Endowments for Student Excellence

Corin Anderson attended the University of Washington from 1993 through 2003. He earned bachelor’s degrees in computer science and math, and a master’s and Ph.D. in computer science. As an undergraduate, he was joined at the UW by his brother, Casey, and his mother, Cathy, who also earned bachelor’s degrees in computer engineering and technical communications. And, again as Corin completed his Ph.D., Casey earned a master’s through the CSE Professional Master’s Program. Sharing the college experience with family started even before the UW for the Andersons. Corin, Casey, and Cathy all attended Highline Community College first and graduated with an Associate in Arts degree on the same night (and one day before Corin graduated from Foster High School in Tukwila, WA). Corin and Casey’s father, Craig, rounded out the Anderson family support network.

Corin always felt that the culture of the CSE department was one of its best features, and he did his best to help contribute to it. He was known for decorating his office, especially around the holidays, and for always having snacks on hand for visitors. Corin carried on these traditions after graduation when he joined Google in Mountain View, CA, in 2002.

This endowment was established to support students whose work is focused on exploring how technology can improve the lives of underserved populations and to honor the scholarship of Gaetano Borriello, his leadership in teaching and research, and his contributions to the Department of Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) at the University of Washington.

Gaetano joined the UW CSE faculty in 1988, following receipt of his Ph.D. in computer science from UC Berkeley. He had previously received an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and served as a member of the research staff at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center for eight years. From 2001-2003, on leave from UW, he founded Intel Research Seattle, which quickly became one of the premier research labs for work in ubiquitous computing.

Gaetano’s career began in the areas of integrated circuits, circuit synthesis, reconfigurable hardware, and embedded system development tools. He transitioned into ubiquitous computing, and as director of Intel Research Seattle, he launched projects in elder care and in location-aware computing. He also focused on applying mobile technologies to the problems of public health and development in low-resource settings. He was the director of a group that designed Open Data Kit, an open-source mobile data collection tool.

Gaetano was a Fellow of the ACM and IEEE, a Fulbright Scholar, and a recipient of the UW CSE Undergraduate Teaching Award, the UW Distinguished Teaching Award, and the UW Marsha L. Landolt Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award.

Gaetano exemplified why we are here: to provide an extraordinary educational experience for our students, in which they discover, pursue, and achieve their potential; to conduct leading-edge research, but in the context of education rather than purely for its own sake; ultimately, to make the world a better place through the impact of our teaching, research, and mentoring.

Wilma Bradley was a special friend of the University of Washington. Wilma first became interested in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) after attending the UW Annual Faculty Lecture given by CSE Professor Ed Lazowska in 1996. After several years of supporting CSE Ph.D. students (and regularly attending their thesis defenses!), she established this fellowship in 2007.

Wilma was married to Warren Francis “Frank” Bradley. Frank led a varied career in the U.S. Army for over 20 years. He was a member of the general staff, serving in Korea, and participated as an Army observer with the U.S. Navy expedition to the South Pole in preparation for the Geophysical Year. The Bradleys met in Europe when both were working for NATO, she as an interpreter for the American forces in Germany, and he as a liaison officer. Upon his retirement in Seattle in 1964, the Bradleys became involved in real estate investment and property management. Frank Bradley passed away in 1966.

Wilma continued to actively manage her investments, maintaining an avid interest in the stock market, and these efforts made this and other gifts possible. In addition, she volunteered for UNICEF, was a patron of the arts, was involved in several local clubs, and continued a keen pursuit of knowledge through attendance at many University functions. She maintained an active interest in the teaching and research of CSE along with its students and faculty. Wilma passed away on October 22, 2022.

This endowment was established by a consortium of donors, including Paul G. Allen School faculty, alumni, and staff.

Jeff Dean received his bachelor’s degree in 1990 in computer science and economics from the University of Minnesota. He received a Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1996 from the University of Washington, enjoying his time in Seattle greatly. After graduation, Jeff worked for Digital Equipment Corporation’s Western Research Lab for almost three years. In 1999, Jeff joined Google, Inc. as an early employee, writing significant portions of Google’s crawling, indexing, and query serving systems, building systems infrastructure for large-scale storage and computation, and generally having a great time working on difficult problems with great colleagues and producing software used by hundreds of millions of people. Heidi Hopper received her bachelor’s degree in 1990 in psychology from the University of Minnesota. She received her Ph.D. in organization behavior and human resources management from the UW in 1997. Heidi and Jeff both believe strongly in the value of education at all levels. They hope that this fellowship will help attract and support the best and brightest students to explore and solve important problems in computer science.

Anne Dinning joined the D.E. Shaw group in 1990, after receiving a B.S. in computer science from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. in computer science from New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, where she won the Howard Grad Memorial Award for Outstanding Ph.D. Candidate. As managing director for the D. E. Shaw group, she directs certain strategic initiatives and is jointly responsible for the overall management and trading of the firm’s investment strategies, focusing on the firm’s energy-related, long/short equities and designated higher volatility strategies, as well as the firm’s institutional asset management business. 

Michael Wolf received his B.S. in physics and applied math from U.C. Berkeley, followed by a Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University. He joined the D.E. Shaw group and later worked at various firms in the financial and technology industries. His 1991 paper on compilation for improved data locality was included in a 2004 “Best Of” retrospective of the ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI).

Martin Bickeböller’s family is filled with graduates from the University of Washington. In 2011, the chair of the Department of Computer Science, Hank Levy, challenged Martin to give back to other students the opportunities and education his family had received over the years. Martin came in 1982 as a Fulbright student (Ph.D. in physics, 1986), his sister Heike (Statistics Ph.D. 1993) received a graduate assistantship, and his daughter Marisa (B.S. in computer science and engineering, 2010) full tuition waiver as a Washington Scholar. His second daughter Linne received her B.S. in history in 2012, and there are many more graduates and also faculty in the family.

Martin was raised in Germany and continues to be active in the international community at the UW, in particular supporting the Foundation for International Understanding through Students (FIUTS) by annually hosting new students, including several CSE students. He has become convinced that it is critical for our world to grow together as people. In order to do that, an exchange of people and ideas must occur across the continents. Students are searching for meaning and ideas in the world and need to be encouraged to make the journey across the ocean. By providing an incentive for the brightest European students to experience the University of Washington and the Pacific Northwest, the hope is that they will go forward after their education to further understanding among the nations.

Shun-Tak Leung graduated with a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Washington in 1996. Throughout his journey from Hong Kong to the UW to Silicon Valley, he always remembered his advisor, John Zahorjan, for his advice, support, and constant encouragement, and Ed Lazowska for his contagious enthusiasm and help during his early career. Shun-Tak wishes to give back in some small way for so much that he has received. He hopes beneficiaries of this fellowship will, in time, become benefactors and stay faithful to their stewardship of their own talents and opportunities.

As one of the early graduates of the fledgling Computer Science Program at the University of Washington, Marilyn J. Fries received her M.S. degree in computer science in 1976. She presented her thesis, entitled “On the Efficiency of Some List-Marking Algorithms,” at the Congress of the International Federation for Information Processing in Toronto in 1977. Marilyn’s career included positions at Digital Equipment Corporation and Microsoft Corporation.

Marilyn and her husband, Jim, had three children: Ed, Bob and Karen. Each followed Marilyn into the information technology field. Ed concluded his 20-year career at Microsoft as Microsoft Game Studios’ vice president of games publishing. Bob designed both hardware and software at Digital Equipment Corporation and then Microsoft. Karen worked on product design – making computer interfaces easier – at Microsoft.

Throughout her career – including her time as a UW student, Marilyn Fries had a keen interest in the status of women in computer science, and in engineering as a whole. Marilyn led by example and also by her commitment to organizations such as the Society of Women Engineers.

Melissa Glerum received her bachelor’s degree in computer science from Brown University, and Kirk Glerum received his bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Washington. Their education prepared them for highly successful careers at Microsoft, and they hope to make the same opportunity available to future generations of students.

Don and Cindy Hacherl both did their graduate work at the University of Washington. Don’s studies were in computer science and engineering. After leaving the UW, Don spent the next two decades at Microsoft, where most of his time was spent designing and implementing distributed computing systems. This fellowship was prompted by Don’s interest in supporting students who will contribute to the continued success of the software industry in our region.

As a student at the University of Washington, Gary Kildall received three degrees: a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1967, a master’s degree in computer science in 1968, and a Ph.D. in computer science in 1972. He was hired as an assistant professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, and later joined Intel Corporation to write programming tools for the Intel 4004 microprocessor.

A pioneer in the computer revolution, Gary developed CP/M, which became the dominant microcomputer operating system of the 1970s. He was one of the first people to recognize that even the early, simple microprocessors could support a complete minicomputer-style operating system, and he created an editor, assembler, linker, and loader, along with the first file system to use floppy disks as a general-purpose storage medium. As personal computers began to be used, he saw that their true potential would be in connectivity, so he developed extensions to CP/M that let computers share files and peripheral devices over a network.

Gary’s company, Digital Research, Inc., introduced operating systems with windowing capability, preemptive multitasking, and menu-driven user interfaces years before Microsoft developed Windows. He also created the first practical open-system architecture, which allowed operating systems and application programs to be independent of the specific machines on which they ran. A firm believer that life and work should be fun, Gary also developed an early computer-based arcade game as well as precursors to current interactive multimedia.

Gary passed away in 1994, at the age of 52. 

Other resources about Gary’s extraordinary accomplishments:

• They Made America | About the Book | PBS
• They Made America | PBS
• Eulogy from the memorial service
• Gary Kildall – Wikipedia
• Gary Kildall (gaby.de)

This fellowship was established by Dan Ling and his partner Lee Obrzut to honor Dan’s birth mother, Dora Zee Ling. Dora was born in Shanghai, China, in 1924. She was intellectually brilliant, strong-willed, and determined at a time and in a culture that discouraged such traits in women. She pursued the rigorous education and training to become a physician like her father, even though she suffered from a serious congenital heart defect. She loved children and was dedicated to improving their well-being by doing research on tuberculosis. Dora had an inquiring mind with wide-ranging interests from art and literature to the sciences; she was always concerned about social issues. She died prematurely and unexpectedly of a brain tumor at the age of 39. She was greatly loved by her son and husband.

Dan and Lee are life partners. Dan came to the Seattle area to help found Microsoft Research. He was one of the leaders who transformed the new laboratory into a world-renowned research institution for computer science. Lee founded a psychological counseling service that helped disadvantaged children in Northern Arizona. He then held senior accounting positions for the State of Arizona.

Both Lee and Dan believe strongly in the value of education and particularly want to help students achieve their educational objectives. They are delighted to be able to fund this fellowship because they recognize the important contributions that The Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington makes to the discipline of computer science and the intellectual and economic vitality of the Seattle area.

Microsoft’s $1 million commitment to the University of Washington in 1994 was the largest gift ever made by the Company. By designating the gift to the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the Company made an important investment in the future of the software industry. According to Bill Gates III, “Institutions such as the University of Washington provide the software industry with the research and development talent we will need to continue our success. Microsoft has enjoyed a close working relationship with the University of Washington and will continue to look forward to a stronger relationship in the future.”

This endowment was established to honor the scholarship of David Notkin, his leadership in the field of computer science, and his values, which include the education of women, international study, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

David received his Sc.B. from Brown University in 1977 and his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in 1984, when he joined the UW faculty. A world leader in software engineering, David served as CSE chair from 2001-06, and was honored with the Boeing Professorship, the Frank and Wilma Bradley Endowed Professorship, and the Frank and Wilma Bradley Endowed Chair.

An extraordinary mentor, David received the UW Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award in 2000. His philosophy about working with students follows that of his own adviser, Nico Habermann, “Focus on the students, since graduating great students means you’ll produce great research, while focusing on the research may or may not produce great students.”

Lauren Bricker (M.S. ’93, Ph.D. ’98), Ruben Ortega (M.S. ’94), and Paul Franklin (M.S. ’98) are among a dozen University of Washington Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) graduate students and alumni who formed a team to ride in the 1995 Seattle-to-Portland (STP) bicycle ride. The team name was inspired by CSE’s Steam-powered Turing Machine mural, painted 30 years ago by a group of graduate students and recreated in the Allen Center.

Many team members continued riding together even as they pedaled off campus and into careers and family life. Ortega, an expert in search technology, worked for Amazon.com, startups, and as an independent software consultant. Bricker consulted on user interface architecture, taught at Lakeside School and the University of Washington. Franklin worked as a software developer at Amazon.com.

Bricker, Ortega, and Franklin organized a consortium gift from their bike team to fund this endowed fellowship. “We got a great education at the UW, which opened the doors to great jobs, so we wanted to give back to CSE,” said Ortega. “Creating an endowed fellowship offered a terrific opportunity to do that, and the timing was right for all of us,” added Franklin.

Dave Weil is a graduate of Stanford University (B.S. in mathematics, 1974) and the University of Washington (M.S. in computer science, 1977). Dave spent four years as a software developer at The Boeing Company. In 1980, he joined Microsoft, where he spent 17 years as a software developer, program manager, and software development manager for a variety of products, including Visual C/C++ and Microsoft Works. He retired in 1997.

Marsha Weil is a graduate of the UW (B.S. in occupational therapy, 1978, and M.S. in occupational therapy, 1993). She worked for the Northwest Center, UW Experimental Education Unit, Seattle Children’s Hospital, and Bellevue School District while raising two sons and one husband. She retired in 1998.

Lisa Wissner-Slivka earned a B.A. in computer studies from Northwestern University in 1985 and an M.B.A. from the University of Washington in 1988. She worked at Microsoft as a program manager and product manager on programming language tools and electronic mail applications for six years. She served on the boards of the Bellevue Schools Foundation, Social Venture Partners, Kindering Center, Puget Sound Susan G. Komen Foundation, Bush School, Seattle Children’s Theatre, and the Overlake Hospital Foundation. She was co-chair of the Kindering Center capital campaign, that completed successfully in 2001. She is a marathon athlete.

Benjamin W. Slivka grew up in the Mount Baker neighborhood of Seattle and graduated from Garfield High School. He met Lisa at Northwestern University, where he earned B.S. degrees in computer science and applied mathematics in 1982, followed by an M.S. degree in computer science in 1985. He spent 14 years at Microsoft working on OS/2, MS-DOS, Windows, Java, and MSN.

Perhaps Benjamin’s most visible project at Microsoft was starting the Internet Explorer team and leading it through the release of IE 3.0. After a brief stint at Amazon.com, he retired in 2000 to focus on his family and philanthropy. He co-founded DreamBox Learning in 2006, and DreamBox Learning K-2 Math — a web-based math game for kids 4-8 years old — launched in early 2009 to rave reviews. He has held volunteer leadership positions at Northwestern University and the Garfield High School Foundation. He dabbles in digital photography and maintains a handful of websites.