UMass Magazine Online

Fall 2002

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From academic probation to academic distinction

Karen Skolfield '98G




	SUPER SENIOR: Kyle Rawlins in te new Computer Science Building.

The multi-agent systems (MAS) lab where senior Kyle Rawlins works is divided into rows of computers and partition walls in a no-nonsense gray. "Most of the building consists of labs like that," he says. After all, he adds, "it’s computer science."

Rawlins is starting his fifth year as a double major in computer science and linguistics – a "super senior," he says with his quick, affable grin – and he’s clearly proud of the new building for the computer science department, the mirrored structure on the northwest edge of campus. We explore the floors as Rawlins narrates. Some of the rooms are dark – it’s June, long past the semester’s end, though there are enough faculty and student researchers to give the place something more than a ghost-town feel. It’s clearly a building that never quite goes dark.

We stop at a conference room, one of the building’s fully wired, high-tech rooms. It’s locked. Rawlins pulls out his key ring, opens the door, and clicks on the recessed lights."They give you keys to the whole building?" I ask.

"My lab key just happens to open this room," he says, though he’s smiling at the thought. He does seem the type to be trusted with an entire building. Rawlins is quick-witted, friendly and responsible – though he’s the first to admit that the responsible part is a recent development.

After graduating from Reading High, Rawlins received full tuition and room and board at UMass Amherst with a Commonwealth Scholarship his freshman year. (Another family member, his sister Adrianna, is a junior in classics.)

"I should mention that I lost the scholarship within a year," he says, looking me in the eye. "I had a hard time my first year. I was the person in high school who could get by with a minimum of effort, and that wasn’t true when I got here."

At the end of the first year, Rawlins posted a dismal .78 GPA, low enough to end his scholarship, put him on academic probation and leave him at a real crossroads in his life.

"And then you decided to grow up," I say.

He nods. "I decided I wanted to stay here." Staying meant working and being more invested in the department, and with the help of James Walker, director of the Arts and Sciences Advising Center, he found an undergraduate research position with Professor Victor Lesser in the multi-agents systems lab. The research position helped him turn his academic career around. He’s been there ever since, full-time in the summer and part-time during school, with much success.

"I’ve taken a bunch of graduate classes in both computer science and linguistics, and I don’t know if I would’ve been able to do that without the undergraduate research," he says. "It’s certainly helped me become a better programmer, and it’s helped me in classes like artificial intelligence, since I’d also encountered a lot of the same principles in research."

He’s somewhere beyond academic probation now, sporting an admirable 3.5 GPA with two majors, taking between 18-23 credits per semester and eyeing up graduate school. He’s worked on challenging research, including an "intelligent home" project, which looks at how to coordinate such household functions as showers, vacuums, TV’s and dishwashers. "I’m pretty satisfied with how I’ve used my time," he says. "My first year wasn’t necessarily a bad thing – not that I’d recommend to anyone to do it on purpose." He smiles. "There’s a good and active interest in getting undergraduates involved in research."

In his three years in the MAS lab, he’s gone to two conferences and had his name on one of the papers presented. "This isn’t at all unusual for undergrads working in a research group, though not universal," he says. "It’s a great experience for anyone interested in research. There are lots of opportunities here."

That’s as it should be, says Robert Moll, associate chair for academic programs in the computer science department. Computer science is most definitely a research department, Moll says, explaining that during the 1970’s the department was almost exclusively devoted to research, with no undergraduate students.

Now, the department has about 400 undergraduates and 175 graduates. Each year there are close to 1,000 applicants for the 50 to 60 new student slots; research specialties within the department include computer networking, software engineering, information retrieval, machine learning and theoretical computing – "to name just a few," Moll says.

The emphasis on research has certainly been a boon to students like Rawlins. He says he feels well prepared for graduate school – "more so than many, since I’ve been actively involved in research, and I know so many professors." He’s interested in programs that combine computer science and linguistics. And after that? "I’ll probably" – he draws out the word and lets me hear its uncertainty – "go for an academic career. But who knows where I’ll be six or seven years from now?"

During the tour, though I’d seen numerous students in front of computers, I’d seen nothing but the expected research going on. No Xbox games. No multi-user boy-meets-bad-aliens computer matches. Not even an Internet browser. "So in computer science, it’s not a lot of folks sitting around and playing computer games?" I ask.

He grins. "Oh, that happens too! My lab has a game night once a week."

Gone is the freshman Rawlins. He’s had to miss game night for a while to attend his linguistics reading group. He shrugs. It’s what you do once you decide to stay.

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From academic probation to academic distinction

Rawlins: larger image