Returning to NC State's campus after 30 years, Ross Scroggs couldn't miss a number of changes that had taken place.
He recalled that the trees in the brickyard had just been planted when he was taking classes, working toward the bachelor's degree in computer science that he received in 1971. Walking across campus on his recent visit, he could not get over how much they had grown and the number of new buildings that had been added.
Nelson Hall once housed the Computer Center where he spent lots of time hanging around while he was running his jobs. "Now programmers can run a job anytime," he says. "Before you had to think of all the time issues that were involved."
Learning to program using punch cards is a world away from the way students learn to program today. Ross vividly remembers waking at 3 a.m. to go to the Computer Center to submit a job so that he could get results more quickly. Programming was a communal activity rather than the individual activity that it has become today, he says. Many ideas were exchanged and friendships forged while waiting for results to be processed in the Computer Center.
After graduation, Ross went on to receive his master's in computer science from Carnegie Mellon in 1973. He then went to work for ITEL, a financial services company, where he worked with modeling systems. He also worked at the Stanford Research Institute before starting his own company, Telamon, in the late 1970's.
Telamon got its start before the PC arrived on the technology scene by building a single computer to put between a big computer and a device to transfer information. Now Telamon is a leading developer of urgent messaging solutions for extending information from enterprise applications to a broad array of wireless devices.
In February 2001, Telamon was acquired by Vytek Wireless, Inc., a wireless systems and services integrator. Ross has since entered a state of semi-retirement. He continues to live in Oakland, CA. He is considering several new business opportunities and remains in a constant pursuit for knowledge. We congratulate Ross on his success in the field of computer science and wish him luck in the future.
- posted 2001 - Ken Tate-
