by M. C. Jennings | Sep 3, 2015 | Academics, COBA Faculty, College Decisions, Current Students, School of Information Technology and Computing, Uncategorized
Let us introduce you to Dr. Brent Reeves, Associate Professor of Management Science and Computer Science, in our first COBA spotlight.
Dr. Brent Reeves
What is your educational background?
B.B.A., Computer Science, Abilene Christian University, 1980
M.A., Biblical and Related Studies, Abilene Christian University, 1982
M.S., Computer Science, University of Colorado at Boulder, 1991
Ph.D., Computer Science, University of Colorado at Boulder, 1993
I started as a double major in Bible and Accounting at ACU. I took Intermediate and Auditing before realizing I didn’t really like accounting. About that time, Dr. Charles Small joined ACU after finishing his Ph.D. at A&M. He said, “Switch majors – it’ll be great.” So, my junior year, 2 weeks into the semester, I dropped 18 hours and added 18 hours. Super stressful time. The schedule change made me reconsider the Bible major so I asked Dr. John T. Willis about the difference between an undergrad Bible degree and a graduate Bible degree. He answered, “When you finish the undergrad degree, you’ll be ready for the questions.” So he had me. My dad offered to pay tuition if I stayed at ACU, so I was fortunate to be able to study under Willis, Olbricht, Fair, Ferguson, etc. Those guys were great.
What is your work background?
My first programming job was part time at Dunigan Tool and Supply in Abilene. They had 10 oil field stores in 3 states. It was a fantastic opportunity. My boss, Dick Loveless, sent me on my first assignment with the admonition, “Don’t use any computer words. You’ll be talking to a guy who has done accounting for 25 years. He knows his stuff. He doesn’t know computers. Your job is to learn his stuff and translate it into a system.”
Next came ARCO Oil & Gas in Dallas for 4 years. We had 4 of IBM’s largest mainframes and a Cray-II supercomputer with 300 people in systems and programming. And… we made terrible systems. Every year, they got bigger and more expensive and…not any better. One day I caught an accountant saying, “All I wanted it to do was…” That got me thinking about User Interfaces – what would it mean to have a User Interface that let you do exactly what you wanted to do? And Knowledge-Based Systems – what would it mean if the system knew, understood what you wanted to do? Those two questions led me back to graduate school to study Artificial Intelligence and User Interface Design. In a random coincidence, I resigned the day the Challenger shuttle exploded.
After finishing graduate school in Computer Science in1993, teaching spots at the big “R” schools were, interestingly, not all that attractive. Two consulting opportunities arose – one with Software Research Associates, a company headquartered in Tokyo, and the other with ObjecTime, a Nortel-spinoff out of Ottawa. I got to work for ATT, Lucent, Motorola, and Ericsson and work in half a dozen countries. Challenging, but great.
What drew you to teaching and working with students?
The main draw was for the family lifestyle. You immerse your children in education – what it means to ask hard questions – what it means to work with people who study all kinds of different things they are passionate about. Enabling students who work hard to reach that “Aha” moment is great.
What is the best part of working with students?
Although the brilliant students are a delight, the best part is the students who just work hard. It is satisfying to see a student reach that point where it finally clicks.
Outside of teaching, what passions and hobbies do you have?
- Radio-control fixed wing and multi-rotors. Mostly scratch building. But now and then even flying. And by flying, I mean, crashing.
- I am fortunate to spend lots of time with my boys hiking around and enjoying creation.
- Terry Pope once humbly acknowledged that he was the best golfer in COBA. In that same spirit of humility, I am undoubtedly the best faculty player on ACU’s world famous intramural team, the Sunflowers of Death.
Sunflowers of Death
Do you have a good story from your early career in teaching?
The first day in Management Information Systems (45 students), as I was going through the syllabus, a student came in late and sat on the front row, pretty disruptively. Two minutes later a phone rings and he reaches into his backpack, looks at it, and answers it. “Hello? Yeah. Nah – some class. Whatever. Tonight? Sure.” By that time, I had just stopped talking. By now the whole class is listening in to this conversation. It just so happened that I had brought my grandfather’s hammer to class for an illustration about technology “tools”. So I walked over to the student and said, “Are you done?” “Yeah, why?” “May I please see your phone?” “Uhmmmmm, ok.” I took his phone, placed it on the floor, picked up the hammer and smashed the phone. Surprisingly, it didn’t just explode into bits, so I hit it again. Then I picked up the pieces, handed them to the student and said, “I’m sorry, son, but this class isn’t going to work out for you. You are excused.” He stammered around a bit and left.
The room was silent. Blank stares all around. Cell-phone policy explanation complete.
Two notes:
- I had said, “I’m sorry, son” because he actually was my son. It was Joshua, wearing a cap so students wouldn’t recognize him. When his phone rang, it was because I had speed dialed it without being noticed. When he answered it, he had reached into his backpack, turned off the ringing phone and grabbed a non-working old phone and pretended to have a conversation.
- The funniest thing of all was that right after I smashed the phone, Joshua was looking around at the students and a guy across from him was holding his own phone and frantically pressing ALL the buttons trying desperately to shut it OFF.
Who is your role model and why?
Mom. Growing up in a time when the public voices we heard were mostly male, she found a way to be constructive. Tireless worker, always teaching, volunteering, organizing.
Dad. Church of Christ preacher who decided to do missionary work in a foreign country. He was extremely well-read. Preached for German-and English-speaking congregations every Sunday for 12 years in Wiesbaden.
Dr. John T. Willis. In a graduate class “Advanced Introduction to the Old Testament”, each student gave a presentation on the book they had been assigned. When the Isaiah student started with the same-old same-old, Dr. Willis kindly interrupted, “I see your references don’t include Blinkendorfer. When you’ve had a chance to do a little bit more research, have another go at it.” Boom. I learned there are real issues in the biblical text and we must deal with them. Before you quote scripture, do your homework.
Who was your most inspirational professor and why?
Undergrad: Dwight Caughfield. Disciplined, studied, calm, clear approach to topics such as new programming languages.
Graduate: John T. Willis. He modeled how to treat scripture with respect, to do your homework – not just quote a 2,000 year old saying because you like its current translation.
If you could have a superpower, what would it be and why?
If you rule out the “clearly ridiculous” powers, I choose… Magneto. Shaping metal would be awesome. Well, either Magneto or the power to type faster. Either one.
What is something that students might be surprised to find out about you?
- I’ve gotten to stand on Lost Arrow Spire twice. If you ignore the 3,500 foot drop, it has a nice view.
- I once learned to memorize a deck of cards so you could shuffle it, read the cards, and I could recite them forwards, backwards and name the 17th card, etc. So why are names so hard to remember?
What would you really want students and alums to know about you?
- We have a great set of profs here and after 14 years at ACU, I am still continuing to learn to appreciate how much work that takes. It takes much good will and many contributions to make ACU go.
- I wonder how to live a life that deals intentionally with the challenge to be “Grace and Truth”. What if that is the test? Today, this day, I am not so good at that.
by M. C. Jennings | Jun 26, 2015 | Academics, College Decisions, Current Students, Uncategorized
COBA in Switzerland: June 21st by Griffin Pedigo
Happy Fathers Day! Our day started out in Geneva, Switzerland.
After a little confusion on flight times & dates, Edhwin left for the airport earlier than Chris and I. While Edhwin hurried to the airport, Chris and I went to Starbucks (because that’s what every American does) and had some tea and coffee.
We left Starbucks and headed to the airport to catch up with Edhwin to make sure his flight was straightened out and to meet the girls. IT WAS! Praise the Lord. We met the girls and got on the plane for London.
Swiss Air has been one of the best airlines to fly with. They gave us sandwiches, drinks, and chocolate – talk about great customer service. We landed and sprinted to immigration and then sprinted to the bus in order to make it to 9@9.
People probably thought we were crazy running through the airport, but we just laughed about it. After a good, fun, and relaxing weekend we sat together as a group and worshiped our Heavenly Father with singing and reading of scripture. Dr. Lytle pushed us to answer this question after reading out of Isaiah 6: “What needs to die in your life, so you can be closer to Christ?” What a great question – something for us to think and journal about.
COBA in Oxford: June 22nd by Lydia Pinson
This morning at Oxford Analytica there were many things discussed. Something that stuck out to me was how we, as Americans, do things in life that seem simple to us without thinking about them very much even though they may have a lot of meaning in other places around the world.
This afternoon in class, Dr. Lytle talked about how to make a brand which, in his terms, is making a promise. He also talked about many more specific aspects of branding which were very interesting. Included in this were the factors that increase brand strengths such as product quality, consistent advertising, distribution intensity, and brand personality. Dr. Lytle also emphasized that brands are very important for making decisions.
Overall, it was a good day with lots of great opportunities to learn!
by M. C. Jennings | Jun 25, 2015 | Academics, College Decisions, Current Students, Uncategorized
COBA in Oxford: June 18th by Michelle Lytle
The much anticipated “free” travel weekend is official upon us! Group travel is over and students are going out to places with smaller groups of friends such as; Budapest, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, London, and more. We had class this morning with Dr. Lytle and learned that SERVICE MATTERS.
We talked through how great customer service is common sense but strangely rare and hard to accomplish without the correct vision, values, and leadership set in place. Next, we split to our different classes after lunch and were only there for about an hour so students could head out to their anticipated destinations. Traveling in Europe is a whole new ball game and we are all learning/trying to maneuver it in the most efficient way possible to maximize our time and minimize the amount of money we have to spend.
The majority of the students hit the road this afternoon, but there are a few of us holding down the fort tonight and getting up way too early to catch our flights!
We are so blessed to be here and excited to see what the Lord teaches us through experiencing different cultures and seeing His world from a whole new perspective. Thanks for letting me be historian of the day!!
COBA in Rome: June 19th by Morgan Mosley
On June 19th we started out the day at a hotel near the Rome airport. Our small group had what the hotel called an American Buffet breakfast with bacon, sausage and eggs with coffee. Soon after, we left the hotel by riding the Leonardo Di Vinci express train into the main city at Termini Station. We were so excited to get into the city and see the different sights! I got off at the train station at the stop right near Vatican City.
We learned that Vatican City is actually a separate country inside Italy. We walked around St. Peter’s square and got a great view of the Vatican! We kept walking a short distance until we arrived at our rented apartment during the duration of the trip. It was hard navigating in the streets at first, but we quickly learned our way. We left the apartment shortly after arrival to walk around our town, called Aurelia. We found a meat butcher shop and bought some beef and chicken to cook for dinner.
We also grabbed some pasta and other items to cook dinner in our apartment. On our way back to the apartment we grabbed some Gelato at a café and headed back to cook dinner.
Yes. We had dessert before dinner, and it did not spoil our appetite. We made dinner, and then had a quiet evening all together in the apartment.
It was a great 1st day in Rome!
COBA in London: June 20th by Temi Ogunleye and Spencer Woolfolk
What a fun Saturday in London! Spencer and I started our day early trying to find the London Zoo.
After roaming around for about an hour we found it but decided that tickets were a tad bit too expensive for our liking. We then decided to walk to the Big Ben/Hyde Park area to have lunch and explore.
My favorite part of Hyde Park was an area by a lake where there were a bunch of pigeons, herons, and geese. We concluded our excursion by going to the Sherlock Holmes Museum and walking across Abbey Road.
After this, we took the tube back to Oxford and headed home.
by M. C. Jennings | Jun 24, 2015 | Academics, College Decisions, Current Students, Uncategorized
COBA in Oxford: June 16th by Jake Linn
Today we had study hall/class at 8:30 while some of us visited Oxford Analytica. During study hall we worked on a case study dealing with targeting a certain sector of consumers or the “bottom of the pyramid.” Once the Oxford Analytica students returned we had a guest speaker, Jason Lepojarvi, give a lecture on C.S. Lewis and The Four Loves.
It was very interesting to hear Mr. Lepojarvi break down the different types of love that C.S. Lewis wrote about. For me personally, the most powerful part was learning about how a person’s character determines how they love. The more positive virtues a person portrays, the greater they love on others. At 2:00, half of the group went on a tour of Magdalen College, where C.S. Lewis studied, followed by the rest of the group at 2:30.
After the tours we had time to relax at the house, work on homework, and read for our quiz tomorrow.
COBA in Oxford: June 17th by Cody Luttrell
Today we started off by having a group of students go to Oxford Analytica while the rest of us had time to catch up on homework and get ahead on projects. When the students returned, Professor Golden talked to us all about information technology and all the different reasons how and why we market and grab others’ attention.
She introduced us to The STP Process, which is segmentation, targeting, and positioning, which is how we are going to go about marketing our product.
We broke for lunch and then the class split with half going with Dr. Lytle and the other half going with Professor Golden. Professor Golden talked to our half about the customer as a whole, their behavior, decision making process, and the different strategies we can use for different customers. We got the rest of the afternoon and night off to work on homework, our journals, and start some new projects. At night, a group of us went to to see a movie at the local Oxford movie theatre, Odeon, which was a great time!
This next entry is chronologically posted out of order, but so important. We hope it inspires you!
COBA in Normandy: June 14th by Kyle Kennedy
On June 6, 1944 the allied forces invaded the Normandy beaches, a 90 mile stretch of northern France. These forces were predominantly made up of American, British, and Canadian troops each invading five separate beaches in order to liberate territory under German occupation. The Allies took the beaches through amphibious and airborne assaults, but not without much difficulty and many casualties.
Throughout this infamous day, over 4,400 brave men lost their lives, 2,499 of which were American soldiers. Today, our class had the honor of being able to see where these American troops laid their lives on the line to defend the freedom of people all around the world.
After a few stops on our tour we arrived at Utah Beach, one of the two beaches invaded by American infantry. An astounding 23,000 American troops arrived at Utah Beach on June 6th and overtook the German regiments in only a few hours. A couple of stops later we arrived at Omaha Beach, the second of the two American invaded locations. Standing on these two beaches was a very interesting feeling. Imagining what took place only 71 years ago, while looking out towards the ocean clearly brought feelings of sadness, but also a sense of pride. Visioning these Americans that risked and lost their lives to liberate others reminded us of how grateful we should be to live where we do. Our last stop was one that I’m sure none of us will forget. We finished our tour by seeing the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial where 9,387 American men and women are buried as a result of World War II.
Seeing rows upon rows of crosses lined up for hundreds of yards was such a powerful image. It is hard to find the words to describe the feelings that accompanied all of us while walking through the grounds. Overall, getting the opportunity to see such monumental parts of the world’s history is an experience we will all remember for many years.
We ended the day by gathering as a group and giving thanks to God for the various blessings that come with freedom, and giving the utmost gratitude to those who have sacrificed their life to defend it.
by M. C. Jennings | Jun 22, 2015 | Academics, COBA Faculty, Current Students, Uncategorized
We’re back to the blog after a brief hiatus. It’s time to check back in on our COBA students and their adventures!
COBA in France: June 11th by Reese Herring and Zack Horton
Today was probably the busiest day we’ve had thus far on our trip. At 4:30am this morning the coach picked us up at our houses in Oxford and took us to the Gatwick airport in London where we took a 45 minute flight across the English Chanel to Paris, France.
When we arrived in Paris we got on a coach and traveled about an hour and a half outside the city to a town called Amiens.
We immediately drove to Amiens, a few hours outside the city, and visited a tech company called Appleton who is owned by Emerson Electric.
After lunch they gave us a short presentation over the heat and extreme weather resistant electrical products that they provide for those customers. Following the presentation we took a tour of their factory where they were manufacturing all of their products.
After we left their factory, we rode the coach into town and toured the Notre Dame cathedral of Amiens, which is twice the size of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, to put it in perspective. The cathedral was built in the 13th century.
At about 6 o’clock we left Amiens and took a 3 hour coach ride to Paris. When we arrived in Paris we checked into the MIJE Hostel, ate dinner and walked around Paris for about an hour. It was a big day packed full of activities and driving all over France!
COBA in Paris: June 12th by Ellen Johnson
June 12 I was the historian of the day! We had the opportunity to explore the city of Paris on our own before a bike tour. We rode about 8 miles and were able to see awesome historical sights. In the morning we got up and went to a French bakery for breakfast, walked to the Louvre and ended at the Eiffel Tower.
It was so much fun getting to see different landmarks that I have heard about since I was little but had never visited. It was crazy trying to communicate with the people of Paris via hand signals and the broken French that our group knows. It was also hard to differentiate between cultures because they looked like us but it was weird to think that they could not understand us at all. On the bike tour, we were able to see more of the city where we hadn’t walked and learned a little history about everything we saw.
COBA in Paris: June 13th by Chelsea Johnson
Saturday, June 13th, we had free time to explore the wonderful city of Paris! I woke up and decided I wanted crepes for breakfast. I then proceeded to city Ladúree to get a whole box of macaroons.
Then we took a cab to the catacombs, but the line was wrapped all around the corner of the block so we were unable to view them. Instead, we decided to have pizza with chili oil (my new favorite pizza accessory).
Next, we headed back to the hostel and then took a 4 hour bus ride to Normandy. Once in Normandy, we ate at a cute little seafood restaurant right next to the dock and then hiked up the mountain to explore, enjoy the beauty of the city, and watched the sunset. The end!
COBA in France: June 14th by Chris Kirklin
Today was our last day in France.
We began the morning with a nice breakfast at our hotel followed by a bus ride to Mont St. Michel. Mont St. Michel is an island commune, which was built before the year one thousand.
Over the centuries since it was originally built, there have been many additions to make Mont St. Michel what it is today. Twice a month, the tide engulfs the area around it, making Mont St. Michel one of the most beautiful places in all of France. Unfortunately today, the tides did not reach the castle but from the pictures and postcards we saw, it looked to be a beautiful sight.
The style and architecture was exquisite and I think it reminded everyone of Hogwarts.
After the tour we set off to Dinard Airport to catch our flight back to London and finished off the day with a bus ride back to Canterbury Road!
by M. C. Jennings | Jun 12, 2015 | Academics, College Decisions, Current Students, Uncategorized
Today’s blog is brought to us by Chase Hamilton.
Today, we finally got back on a normal schedule and spent the day here in Oxford. The morning started at 8:30 where a group of us got some much needed time to work on class projects and study for an upcoming quiz. Dr. Lytle took a smaller group of students to Oxford Analytica.
Oxford Analytica is a global advisory firm that provides analyses of worldwide events for governments and businesses across the globe. In the next few weeks, each of us will have a chance to listen in as these businesspeople share their thoughts on what is happening across the planet. After our first hour and a half session, we took a thirty-minute coffee, tea, and crumpets break.
We then dove into a lecture about what marketing really is, and how the external environment drives how businesses should present their products to consumers. Assistant Professor Golden gave us a very helpful metaphor: businesses can pinpoint their “target market” just like a bow and arrow. The consumer is the bull’s eye while the bow represents the tools a company can use to reach their customers (the 4 P’s; price, product, place, and promotion). Lastly, the metaphor presented outside factors that can affect how firms reach their buyers which include ethics, environment, data, and consumer behavior.
After the lecture we watched an eye opening video on World War II in preparation for our visit to Normandy, France this weekend. The video concentrated on the death tally of the war and really showed the class just how much the war impacted so many different countries. The most shocking fact I learned in the video was how many Soviet soldiers and civilians were killed throughout the war, totaling around 15 million. I loved the video because it made me contemplate how many lives were lost during the war and how I am so thankful to the men and women that have given their lives to protect people in our country and countries around the world. After the video, we came back to the houses for a quick lunch before our last class session in the afternoon where we went over different marketing strategies and learned the SWOT model. Despite not doing anything monumentally exciting today, we definitely learned a lot from both a marketing and historical standpoint. We ended the night gearing up for the weekend trip to France.
