We are grateful to The Dan Olds Family for endowing The Dan W. Olds Computer Science Departmental Award in honor of Dan, the first Chair of the Computer Science Department at Wofford.
Excerpts from remarks by Dr. Joe Sloan at the first presentation of the Award on Honor's Day, 2007
“If you will indulge me, I’d like to begin my remarks on a personal note. I first came to Wofford as a freshman in 1968. That fall, I took what I believe was the first course Wofford ever offered in computer science. This was an informal, non-credit course in the BASIC programming language that ran for several weeks. It was taught by chairman of the Physics Department, Dan Olds, and used the GE timesharing system via teletype, a system he was responsible for bringing to Wofford. In 1975, after several years in industry, I returned to Wofford as a part-time, second degree student and took what I believe was the first for-credit course Wofford offered in computer science. This was also taught by Dan Olds using a DEC system that he administered. Several years later, I went on to graduate school to Dan Olds’ alma mater, thanks in part to a letter of recommendation written by Dan Olds.”
“After being away for almost a quarter of a century, I returned to Wofford a few years ago as a faculty member in the Computer Science Department, a department initiated and first chaired by Dan Olds before he went on to become Director of Information Technology for the College. I now find myself representing that Department for the first time on this stage. It should come as no surprise that it gives me great pleasure to name the first recipient of the newly created Dan W. Olds Computer Science Departmental Award.”
“I’m not really sure what I’ll be doing ten years from now in computer science. But I suspect that Dan will have been there before me. And while I’ll bumble along as a student, Dan will have been the teacher – teaching first himself and then the rest of us.“
| Dan W. Olds Computer Science Departmental Award Recipients | |
|---|---|
| 2024 | Sarah Ann Buford |
| 2023 | Juan Garcia |
| 2022 | Audrey Wiseman |
| 2021 | Zifan Gu |
| 2020 | Nathan Patnam |
| 2019 | Jacey Sohm |
| 2018 | Cristian Widenhouse |
| 2017 | Daniel Couch |
| 2016 | Lykes Claytor |
| 2015 | Alissa Williams |
| 2014 | Caroline Odell |
| 2013 | Andrew Strasburger |
| 2012 | Whitney Sanders |
| 2011 | Tahir Motiwala |
| 2010 | Manan Gupta |
| 2009 | Shay Ellison |
| 2008 | Paul Wood |
| 2007 | Heidi Bostic, first recipient of The Dan W. Olds Computer Science Departmental Award and double major in chemistry and computer science, completed her Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Tennessee and is now an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Wofford. |