional certification programs, such as a credential for software project management. The same technology and data base is accessible worldwide and can be used to help engineers and scientists in the developing countries to acquire new knowledge. With the help and cooperation of organizations such as UNESCO, we believe the IEEE Computer Society can play an important role in bridging the digital divide.

Biography

Willis K. King received the Dipl-Ing degree from the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, Germany (1963), and a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A. (1969), both in electrical engineering. He is a senior member of the IEEE and a member of the ACM and Sigma Xi.

King has been a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Houston since 1969 and served as its chair from 1979 to 1992. He worked at the IBM Laboratorien, Germany, in 1963 and 1964.

Willis King has been an active volunteer in IEEE Computer Society for more than 30 years. He was the president of the society in 2002 and serves currently as the past president and the representative of IFIPS TC3. He served as vice president for area activities from 1987 to 1988 and as vice president for educational activities in 1997 and 1998. In 1999 and 2000, he was elected respectively the second and the first vice president and chaired the conferences and tutorials board of the IEEE Computer Society. He was elected and served as president-elect in 2001. Other volunteer positions he held included the local chapter chair from 1970-1975 ; the general chair of the second International Symposium on Computer Architecture in 1975, the IEEE Computer Society Southwestern Regional chair from 1976 to 1982, and the chair of the Distinguished Visitor’s Program from 1980 to 1986. As the vice president in educational activities, he launched the model curricula project, which generated the Curricula 2001 report.

An active volunteer in computer science accreditation activities since the early 1980s, he served as an officer of the Computing Sciences Accreditation Board (CSAB) from 1985 to 1997, including as its president from 1993 to 1995.

King received the Outstanding Contribution Award from the IEEE Computer Society in 1988, the Distinguish Service Award from the Computing Science Accreditation Board in 1991 and 1993, and the Meritorious Achievement Award from the Educational Activities Board of the IEEE in 1994. In 2003, he was elected fellow of CSAB.