Dr. Elizabeth I. Horvath worked in the System Integration Division for one year as a contractor at IBM in Boca Raton, FL and collaborated on the development of C code for an 800 number lookup system that used APPC (Advanced Program to Program Communication) to connect from an IBM PC to an IBM 360 mainframe over a Token Ring Local Area Network. Her Master of Science in Computer Engineering focused on data communication and her thesis was entitled “Delay Characteristics of File Transfer in Token Ring Local Area Networks”.
Dr. Horvath worked for four years at the Center for Complex Systems in Boca Raton, FL where she developed programs that implemented synergetic artificial neural networks for pattern detection. She also coded other artificial neural networks and examined the use of perceptrons for pattern recognition. She developed programs that generated Random Dot Kinematograms for visual perception experiments and conducted experiments with human subjects. Dr. Horvath created a walking man simulation and conducted experiments on pattern recognition of bipedal motion for a walking man in a random dot field with human subjects. Dr. Horvath also developed 3D simulations of quadrupedal motion for different animal gait patterns on the Silicon Graphics computer.
Dr. Horvath designed and laid out an integrated circuit that implemented the ALOPEX Neural Network. She also applied the ALOPEX Neural Network to solve standard cell placement problems. She then developed her own algorithm, PIREN, a parallel force directed based algorithm for VLSI standard cell placement. This algorithm was implemented on DEC systems and the MASPAR, a massively parallel SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) computer. Dr. Horvath's dissertation was entitled “PIREN: A Heuristic Algorithm for Standard Cell Placement”. Her published work has been referenced by Google in three of their patents.
Dr. Horvath's focus as a faculty member at Palm Beach State College was teaching and she has taught over 20 different courses on network administration and programming. Her network administration skills encompass both Linux and Windows administration. Her 40 years of programming expertise has led her to learn and teach Basic, Pascal, C, C++,ASP.NET C#, Java, Visual Basic, Python, PHP, JSP, SQL, PERL, and JavaScript. She has developed curriculum for both the AS and BAS programs at the college.
Dr. Horvath's current passion has been for IoT(Internet of Things) which integrates networking, programming, and networking services. She proposed and developed a class COP 1030 Python with Raspberry Pi and has incorporated Arduino projects into her COP 1220 Introduction to C Programming class. She hopes to continue to contribute and promote the use of IoT.
