Blayne Sucks

As I’m sure many of you know, I graduated from Purdue University in 2003 with a degree in Computer Engineering. It’s been 5 years since I graduated and I recently had the opportunity to visit Purdue for the first time since graduation. To say that Purdue has undergone a lot of change in the last 10 years is a bit of an understatement. They have built or significantly renovated 35 new buildings including Ross-Ade Stadium, the Recreational Sports Center, the Boilermaker Aquatics Center, the Purdue Memorial Union, the Dauch Alumi Center, the Lawson Computer Science building, and the Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering. Some of these renovations took place, such as the Recreational Sports Center, while I was there. Many of them took place after I left.

First and foremost, the primary purpose of the trip was to tour the new Lawson Computer Science building. I want to sincerely thank Dr. Spafford for inviting me and taking the time to visit with me as well as give me a personal guided tour of the building. Spaf, that was exceedingly cool of you, and I appreciate it.

The building was dedicated last year, but still looks new and has plenty of room for expansion. I didn’t take pictures while touring the interior of the building itself, but the picture to the left is a view of the building’s exterior taken on the day I visited. The whole building has a warm and clean feel to it. All the server closets have windows so that the systems and cabling inside are visible. The entryway and the halls are extremely impressive, but I was even more impressed with the labs and classrooms inside.

The graduate student labs all have a kitchen area including a microwave, refrigerator, and sink. Combined with the comfortable reading areas, desks and meeting rooms it would appear that computer science grad students at Purdue would almost never have to leave their lab. Another nice addition for graduate students are the separate offices for TA office hours. There’s even a meeting area outside the offices for group discussions. This is a critical addition as described in Gerald Weinberg’s The Psychology of Computer Programming. Basically, he states that having this commons area will allow people who have the same questions to gather and potentially figure them out while waiting for the TA to be free.

The computer labs, instructional labs and classrooms are similarly well thought out. They are all state of the art. There are video control rooms and server closets close by to ensure that the labs and classrooms are able to service any possible request such as video capture of a lecture in a classroom or special network setups in a computer lab.

I also had the chance to visit the new Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering, which was dedicated this past October. The picture to the left is a statue of Neil Armstrong right outside of the main entrance. In the entryway is a replica of the Apollo 1 Lunar Module. The building houses a mix of interdisciplinary labs, administrative offices, and teaching facilities as well as a cool-sounding zero-gravity research lab about which I know almost nothing.

Probably the most startling change to me was the renovation of the Purdue Memorial Union. The reflecting pool that was almost always anything but reflective has been replace with landscaping, but the big changes were done on the interior. Basically, the whole commons area has been completely altered and much improved. When I was a student, I spent a lot of time between classes at the Union. I ate there many times and studied there even more often. Several of my regular study groups would meet there in the evenings. Thus, seeing some of the changes was quite shocking.

Pappy’s is totally different. It used to be relatively small looking with dark wooden benches, chairs and tables. Now it is a retro 1950’s style diner complete with nickel jukeboxes on the tables. There are windows along the wall to the hallway that makes it feel more open and everything inside is bright.

The other areas have also changed. Instead of having several stores with a single checkout area, the stores are all independent with their own styles and checkouts. There is even a Starbucks. The only store that hasn’t changed that much is the Oasis. I’m not sure if there’s less seating as a result of the redesign or not. The seating has certainly changed. Most of the old seating areas have been replaced by tables and chairs in the style of the vendor area where they appear. It’s a lot more like several small restaurants rather than a single common area to sit and eat, even though there are still some of those areas.

On the whole, the trip was fantastic! It was weird to be back as an alumnus for the first time and see that Purdue has changed. Of course, everything changes and I’m pleased to see Purdue is improving by leaps and bounds. I’ve posted some pictures from my trip along with more descriptions in my gallery.