Elliot Bruce Koffman (born 7 May 1942 in
Boston,
Massachusetts)
is a noted
computer scientist
A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science.
Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...
and
educationist. He is the author of numerous widely used introductory
textbooks for more than 10
different
programming languages, including
Ada,
BASIC
BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...
,
C,
C++,
FORTRAN,
Java,
Modula-2
Modula-2 is a structured, procedural programming language developed between 1977 and 1985/8 by Niklaus Wirth at ETH Zurich. It was created as the language for the operating system and application software of the Lilith personal workstation. It w ...
, and
Pascal
Pascal, Pascal's or PASCAL may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Pascal (given name), including a list of people with the name
* Pascal (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
** Blaise Pascal, Fren ...
. Since 1974, he has been a professor of computer and information sciences at
Temple University,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Education and career
Koffman attended the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned his
Bachelor of Engineering and
Master of Engineering degrees in 1964. He received his PhD in 1967 at
Case Institute of Technology with a dissertation on learning games through
pattern recognition.
That same year, Koffman began work at the
National Security Agency in
Fort Meade, Maryland
Fort Meade is a census-designated place (CDP) in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States. The population was 9,327 at the 2010 census. It is the home to the National Security Agency, Central Security Service, Uni ...
as an
electrical engineer
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
. He was promoted to
captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
of the
U.S. Army and assigned to the
Defense Intelligence Agency in
Washington, D.C. from 1967 to 1969.
Koffman also began his teaching career in 1967, serving as a professorial lecturer at
George Washington University, Washington, D.C. (1967–1969); an Assistant Professor (1969–1972) and Associate Professor (1972–1974) in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the
University of Connecticut; and an Associate Professor (1974–1978) and Full Professor (1978–present) in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at Temple University.
Koffman's early research was in
artificial intelligence and
intelligent tutoring systems. In 1974 he began writing and co-authoring textbooks for introductory
programming courses for
computer science majors (CS1) in programming languages such as Ada, BASIC, C, C++, Fortran, Java, Modula-2, and Pascal. He also wrote textbooks for the first
data structure
In computer science, a data structure is a data organization, management, and storage format that is usually chosen for efficient access to data. More precisely, a data structure is a collection of data values, the relationships among them, a ...
s course (CS2) in C++, Java, and Pascal.
In 2009 he was awarded the
SIGCSE Outstanding Contribution Award "for an extraordinary record of teaching, curriculum development, publishing papers as well as numerous textbooks, and for helping to shape Computer Science education".
Other activities
Koffman chaired the
Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional member ...
(ACM) task force to revise CS1 and CS2 courses from 1983 to 1985. He was also chairman of the ACM Special Interest Group in Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) from 1987 to 1991.
Family
Koffman married Caryn Jackson
in 1963.
She is a photographer whose work has won awards and has been featured in a local gallery.
They have three children, Richard, Deborah and Robin. They live in
Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.
Bibliography
*
* (with Frank L. Friedman)
*
* (with Frank L. Friedman)
* (with Frank L. Friedman)
*
*
* (with Frank L. Friedman)
*
* (with Bruce R. Maxim)
*
* (with
Richard C. Holt and Chrysanne DiMarco)
* (with Frank L. Friedman)
*
* "''Ada: Problem Solving and Program Design.''" Feldman, Michael B. & Koffman, Elliot B., . Addison-Wesley Publishing Company; 1992 & 1993. 795 pages.
* (with Michael B. Feldman)
* (with Frank L. Friedman)
* (with Ursula Wolz)
* (with Jeri R. Hanly)
* (with Paul A. T. Wolfgang)
* (with Jeri R. Hanly)
* (with Frank L. Friedman)
* (with Paul A. T. Wolfgang)
References
External links
Koffman's page at Temple UniversityACM Digital Library: Elliot Bruce Koffman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koffman, Elliot
20th-century American mathematicians
21st-century American mathematicians
American computer scientists
American technology writers
American computer programmers
United States Army officers
Writers from Boston
Writers from Philadelphia
Temple University faculty
1942 births
Living people