I usually teach a computer science course each term here at UMass/Boston. My day job is at Ab Initio: Ab Initio Software Corporation 201 Spring Street Lexington, MA 02421 USA phone: (781) 301-2403 email: offner "at" cs.umb.edu This is always the best address to use when sending me email, because email here also gets forwarded to me at work and at home.

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This Spring I am teaching CS 624: Analysis of Algorithms.

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What I do for a living:

• TStreams Project Papers

  Here are papers and technical reports from the TStreams project, which I worked on with Kath Knobe and Alex Nelson at the Hewlett-Packard Cambridge Research Lab.

• High Performance Fortran (HPF) Papers

  Here are papers and technical reports from the HPF compiler project at Digital and Compaq.

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Here are some expository papers I am putting up for public enjoyment:

1. These papers are written at the level of an advanced undergraduate—say, someone who has been through advanced calculus and linear algebra.
   • Repetitions of Words and the Thue-Morse Sequence
   • Finite Fields and Pseudo-Random Number Generation
   • Some Early Analytic Number Theory
   • Computing the Digits in π

2. This paper is written at the level of a first-year graduate student. As I was writing this up, I got interested in some historical questions. At the end of the paper I include a historical sketch that includes my views on two controversial topics:
   • Did Abel prove "Abel's theorem" on the convergence of power series? (Yes, he did.)
   • Did Dirichlet really come up with the modern definition of function? (I think it's quite reasonable to say that he did.)
   and also my thoughts on a question that I have not seen dealt with seriously before:
   • Why was Fejér's theorem such a sensation, since the essential results had been known for many years?
   • A Little Harmonic Analysis
     

3. This paper is standard computer science. Much of it is not readily available in books, however. It's only the bare beginning; I'd like to add a lot more to this:

   • Notes on Graph Algorithms Used in Optimizing Compilers
     

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And here are my thoughts on some current issues in secondary school science and mathematics education. The paper looks at—and gives reasons for rejecting—three principles that have been widely promoted in current educational reform debates. These principles have been popularized in particular by Theodore Sizer and his Coalition of Essential Schools:

• "Less is more."
• Exhibitions as a goal or proof of successful education. Sometimes the phrase "authentic assessment" is used for this principle.
• High school teachers as generalists or coaches rather than subject-matter specialists. Sometimes this is referred to as an "interdisciplinary" model of education.

In considering these principles, the paper touches on some common misconceptions of science and the "scientific method". In an extended discussion, it contrasts these with a description of what science is, what scientists do, and—based on this—what are reasonable objectives for secondary school science and mathematics education.

• Dumbing Down Mathematics and Science: Sizer's Essential Schools Proposal