Sabbatical News
Dr. George F. Corliss, MU EECE

Purpose: Here's what I did on my 1998-99 sabbatical leave from Marquette:

Updates: [ Jun 98 | Jul | Aug | Nov | Dec | May 99 | Aug 99 | Observations | Official report ]

June 1, 1998

1. Sell my services for mathematical modeling or scientific computing,
2. Sell my services for project management, programming, analysis, etc., or
3. I help train Compuware employees, perhaps in OO or Java.

1. Feel I am useful to Compuware and/or its clients
2. Learn how people really DO what I teach about
3. Collect "war stories" for classroom ammunition
4. Improve business contacts for possible student employment

Going through the new employee orientation in early March inspired me to offer a session in the MSCS graduate Teaching and Learning seminar on the US health care system and the US tax system.

Updates: [ Jun 98 | Jul | Aug | Nov | DEC | May 99 | Aug 99 | Observations ]

July 1, 1998

Updates: [ Jun 98 | Jul | Aug | Nov | DEC | May 99 | Aug 99 | Observations ]

August 20, 1998

The Y2K work is going rather well, cross my fingers. I have a good team, and our work is going rather near our intended schedule. That probably only means we have not yet cornered the daemons. We are testing the BIOS and patching where possible of about 800 PCs. We will replace about a third. Most of the rest will be upgraded to Windows 95, if they are not there already. Mission critical applications that are not Y2K compliant will be upgraded, replaced, or re-programmed. We will also test and upgrade the network operating systems of about 80 servers. Other teams are addressing mid-range (e.g. Unix or AS 400) or mainframe applications.

Updates: [ Jun 98 | Jul | Aug | Nov | DEC | May 99 | Aug 99 | Observations ]

Nov. 14, 1998

Using math? I hold that when you look at a problem and say, "Well, let's do a), then b), then c)." you are using your mathematical training to attack a problem in a systematic manner. When you always answer the same question in the same way, you are applying the mathematical standard of consistency. When you listen and say, "Wait a minute. What you said does not make sense." you are applying the standard of rigor in mathematical proofs.

Those are not math? Then why are there so few people who look at the world that way? It is true that few jobs require you to prove or apply Sylow's theorems. Not many more require numerical solutions to linear systems either, part of my toolset. However, nearly every job requires divide and conquer planning, consistency, and rigorous reasoning from assumptions. Those are CORE skills for every mathematician, and they are in short supply "out there."

At the same time, we need not require that everything is immediately practical, applied, or useful. We read lasting literature, view art, attend concerts, or go to the theater not because those activities help me in my job or make me more productive, but to enjoy and appreciate in their own right. They MIGHT make us more productive by helping us relax or retain a sense of perspective, or they MIGHT trigger a key insight that helps at work, but that is not the justification usually offered. Mathematics can enrich our lives that way, too.

Updates: [ Jun 98 | Jul | Aug | Nov | DEC | May 99 | Aug 99 | Observations ]

December 10, 1998

"Dr." has a different meaning at Aurora than at Marquette, but I sometimes find it helps get a timely response from a vendor. It is NOT helpful with most of the "real" doctors, though.

A former student observed:

I very much enjoy my job and the opportunity that it gives me to work with people. I am often concerned however, that I am missing some good opportunities and experiences (and maybe even some money) by not being involved in industry in some way.

Missed experiences? Well, I missed out on the sexual revolution, too :-) One thing this job at Compuware has demonstrated is that I have NOT missed out on much. I have stepped into a fairly senior manager position. My peers are about the same age as I am, and I'm doing the job just fine. I take that as evidence that I have experiences at least equivalent to theirs. If they more than doubled my salary, would I leave? Absolutely not. For that I'd feel they owned my soul, and it is not for sale. I had a BS student two years ago turn DOWN an offer of $80K. He correctly figured they wanted 90 hours work per week. His soul was not for sale, either.

I am eager to hear more about you experiences at Compuware. I feel that getting out of my classroom has been one of the best things for my classes. I am very curious to learn if you have had luck in convincing people of the uses of mathematics in your current job. Do you feel that you have discovered things that will be of value to your students at MU?

Yes, and to faculty. Another take-away is the immensely practical value of a good liberal arts education. Most of the people I work with have excellent technical backgrounds, and they are smart. However, there is a VERY high correlation between the leaders and the people with a liberal arts background. I see evidence every day of the Marquette sales pitch. The liberal arts people are more likely to see the overall, long-term business issues, rather than only the close-up technical ones.

In truth, I have learned little that goes into my classes. Instead, I have re-affirmed the appropriateness of what I have been teaching for a long time. I HAVE gathered lots of new stories to illustrate the points, and I think I return with a lot more credibility for having demonstrated valor in actual IS combat :-)

Updates: [ Jun 98 | Jul | Aug | Nov | DEC | May 99 | Aug 99 | Observations ]

May 24, 1999

We are now about 85% done with our workstations, and we are tracking down the last few applications. The team has worked together "extremely" well.

There have been relatively minor excitements, such as the week that we thought we would need to redo over half our work. The "re-work" was traced to poor communications: several people did not volunteer information they had, and several people (including me) did not ask questions we might have asked. As it turned out, the missed communication was not as serious as we had feared.

In January, I was given some of my boss's responsibilities to coordinate the work of 6 teams doing similar Client/server work across all of Aurora. I do not direct the work of the teams; that is done by their respective Aurora site support managers. I help share best practices among teams and collect reporting for upper management.

Now in late May, each of the teams in on the home stretch. Most of our work will be done by the end of June, ahead of time and under budget. We are working on the last, most difficult, few percent of applications and machines. No matter what we do, there will always be a few things left over, so we are carefully documenting what remains.

Another important activity is contingency planning. We are not worrying about all that could go wrong. Medical facilities already have disaster plans that cover most imagined Y2K dangers. We are thinking of problems that might come up with the applications we are doing.

We have drawn up a template for final reports from each of the six teams. It is very important that we hand all our work back to Aurora in a form they can continue to support.

As I have worked more closely with high level managers and people from a wider section of Aurora, I continue to be impressed by the insight and dedication of most people I meet. I also see many examples of people who excel in their careers by exercising a wide vision and general-purpose problem-solving. They understand the importance of things outside their cube, and they often ask the right question. Those are exactly the skills we think are taught by a sound liberal education. We often say, "No problems are technical. All problems are political." That may be a slight exaggerating, but people with good insight and people skills solve FAR more problems than the technicians.

Updates: [ Jun 98 | Jul | Aug | Nov | DEC | May 99 | Aug 99 | Observations ]

August 12, 1999

Many of the Y2K staff has already left, and only a handful will remain beyond the end of September. They will be dealing with later arriving software, its testing and installation, and other remediation work on machines on which it runs. We are also concerned about getting to end users information they need to know to use their applications. The most frequent bits of advice are

1. Enter ALL dates as 4 digit years, even in memos and file names so that you don't have to think about it on January 3 when you have an angry patient on one side and an angry doctor on the other.
2. Proofread everything you send out. That is ALWAYS wise practice, but especially true now. If you look and see something wrong, you can correct it.

Was it worth it? Absolutely! This has been a very satisfying and interesting experience for me, in part because I determined to make it so.

• Our team is leaving Aurora in better shape than they were when we arrived. There will surely be some small problems, but I very much doubt Aurora will experience major disasters.
• Accumulated stories to spice my classes for the rest of my career.
• Contacts to help students with career counseling and finding jobs. Just today, the head HR guy for IT stopped my to talk about what he can be doing to more effectively recruit at Marquette.
• Proven to myself and anyone who cares that I can DO what I teach about. Evidence: CW gave me a 10% pay raise for my last 3 months.

See also Observations of the Professor, notes for my exit interview with my Aurora and CW bosses.

None-the-less, I an VERY ready to come back to Marquette.

• I miss the students and faculty interactions. I'm an elitist at heart, and at a university, all the "children" really ARE above average :-)
• I miss my research. I've kept up on reading, correspondence, and refereeing, but have done little original work this year.
• I miss the scheduling flexibility. Professors may work long hours, but we can usually manage to take time when the furnace repairman needs to come, without taking a half day of vacation.

Updates: [ Jun 98 | Jul | Aug | Nov | DEC | May 99 | Aug 99 | Observations | Official report ]