Robert Newcomb Email & Phone Number

Ann Arbor, Mi, Us

Creative activities include the production of compact discs of original improvisational and electronic computer-assisted music compositions, as well as concert performances. Ongoing research and development project is a music analysis and composition software system, described in ‘Music In The Air: A Theoretical Model and Software System for Music Analysis and Composition;, Organised Sound, (Cambridge University Press, UK), Volume 3/1, April 1998. Components of the system include analysis and classification of musical performance, algorithmic composition using mathematical models, and monitoring of natural-world non-musical phenomena as control mechanisms for compositional assembly. From 1994 through 1999, compositional work produced by the system was presented at Computer Music conferences in the United States, England, Brazil, Greece and China. Original development tools included Macintosh object-oriented HMSL/Forth. Development tools are HMSL/Forth, Max/MSP, C and Java. See http://www.partialmusic.com/.

As part of a major re-organization in 2017 (see below for history), the Duderstadt Center, previously a part of the U-M Library, has been restructured to align with the Digital Education Innovation initiative of the Provost Office. My role has become focused on leading the artistic, technical, personnel and planning aspects of audio and video productions. The Media & Studio Arts area includes two Video Studios, three Audio Studios, and four Multimedia Editing Rooms. I also retain a consulting role for the budget structure, financial planning and projections of the Duderstadt Center as a whole

I hold a leadership role in the university library's innovation center for digital media, from multi-disciplinary incubation to deployment, with emphasis on collaborative Learning and Teaching methods and technologies in a higher education context. Responsible for management of approximately $4M annual budget with a staff of 25 technology experts. State of the art facilities include audio, video and electronic music studios, 3D printing, data immersion, motion capture, data visualization, learning analytics, experimental learning environment design labs, fabrication and maker spaces.

Instructor at Ann Arbor, MI and Santa Barbara, CA, innovative yoga studio. A holistic discipline, based on traditional Hatha Yoga principles, using free hanging ropes and fabric doras as tools for developing strength, stamina, balance and flexibility. See http://www.russayog.com/

Across numerous projects, I have held roles as Lead Functional/Technical Analyst, Project Manager, and SME/Consultant. During a multi-year restructuring of Enterprise IT at UM, overall focus of all work has been to improve design, scope and quality of existing core services as well as develop and support new products and services. As a member of the ITS Applications and Information Services group (Campus Community, Human Resources and NextGen Michigan teams), my major project areas have included the Enterprise Directory (M-Community) and Sponsor System, Identity Management, UM Emergency Alerts, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, Academic Unit Information System (AUIS), Space Utilization, Rackham PhD Continuous Enrollment, External Organizations, the Agile/Iterative Framework Design, Digital Signage, BI Cube ETL Data Modeling and test tool design, and HR Data Warehouse Business Objects reporting, BI Rapid Deployment and HR KPI initiatives, IT Rationalization, NextGen Desk Side Support, Operations and Availability Planning.

Management of the school's newly established Business Information and Network Security Initiatives. My work blended Business Intelligence methods research, data mining of administrative data architectures, and the design of financial projection and internal workflow modeling systems. Areas of focus included modeling of endowment and financial aid processes and overall revenue and cost trends, projection and management. I also served as IT Security Liaison/Coordinator for an environment that serves approximately 1100 students and 280 faculty and staff located in the Moore, Stearns, Walgreen, Hill, Power Center, Rackham, League, Burton Tower, Dance and Revelli buildings on the U-M Central and North campuses in Ann Arbor.

Strategic leadership in technology planning and support for 200 faculty, 80 staff, and 1100 students located in ten buildings on two campuses. Supervision provided to four full-time IT staff and part-time student staff. Direct Report to the Office of the Dean. Budget - Design and manage annual infrastructure budget of approximately $600,000 for Administrative and Instructional Technology hardware, software and technical support needs throughout the school. Personnel - Hiring, supervising and evaluating full time staff and work-study student staff. Network - 10 buildings, 36 ethernet switches, 50 printers, 350 Macintosh computers, 25 PCs, 15 servers (Mac/Win). Additional responsibilities included: Labs - Support of six instructional/research labs, with 70 workstations, Vendor Relationships, Database Development, Resource Scheduling, Faculty/Staff Computing Accounts, Technical Lead and School Representative to university organizations, Web Sites, Desktop Support, IT Security Coordination and Administration.

Essentially, this position is included within the previous position description. Immediate supervision was given by a faculty member, whose emphasis was on instructional music technology. Administrative growth and increased demands for coordination of instructional and administrative computing led to a promotion to Director, reporting directly to the Dean’s Office, with input from the Music Technology Chair, with an increasingly highly visible role as representative of the School in technology related issues across the university.

Project co-sponsored by Dartmouth College and the ICMA. Design, implementation and maintenance of Internet based library providing centralized information concerning non-commercial software relevant to computer music.

Taught introductory Macintosh computing courses in a continuing education environment

Primary responsibility in Customer Technical Support of Software used in state-of-the-art digital audio systems including SYNCLAVIER and POST-PRO products. Maintained extensive technical knowledge of product architecture, operational procedures and practical customer applications. Additional responsibilities included coordination of Software Re-Engineering projects, acting as an in-house beta site for new software products, performing data recovery for several types of storage media, design and implementation of a bug-tracking system as well as various internal support systems for the Support Services Department. Interfaces included all departments within home office, service and sales personnel within four domestic and two international offices, as well as direct customer contact worldwide. Database development was done using INFORMIX-4GL and SQL languages running under XENIX.

Us

Involved in all technical aspects of Videotext Home Banking system subsequently marketed as part of the PRODIGY product. Primary responsibilities involved supporting the banking functionality of an on-line system, trouble-shooting, and training of junior staff members. Project Leader in the conversion of a multiple-network architecture into a single-network system, and also in a complete overhaul of software library organization and code/database quality control and standardization. Additionally, acted as technical interface and support for in-house User Group throughout development, implementation and installation of projects. TANDEM hardware, TAL and COBOL/PATHWAY software based on a cloned ACI ATM switch.

Team leader in application development of Home Banking and Videotext Gateway Software, marketed as the PRONTO product. Responsible for the creation of System Requirements for Product Development Group, functional and detail design specifications, scheduling, development, and implementation. Primary environment was TANDEM COBOL/PATHWAY with secondary use of TAL.

Member of six-person team responsible for life cycle development of precedent-setting securities Program-Trading system in a TANDEM/TAL multi-tasking, on-line, communications environment. Duties included functional specification, documentation, detailed module design, coding of multi-tasking processes, script-writing, testing, integration cycles, on-line debugging and full implementation. Involvement in database definition, system sizing and throughput balancing.

Responsible for the design and implementation of new Operations Pathway system involving conversion of IBM BAL, Fortran IV and COBOL modules to TANDEM Fortran 77 and COBOL. Team member involved in design and development of Pathway system for use by 100 securities analysts. Developed several TAL utilities for use in application development.

Responsible for giving demos of software to users and training and supervising four operators, as well as all operations activities for a company specializing in accounting software for nursing homes and small hospitals. Hardware was QANTEL microcomputers. Programming language was QICBASIC.

Responsibilities included data entry, proofing of input parameters and output reports, as well as all operations duties for a company providing publicity services based on a computerized system of custom mailing lists. Hardware was an IBM 360/30 DOS mainframe.