Preface

When it came time to prepare my banquet speech for the fortieth anniversary celebration of the Department of Computer Science on 1 October 2005, I tried to do something different. I didn’t want to give the usual hip-hip-hooray, look-how-good-we-are serious talk. I wanted something lively, something that would make people laugh, have a good time, and feel good about themselves and the department. I hit upon the idea of a CS department ABC book, and I constructed my banquet speech around the text for the letters Y (Young faculty), P (Phds), and I (Intelligence, artificial). It has taken me a year to complete this booklet, but I finally managed it.

My thanks to the CS faculty, not only for critiquing drafts of this booklet but for being congenial colleagues —some for 37 years! We have not always agreed, thank heavens, but we had a good time debating issues in a friendly way. I thank my twin, Peter, for his help in polishing many of the verses of this booklet. And, Stephanie Specchio deserves applause for designing and producing this booklet. I felt after working with her on the fortieth anniversary booklet that she was the one to design this ABC book, and I was right!

The ABC book gives a promotional view of the Department of Computer Science as of its 40th anniversary celebration, in October 2005. Each letter of the alphabet has a page that is devoted to some aspect of the Department, Cornell, or Ithaca. The page contains a verse, text, and some pictures.

Click on a Letter below to view the page for that Letter. On that page, you will be able to download the pdf file of that page.

front cover pdf (232KB)
back cover pdf (160KB)
rest of book pdf (???MB)

To receive a hard copy of this ABC Book (while they last), or to comment on it, email gries at cs.cornell.edu.