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Columbia U. computer science prof. Kosoresow dies at 39

Posted on: Thursday, 12 June 2003, 06:00 CDT

NEW YORK -- Andrew Kosoresow, an assistant professor of computer science at Columbia University who was praised for his devotion to his students, died of heart failure at his home in New York City on June 1. He was 39.

Kosoresow, CC '85, was a well-liked instructor, teaching courses on subjects ranging from artificial intelligence to data structures and algorithms, and a skilled administrator, serving as the assistant department chairman for undergraduate education for computer science. But he was perhaps best known as a mentor, personal adviser, and friend to countless undergraduates and graduates in a department of 500 students.

"He would always give time to a student," said Professor of Computer Science Alfred Aho, the department chairman. "Many faculty are just too busy to drop everything to pay attention to a student, but he would always give time."

Aho added, "He would interact with students on a variety of levels, not just advising them on what courses to take but advising them on careers and on life in general."

Daniel Kestin, GS '01, who took several of Kosoresow's classes, did research with him, and served as one of his teaching assistants, agreed. "He was a very warm guy, and he cared a whole lot about his students," Kestin said, adding that even in large introductory lecture courses, Kosoresow would learn students' names and invite them to his office hours.

Daniel Medina, SEAS '02, took Kosoresow's Artificial Intelligence in the spring of 2001, and he remembers Kosoresow as a friendly, approachable man.

"He was always waiting after class, he'd always be in his office," said Medina, who now works for Columbia as a network analyst in Academic Information Systems. Medina even remembers that, in contrast with many computer science professors whose offices are hard to find and hard to get to, Kosoresow's office "was one of the least hidden offices in the department."

Kosoresow's dedication to undergraduates extended to his substantial work on behalf of the department's TAs. As the computer science TA czar, Kosoresow was responsible for assigning all of the department's TAs to particular classes.

"This of course required a great deal of political skill," Aho said, because of the many scheduling complications and because every professor wants the best TAs. But, Aho added, "He managed this in an unflappable way."

And beyond his work as TA czar, Kosoresow taught a class called Computer Science Education, which instructed TAs in how to effectively teach the field of computer science.

Kestin took that class, and said his experience in it was extremely valuable when he later became a TA. "It was a huge help. There's no official training for TAs, or sort of teaching them how to teach," he said. "Computer science is a complicated subject to talk about, and in that class we have a lot of practice in how to talk effectively about complicated topics."

Both Kestin and Medina said that TAs were crucial to a successful computer science department, and that Kosoresow did a lot to improve the TA structure.

"TAs are a very important part of CS because class sizes are so large," Medina said. "[Kosoresow] always thought the TAs weren't getting enough credit."

Kosoresow joined Columbia's faculty six years ago, after teaching at the University of New Mexico and Stanford University. In 1998, he helped revive the Columbia chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery, a group that organizes events and provides pre-professional support for students interested in computer science. In 2001, Kosoresow received the Kim Award for Faculty Involvement from the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. His major research areas were combinatorial algorithms, artificial intelligence, distributed and parallel computing, and graph theory.

But beyond his academic achievements, what Kosoresow's students will perhaps best remember about him is his amiable, and sometimes quirky, personality. For instance, former students recalled that Kosoresow had a habit of wearing shorts (even in the winter), that he sometimes threw candy or brownies at students when they got a correct answer (for "brownie points," of course), and that, on exams, he often gave extra credit questions like, "What cartoon character do I look like?" or trivia from the movie "Ghostbusters."

More than 100 faculty members and former students honored Kosoresow at a memorial service last Tuesday. "It was extremely touching, and it was also quite clear that he had a beneficial and positive impact on many Columbia undergraduates," Aho said. "He understood Columbia very well, and he understood the life of students very well," he added.

The computer science department is planning another memorial service for Kosoresow this fall.

(C) 2002 Columbia Daily Spectator via U-WIRE

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