Active: 1965 - 1984
Dr. Kenneth L. Bowles was a computer science pioneer and professor at 麻豆传媒. Dr. Bowles joined 麻豆传媒 in 1965 by the recruitment of Dr. Henry G. Booker. Ten years prior, Dr. Bowles completed his doctorate at Cornell University under Dr. Henry G. Booker and when Dr. Booker moved from Cornell University to 麻豆传媒 to create a new department named Applied Electrophysics, Professor Bowles was the first faculty member he hired. In 1968 Dr. Bowles served as director of the computer center at 麻豆传媒.
Dr. Bowles began his career in experimental ionospheric physics and space science studying the aurora borealis using coherent backscatter radar. While at Cornell University, he took up the challenge of observing free electron scattering using a new transmitter. He contributed to the Arecibo Ionospheric Observatory, then, a new and powerful observing tool of 鈥渋ncoherent鈥 backscatter where they showed they could observe profiles of electron densities close to 1,000 kilometers out. Shortly after graduate school he joined the Central Radio Propagation Laboratory of the US National Bureau of Standards (NBS), in Boulder, Colorado. With NBS colleagues, they developed the Jicamarca Radar Observatory in Peru, where they collaborated with Instituto Geof铆sico del Per煤 to observe ions orbiting in the earth鈥檚 magnetic field using a radar on the geomagnetic equator. Having helped to resolve questions about the upper ionosphere, Dr. Bowles鈥 curiosity moved further out into space. In the case of solar wind observatories, Dr. Bowles provided the systems with sufficient new computational power to support the analysis of what is now called 鈥渂ig data鈥. Although his scientific training was in electrical engineering and applied physics, his engineering instincts and guidance allowed him to grasp the enormous breadth and power of the computer science revolution.
He was a gifted and inventive experimentalist who teamed with outstanding theorists and in 1974 began development of UCSD Pascal, the project for which he is best known. Dr. Bowles' passion for delivering effective personalized computer science instruction at scale was the primary motivation for creating the UCSD Pascal initiative.
As Dr. Bowles became more deeply involved with computing, he advocated bringing computing to disadvantaged communities in San Diego. Dr. Bowles figured that beginning programmers needed to see what their programs were doing, as opposed to what they intended them to do 鈥 a critical ingredient of his approach to educational scaling. This approach allowed students to proceed at their own pace, mastering the course materials module by module, with automated testing of both software engineering concepts and program development assignments, plus guidance along the way from undergraduate proctors. The Advanced Placement Computer Science course and examination were based on the Pascal language from 1984 to 1998. In fact the UCSD Pascal project was a breakthrough as a critical factor in its widespread adoption for programming instruction. In 1979, the number of copies of UCSD Pascal being distributed continued to grow, however with legal and tax concerns, the UCSD Pascal initiative was moved out of the university to a private company. Although Dr. Bowles was no longer involved, the project continued to influence the development of personal computing well into the 1980s.
With the departure of the UCSD Pascal project, Dr. Bowles switched his programming language focus to Ada, a successor language that extended and strengthened Pascal鈥檚 support for careful software engineering. After actively participating in the (D) ARPA-sponsored competition to develop and evaluate alternative approaches to the new language, Dr. Bowles took early retirement from UCSD and started a software company, TeleSoftware, focused on Ada. Ada鈥檚 use today is primarily in defense applications, but TeleSoftware鈥檚 successor and descendent companies continued as leaders in the Ada market.
An attributor to the successes of Dr. Bowles鈥 careers were his 鈥渞oll up your sleeves and do it鈥 attitude and a focus on the big picture. Dr. Bowles cared deeply about the welfare of the people he worked with, not just his professional colleagues and students, but all people. Dr. Bowles had an infectious curiosity and taste for problem solving that his students and coworkers quickly absorbed. He made problem solving, and the accompanying hard work, fun.
Dr. Bowles had a lifelong interest in photography. To his wife鈥檚 dismay, his early photographic subjects tended to be antennas, even while traveling in exotic places like the Azores. After retirement, however, Dr. Bowles began photographing wildflowers, with particular focus on species endemic to California. He contributed significantly to the San Diego County Plant Atlas as well as part of an award-winning exhibit at the San Diego Natural History Museum, Earth, Wind & WILDFIRE, which Dr. Bowles helped to develop. A selection of his photographs appears on their website.
The was established by former students and those close to Dr. Bowles to honor his legacy and impact on our engineering and computer science students.
In celebration of Dr. Bowles' renowned accomplishments as a researcher and founding faculty member, the was established by Dr. Irwin and Mrs. Joan Jacobs and will support the continued groundbreaking work of an engineering chairholder.