INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE /JUNE 20, 1989

 

 

   

- Bob Browne Continued

 

After performing a laboratory ex-
periment, CALE allowed students
in the lab to verify whether their
results were within the correct
range. More important for the in-
structor, computer evaluation
provided faster and more accurate
marking of calculations.

But as anyone who’s worked
with computers knows, minor dis-
asters are often encountered along
the road to progress. Three years
ago, students in the Douglas Col-
lege chemistry lab were using the
computer as a routine part of lab
evaluations, and Browne was
receiving compliments on his in-
novative program from other
educators.

But two years ago, while Brown
was away on educational leave, the
College’s central computer was
replaced. The CALE program, writ-
ten for the old computer, wouldn’t
run on the new system, and
Browne’s program was lost.

This summer, however, he hopes
to get the assistance of students, via
the Challenge program, to try to re-
work the CALE program and get it
running again.

Browne says he worked at the
University of B.C. during his educa
tional leave between 1986 and
1987.

“I was there at the right time, he
says. U.B.C. needed somewhere to
put a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
Machine, valuable equipment used
for analyzing organic compounds.

At Browne’s suggestion, the
university donated the N.M.R.
Machine to the College. He es-
timates the original value of the
machine at between $100,000 to

 

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$150,000. He says that with the
machine on hand, the provincial
govemment provided the college
with an equipment grant. The funds
enabled the college to fix the
machine and there was money left
over to purchase two micro-com-
puters for the chemistry lab.

During his leave, Browne says
the the chemistry-computer relation-
ship swung full circle. He ran Dr.
E.A. Ogryzlo’s research group in-
vestigating the chemistry involved
in the etching of computer chips.

“If we could understand the
chemistry behind the etching
process, integrated circuits could
get smaller and smaller,” says
Browne. “The result would be
things like satellite-receiving dishes
that are six inches across.”

He says, however, his primary
project during the leave was work-
ing in an analytical chemistry
laboratory. He was setting up
hardware and software to allow the
computer to control a piece of
analytical instrumentation. The
computer would then read the data
it gave out.

Browne recalls his initial reac-
tion when he began working in the
laboratory. He was amazed at how
fast things had developed since he

had worked in a lab 15 years earlier.

“When I went into this lab, it
was all computers and machines!”
he says. “There was only one sink -
and that was used for making cof-
fee. It was a real jolt.”

But he was soon busy learning
how these computers and machines
could work for him.

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