Melody Stapleton's Vita

Melody J. Stapleton, Ph.D.

Professor of Computer Science
California State University, Chico
Chico, CA 95929-0410

Office: (530) 898-5617
Cell : (530) 591-0633
FAX: (530) 898-5995
E-mail: mjstapleton@csuchico.edu
Web Page: http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~melody

Honors

John F. O'Connell Fellowship, College of Engineering, CSU, Chico 2000-2001

Education

·         Oracle Master Certification in Database Administration, 1999

·         Oracle Certified Professional in Network Administration, 1999

·         Oracle Certified Professional in PL/SQL Programming, 1999

·         Ph.D. - University of California, Riverside, 1982

·         M.A. - University of California, Riverside, 1977

·         B.S. – University of California, Riverside, 1976

Primary Fields of Interest

Development, including Project Management of Web-based E-commerce systems and Data Warehouses, Systems Analysis and Design of Client-Server Systems including Web-based Data Collection and Analysis Systems, Advanced Performance Tuning and Backup and Recovery of Database Systems (especially Oracle) - Knowledgeable of key issues with Oracle 7 through Oracle 10g releases, Object-Oriented Software Engineering with patterns and the UML

Courses Taught

Undergraduate

Introduction to Programming (in C++), Software Engineering, Algorithms and Data Structures with C++, Systems Analysis and Design, Database Management Systems, Compiler Theory, Theory of Computation, Computer Graphics Programming, Oracle SQL and PL/SQL Programming

Graduate

Distributed Databases, Information Theory, Error-Correcting Codes, Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with the UML, Oracle Architecture and Database Administration, Oracle Advanced Performance Tuning, Oracle Backup, Recovery and Networking

See Web Page (http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~melody) for most recent offerings, including Oracle 10g Curriculum.

Academic & Professional Service

Director, Center for Information Technology Consulting, College of Engineering, Computer Science and Technology, 2001 to present

Department Chair, Department of Computer Science, California State University, Chico, 1996-1998

Selection Committee for Management Information Systems Director, City of Chico (served 1995 and 1999)

Chair of Dean Review Committee, College of ECT, CSU, Chico, 1997-8

Project Director, Information Systems Master Plan, City of Chico, 1995

Academic Senator, CSU, Chico

Consulting and Industrial Experience

Spring 2009 – Present: Expert Witness with Round Table Group. Currently representing a large insurance company in a class action suit regarding use of software and a database management system in determining reimbursements for medical claims. Consulting includes analysis of algorithms, data mining and data validation and statistical analysis.

Spring 2005 - Criminology and Expert Witness Consulting. Working with the US Attorneys' office, investigated a database used for e-commerce. Migrated database to new platform, overrode system administrator privileges and investigated structure and data of database. Generated statistics to show level of financial damages to consumers and intent to commit various crimes of commerce. Presented statistical reports and conclusions at trial. Work resulted in conviction and multi-year prison sentence for defendant.

Fall 2003 - Present: Member of Management Team for Regional Law Enforcement Initiative to develop Homeland Security Integrated Information System for use by 6 Northern California Counties. Working with director of Matson and Isom Technology Consulting to develop project plan and obtain funding for a homeland security system that features data sharing among law enforcement branches of six participating rural northern California counties. Working with state director of homeland security, National Institute of Justice, elected state representatives, police chiefs and sheriffs to obtain $2.8 million in funding. Automated initial project plan and will oversee feasibility analysis of software solutions and documentation of implementation to serve as a model for collaboration among other groups of counties within the nation. Multiple grant applications have been submitted and are pending. Senate bills to fund such initiatives have been introduced by elected representatives and are progressing through approval cycles in the legislature.

Fall 2001 - Present: Research Director, College of Engineering, Computer Science and Technology, CSU, Chico. Working with industry to develop research projects, grants, contracts and internship programs with the College of Engineering. In addition, working with junior faculty to assist in development and acquisition of funded research opportunities with government and industry.

Spring-Summer 2001: Project Director, Hewlett Packard, Roseville, California. Designed and conducted Oracle Performance Tuning training workshop on HPs XP Storage Arrays within HPs Storage University Program. Workshop included overview of Oracle Architecture and Administration as well as Advanced Oracle Performance Tuning.. A large multi-gigabyte database was designed and created along with workload stimulus for conducting the tuning experimentation. Installation of Oracle on HP-UX and various high level database tuning and storage tuning tools was accomplished. The workshop involved numerous experiments with XP array configurations and database workloads. Workshop included high-level discussions amongst storage system experts and Oracle experts on I/O performance.

2000-2001: Developed and recorded Internet-delivered, video-streamed courses on Oracle Database Administration, Oracle SQL and PL/SQL Programming and Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with the UML and Patterns. These courses use WebCT and Horizon Live and are available from CSU, Chico's Continuing Education Program, (530) 898-6105.

1997-2000: Project Director, Meteorological Section, Air Resources Board, State of California. Designed new system components and re-engineered a web-enabled Database System that acquires hourly real-time meteorological data and disseminates it via graphic weather maps constructed "on the fly" for the world-wide web. Directed a team of 4-6 graduate students in developing a system that included Java, Perl and CGI scripting, an object-oriented data poller, and re-designed a SQL Server database that was them implemented with DB2. Total project dollars on this project exceeded $200,000 for the time period of my involvement.

1997: Project Director, Mendocino County, California. Supervised a team of four consultants to review the quality of the computer systems planning and outsourcing of computer services for Mendocino County. This project consisted of conducting numerous interviews with County administrators and staff within various departments as well as the computer services corporation with which they outsourced services, reviewing planning documents and the state of computing systems, writing a report and presenting it at a County-wide meeting.

1983-97: Computer science training via live satellite television, various corporate customers, including IBM, Hewlett Packard, General Dynamics, Texas Instruments, Bentley Nevada. Taught live, interactive television courses in software engineering, data structures, database management systems, computer architecture and information and coding theory.

      1997: Developed Videotape Course in Relational Database Management Systems Design and Implementation. Course is marketed by CSU, Chico. Developed 500 page course manual and a comprehensive database project assignment. Course includes 45 hours of videotaped instruction and covers database design using the Unified Modeling Language (UML) as well as traditional Entity-Relationship Modeling. SQL programming and implementation of database systems is also covered, along with concurrency, transaction management, and backup and recovery.

      1997: Project Manager, Several Projects with Prentice Hall to Re-engineer Business Simulation Software into Windows ’95 and Windows NT from DOS. Software was developed in Visual Basic 4.0.

       1996: Project Manager, Community College Management Information Systems Consortium, Principal Investigator for a Situation and Marketing Analysis for a Software Development Consortium. Thoroughly investigated current market of Student Services University Software and Software product developed by CCMISC. Made formal recommendations for future directions of software development project and infrastructure realignments. Worked to obtain subsequent contract for Chico Business faculty.

      1996: Project Manager, Re-engineering of CSU, Chico SIS+/AI+ student database in Oracle. Managing a team of 4 students and staff in developing a formal requirements definition and data model/design, conducting formal interviews of system users, managing development of file filter programs for download of data, managing GUI design and cross-platform development.

      1995: Developed and Awarded Hewlett-Packard Grant, working with MIS faculty and grant development, wrote proposal and was awarded hardware and software upgrades of over $500,000. Documented the departmental infrastructure needs and the relevance of HP grants to our curriculum and lab environment.

      1995 – 1996: Member of Target 2000 Technology Task Force, CSU, Chico, task force role is developing strategy to implement the Target 2000 Technology plan which includes acquisition of faculty and student workstations and furthering technological capabilities of the campus.

      1995: Project Manager, City of Chico, California. Developed Citywide Information Systems Management Plan. Conducted over 50 hours of interviews encompassing all City Departments including Police, Fire, Finance, Personnel, Public Works, etc. Thoroughly documented existing hardware and software platforms and made recommendations for planned network growth and organizational restructuring which included establishment of separate MIS Division. Thoroughly documented all information needs and made recommendations for repair of City’s Financial Database and Permits Database. Made recommendations for acquisition and development of a City Geographic Information System. City manager is implementing all phases of the Plan.

      1995: Grant and Curriculum Development, Wrote and was awarded $500,000 grant for a lab of Silicon Graphics Indigo Machines to run Wavefront Animation Software. Developed Computer Graphics Curriculum which incorporates Wavefront Animation Software.

      1983-95: Computer Science Training, Naval Weapons Center, China Lake, California. Trained Naval personnel in areas of Systems Analysis and Design, Database Management Systems, Computer Graphics, Error-Control Coding, and Object-Oriented Data Structures and Algorithm Design. Formats included intensive summer courses, weekend courses, and videotape training.

      1993-94: Developed Videotape Course in Object-Oriented Data Structures and Algorithms with C++. Course is marketed by CSU, Chico. Developed 260 page course manual and 4 comprehensive programming assignments which demonstrate various object-oriented concepts and development of practical data structures. Course includes 37 hours of videotaped instruction and covers OO concepts such as inheritance, polymorphism and templates. Data structures coverage ranges from a review of stacks, queues and lists through Binary Search Trees, AVL trees, B and B+ trees, Threaded Trees, Graphs and Graph Algorithms, Hashing and Heaps.

      1993: Associate Project Director, Department of Energy Grant. Developed curriculum, recruited faculty and conducted summer science camp for minority students that highlighted engineering and computer science applications of science.

      1991: Project Manager, Meteorology Section of Air Resources Board, State of California. Performed and managed automation needs assessment accessing, storing and retrieving both tabular and graphic data for meteorologists in order to make timely and accurate forecasts.

      1990-91: Systems Analysis and Design Consultant, Toxic Substances Control Program, Department of Health Services, State of California. Studied the records management for major business units and proposed a backup system and document indexing system in the form of a feasibility study report. Alternatives analyzed included document image storage and retrieval (WORM) technology.

      1989-90: Project Manager, Legal Services, Toxic Substances Control Program, Department of Health Services, State of California. Studied the hardware and software alternatives to interconnect PC's with local area networks within the legal services section and to connect to mainframe data bases. Made recommendations and assisted in planning for acquisition and installation of hardware and software

      1987-90: Computer Science Training, International Business Machines, North Carolina (Research Triangle) and Maryland. Taught intensive courses in advanced object-oriented programming methodology, database management systems, data structures, and control structures.

      1989: Systems Analysis and Design Consultant, Toxic Substances Control Program, Department of Health, State of California. Studied the various databases used by TSCP and suggested hardware and software alternatives to consolidate existing databases. Products included a 3NF logical model of existing TSCP data and other standard database design products.

      1989: Systems Analysis and Design Consultant, China Lake Naval Weapons Center, China Lake, California. Conducted an analysis of graphics simulation software for target acquisition for fighter aircraft. Delivered final report with detailed recommendations.

      1988-89: Systems Analysis and Design Consultant, Toxic Substances Control Program, Department of Health, State of California. Conducted a study of data management and information needs for integrating all data systems of Toxic Substances Control Program.

      1987-89: Conducted Professional workshops and training in Artificial Intelligence, Lockheed Missiles and Space Corporation, Artificial Intelligence Training Center, Palo Alto, CA. Teach courses to LMSC personnel in the area of artificial intelligence, specifically in area of computer vision.

1988-89: Systems Analysis and Design Consultant, Toxic Substances Control Program, Department of Health, State of California. Conducted a study of data management and information needs for integrating all data systems of Toxic Substances Control Program.

1988: Systems Analysis and Design Consultant, Toxic Substances Control Program, Department of Health, State of California. Conducted a feasibility study for a Geographic Information System to integrate graphic and tabular data about toxic storage and cleanup sites with information about ground water, well locations, vegetation, average precipitation, topological features, road locations, etc. to assess risk.

1987-88: Systems Analysis and Design Consultant, Toxic Substances Control Program, Department of Health, State of California. Conducted a feasibility study for all Program data processing and automation needs.

1987: Systems Analysis and Design Consultant, Toxic Substances Control Program, Department of Health, State of California. Conducted a feasibility study for office automation.

1987: On Site Trainer, Hewlett Packard, Palo Alto, CA. Trained Hewlett Packard personnel in programming in C++, advanced data structures and algorithms, database design methodology and implementation, and compiler theory.

1987: Systems Analysis and Design Consultant, Public Employees Retirement System, State of California. Conducted needs assessment for optical disk retrieval system for document images of member records.

1985: Database Development Methodology Consultant, Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, Sunnyvale, California. Evaluated database development methodologies used by LMSC and prepared detailed report for upper management.

Positions Held

1996-98 Department Chair, Department of Computer Science, California State University, Chico
1989-93 Partner, Duncan (formerly Melody Duncan) and Fisk, systems consulting.
1987-89 Vice President, ADFM, Inc., systems consulting.
1986-2000 Professor, Department of Computer Science, California State University, Chico.
1981-86 Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, California State University, Chico.
1985 Database Administration, Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, Sunnyvale, California.

Publications

1997        ‘Report on Computer Systems Planning and Outsourcing for Mendocino County’, by John Zenor, Ben Martz, Roy Crosbie and Melody Stapleton, Mendocino County

1998        1996    ‘Situation and Marketing Analysis for the Community College MIS Consortium’, by Melody Stapleton and Robert Simard, Butte College and CCMISC

1996    ‘Information Systems Management Plan for the City of Chico’, by Melody Stapleton and Len Fisk, City of Chico

1993    'Innovative Use of Computer Graphics Hardware and Software' , DOE conference, Washington, D.C.

1991    'Feasibility of Automating Burn Control Decisions', report submitted to State of California, Air Resources Board

1991    'Feasibility of Automating Records Management', report submitted to State of California, Department of Health Services, Toxic Substances Control Program

1990    'Local Area Network Feasibility Study', report submitted to Legal Services, Toxic Substances Control Program, Department of Health Services, State of California

1989    'Database Consolidation at the Toxic Substances Control Program', report submitted to State of California, Department of Health Services, Toxic Substances Control Program

1989    'Graphics Alternatives for Flight Simulation', report submitted to China Lake Naval Weapons Center, China Lake, CA

References

References available on request.