Harlan D. Mills (May 14, 1919 – January 8, 1996) was Professor of

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

at the Florida Institute of Technology and founder of Software Engineering Technology, Inc. of Vero Beach,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

(since acquired by Q-Labs). Mills' contributions to

software engineering Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development. A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term '' ...

have had a profound and enduring effect on education and industrial practice. Since earning his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in Mathematics at

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

in 1952, Mills led a distinguished career. As an IBM research fellow, Mills adapted existing ideas from

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

and

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

to software development. These included automata theory, the

structured programming Structured programming is a programming paradigm aimed at improving the clarity, quality, and development time of a computer program by making extensive use of the structured control flow constructs of selection ( if/then/else) and repetition ( ...

theory of Edsger Dijkstra,

Robert W. Floyd Robert W Floyd (June 8, 1936 – September 25, 2001) was a computer scientist. His contributions include the design of the Floyd–Warshall algorithm (independently of Stephen Warshall), which efficiently finds all shortest paths in a graph and ...

, and others, and

Markov chain A Markov chain or Markov process is a stochastic model describing a sequence of possible events in which the probability of each event depends only on the state attained in the previous event. Informally, this may be thought of as, "What happe ...

-driven software testing. His Cleanroom

software development process In software engineering, a software development process is a process of dividing software development work into smaller, parallel, or sequential steps or sub-processes to improve design, product management. It is also known as a software devel ...

emphasized

top-down design Top-down and bottom-up are both strategies of information processing and knowledge ordering, used in a variety of fields including software, humanistic and scientific theories (see systemics), and management and organization. In practice, they c ...

and formal specification. Mills contributed his ideas to the profession in six books and over fifty refereed articles in technical journals. Mills was termed a "super-programmer", a term which would evolve to the concept in IBM of a " Chief Programmer."

Achievements

* Ph.D.:

, 1952 * Visiting Professor (Part Time) 1975-1987 * Adjunct Professor, 1987-1995 * Chairman, NSF Computer Science Research Panel on Software Methodology, 1974–77 * the Chairman of the First National Conference on Software Engineering, 1975 * Editor for IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 1975–81 * U.S. Representative for Software at the IFIP Congress, 1977 * Governor of the IEEE Computer Society, 1980–83 * Chairman for IEEE Fall CompCon, 1981 * Chairman, Computer Science Panel, U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, 1986 * Awardee, Distinguished Information Sciences Award, DPMA 1985 * Designer of initial NFL scheduling algorithm (http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_harlan/407/) The ICSE-affiliated colloquium "Science and Engineering for Software Development" is being organized in honor of Harlan D. Mills, and as a recognition of his enduring legacy to the theory and practice of software engineering. The ICSE-affiliated colloquium "Science and Engineering for Software Development" was being organized in honor of Harlan D. Mills (1919–1996), and as a recognition of his enduring legacy to the theory and practice of software engineering. The first annual "Harlan Mills Practical Visionary Prize" award was presented in 1996. This award is given to an individual who has demonstrated a long-standing and meaningful contribution to both the theory and practice of the information sciences.

Career

Early life

Born in

Liberty Center, Iowa Liberty Center is an unincorporated community in southern Warren County, Iowa, United States. It lies along U.S. Route 65 south of the city of Indianola, the county seat of Warren County. Its elevation is 1,024 feet (312 m), and it is ...

. As a young man, Mills studied art with

Grant Wood Grant DeVolson Wood (February 13, 1891 February 12, 1942) was an American painter and representative of Regionalism, best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest. He is particularly well known for '' American Gothic'' (193 ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Mills became a bomber pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps. His skills in flying and teaching were such that rather than having him fly missions, the Army assigned him to train other pilots.

Education

Mills served on the faculties of

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and

Johns Hopkins Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was an American merchant, investor, and philanthropist. Born on a plantation, he left his home to start a career at the age of 17, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland where he remained for most ...

Universities, the Universities of Maryland and Florida, and Florida Institute of Technology (FIT). At Johns Hopkins and Maryland, he initiated one of the first American university courses in structured programming. At Maryland, he developed a new two-semester freshman introduction to computer science and textbook "''Principles of Computer Programming: A Mathematical Approach''" with co-authors Basili, Gannon, and Hamlet. At FIT, he developed a new freshman and sophomore curriculum for software engineering using Ada as the underlying language with colleagues Engle and Newman.

Industry

Mills was an IBM Fellow and Member of the Corporate Technical Committee at IBM, a Technical Staff Member at GE and RCA, and President of Mathematica and Software Engineering Technology. At GE, he developed a three-month curriculum in management science attended by hundreds of GE executives. At IBM, he was the primary architect of the IBM Software Engineering Institute where thousands of IBM software personnel were trained in the mathematical foundations of software. He later embodied the mathematical and statistical principles for software in the Cleanroom software engineering process. As founder of Software Engineering Technology, he created an enterprise for Cleanroom technology transfer.

Nation

Mills had an abiding interest in fostering sound software engineering practices through federal programs. During the formative period of the DoD DARPA STARS Program in the 1980s, he provided fundamental concepts for development of high quality software at high productivity. In 1986, he served as Chairman of the Computer Science Panel for the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. During 1974-77, he was Chairman of the NSF Computer Science Research Panel on Software Methodology.

Profession

Mills was a program committee member and invited speaker for many professional conferences, and a referee for many mathematics and computer science journals. From 1980-83, he was Governor of the IEEE Computer Society. In 1981, he was the Chairman for IEEE Fall CompCon. During 1975-81, he served as Editor for IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering. In 1977, he was the U.S. Representative for Software at the IFIP Congress. In 1975, he was the Chairman of the First National Conference on Software Engineering.

Harlan D. Mills Award

To honor Mills the IEEE Computer Society created the ''Harlan D. Mills Award'', the first one presented in 1999, for "contributions to the theory and practice of the information sciences, ocused on

References

External links

IP: Harlan Mills passed away this week
- Mailing list message with details

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mills, Harlan Iowa State University alumni 1919 births 1996 deaths Formal methods people IBM Fellows Florida Institute of Technology faculty