Ken Williams '75 '85
Bachelor of Science, Master of Science
North Carolina A&T State University
Associate Professor, Retired
What is your fondest memory of your time in the CS department?
I was the third (or fourth?) person to graduate with a BS in CS from Michigan Tech. When MTU changed its academic computer from an IBM/360 to a Univac 1110, Doug Paul and I spent several evenings backing up the computer center's huge library of punch cards to magnetic tape.
How has your education impacted your career?
Immediately after graduating, I started working for Michigan Tech as manager of operations for Academic Computing Services (ACS). Over the next 13 years, I moved to manager of systems programming supporting both academic and administrative computing. I then left to earn a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Linda Ott had a wonderful article in the 2024 MTU Gateway magazine describing the early CS department. I remember when she started. While she didn't have TAs at that time, ACS did provide students to help answer the computing questions of other students.
Dr. Ott was my advisor for my Master of Computer Science degree. Years later, both she and I were chairs of our computer science departments. She gave me several good ideas for running the department.