Frank Wm. Tompa

DC 1313, ext. 34675 fwtompa at uwaterloo . ca David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science University of Waterloo 200 University Avenue West Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1 CANADA (519) 888-4567 ext. 34675 fax: (519) 885-1208

"I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." A. Conan Doyle Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Adventure 1. A Scandal in Bohemia

Teaching and research interests span the fields of data structures and databases, particularly the design of text management systems suitable for maintaining large reference texts (including the Oxford English Dictionary) and large, heterogeneous text collections.

Awards

2015

Winner of a CACS/AIC Lifetime Achievement Award for "outstanding and sustained contributions to computing."

2014

Designated Distinguished Professor Emeritus by the Univesity of Waterloo.

2013

Awarded the degree Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, by Dalhousie University for "outstanding personal achievements."

2012

Awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal created "to honour Her Majesty for her service to this country... [and] to honour significant contributions and achievements by Canadians"; more specifically "in light of ... significant contributions to text data and design systems for maintaining large reference texts."

2010

Named an ACM Fellow "to recognize and honor outstanding ACM members for their achievements in computer science and information technology and for their significant contributions to the mission of the ACM" and more specifically "for contributions to text-dominated and semi-structured data management."

2005

Recognized by the University of Waterloo and the City of Waterloo as one of those who "epitomize the energy and enterprise that characterize the University of Waterloo" through the naming of the road Frank Tompa Drive.

2005

Received a University of Waterloo Award of Excellence in Graduate Supervision "to recognize exemplary faculty members who have demonstrated excellence in graduate student supervision."

2000 and 2007

Received a University of Waterloo Mathematics Faculty Fellowship and a David R. Cheriton Faculty Fellowship "to recognize a faculty member whose scholarly work has gained national or international attention, whose teaching ability is exceptional, and who has displayed a high level of commitment and dedication to her/his department, the Faculty of Mathematics, and the University."

1997

Received a University-Industry Synergy R&D Partnership Award from the Conference Board of Canada and NSERC, as a result of the Industry Canada-funded Canadian Strategic Software Consortium (CSSC) project, entitled Text/Relational Database Management Systems, with industrial partners Fulcrum, Grafnetix, InContext, Megalith, Open Text, PSSystems, and SoftQuad.

1991

Named a "leader in Canadian Science" by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) in their first publication of twelve Great Canadian Success Stories, as a result of the NSERC Cooperative R&D project with the Oxford University Press, entitled Text-dominated databases.

Teaching

In addition to advising and supervising students, courses taught cover introductory to advanced topics aimed at specialists, non-specialists, and software professionals.
• Students supervised
• Courses taught

Research

Earlier research was conducted through the UW Centre for the New OED and Text Research. After that, research activities have fallen in the areas of XML data management, database access control, and most recently search engines.
• Approach to research
• Research program overview
• Summary of publications

Material I wish I had written:

Our colleague Keshav has written an excellent article with tips for reading research papers:

How to Read a Paper

Also, every experienced and budding researcher in computer science should read Jennifer Widom's tips on writing and presenting conference papers:

Tips for Writing Technical Papers

Tips for a Good Conference Talk

More detailed writing tips can also be found in Wojciech Jarosz's paper:

Common Mistakes in Technical Writing

Service

Administrative interests include promoting university-level education and curricula through the multi-university Consortium on Graduate Education in Software Engineering (ConGESE: aimed at providing continuing education for practicing computing professionals). Other recent service includes serving as the founding Director of the School of Computer Science, membership on various School and University committees, membership on the University Computer Science Accreditation Council (sponsored by CIPS), and serving as a founding member of the Boards of Directors of Communications and Information Technology Ontario (CITO) and of Open Text Corporation.