Alumni Update:
Nick Hopper (UMM '99)

McPhee was excited for Hopper when he was accepted to Carnegie-Mellon and was offered the opportunity to work with Professor Manuel Blum.

“Blum’s the equivalent of a Nobel Prize winner in computer science,” McPhee explains. “Within a day of Blum presenting to the new students, Nick found a flaw in his presentation and emailed the guy to tell him. Blum’s reaction was to say, ‘you’re on my research team now.’”

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Now that Nick Hopper is teaching on the twin cities campus, we asked him for an update on his career in computer science teaching as well as some memories of his days at UMM.

UMM: You went off to high-end grad program where no one had heard of UMM. Did you feel well-prepared to compete and hold your own in that environment?

NH: UMM's Computer Science and Math curriculum left me as well-prepared for graduate coursework in computer science as any of the students from undergraduate institutions at CMU. Some students at CMU had already taken graduate courses as undergrads and so they were more familiar with current work in some fields, but I never felt a big disadvantage to them.

In terms of admissions, coming from UMM is a slight disadvantage getting in to the very top Ph.D. programs. This is because the best way to get a feel for a student's research potential is through his recommendation letters; and it is hard, when you don't know much about the applicant's school, to judge the "calibration" of the letter writers. On the other hand, students at UMM have exceptional opportunities to perform and publish research (in a somewhat limited choice of fields) compared to undergraduates at research universities.

UMM: The research that you did at UMM with Nic McPhee had nothing to do with the cryptography research you worked on in grad school. Did the first research experience prep you successfully for the second even though they were not related?

NH: Although there's really not any specific connection between the research I did with Nic and my current research, I think that any research has a lot of common themes: working independently, finding problems to work on, understanding related work, finding original ways to solve a problem, and presenting the work in a scholarly fashion are important for any kind of research. So the experience and confidence from doing original research at UMM certainly helped in my later work.

UMM: You ended up working with Manuel Blum in grad school because you found a flaw in the presentation that he gave to prospective research assistants. Could you share the story of how he selected you?

NH: Every year the CMU computer science department has an "immigration course" for the new PhD students. Over the course of three weeks, all of the faculty give presentations about their research. While many of the students at CMU show up with a specific advisor in mind, about half do not and the faculty (those who are not already over-committed) are in some sense competing to get these students to work with them.

Manuel arrived from Berkeley in the fall of '99 and he had no advisees; so he was looking for a student to work on his project in computer security. I was able to show how a hacker could break into his system by doing something he hadn't thought about. We had a few discussions about how to prevent my attack and that was how we decided to work together.

Manuel was a great teacher about how one should do research, and he gave me a lot of freedom to find my own projects after that one; I really enjoyed having the chance to know him. Some of my favorite stories about him have little to do with research, though - like the time he told me over lunch about how he had been tying his shoes the "wrong way" for 60 years.

UMM: What are some of your favorite memories of your time at UMM?

NH: Some of my favorite memories from UMM in no particular order:
* The happy times spent hanging out in "the dungeon" with the other, uh, "dedicated" CSci students.
* Along with a handful of other CSci students, sitting in a different location every lecture in Physics 1201, so that Gordy McIntosh wouldn't call on us. (Nevertheless, we were occasionally called upon)
* Every time Brent Heeringa "invited" us to dinner at the McPhee house. (and Nic and Sue graciously obliged him)
* Spending about 3 hours a week in Mark Gilbert and Scott Lewandowski's office, talking about the Timberwolves' playoff run in 1996. (Not that Scott cared, but Mark and I were very excited!)
* Going to Atlanta for the ACM programming contest world finals, with Nic, Scott, Joe Lee, Brent, and Chad Hjelle.

I think Nic McPhee was the instructor at UMM who had the most influence on me. My first research experience was on a UROP with Nic. I think his asking me, "hey, are we going to do a research project next year, or what?" was what got me thinking about graduate school in the first place. One thing I learned from Nic and some of my other instructors at UMM (for example, Engin Sungur, Peh Ng and Jon Anderson) is that enthusiasm for your subject can make almost anything interesting to students.

UMM: Why did you decide to go into university teaching? Why the University of Minnesota?

NH: Being a university professor is one of the best jobs you can get: you are surrounded by smart people, you set your own hours, choose your own deadlines, and only work on the things you're interested in! Of course, they won't let you have the job unless you have a Ph.D. but once I got over that little hurdle... well, you get the idea.

I'm at the U of M because they were the best university that offered me a job.

UMM: What plans do you have for yourself as a new faculty member there? What projects are you involved in now?

NH: Well, one project I'm working on with several other faculty members here is to establish a center for research and education in information security. One reason that security is a difficult problem for computer scientists, is because if even one programmer or system administrator makes a simple mistake, it can leave an entire system vulnerable to attack. So it's really critical that everyone who works with computers understands how his or her work relates to security.

If our plans work out, within the next few years we'll be offering a MS degree in computer security, and teaching a summer program to help undergraduate colleges in the area integrate material on security into their computer science curriculum.

UMM: What do you see as your relationship with UMM in the future?

NH: Some of the brightest graduate students in our department graduated from UMM, so I'm definitely hoping to recruit more UMM CSci and Math majors to consider a Ph.D. at the U of M. And I would also be more than happy to offer UMM students (and the faculty who advise them) advice on getting into top graduate programs. In general, I think it would really help to raise the profile of UMM if we get more of our graduates back into the academic world, and I hope I can help to bring that about.

"Nick’s going to make a name for himself wherever he goes.”
--Nic McPhee, UMM CSci Professor

One of Nick’s close friends from UMM, Brent Heeringa (the wacky guy to the right of Nick above), offers the following ruminations about his college buddy’s academic talents…

Nick pushed me without knowing it. He set a high intellectual standard which I attempted (and often failed) to meet. He was patient and a good friend. Nick hid a terrific intelligence behind a shy, quiet exterior.

I remember our first real encounter in an introductory computer science course: we were paired together to discuss solutions to a number of problems on the board. Nick took a second to think about the problems and then described the solutions a moment later out loud. I had barely read the questions off the board and Nick had his head completely wrapped around them.

I had never met anyone with such a quick mind. He could always explain difficult concepts to me in clarity that is seldom matched even today.

One of my favorite Nick memories involves a lazy, late morning walk around Morris one sunny spring day. We were studying for an abstract algebra test. I was verbally working through long proofs and Nick would interject when I slipped up, or couldn't figure out the next step. We often took walks like this. We would talk about computer science or life or sports.

Nick and I spent many hours together at Morris. We developed this odd handshake which, even today, we still perform when first meeting up. It involves snapping. Thinking about it makes me smile.

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One thing I learned from Nic and some of my other instructors at UMM... is that enthusiasm for your subject can make almost anything interesting to students.

--Nick Hopper, UMM('99)

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