Barry S. Fagin
                                    Professor, Department of Computer Science
                                    2354 Fairchild Drive, Suite 6G-137
                                    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.

 

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

Employment History

• 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

• Who's Who in America, Who’s Who in Science and Engineering
• Fulbright Scholar, St. Petersburg Technical State University, Russia
• Senior Fellow in Technology Policy, Independence Institute, Golden CO
• Adjunct Scholar, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Washington DC
• 1996 ACLU National Civil Liberties Award
• 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

• Computer Architecture
• Computer Science Education
• Computing and Public Policy

Teaching Interests

(links may be unavailable depending on USAFA firewall)

• Introductory Computer Science (CS 110)
• Introduction to Programming (CS210)
• Computer Organization and Architecture I (CS 351)
• Databases and Web Programming (CS 364)
• Compiler Construction (CS426) (Russian version)
• Cryptography (CS431)
• Introductory Calculus (MA 141)

Publications

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

Work In Progress

• Conservation Functions for 1-D Automata: Efficient Algorithms, New Results, and a Partial Taxonomy, Journal of Cellular Automata, to appear  (2nd author, with Leemon Baird)

Journal Articles

• 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 Web Resource for Computer Science Education, ACM Journal of Educational Resources in Computing, Volume 2 No 2, March 2002.
• An Ada Interface for Lego Mindstorms, Ada Letters,  Volume 21 No 2, September 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, Computers and Society, June 1999
• Liberty and Community Online, Computers and Society, June 1998 (see also Conference Proceedings).
• 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

• 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.
• The Case for Ada at the USAF Academy, Proceedings of the 2003 ACM SIGAda Conference on Ada, Dec 2003, pgs 68-70 (3^rd of 4 authors).
• Measuring the Effectiveness of Robots in Teaching Computer Science, Proceedings of the 34th Annual ACM/SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, Feb 2003.
• Teaching Basic Computer Science Concepts With Robotics Using Ada/Mindstorms 2.0  Proceedings of SIGAda 2001, October 2001, Minneapolis MN.
• Using Ada-Based Robotics to Teach Computer Science , Proceedings of the 5th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, July 2000, Helsinki Finland
• Liberty and Community Online, Proceedings of the 1998 ACM Computing and Policy Conference, Washington DC, May 1998.  (Power Point presentation)
• 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", Proceedings of the 1994 ACM/SIGCSE Symposium, 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, 14th International Symposium on Computer Architecture, June 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, Proceedings of the 18th IEEE Microprogramming Workshop, December 1985.

General Interest

(My newspaper columns can now be found here).

• 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: 2135 Wickes Road, Colorado Springs CO 80919

Born 9-2-60, Boston Mass. Married to Michele Berdinis Fagin,  Brown '81, University of San Francisco J.D. '85. Father of Max (16) and Erica (14)