Faculty Focus, Rami Melhem, Ph.D.

• Rami Melhem, Ph.D., was born in Egypt and attended Cairo University until 1979, when he came to the United States and did his graduate work at the University of Pittsburgh. Although he applied to several other colleges, Dr. Melhem chose to attend Pitt because it was the only college which had a joint Masters Program between the Computer Science and Mathematics Departments.
• Currently responsible for teaching subjects about programming, hardware and operating systems, Dr. Melhem said he finds the advanced classes challenging because they deal with more state-of-the-art materials. However, teaching basic levels is stimulating too, he said, not because of the material covered but because it is a challenge to find the correct balance to educate both the beginner and more advanced students in the class.
• "Because of the mix, a slow pace means that advanced students may get bored. But using a fast pace means that the beginner will lose interest," Dr. Melhem explained. Although math plays a role in some of the classes he teaches, Dr. Melhem said, "Programming is logical thinking, closer to writing a recipe or giving directions than dealing with math."
• Different operating systems are necessary because users require different applications in order to complete tasks necessary for efficient operation of the organization. Dr. Melhem said that having the same operating system for everyone would be easier, but certainly not more efficient.
• A current problem with computer usage is the overcrowding that sometimes occurs while online. "It's like a highway during rush hour," Dr. Melhem commented about the congestion that sometimes occurs. Predictions can be made about increases but these are not always accurate. To solve the problem, providers can be sure there is enough capacity, but this would be expensive.
• Dr. Melhem pointed out that one of the current concerns about computer usage is that children have easy access to things that their parents prohibit. Since a provider of computer services cannot know who is sitting at the terminal when an account is being accessed, there is no way to limit access. Dr. Melhem suggested that a possible solution to this would be to provide the user with two different accounts and two different passwords. This would be akin to giving the user a choice between two different magazines, such as McCalls or Penthouse, and different accounts with limited access may prevent unauthorized use.
• One of the most important things about computers that everyone should understand is that security and privacy can be a problem. "Whatever we do on a computer can become public because there is wide eligibility and exposure to everyone else. Once you open a system, there is always a way to crack it, unless you shield yourself, "Dr. Melhem said. But he said that shielding yourself would limit the amount of information you can obtain from others, information that can be not only necessary but interesting. "Currently, there is no technique to prevent anyone from accessing information while you are online. Because of the high priority for privacy, this is a popular subject for researchers," Dr. Melhem said.
• The Department of Computer Science at the University of Pittsburgh received a grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) last September to fund a project on Fault Tolerance in Real-time Systems. Dr. Melhem, one of the researchers, said that the project is going as planned and, according to the most recent site visit, is "on track." Most of the research is being conducted on campus, but there are subcontracts. For example, Honey- well is used so that the research ideas can be applied to real applications. When the three year grant period is over, Dr. Melhem said that another grant may be needed to build on whatever results they have.