Second Helpings: EMTM Alums Return for More

'Lifelong learning' isn't just a sound-bite for EMTM alumni who are taking advantage of the opportunity to enroll in several courses that have been opened up to graduates on a full-credit basis.

"It's the right time, the right subject and the right level," says Rob Williams, EMTM'02, Senior Manager for Innovation and Integration in the Analysis, Modeling & Simulation (AMS) group at Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. Rob returned to campus this Fall on alternate Friday afternoons to attend EMTM's Software Engineering. The course was developed and taught by Dr. Gregory Vesonder, Director of the Communication Software Research Department at AT&T Labs-Research and Adjunct Professor of Computer and Information Science at Penn Engineering.

For Rob, the application has been immediate, he says. Since graduating from EMTM, he has moved within Boeing from Program Manager in the Boeing IDeAS organization, to Integration Manager for Boeing Army Systems, to his current position with AMS. "Software architecture's link to systems engineering is my job right now. I need to be able to talk with our software and systems engineers to find out more about integrating their methods and techniques." One additional advantage he's discovered: "I can ask the right questions of people I'm hiring. It's been exactly what I need."

Also joining the Software Engineering class was Eric Rossman, EMTM'03, Vice President of Developer Relations and Technical Alliances at Avaya, the communications enterprise firm that spun off from Lucent Technologies in 2000. Eric has responsibility for the Avaya DeveloperConnection Program, which provides a worldwide, integrated partnering framework for third-party relationships. With more than 1500 active members in the program and 1800 consultants, staying current with software engineering principles helps him "get into the heads of software developers as stakeholders," Eric says. "I don't need to be able to do the software engineering, but I need to understand client needs and manage the developers."

Alumni also enrolled in two other first term courses: Data Mining and Drug Discovery.

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