User talk:Sakhalinrf

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Ken Olsen's MIT Degrees
You claimed that Olsen had EECS (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) degrees from MIT. First of all, there were no degree programs in CS anywhere in 1950 when he earned his Bachelor of Science degree, and secondly this states clearly that his degrees were in EE.--Rogerd 22:21, 13 November 2005 (UTC)
 * I stand corrected. I am very surprised that any school, anywhere, would have offered a degree in CS as early as 1950.  I know someone who got a degree in mathematics in 1956 (not from MIT), and in the 1980's, when turned down for a job because he didn't have a degree in CS, asked the company that turned him down: "Where in the heck would I have gotten a degree in computer science in 1956?".


 * By the way, it is customary to sign entries on talk pages. You can enter 4 tildes ~, and wikipedia will substitute you user id and a date stamp, or merely click the sign button (second from the right) on the text entry form. Thanks --Rogerd 01:32, 14 November 2005 (UTC)


 * For your information, another user saw our conversation and had this to add:
 * See MIT EECS Department Facts for the history of the department. The department was not renamed to "Electrical Engineering and Computer Science" until 1975. As far as the alumni database goes.... I would guess that it stores the degree as a Course number (in this case, 6) and prints out whatever the current name of the department is. AFAIK, the EE and CS degrees are separate, anyway - you get a degree in Electrical Engineering or in Computer Science and Engineering, but not in EECS. FreplySpang (talk) 07:03, 22 November 2005 (UTC)
 * --rogerd 16:49, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

My reply to that
I understand what you are saying, but I'm afraid that I don't think that matters.

Here's the listing of the various types of course 6 subjects that MIT includes in its alumni database, along with the number of people who earned degrees in that type in parantheses:

"6 - Elec Eng & Comp Sci (12788) 61 - Electrical Engrg (4731) 62 - Elec Eng & Comp Sci (1841) 63 - Computer Sci & Engrg (3806) 6A - Elec Eng - Internshp (2229) 6B - Elec Eng (Illumintg) (5) 6C - Elec Eng Communictns (101) 6D - Eecs- Doctoral (1077) 6H - Eecs-Sm Pre Hst (4) 6M - Eecs-Sm / Eng (1254) 6P - Elec Eng & Comp Sci (2180) 6T - Eecs Sm/tech & Pol (30) 6W - Elec Engrg Woodshole (22)"

So if MIT wanted to designate Ken Olsen's degree as a Electrical Engineering degree (and not an EECS degree), then the answer is simple. Just designate his degree as a "61" degree. But they don't do that. They choose to desiginate his degree as a "6" degree.

Now, I do agree that it's "weird" to give Ken Olsen an EECS degree when EECS wasn't even taught. But hey, MIT has the right to decide what sort of degree he gets. We may think that MIT is wrong to do that, but hey, that's MIT's decision to make, not ours. After all, MIT confers formal Electrical Engineering (course 61) degrees on nearly 5000 of its graduates. So if it chooses to grant Ken Olsen with an EECS degree (course 6) and not an Electrical Engineering degree (course 61), I would assume that MIT has a reason to do that. We may disagree with the reason, but it's MIT's call, not ours.

citing sources and edit summaries
Please start citing your sources and using edit summaries. You are making a large number of factual changes rather quickly and you should provide a source for your information. Gamaliel 07:25, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

My response
To make a long story short, my changes regarding people's Berkeley alumni status (and degrees and such) are sourced from what exists in the UCBerkeley alumni database. If I change any information about the years that people graduate from Berkeley, or what degrees they get, I am simply denoting what the official alumni database has.

Thos who want to dispute my edits and who are also Berkeley alumni are free to check the database themselves at http://cal.berkeley.edu


 * Good work on correcting the dates (eg the Jolitzes, Howard Lincoln, etc) Can you please find out the dates on Gary Chevsky?
 * 4.228.90.140 01:45, 26 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I have no record of a Gary Chevsky, not even as an "attendee". Note, he may have been a student, but he certainly didn't graduate, at least, not under that name. Sakhalinrf 06:52, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
 * (P.S. Also please Joan Blades, and anybody else with a circa or c.a. next to their dates. Thanks)
 * -- About Joan Blades, forget it, I see you already did it. THanks


 * One more (for sure): Michael Olson, B.A. 1983, M.A. CS 19?? Thanks.
 * 4.228.90.140 01:53, 26 March 2006 (UTC)


 * My response - The closest I can find for Michael Olson is:
 * Michael Allen Olson, B.A. Computer Science 1991, M.S. Computer Science 1992.
 * There is also a Michael Dean Olson, B.S. Optometry, 1975, O.D. Optometry, 1975.


 * There is no record of any Michael Olson who graduated in 1983. Sakhalinrf 06:50, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Hi, could you please find the years of these people:


 * Ginetto Addiego BS EE, PhD EE
 * Jeffrey C. Benzing BS Mechanical Engineering
 * Robert V. Dikinson BA Physics
 * John East, BSEE and MBA
 * Daniel Goldman
 * Timothy Guertin (probably around 1971)
 * Paul Keswick BSEE
 * Daryn Lau BSEE
 * James Lau BA Math and CS
 * Bruce H. Leising BS EE (probably around 1976)
 * Judy Lin (BA European History and BA CS)
 * David Nguyen (probably EE)
 * Kate Rundle BA
 * Steve Schumann BS EECS
 * Steven A. Skaggs BS Chemical Engineering
 * James Solomon BS EE and MS EE
 * Vincent Tong BS EECS
 * Vincent Win BS EECS
 * Aisa Yaffa BA Applied Math and CS

Grazie! NoZuppe4U 00:24, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

cal.berekely.edu authoratative?
Hi! I note that on the Berekely alumni website that folks who sign up with @cal are able to opt out of the alumni database. As such, mere absence of an entry in the database is not sufficient to conclude that someone hasn't attended. Sschinke 03:24, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

Fair point. I will adjust the entries accordingly.Sakhalinrf 22:39, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

disconnect between edit summaries and actual edits
I also noticed that here you note that there is no record of an EECS degree under that name, but edit the article to indicate that Steve Gibson did not graduate at all. Does this mean that there were no other graduates with the same name?

William Poduska
As a courtesy I am letting you know that William Poduska has been proposed for deletion. As the creator of this article you are presumably in a good position to strengthen it with assertions of notability sufficient to make it a worthy entry. I know you created it as a stub, and I'm sure he is probably notable, but the article needs to assert it encyclopaedicly. At present he appears not to stand out from the herd. Fiddle Faddle 00:06, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

Sloan School degrees
Thanks for your suggestions. The reason it should be listed as "Master's degree in Management (M.B.A.)" is to make the link as accurate as possible in the context of the general article in which it is listed. Throughout the world, the MBA is the degree awarded to business school graduates, and without clarification that the SM in Management Science is equivalent (and even higher in academic rigor) than the MBA, the reader does not realize that the subject is a business school graduate. The link then goes on to clarify that for someone receiving their degree before 1995, it would have been an SM and not an MBA, which provides the necessary correctness. - BrassRat 09:19, 25 September 2006 (UTC)