Academics

LaPlante receives IEEE outstanding contribution award

Phillip LaPlante, affiliate faculty member in the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) and professor of software engineering, was recently presented an “Outstanding Contribution” award from the IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors during its November meeting.

The award was given to LaPlante in recognition of his efforts to lay the groundwork to converge the duplicative Computer Society Digital Library (CSDL) with the IEEE Xplore Platform.

This honor came as a surprise to LaPlante. “This was not the kind of award that you apply for or are nominated for and then wait to see if you win. It is awarded very infrequently, as determined by the executive leadership of the society,” he said.

As project leader, LaPlante has worked to smooth the transition from duplicate systems to one so that IEEE can increase efficiency and redirect some of the effort spent running two platforms into newer projects. It also can redirect resources to create new functionality for the converged libraries, he said.

“The data stored on the Computer Society Digital Library platform duplicates information stored on the IEEE platform,” LaPlante noted as the reason for the convergence.

According to LaPlante, the CSDL is among the largest repositories of journal, magazine and conference papers of interest to the IST community worldwide. “By converging the CSDL with the IEEE Xplore digital library, IEEE/Computer Society resources can be redirected to create new functionality for the converged digital libraries. The IST community will enjoy the benefits of these new features in the near future,” he said.

LaPlante has served on the board for the past three years and has been a member of the society for 25 years. He is a fellow for leadership in engineering education for contributions to software and systems education.

In the past he has worked on IEEE committees related to publication, finance and continuing education as well as serving as on the administrative committee for the Reliability Society. He is now leading a new effort to create a model for online social networks within IEEE.

Last Updated January 9, 2015

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