Barry S. Fagin
                                    Professor, Department of Computer Science
                                    United States Air Force Academy, CO 80840
                                   (professional)
                                    (personal)
                                    phone: 719-333-3590
                                    fax: 719-333-3338

                                    My media bio is here.  My columns are here.

Yes, this web site is old-school.  I like it that way.  I built it out of hand-coded HTML thirty years ago, and it has a certain sentimental value to me.  Back in the prehistoric 90's, we didn't have any of this WYSIWYG nonsense, or style sheets, or concepts like readability and good user interface design.  If you wanted mouse flyover effects, you had to earn them by coding your own javascript routines.  If you wanted to find something, you had to get a good wrist workout and expend some honest mouse scrolling labor to get it.  I tell you, back in my day ... oh, never mind.  Just dig around here, and drop me a line if you can't find what you're looking for.

Employment History
Awards, Appointments, and Professional Service
Education
Research Interests
Teaching Interests
Publications 
Personal Information

Employment History

• Professor of Computer Science, Tenured
• 2020-2022: Senior Associate Dean of the Faculty, US Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs CO.
• 1999-present: Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science, US Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs CO.
• 1996-1999: Associate Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science, US Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs CO.
• 1994-1996: Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science, US Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs CO.
• 1987-1994: Assistant Professor of Engineering Sciences, Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover NH.

Awards, Appointments, and Professional Service

• 2017 Certified Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional
• 2015 Award for Innovative Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Technology, 26th International Conference on College Teaching and Learning
• 2015 National Finalist, Ernest L. Boyer  International  Award for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Technology
• 2013 Best Presentation, International Conference on Reliable Software Technologies, Berlin
• 2012 Colorado Professor of the Year, Council for the Advancement and Support of Educaiton, Washington DC
• 2011 IEEE Senior Member
• 2009 Thomas Jefferson Award, Military Religious Freedom Foundation
• 2009 Fulbright Scholar, St Petersburg State University, Russia
• Who's Who in America, Who’s Who in Science and Engineering
• 2001 Fulbright Scholar, St. Petersburg Technical State University, Russia
• Senior Fellow, Independence Institute, Golden CO
• Adjunct Scholar, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Washington DC
• 1996 ACLU National Civil Liberties Award
• Former Information Director, ACM Special Interest Group on Computers and Society
• Co-inventor of the Crandall/Fagin algorithm, used to discover the world's largest prime number

Education

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of California at Berkeley, 1987 (Thesis: A Parallel Execution Model for Prolog, Alvin M. Despain advisor)
• M.S. in Computer Science, University of California at Berkeley, 1984
• A.B. in Engineering, Brown University, 1982

Research Interests

• Quantum Computing Education
• Quantum Computing and Abstract Algebra
• Provably secure internet software
• Computer Architecture
• Computer Science Education
• Computing and Public Policy

Teaching Interests

• Introductory Computer Science (CS 110)
• Introduction to Programming (CS210)
• Quantum Computing (CS314)
• Computer Organization and Architecture I (CS 351)
• Databases and Web Programming (CS 364)
• Compiler Construction (CS426) (Also taught in Russian at St Petersburg State University)
• Cryptography (CyS431)
• Introductory Calculus (MA 141)

Publications

| Work in Progress | Journal Articles | Conference Proceedings | General Interest  (newspaper columns, magazine articles)

Journal Articles/Book chapters

•  Minimal Idempotency, Partial Idempotency, Search Heuristics And Constructive Algorithms For Idempotent Integers, Special Issue of Publications Mathématiques de Besançon: Algèbre et Théorie des Nombres, 2024, pp 7-21, https://pmb.centre-mersenne.org/articles/10.5802/pmb.53/.
• Search Heuristics and Constructive Algorithms for Maximally Idempotent Integers, Information 2021, 12, 305.  https://doi.org/10.3390/info12080305, ,July 2021
• Idempotent Factorizations in the Cryptography Classroom, The College Mathematics Journal, 51:3, 195-203,  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07468342.2020.1724495, May 2020
• Idempotent Factorizations of Square-Free Integers, Information 2019, 10(7), 232; https://doi.org/10.3390/info10070232
• The IRONSIDES Project:  Final Report, Ada User Journal, Vol 9, Number 3, September 2018, pp 197-202.
• Composite Numbers That Give Valid RSA Key Pairs For Any Coprime p, Information 2018, 9(9), 216; doi:10.3390/info9090216.
• Security vs. Performance in DNS Servers:  An Empirical Study, International Journal of Emerging Technology  and Advanced Engineering, Volume 8, Issue 7, July 2018, pp 241-251.
• Word Hypercubes are Fun, NP-Hard, and In General Undecidable, in Topics in Recreational Mathematics, Vol 6 2016, Charles Ashbacher ed, ISBN 978-1530004225.
• Valuing Science With Differing Values, Skeptical Inquirer, May/June 2013 (invited essay)
• Debugging on the Shoulders of Giants:  Von Neumann's Programs 65 Years later, COMPUTER, Nov 2012, pp 59-68.
• Finding Conservation Functions for Cellular Automata Through a Complete Theory of the Trivials, Journal of Cellular Automata, Vol 7 No 2 2012, pp 115-150.
• The one true religion in the military, in Department of Defense Social Policy Perspectives 2010, J. Parco and D. Levy editors, Air University Press, Montgomery AL, forthcoming.
• A Single-Sheet Icosahedral Folding with Improved Efficiency Using a Business Card, Journal of Recreational Mathematics, Vol 35 No 2, pp 132-140, 2010.
• Conservation Functions for 1-D Automata, Efficient Algorithms, New Results, and a Partial Taxonomy, Journal of Cellular Automata, Vol 3 No 4 2008, pp 271-288.
• A Question of Faith, Armed Forces Journal,  January 2008.
• Skepticism and Cryptography, Knowledge, Technology and Policy, Vol 20 No 4, Dec 2007.
• Critical Thinking and Computer Science:  Implicit and Explicit Connections, Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 21:4, Apr 2006, pp 171-177 (see CCSC conference presentation below).
• Ada/Mindstorms 3.0:  A Computational Environment for Introductory Robotics and Programming,  special issue of IEEE Robotics and Automation on Robotics and Education, Vol 10 No 2, June 2003.
• Ada/Mindstorms 2.0 user's guide and reference manual

  Barry Fagin, Journal on Educational Resources in Computing (JERIC), 2002
• Ada/Mindstorms 2.0 Web Resource for Computer Science Education, ACM Journal of Educational Resources in Computing, Volume 2 No 2, March 2002.
• Quantitative analysis of the effects of robots on introductory Computer Science education

  Barry S. Fagin, Laurence Merkle, Journal on Educational Resources in Computing (JERIC), 2002
• An Ada interface to lego mindstorms

  Barry Fagin, ACM SIGAda Ada Letters, 2000
• Ada/Mindstorms 1.0 User's Guide and Reference Manual

  Barry Fagin, ACM SIGAda Ada Letters, Vol 20 No 3, 2000
   
• Liberty and Community Online, reprinted in Cyberethics, by Baird, Ramsower, and Rosenbaum, Prometheus Books, April 2000 (see original publication below)
• Standardization/Innovation Tradeoffs in Computing: Implications for High-Tech Antitrust Policy, Knowledge, Technology, and Society, Fall 1999
• Technology and the Values of a Liberal Education, Academic Questions, Fall 1999
• Computers, science, and the microsoft case

  Barry Fagin, ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society, June 1999
• Standardization, innovation and Microsoft

  Barry Fagin, ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society, 1998
• Liberty and community online

  Barry Fagin, ACM POLICY '98 Proceedings of the ethics and social impact component on Shaping policy in the information age, 1998
• Partial Resolution in Branch Target Buffers, IEEE Transactions on Computers , October 1997
• The Performance of Counter and Correlation-Based Schemes for Branch Target Buffers, IEEE Transactions on Computers, December 1995
• Field Programmable Gate Arrays and Floating Point Arithmetic, IEEE Transactions on VLSI Systems, September 1994, pp 365-367, expanded version

• Discrete Weighted Transforms and Large Integer Arithmetic, Mathematics of Computation, January 1994 (2nd author, with Richard Crandall)  

            [This paper gives me an Erdös number of 3:  Fagin  -->  Crandall   -->   Pomerance  -->  Erdös]

• Quantitative Measurements of FPGA Utility in Special and General Purpose Processors, Journal of VLSI Signal Processing Special Issue on Field Programmable Gate Arrays, August 1993.
• A Special-Purpose Processor For Gene Sequence Analysis, Computer Applications in the Biosciences, April 1993.
• A Microcontroller-Based System For Intelligent Telephony, IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, November, 1992.
• Fast Addition of Large Integers, IEEE Transactions on Computers, September, 1992.
• Negacyclic Convolution Using Polynomial Transforms on Hypercubes, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, August 1992.
• Calculating the FHT in Hardware, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, June, 1992 (2nd author, with Adam Erickson).
• Large Integer Multiplication on Hypercubes, Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, April, 1992.
• The Performance of Parallel Prolog Programs, IEEE Transactions on Computers, December 1990.

Conference Proceedings

•  Better Visual Metaphors For Quantum Computing Education, Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (EDULEARN25), Palma, Spain, Jun 30-July 2025, pp 8543-8552, DOI: https://doi.org/10.21125/edulearn.2025.2222
• Idempotent Integers: The complete class of numbers n=pq that work correctly in RSA, invited paper, 2021 International Conference on Geometry, Algebraic Number Theory and Applications (GTA 2021), University of French Polynesia, Aug 16-20 2021.
• Idempotent Factorizations:  A New Addition to the Cryptography Classroom. In Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE '19). Aberdeen, Scotland UK — July 15 - 17, 2019 page 303, DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1145/3304221.3325557.
• Streamlining Computer Science Curriculum Development and Assessment using the New ABET Student Outcomes. In Western Canadian Conference on Computing Education (WCCCE ’19), May 3–4, 2019, Calgary, AB, Canada. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 6 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3314994.3325079 (5^th author of 7)
• Teaching RSA: What Happens When One of Your Primes Isn't?  In Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '19). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1286-1286. DOI: https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=3287324.3293761
• The IRONSIDES Project:  Final Report, 2018 International Conference on Reliable Software Technologies, Lisbon, Portugal (one of 4 papers selected for publication in the Ada Journal).
• Making DNS Servers Resistant to Cyber Attacks:  An Empirical Study on Formal Methods and Performance,   COMPSAC 2017, Turin, Italy pp 566-571
• Provably Secure DNS: A Case Study in Reliable Software, 2013 International Conference on Reliable Software Technologies, Berlin, Germany pp 81-93 (Best Presentation)
• IRONSIDES:  DNS With No Single-Packet Denial of Service or Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities, GLOBECOMM 2012, Anaheim CA (2nd author, with Martin Carlisle).
• MyTuringTable: a teaching tool to accompany Turing's original paper on computability

  Barry Fagin, Dino Schweitzer, ITiCSE '12 Proceedings of the 17th ACM annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education, 2012
• Defining, Integrating, and Assessing a Purposeful Progression of Cross-Curricular Initiatives into a Computer Science Program, Proceedings of the 41st ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, October 2011, Rapid City, South Dakota (4th author, with Steve Hadfield).
• IASSim: a programmable emulator for the princeton IAS/Von Neumann machine

  Barry Fagin, Dale Skrien, SIGCSE '11 Proceedings of the 42nd ACM technical symposium on Computer science education, 2011. pp 359-364
• Faster Methods for Identifying Nontrivial Energy Conservation Functions for Cellular Automata, Proceedings of AUTOMATA 2010:  The 16th International Conference on Cellular Automata and Discrete Complex Systems, June 2010, Nancy, France, pp 1-20 (2nd author, with Leemon Baird)
• Teaching Information Security With Skepticism and Critical Thinking, Proceedings of the 11th Colloquium on Information Systems Security Education, Jun 2007.
• New Conservation Functions and a Partial Taxonomy for 1-D Cellular Automata, Proceedings of the First IEEE Symposium on Artificial Life, Apr 2007.
• Critical Thinking and Computer Science:  Implicit and Explicit Connections, Proceedings of the 17th Annual Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges South Central Conference, Apr 2006.
• Do lego mindstorms robots have a future in CS education?

  Myles McNally, Michael Goldweber, Barry Fagin, Frank Klassner, SIGCSE '06 Proceedings of the 37th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, 2006
• The case for Ada at the USAF academy

  Ricky E. Sward, Martin C. Carlisle, Barry S. Fagin, David S. Gibson, Proceedings of the 2003 annual ACM SIGAda international conference on Ada: the engineering of correct and reliable software for real-time & distributed systems using ada and related technologies, 2003, pp 68-70.
• The fulbright program: international teaching and curriculum development experiences

  Sue Fitzgerald, G. Michael Schneider, Robert M. Aiken, Barry Fagin
  SIGCSE '03 Proceedings of the 34th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, 2003
• Measuring the effectiveness of robots in teaching computer science

  Barry Fagin, Laurence Merkle
  SIGCSE '03 Proceedings of the 34th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, 2003
• Teaching computer science with robotics using Ada/Mindstorms 2.0

  Barry S. Fagin, Laurence D. Merkle, Thomas W. Eggers, ACM SIGAda Ada Letters, 2001
• The use of robots in the undergraduate curriculum: experience reports

  Michael Goldweber, Clare Congdon, Barry Fagin, Deborah Hwang, Frank Klassner
  SIGCSE '01 Proceedings of the thirty-second SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer Science Education, 2001
• Using Ada-based robotics to teach computer science

  Barry Fagin, Proceedings of the 5th annual SIGCSE/SIGCUE ITiCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education, July 2000, Helsinki Finland
• Liberty and community online

  Barry Fagin, ACM POLICY '98 Proceedings of the ethics and social impact component on Shaping policy in the information age, 1998
• Partial Resolution in Branch Target Buffers, Proceedings of the 28th International Microarchitecture Symposium, Ann Arbor MI, December 1995, pp 193-198.
• A Reconfigurable Processor for Fractal Image Compression, Proceedings of the 1994 International Conference on Field Programmable Logic, September 1994.
• Two years of “The Digital World”: portable courseware for technological literacy

  Barry Fagin, SIGCSE '94 Proceedings of the twenty-fifth SIGCSE symposium on Computer science education, 1994, Phoenix AZ
• DartMIPS: A Case Study in Quantitative Analysis of Processor Design Tradeoffs Using FPGAs, Proceedings of the 1993 International Workshop on Field Programmable Logic and Applications, Oxford, England, September 1993.
• The Application of Public Choice Theory to Science and Engineering Policy, Proceedings of the 1993 Conference of the American Society For Engineering Education, June 1993.
• The Digital World: Teaching Technological Literacy to a Multidisciplinary Audience, Proceedings of the 1993 National Educational Computing Conference, June 1993, pp 116-121.
• FPGA and Rapid Prototyping Technology Use in a Special-Purpose Processor for Molecular Genetics, Proceedings of the 1992 International Conference on Computer Design, October 1992.
• Prototyping the DLX Microprocessor, Proceedings of the 3rd International IEEE Workshop on Microsystem Prototyping, June 1992.
• Using Antifuse-Based FPGAs in Performance-Critical Digital Designs, Proceedings of the 4th Microelectronics Systems Education Conference, July 1991.
• Using Reprogrammable Gate Arrays in Performance-Critical Digital Designs, Proceedings of the 3rd Microelectronics Systems Education Conference, July 1990.
• Extension and Enhancement of a Small Microsystem Program: The Dartmouth/IBM Interaction, Proceedings of the 3rd Microelectronics Systems Education Conference, July 1990 (2nd author, with Charles Hitchcock, Albert Henning, and Edmond Cooley)
• Large Integer Multiplication on Massively Parallel Processors, Proceedings of the 3rd Symposium on the Frontiers of Massively Parallel Computation, October 1990.
• Rapid Prototyping Without MOSIS: A Minority View, Proceedings of the 2nd Annual VLSI Education Conference, July 1989.
• Performance studies of a parallel Prolog architecture

  B. S. Fagin, A. M. Despain, ISCA '87 Proceedings of the 14th annual international symposium on Computer architecture, 1987
• Aquarius

  A. Despain, Y. Patt, V. Srini, P. Bitar, W. Bush, C. Chien, W. Citrin, B. Fagin, W. Hwu, S. Melvin, R. McGeer, A. Singhal, M. Shebanow, P. Van Roy, ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News, 1987
• Goal Caching in Prolog, Proceedings of the 19th Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences, January 86.
• Compiling Prolog into microcode: a case study using the NCR/32-000

  B. Fagin, Y. N. Patt, V. Srini, A. Despain, ACM SIGMICRO Newsletter, 1985

General Interest

(Over 300 syndicated newspaper columns on various topics.  They can be found here).

• "Internet Security", interview/podcast on "The Academic Minute" for WAMC/Northeast Public Radio, November 10th, 2017.
• The One True Religion in the Military, The Humanist (cover story), Vol 67 No 5, September/October 2007
• Faith and Tolerance at the Air Force Academy, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 29th 2005.
• Flawed Theology Used to Oppose Genetic Engineering, letter to the editor in Atlantic Monthly, July/August 2004.
• Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility, World and I Magazine, March 2002.
• Higher Education in Russia and America,  interview in Обучение и Kареры (Education and Careers) magazine, January 2002 (in Russian).
• Rock and Roll Will Never Da, Independence Feature Syndicate, December 12th, 2001
• Sharing the Greatness of America, Independence Feature Syndicate, picked up by the Colorado Springs Gazette and the Daily Oklahoman, October 17th, 2001
• Letter from Russia:  How Our Former Enemies View the Attacks, Reason magazine online, September 24th, 2001
• “The Case For Faith” by Lee Strobel, book review for Skeptical Inquirer special issue “Science and Religion 2001”, Vol 25 No 5, Sept/Oct 2001.
• Parenting and Popular Culture, Colorado Springs Gazette, July 3rd, 2001
• Free Speech Is For Everyone,  Denver Post,  April 22nd, 2001 
• School Officials Missed Opportunities To Teach, Colorado Springs Gazette, February 28th, 2001 (link takes you to a web site that includes the column, provides context).
• School Choice Would Erase Evolution Debate, Colorado Springs Gazette, January 18th, 2001
• Talk Show, Brown Alumni Monthly, January/February 2001.
• Lieberman Knows What's Best For Us, Colorado Springs Gazette, August 30th, 2000
• Goin' Down to South Park:  How Kids Can Learn From Vile Trash,  Reason Magazine, May 2000
• Christianity and the FCC:  a Faustian Bargain , Colorado Springs Gazette, March 23rd, 2000
• Who Testifies and Why:  a Study of Witness Testimony in the Colorado Legislature, Independence Institute Issue Paper, February 2000.
• Belief in the Pseudoscience of Astrology Holds Us Back , Colorado Springs Gazette, January 18th, 2000
• Banking on Sanity to Prevail , Denver Post, December 31st, 1999
• The Skier and the Boarder , published in First Tracks Online Ski Magazine, December 1999.
• Bible Codes are Complete Nonsense , Independence Feature Syndicate, picked up by the Colorado Springs Gazette and the Denver Post, November 21st, 1999
• U.S. West Buyout: Let the Net Work , Rocky Mountain News, July 4th, 1999,
• Independent Preschools Merit Tax Exemption Given Other Nonprofits , Colorado Springs Gazette, May 13th, 1999
• The Case Against the Case Against Microsoft , Competitive Enterprise Institute, Washington DC
• INTELligent Lessons from an Antitrust Blunder , Competitive Enterprise Institute, Washington DC, April 6th, 1999
• House Bill 99-1126: The Creation of a Colorado Cultural Trust Fund , background paper prepared for the Colorado Legislature
• Internet Access at Public Libraries: Doing It Right , Independence Feature Syndicate, picked up by the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Rocky Mountain News, and Newsday.
• The Sad State of Political Journalism, Colorado Springs Independent
• Judaism and School Choice, Intermountain Jewish News (full version)
• Public Interest or Prurient Interest: Congress Can't Make Up Its Mind , op-ed from the Denver Post and other national dailies, October 13th, 1998
• Standardization, Innovation, and Microsoft, Computers and Society, Vol 28 No 3, Sep 98 , April 13th, 1998
• Malice in Wonderland: State Governments Discover the Internet,  Independence Feature Syndicate , April 13th, 1998
• Why DOJ's Case Against Microsoft Is Flawed, Competitive Enterprise Institute , February 27th, 1998
• Hello Dali: Art is Better Off Without State Government, Independence Feature Syndicate , January 21st, 1998
• Families, Filtering, and Libraries, invited presentation from the New York Library Association Annual Conference, Nov 1997, (IBM PC Power Point file)
• The Supreme Court Gets It Right, op-ed from the Miami Herald and other national dailies, July 3rd, 1997
• Skepticism and Politics, article from the Skeptical Enquirer, May/June 1997
• Capitalist Threat, letter to the editor in Atlantic Monthly, May 1997
• Freedom on the Net Won't Impede Good Parenting, op-ed from the Christian Science Monitor, March 28th, 1996
• Decency Act Is Intolerable Obstacle To Communication, op-ed from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and other national dailies, March 24th, 1996 (Microsoft RTF file)

Personal Information

Address: 3419 Skywatch Heights 80904

Born 9-2-60, Boston Mass.  Father of Max and Erica (ericafagin.com)