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I was quite determined NOT to end up "down the mine" as they used
to say. My job at the moment is as a Dean of Engineering at The Cooper Union
for the Advancement of Science and Art, here in New York City. The University
is unique -- it is the last and only surviving tuition free school in the USA.
We have never charged, and never will.
www.cooper.edu
Abraham Lincoln gave his most famous "right makes might" speech in our great
hall. The suffragette (sp?) movement started there too. I also do medical
research at Lenox Hill Hospital, and have my own start-up company into internet
security, so I am quite busy. Played until recently at two churches in Harlem,
but finally got tired of getting up at 6.00a.m. on Sundays. I have my own
instrument in my apartment, which shakes the building if I want it to !!
I was always involved with St. Peter’s
in one way or another. My aunt, Annie Crosley, played the piano for Sunday
school there, for Mr. Kinsey, who taught the school. It was difficult for
Annie as she had mysteriously lost a finger on one hand, but she was able to
belt out a hymn tune for the children. Annie used to fill in as organist
whenever Mr Cook was ill or away and it was from watching her that I decided
to try to teach myself to play too.
A couple of years later, I was playing
Bach and filling in also. When Mr. Cook decided to take up a new post nearer
to his home, I asked Canon Dixon if I could take over. He was not convinced,
but agreed to try me for two weeks. Dressed in white robes, with a black
surplice, my first service had me a nervous wreck! But it went well, with
relatively few errors. I was just 15 years old. Canon Dixon was convinced by
people in the congregation that I’d be OK, and I played, except for two weeks
off in the summer, at every service thereafter for three years until I had to
stop to go to University.
At that time I was attending Maltby
Grammar School, after success on my “eleven-plus”. I do credit that
organist’s post for my current love of music. But more than that, it gave me
a sense of accomplishment and personal responsibility. In no small way,
either, it changed the direction of my life; I went from being a straight “F”
student to someone who scored mainly “A+” for I saw that I did have the
ability to change my life and to achieve.
Being so terribly immersed in Bach,
particularly, turned on an interest in mathematics and linguistic grammars
because I made all kind of connections between the music and these other
disciplines. It kindled a life long interest in languages and put down the
fundamentals which drew me to engineering and computer science, an interest so
strong that I couldn’t stop studying until after I had collected four degrees!
Douglas Holburn took up the post of
priest at St. Peter’s under Canon Dixon shortly after I began as organist. He
was a gentle, kind man who came to us after a stretch as a Captain in the
Salvation Army. He played the accordion and was a master of achingly long
beautiful cadences that pulled at your heart strings. I think that he had
made some of the same connections as I had. From him I learned not to be
rigid in rendering a piece of music – the notes, while more than a suggestion,
should not be a straight-jacket. It is alright also to make a mistake, but
you have to be ready to recover and carry on rather than just stall and begin
over. He and I got through many a wedding (and many a funeral) together.
Oddly, I recall avoiding Douglas’ wonderful harmonies at funerals – they made
people cry too much.
The service I loved most was the
midnight communion on Christmas Eve. It was always packed and the carols were
such a pleasure. Everyone went home tired but elated, and we got to sing the
usually unsung verse that begins “Born this happy morning”, something you
couldn’t do at any other time.
Douglas and I were together for about
three years. He left St. Peter’s to run his own show in a parish near Durham,
and I visited him there frequently.
I remember the schools vividly. Miss.
Nelson was the headmistress when I was in the infants’ school, and I believe
it was Mr. Bowmar who headed the junior school. Those were days before Mrs.
Thatcher, and we were all given milk and tiny brown cod-liver-oil-and-malt
tablets. A “lollipop lady” with a big “stop” sign on a stick would help us to
cross the road at school opening and school closing time, and Miss Nelson
would call us in using a huge handbell.
My father, Gordon, was the office
manager for Thrybergh’s only business, a building firm called “Beedons”. He
belonged to a club called the “Three Hills Photographic Society”, as was
Ernest Rigby the local chemist. I often went with him to meetings in a room
above the pub. Thrybergh, especially the photogenic St. Leonard’s church, was
well photographed by all the members. It was a treat for me to know Mr. Rigby
– I doubt that he remembers it, but I would walk to his shop and chat about
developers, fixers and the like. Any old photographs of mine are likely to
have been printed by me.
My grandfather, Arthur Charles William
“Bill” Barber, used to make the steel cables that were used to lower the cages
into the mine. His handy-work was seen all over the Silverwood area because
old cables were also used as fencing, keeping people from wandering too far
from the pathways through the woods. His wife, Elizabeth “Lilly” Barber was
famous in Thrybergh for her knitting, and neighbors from all over the village
would give her a pattern and some wool and commission her to knit a garment
for her. They both fostered many children, taking two or three girls at a
time, or sometimes a very young baby.
These were
times of great economic depression in Thrybergh and in the north in general.
Times when ruins were left untouched. Times of gas lamps and dense,
particulate fogs, when you couldn’t walk outside without a hanky over your
mouth and you couldn’t see even directly across a road. There were few cars,
and few televisions. Council housing in two-up, two-down development like
“the backs” were commonplace, as were outdoor toilets and gas meters, fed by
shilling coins. To get anywhere, you first had to take the number-6 trackless
to Rotherham and change there. I remember that the electrical supply to these
trolleys was sometimes inadequate, causing regular “waits” at the bottom of
Whinney Hill. Passengers were stuck there until nearby vehicles had left that
immediate area.
Thick black soot covered everything. If you touched one of the brick walls
that separated the “backs” houses, your hands were instantly filthy. Coal
fires were the only source of heat for most rooms of the house, and since they
also heated the water, you had to have one every day. We made toast by
putting slices of bread on a long fork and holding it close to the coals.
Refrigerators were powered by gas. “Loads” of coal were delivered by simply
dumping it on the pavement outside your house.
It was the king of all instruments, the organ, which first connected me with
my wife. We were at University and met in the first few days. I mentioned
that I played, and surprisingly, she said that she loved organ music.
Naturally, I offered to play the institute’s instrument, and we went from
there. She did not want to give up her name when we married, so I changed my
name to hers. After college, I became a lecturer at Manchester and Hull
Universities before leaving the North for London U. My wife is American, so
visits to New York were regular, and I grew to like the city. When an
opportunity came up to work for the little known gem that is Cooper Union, I
gladly accepted and left the UK probably for good. My life now it is, of
course, wildly different from the one I had in Thrybergh. But my roots are
evident, clearly seen. I am never without a means to play music, be it a
walkman or the modern mp3 player. Until very recently I always had an
organist’s post. It is what helped me to survive monetarily as a student, and
what sustains my interest in music. Visit my apartment in Manhattan and
you’ll find a church organ, a piano and a harpsichord. Come to my office, and
there’s an electronic keyboard which I play at lunchtimes over headphones. My
doctoral thesis treated the use of artificial intelligence techniques applied
to languages. As a Dean, pastoral care of students is a top priority, and I
am dedicated Peter Cooper’s ideal that education should be as “free as air or
water”. All of my mathematical and engineering skills play a huge part in my
medical research.
Aunt Annie would never know what she started when she asked me to turn the
pages of her music. After that, things began to fall into place.
It was a lot of work. But worth it. © Dr Stephen
Purshouse |
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STEPHEN PURSHOUSE, PH.D.
The Cooper Union
51 Astor Place
New York, NY 10003
(212) 353-4289
sba490@aol.com
SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS
1. Designing, implementing and evaluating programs to facilitate the
adjustment, achievement, retention, and career planning of college students in
their first and ensuing years of study.
2. Counseling college students with varied personal and academic problems.
3. Daily management of Engineering School. Proposal writing, budget
planning, and analysis.
4. Managing personnel, faculty and staff development and evaluation. Union
negotiations.
5. Curriculum development and revision, particularly inter-disciplinary.
ABET re-accreditation preparation
6. Creating strategies and managing admissions and recruitment programs.
7. Extensive international teaching experience in a university environment.
8. Planning and implementation of activities for cultural and personal
enrichment.
9. Active participation in major university-wide and community activities.
Member of most planning teams.
10. Responsible for the Graduate School. Responsible for transition to new
building and for building design.
11.
12.
EMPLOYMENT EXPERIENCE
THE COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART 1984 - Present
Associate Dean, School of Engineering
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
13. Managed all aspects of the School of Engineering including recruitment
and training of staff, budgeting, scheduling work and activities, establishing
policies and procedures, evaluating performance and motivation of both staff
and students. Instituted new interdisciplinary degree.
14. Developed engineering curriculum on an ongoing basis. Evaluate current
technologies to ascertain subjects that benefit the students overall education
and career goals while remaining coherent with an individual’s academic
program. The Princeton Review rated the Computer Science curriculum as the
number one curriculum in the country
15. Serve as Negotiator in contract negotiations and labor relations
matters for the organization. Provide consistent, fair, and equitable
decisions that promote a strong but workable relationship.
16. Reviewed and reorganized all departments of the school including
organization of student records, development of general operational policy,
procurement SOP’s, laboratory design, and construction planning for a new
Engineering building.
17. Successfully authored and secured numerous grants for needed equipment,
expansion, and future curricular planning from organizations such as the
National Science Foundation (many), AT&T, NYNEX, Keck, JM Foundation, and
Howard Hughes.
18.
19.
20. Taught subject coursework including: Digital Logic Design, Data
Structures, Databases, Introductory Programming, Advanced Computer Programming
and Large Systems Design, Computer Communications, Artificial Intelligence,
Image Processing, Theoretical Computer Science, Compilers, Computer
Architecture, Advanced Computer Architecture, Psychology of Computer
Programming, Bio-sensing, Biometric Signals and Processing, Parallel
Programming, Anatomy and Physiology, laboratory and independent projects.
LENOX HILL HOSPITAL
1990 - Present
Biomedical Engineering Consultant
21. Designed, tested and implemented new “mini gait lab” using a treadmill
and infra-red marker filming system for gait testing to replace costly
laboratories with operators and walkways. Replaced $500,000 labor intensive
laboratory with $10,000 facility.
22. Advise on the application of new and existing technologies into the
research that would improve medical treatment and result in a more effective
rehabilitation.
KING'S COLLEGE & WESTFIELD COLLEGES, THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, THE STRAND, &
THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL,
1979 - 1986
Lecturer in Computer Science
THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER, MANCHESTER, ENGLAND. (TENURED)
1973 - 1978
Permanent Research and Computing Advisor
Teaching Assistant
23. Managed the dormitories at the University of Manchester, the University
of London and the University of Hull. This involved selecting students,
day-to day management of the buildings, pastoral care of students and conflict
resolution. Counseling. Discipline, protection of the fabric of the
building.
Stephen Purshouse Consulting
1982 - 1992
Consultancies with AT&T'S BELL LABORATORIES, ACCESS TECHNOLOGY LTD., ENHANCED
TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATES, AND THORN/EMI GROUP on projects such as Digital
Electronics and Computer Engineering, early Remote patient monitoring systems,
Data compression of real-time signals and Development of Expert Systems to
diagnose faults in electronic circuits.
ADJUNCT EXPERIENCE
The New York Institute of Technology, as needed since 1986. Fairfield
University, Connecticut, and NYU, New York.
EDUCATION/PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
Ph.D., Computer Science, The Queen Victoria University of Manchester
1978
Thesis in Artificial Intelligence
M.Sc., Digital Electronics and Computer Engineering, The University of
Manchester Institute of Science and Technology
1973
BSEE, The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology
1972
Member, British Computer Society. (MBCS)
Chartered Engineer, U.K. (U.S. equivalent is P.E.)
Founding Member, The Society for Urology and Engineering. (SUE)
Member, Association for Computing Machinery (MACM)
Senior Member, Institution of Electrical Engineers, (S.M.I.E.E.E.)
Able to Travel and/or Relocate
SAMPLE PUBLICATIONS THROUGH 2006 – AUTHORED OR CO-AUTHORED
1. "Underutilized Technology in Medicine",
Paper presented to the first annual meeting of the Society for Urology and
Engineering, The Hilton, NYC, May 16th 1986, (Co-founder of this society)
2. "Practicing for the GRE in Computer Science",
(Prentice Hall, 1988). ISBN 0-13-363565-1
3. “Ultrasound based Kinematic Analysis of Human Ambulation”,
Transactions of the 2nd combined meeting of the orthopedic research societies
of U.S.A., Japan, Canada and Europe, San Diego, California, November 1995.
4. “The Leg Spring Constant in Hopping in Men and Women”,
A.C.S.M 46th annual Meeting, 1999.
5. “The relative stress on the Achilles tendon during ambulation in an ankle
immobilizer: Implications for rehabilitation following Achilles tendon repair”
British Journal of Sports Medicine 35:329-334, 2001
6. “Reconstruction of the coraco-clavicular Ligaments Using Tendon Grafts: A
Comparative Biomechanical Study”.
Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, 2002.
7. “Is Full Weight-bearing Safe Following Achilles Tendon Repair?”,
American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons 68th Annual Meeting, San Francisco,
CA, Feb 28-Mar 4, 2001.
8. “Quadriceps Activation Following Transcutaneous Magnetic Stimulation of the
Femoral Nerve”.
Orthopedic Research Society 47th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, Feb 25-28,
2001.
9. “Achilles Tendon Rupture: Biomechanical properties of various suture
repair techniques in a cadaveric model”.
American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine Annual Meeting, June 2001.
10.“A Novel Device for the Assessment of Balance in the Elderly”.
Transactions of the 47th Annual Meeting of the Orthopedic Research Society,
Dallas, TX, Feb 10-13, 2002
11. “Biceps tendonosis: a biomechanical comparison of three fixation
techniques”.
Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine Annual Meeting, Orlando, Florida, June
2002.
12. “The relative stress on the Achilles tendon during ambulation in an ankle
imobiliser: implications for rehabilitation after Achilles tendon repair.”
Br. Journal of Sports Medicine 2001; 35:329-334
13. “Reconstruction of the Coraco-clavicular Ligaments Using Tendon Grafts. A
Comparative Biomechanical Study”.
American Journal of Sports Medicine.
14. “Magnetic nerve stimulation for neurapraxia in a runner following ankle
surgery”.
American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting, St. Louis, Missouri, May
28-June 1, 2002.
15. “Epitendinous suture augmentation in Achilles tendon repair”.
American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons 70th Annual Meeting. New Orleans LA,
Feb 5-9 2003.
16. “Transcutaneous magnetic stimulation of the quadriceps via the femoral
nerve.”
Muscle and Nerve, September 2004, 30 (3):379-381.
17. “Reconstruction of the coracoclavicular ligaments with tendon grafts: a
comparative bio-mechanical study”.
American Journal of Sports Medicine, September-October 2003. 31 (5):
648-655.
18. “Cyclic loading of Achilles Tendon Repars: Simulating early Forces”,
American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, June 29th -July 2nd,
Pennsylvania
19. “Cyclical Loading of Coracoclavicular Ligament Reconstructions.”
American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, June 29th -July 2nd,
Pennsylvania.
SAMPLE THESES.
Yuk Li. "A Study of Speech Characteristics as Applied to Phoneme
Extrapolation", 1985.
R. H. Weiner. "A Fast User-Friendly Device-Independent Compositional Na
modelling and Animation System", 1987.
A. Kallis. "A Multi-Processing Operating System for the HD 64180-based
Multi-Processor", 1987.
D. Prountzos. "The Development and Implementation of a Micro-Processor Based
Data Compression System"
1986.
Mayer Illovitz. "A Visuo-Motor based Micro-computer controlled neuromuscular
Testing System",
1988.
Nenad Melinkovic. "A Formal Software Verification Tool: The Formal Software
Verifier, (FSV)",
1989.
Joe Lee. "Energy Analysis of the Lower Limb Segments During Walking",
1988.
Jeff Farah. "A Computer Controlled System for the Stimulation of the
Vestibular Organ System and Central Nervous System through Auditory Stimuli",
1988.
J. W. Burns. "A Multiple Frame Acquisition System for use in Motion
Analysis", 1990.
M. B. Meiner. "The PC Composer - A Music Workstation", 1990.
Jim C Gower. "MIDAS: Musical Instrument Digitizer and Synthesizer", 1990.
Stuart E Kirtman. "Real Time Audio Signal Processing using Floating Point
Transputers", 1990.
Andrew Rosenblum. "Natural Language Interfaces and Knowledge Based Systems",
1991.
Brian Novie. "Voice Recognition using a Clustering Algorithm", 1992.
Brocha Epstein. "Experiments in Parallel Processing", 1992.
Rami Levy. "Kinematic Gait Pattern Analysis using Three-Dimensional Infrared
and Ultrasonic Tracking",
1992.
Robert Baruch. "A Token Ring Multi-processor Network”, 1992.
Aaron Hager. "Gait Analysis - pattern matching and comparative analysis."
1993.
Jeff Hakner. "A distributed operating system." 1993.
Ian J Kremenic. "The wavelet analysis of bioelectric signals." 1994.
Yashodhan C Risbud. "An investigation into the effects of rhythm on muscle
activity during
repetitive motor activities." 1994.
Leonard Mastrototaro, "The visualization of ultra-sonic data." 1995.
Wai Man Alan Yue, "Voice communications during modem data transfers."
1995.
Wai Man Chung, “Simultaneous transmission of data and voice over analog
telephone lines” 1997.
Eric Sommer. “Assessment of disabled persons for the provision of special
computer assisted devices” 1998.
Simon Choi Lok, “An investigation of parallel databases using Parallel Virtual
Machines”, 1998.
Olli Seppalla, “Recording and analysis of human movement and simultaneous EMG”.
1998.
Ionut Micou, “Multidirectional Electrical Wheelchair Controller Design using
signals from the shoulder”
1999.
Mayer Crystal, “An Investigation into Parallel Distributed Computing using
Java” 1999.
Frank Jania, “The production of visualization software to facilitate analysis
of ground reaction force and vector data as applied to the study of human
mechanics”. 1999.
Steven Block. “The Electronic Stethoscope.” 2000.
© Dr Stephen
Purshouse
A sincere thanks to Stephen for sharing
his life here on this site. |
