Donald M. Needham, Ph. D.

Professor and Chair

Computer Science Department,United States Naval Academy

Background

• Ph.D., Computer Science and Engineering, The University of Connecticut, August 1997.
• M.S., Computer Science, Naval Postgraduate School, June 1990. AFCEA Award for Research Excellence, 1990.
• B.S., Applied Science, United States Naval Academy, May 1983.

Chair, USNA Cyber Warfare ad hoc Committee. Main research areas are in safety-critical software and software reuse. Main teaching areas include Software Engineering, Embedded Systems, Programming Languages, Operating Systems, Data Structures, and Introduction to Computer Science.

While on active-duty with the United States Navy, served as a Naval Flight Officer and Mission Commander with over 1000 flight hours in the S-3 Viking on deployments with Carrier Air Wing One (CVW-1) aboard the USS America and the USS Roosevelt.

S3 Viking

Courses Taught (Access Restricted to USNA Only)

• IC470 - Software Engineering.
• IC480 - Research Seminar/Capstone.
• IT320 - Systems Analysis and Design.
• IT440 - Systems Analysis and Design (with Java).
• SI180 - Fundamentals of Computing.
• SI204 - Introduction to Computer Science (C/C++). data.txt
• SI210 - Introduction to Computer Science (Pascal).
• SI283 - Programming for Systems Engineers (C).
• SI221 - Data Structures.
• SI304 - Programming Languages.
• SI334 - Software Engineering with Capstone.
• SI336 - Software Engineering.
• SI411 - Operating Systems.
• SI434 - Intro to Software Engineering.
• SI435 - Advanced Software Engineering.
• SI485 - Adv. Topics in Computer Science: Advanced Ada Programming.
• SI486 - Adv. Topics in Computer Science: Object-Oriented Programming Methodologies.
• SI486 - Adv. Topics in Computer Science: Programming in Distributed Environments Using CORBA.
• -------- Research Courses: Final Report Milestones. --------
• SI495 - Computer Science Research Project: High Energy Laser Progressive Wavefront Modeling.
• SI495 - Computer Science Research Project: High Energy Laser Modeling and Simulation Framework Evaluation.
• SI496 - Computer Science Research Project: Embedded Systems Using Java and QNX.
• SI496 - Computer Science Research Project: Stealthy Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Control Systems.

Research Interests

• Software Reuse
• Software Engineering
• Propagation Modeling
• Safety-Critical Software
• Programming Languages
• Object-Oriented Design Methodologies
• Multi-Disciplinary Design Environments
• Programming Language Extensions for Propagation Modeling

Publications

• S. Demurjian and D. Needham. (2009). Experiences in Project-Based Software Engineering: What Works, What Doesn't. Software Engineering: Effective Teaching and Learning Approaches and Practices. H. Ellis (ed.), IGI Global, pp. 191-211.
• D. Needham and S. Jones, 2007. A Software Fault Tree Key Node Metric, Journal of Systems and Software, 80(9):1530-1540.
• D. Needham and M. Izbicki, High Energy Laser Wavefront Modeling, Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Engineering Research and Practice (SERP'07), Las Vegas, NV, 25-28 June 2007. pp. 137-143.
• D. Needham and S. Jones, A Software Fault Tree Metric, Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Metrics (ICSM 2006), Philadelphia, PA, 25-27 Sept 2006. pp. 401-410.
• D. Needham and S. Jones, An Improvement Algorithm for Safety-Critical Software, Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Engineering Research and Practice (SERP'06), Las Vegas, NV, 26-29 June 2006. pp. 1016-1022.
• D. Needham, Interdisciplinary Teams for Software System Development, Proceedings of the 2005 International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering (FECS'05). Las Vegas, NV. June 20-23 2005. pp. 10-16.
• D. Needham and K. Schulze, Discovering Student Outcomes, Proceedings of the 2005 International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering (FECS'05). Las Vegas, NV. June 20-23 2005. pp. 99-94.
• D. Stahl, D. Needham, and M. Lennerton, An Overview of Modeling and Simulation in the CS Department at USNA. Proceedings of the Society for Computer Simulation Spring 2005 Simulation Multiconference (SCS 2005). San Diego, CA, April 3-7, 2005. pp. 171-178. Invited Paper.
• D. Needham, R. Caballero, S. Demurjian, F. Eickhoff, J. Mehta and Y. Zhang, "A Reuse Definition, Assessment, and Refactoring Framework for UML". Advances in UML/XML based Software Evolution, H. Yang (ed.) IRM Press, May 2005, pp 281-302.
• D. Needham, and E. Eckstrand, Analyzing a High Energy Laser Modeling and Simulation Framework, Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Engineering Research and Practice (SERP'04), Volume II, Las Vegas, NV, 21-25 June 2004, pp. 580-586.
• D. Needham, Interdisciplinary Teams for Embedded Software Systems, Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Engineering Research and Practice (SERP'04), Volume I, Las Vegas, NV, 21-25 June 2004, pp 17-20.
• M. McMahon, D. Needham, and J. Datko, "Performance of a Jini-Based Ad Hoc Network Authentication Scheme", Proceedings of the ICSA 16th International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems (PDCS '03), Reno, Nevada, 13-15 August, 2003 pp. 442-447.
• D. Needham, M. McMahon, and J. Datko, "Ad Hoc Network Authentication: A Jini-based Approach", Proceedings of the International Conference on Wireless Networks (ICWN'03), Las Vegas, NV, 26 June 2003, pp. 549-553.
• D. Needham, M. Simpson, and B. Whitten, "Putting Interdisciplinary Software Engineering into Practice, A Java-based Embedded System Controller", Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Engineering Research and Practice (SERP'03), Las Vegas, NV, 24 June 2003, Volume II, pp. 707-713.
• D. Needham, S. Demurjian, M. Price, T. Rando, and T. Daggett, "Analyzing the Reusability of XML Components", Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Business Information Systems (BIS 2003), Colorado Springs, CO, 5 June 2003, pp. 258-262.
• M. McMahon, J. Datko, and D. Needham. An Authentication Scheme for a Jini-based Ad Hoc Network. Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems (PDCS 2002), Louisville, KY, USA September 19-21, 2002.
• J. Datko, M. McMahon, D. Needham, Supporting Secure, Ad Hoc Joins for Tactical Targeting Network Technology. Proceedings of the International Network Conference 2002 (INC2002), Plymouth, UK, July 16-18, 2002.
• M. Price, D. Needham, and S. Demurjian, Producing Reusable Components: A Domain-and-Organization-Specific Perspective. Proceedings of the 2001 ACM/SIGSOFT Symposium on Software Reusability (SSR'01), Toronto, Canada, May 18-20, 2001, pp. 41-50.
• D. Needham, R. Wilson, K. Shaw, An Analysis of a CORBA-Based Approach to Accessing Geospatial Information via the Internet. 20th IEEE International Performance, Computing, and Communications Conference (IPCCC 2001), Phoenix, AZ, April 4-6, 2001, pp. 236-243.
• D. Needham, S. Demurjian, T. Peters, An IDL to Ada95 Mapping to Support Propagation Modeling, "Ada Letters", Vol XX, Number 1, March/April 2000. pp. 58-66.
• D. Needham, S. Demurjian, T. Peters Towards a Distributed Object-Oriented Propagation Model Using Ada95, Proceedings of SIGAda99, Redondo Beach, CA. Oct 17-21, 1999, pp. 203-210.
• D. Needham, S. Demurjian, T. Peters, An IDL to Ada95 Mapping to Support Propagation Modeling, Proc. of the 13th Annual ASEET Symposium, Colorado Springs, CO, July 26-29, 1999. pp. P-II-1 - P-II-8.
• Concurrency in Object-Oriented Propagation Modeling Using Ada95, Proc. of the 12th Annual ASEET Symposium, Monterey, CA., July 27-30, 1998, pp. 92-100.
• An Ada95 Basis For Propagation Modeling, Proceedings of TRI-Ada'97, St. Louis, Missouri, Nov. 11-14, 1997, pp. 263-272.
• A Reusability Measurement Framework and Tool for Ada95, Proceedings of TRI-Ada'97, St. Louis, Missouri, Nov. 11-14, 1997, pp. 125-132.
• ADAM: A Language-Independent, Object-Oriented, Design Environment for Modeling Inheritance and Relationship Variants in Ada95, C++, and Eiffel" Proceedings of TRI-Ada'96, Philadelphia, PA Dec. 1996.
• "Propagating Topological Tolerances for Rapid Prototyping", Symposium on Recent Developments in Tolerance and Metrology for Control and Improvement of Manufacturing Processes, Atlanta, Georgia, Nov. 1996.
• "Object Modeling to Localize Knowledge for Feature Interrelationships", IFIP Knowledge Intensive CAD-2 Workshop, Pittsburg, PA., Sept. 1996.
• "Modeling Topological Interdependencies in Ada95", Proc. of the Tenth Annual ASEET Symposium, Prescott, Arizonia, June 25-28, 1996.
• "Unifying Propagation Modeling and User-Role Based Security", Department of Computer Science and Engineering Technical Report, CSE-TR-96-13, June 1996.
• "Relations Between Features--An Object-Oriented Industrial Prototype", Proc. of the 1996 ASME International Computers in Engineering Conference, Irvine, California, August 1996.
• "Object-Oriented Design Abstractions and Code Generation Front Ends to CAD Systems", Fifth IFIP WG5.2 Workshop on Geometric Modeling in Computer-Aided Design}, Airlie, Virginia, May 1996.
• "Propagation Within An Object-Oriented Design Model" Department of Computer Science and Engineering Technical Report, CSE-TR-95-03, June 1995.
• "Integrating Ada95 Within A Language Independent Approach to Undergraduate Software Engineering Education", Proc. of the Ninth Annual ASEET Symposium}, Morgantown, West Virginia, June, 1995.
• "A Software Engineering Approach to Ada Instruction" Proc. of the Seventh Annual ASEET Symposium, Monterey, CA, Jan 1993.

Contact Information

E-mail

needham [at] usna.edu

Phone

Fax

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