Chris German Receives 1991 ACM/SIGAPL Innovation Award A m y Parsons M a r k e t i n g Specialist STSC, Inc. 2115 East Jefferson Street Rockville, Maryland 20852 Chris L. G e r m a n of S A R A Systems, Inc., was recently selected as the winner of the 1991 ACM/SIGAPL Innovation Award. The award was created to recognize and encourage technical excellence in the practical application of A P L by young professionals. Chris received a certificate c o m m e m orating his achievement and a $1,000 cash award. Winners were announced at APL91, the International A P L Conference, held in Pale Alto, California, in August. Chris" application uses A P L to construct the Footprint Module, an integrated module of the S A R A Facility Development System. The Footprint Module is a graphic application that automatically converts the initial space relationship diagram of a proposed building to a hard-line drawing of the footprint, or blueprint, of a building. It then automatically converts the hard-line drawing to a full-color, three-climensional model which can be rotated and viewed from every angle. The application is used by architects, engineers, estimators, and other facility professionals to streamline and automate the process of bringing a building project from concept to occupancy. According to Chris, the Footprint Module is used primarily to save time and m o n e y in an industry where funding is short, and greater accuracy at the concept stage is being demanded by Capital Facility Administrators. The alternative solution is performing the entire process by hand, which can take m a n y days, and cost significantly more. The same process, w h e n automated, is typically performed within a few minutes to an hour with equal or better results than the manual process. This translates into maximizing resources, m o n e y and time. Two r u n n e r s - u p w e r e also selected: Brian B e c k e r o f LEGI-SLATE, and J a m e s W h i t t a k e r o f the University of Tennessee. Brian's mainframe A P L appl i cat i on is a free-text s e a r c h s y s t e m used to locate i n f o r m a t i o n in an onl i ne d a t a b a s e c o n t a i n i n g t h e U.S. Code o f F e d e r a l R e g u l a t i o n s . T h e applicat i o n includes t he core s e a r c h t e c h n o l o g y , s t o r a g e m a n a g e m e n t o f gigabytes o f data, d y n a m i c updates, and t h e use o f " f o r m a l " and " u s e r " g r a m m a r s w h i c h m akes it possible to model an u n l i m i t e d v a r i e t y o f user search requests. The application provides e x t r e m e l y h i g h - p e r f o r m a n c e access and is e x t e n s i b l e to s u p p o r t new s e a r c h g r a m m a r s and s e a r c h attrib u t e s o t h e r t h a n t ext . D u e to the growing presence of sol,ware in medical, military and industrial applications, and the importance of h u m a n lives affected by these systems, James Whittaker developed an application in A P L that automates the construction of test sequences in these industries. With James' program, soRware companies are able to automate and implement statistical testing for safety-crltical soi~ware that requires rigorous testing and accurate reliability certification. Submissions were judged on technical innovation and benefits of the application. Winners were selected by an awards committee appointed by SIGAPL. The judges were Steve Jaffe of Mobil, Chris Lincoln of A P L PI, Inc., and James Wheeler of STSC. Financial support for the award is provided by STSC.. Applicants for the A C M / S I G A P L Innovation A w a r d must be 30 years old or younger. Entries must include detailed descriptions of the A P L applications and r e f e r e n c e s who will v e r i f y t h e b e n e f i t s and -usage. T h e a w a r d will be an a n n u a l e v e n t w i t h t h e w i n n e r a n n o u n c e d at t h e a n n u a l I n t e r n a t i onal A P L C o n f e r e n c e . If y o u or a n y o n e y o u k n o w would like to s u b m i t an application for the 1992 A C M / S I G A P L Innov a t i o n Award, please c o n t a c t : STSC, Inc. Attention: APL Innovation Award 2115 E a s t J e f f e r s o n S t r e e t Rockville, M a r y l a n d 20852 A ppl i cat i ons for t h e 1992 a w a r d will be solicited in Spring 1992. • --Reminder! The deadline for submitting papers for the APL92 Conference is December 1st, 199t. In the U.S., contact Lynne C. Shaw; In Europe, contact Erkki Juvonen. Addresses and contact information are shown on pages 3 - 4 . March 1991 - Volume 21. Number 3

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