vyEPA Vol. I August, 1978 No. 6 CURT LACKEY SELECTED AS WCC PROJECT OFFICER BILL ALLEN, COMPUTER SPECIALIST In July, EPA Dajta Talk announced the appointment of new Project Officers for the NCC and WCC. Tom Rogers, the NCC Project Officer, was featured last month. Curt Lackey, the new WCC Project Officer, is a new face in MIDSD/NCC. Although located at Washington's Waterside will report to Don Fulford Mall, Curt Chief of the Data Center RTP facility. Branch at the CIRT LACKEY him), one year in Vietnam as Chief of Computer Operations, Data Man- agement Agency, and one year at Randolph AFB, Texas, where he was involved with the procurement of the Advanced Personnel Data System for the Air Force. A native South Carolinian, Curt was born in 19^2, and in 1964 received a B.S. in mathematics from Clemson Univer- sity. He then moved to Atlanta where he entered Georgia Tech and graduated with an M.S. in Informa- tion Science in 1965. Since Branch la n ta , region' 1973, Curt has been ADP Chief for Region 4, At- where he managed the s ADP resources and provided data processing liaison with EPA Headquarters. He was instrumental in the successful and efficient use of PDP-11/70. Atlanta the first regional installation the regional was one of offices puter. to acquire this minicom- Before coming to EPA, Curt served in the U.S. Air Force for seven years, four of which in the Penta- gon (D.C. traffic won't be new to Curt, who enjoys his work, is also active outside ADP. He plays paddleball and golf, and is active in church choir groups. His wife Judy and their three children, the youngest of which is six months old, are in the process of moving from Atlanta to Annandale, Virgin- ia, where they will live until finding a more permanent resi- dence . Welcome to the MIDSD organization, Curt! We certainly can use your talents and experience to provide the IBM users with the high qual- ity utility they expect and de- serve . ------- DIRECTOR'S CORNER Willis Grccnsirco This month I want to emphasize the initiation of EPA's National ADP Institute (NADPI). The first courses were held in July. The NADPI will become a major aspect of EPA's ADP Program as we move into the 1980's. The following excerpts from an article which appeared in the North C_a_ro_.l_i.n;a Leader describe it well. Vic Cohen of my RTP staff is to be commended for the good start of NADPI. FOR THE 1980 COMPUTER LEAP NSCU FACULTY PREPS EPAers mation about cloud cover, wind direction and relative humidity may be fed in to produce long- range weather reports, of interest to the EPA since it is involved with pollutants in the air. At the second or intermediate level, a course called "Project Management" will concentrate on practical methods of managing a computer project. It is designed for mid-level managers, systems and management analysis [sic] and computer specialists. At the top level, a course called "Executive Seminar," for the upper echelons of EPA managers, teaches more extensively how to make deci- sions based on computer work others do. It advises about how to ask for certain information, what to ask for. North Carolina State University is providing the teaching expertise for the Environmental Protection Agency's Automated Data Processing Institute in Raleigh and in [two] other states. The Institute is for EPA personnel from across the country. Sessions also will be held at Gaithersburg, MD, and Cin- cinnati, OH. The NCSU travel to James D. David F. professors, all seminars, Powell McAllister, who will are: Dr. and Dr. of NCSU's Department of Computer Science. The NCSU professors will teach three courses. At the first level is "Basic Concepts," designed for lower level management people and others without a great deal of ex- pertise in the computer field. The course will deal with appli- cations of computer information in an introductory way. For example, it might explain weather fore- casting by computer - how infor- The courses are being . . by the NCSU Continuing Education. coordinated Division of They are intended to acquaint their students with recent ad- vances in computer technology, preparing the way for the tremen- dous leaps ahead expected by the 1980's. Plans for several more years of courses are in the works, with the intention being to expand the courses in depth. A student who attended the first course, "Basic Concepts," might expect the next year to come back to course 1-a, he [John Schulze, continuing education specialist] says, explaining that this might be an enlarged version or offshoot of "Basic Concepts . " ------- NADPI Vic Cohen, Computer Specialist The trees appearing on the cover of the brochure pictured at right announcing the "Executive Seminar in ADP" serve as the logo for EPA's newest ADP educational pro- gram called the National ADP Institute or NADPI (pronounced "nappy"). Implied by the logo is NADPI1s goal of individual growth through education. By researching effective classroom techniques, continuously surveying course needs, and developing, presenting, and evaluating ADP courses, NADPI will provide a high-calibre ADP education to all EPA employees. This fiscal year, NADPI is offering a set of three courses each aimed at a different category of EPA employee: "Executive Semi- nar in ADP" for executives, "Pro- ject Management and the System Life Cycle" for ADP project mana- gers, and "Basic Concepts in ADP" for those without prior ADP ex- perience . The NADPI program recognizes a number of new attitudes toward the way the government should operate. Draft reports from the President's Reorganization Project have re- peatedly stated that computers are indispensable to the successful operation of the government. Of course, this idea is not new to EPA. As a young agency, EPA has easily taken advantage of technol- ogy, particulary automation. With the advent of OMB Circular A-109 and the approaching procurement of computer equipment and services for the 1980's, the Agency will produce new computer uses^,/ methods of managing information, and per- haps, modes of organizational behavior. As ADP permeates the Agency, few staffers remain out- side its influence. All of us NADPI .an opportunity to have a role in producing and re- viewing data, distributing re- ports, consolidating and digesting information, or managing one or more of these activities. The implication of this trend toward automation is that EPA must help its staff acquire computer skills and accept the changes computers will bring to the work- place. All NADPI courses will prepare EPA personnel for the developing information technology and will emphasize their role in the information process. Compared to courses available from other sources, those of NADPI have several advantages. They are free to EPA employees. They will re- flect actual EPA experiences through the use of tailored case studies. Most will be developed and presented by university fac- ulty, and the students will re- ceive continuing education credits (CEU's). Next fiscal year, NADPI will un- doubtedly repeat portions of the current schedule. The current project management course may be changed to include the use of a project management game, again customized to fit the EPA experi- ------- ence. But there will be renewed emphasis on users not formally trained in ADP, exemplified by a systems course specifically de- signed for personnel managers or environmental protection special- ists. Other ideas include an ADP procurement seminar, a series in data analysis, a course in data base applications, and reviews of new books on management infor- mation systems. The future looks bright for NADPI and all EPA employees are encour- aged to take advantage of the unique opportunity it offers. HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE WCC Maireei Jehnson v. V Curt Lackey, newly-appointed EPA Project Officer for the WCC, is rapidly familiarizing himself with the management of the con- tract. Having served as the ADP Branch Chief for Region 4, Curt brings a valuable user perspective to the direction of the data center. Jim Flatten and Neil McNamara will be working with Curt at Waterside Mall. JA new project management and control system, PC/70, from At- lantic Software, Inc., will soon be implemented at the WCC. De- scriptive information on this sys- tem will be presented in future issues of EPA/WCC SIGNQN. A schedule and plan will soon be completed for the implemen- tation of IBM's Multiple Virtual Storage (MVS) operating system. Generally, MVS is expected to increase productivity in appli- cations development, expand operations flexibility, and im- prove system performance. Copies of a COMNET working paper de- scribing MVS may be obtained from WCC Users Support. 'Robert T. Caravella has joined the WCC staff as Deputy Project Director. And the posi- tions of Security and Fire Pro- tection Officer, Quality Assurance and Certification Officer, Network Manager, and two Senior Perfor- mance Analysts have been filled. ^Morino Associates, Inc., has been awarded a subcontract to study WCC performance monitoring requirements prior to the devel- opment of a Performance Monitoring Information System. 'Under development is a new user" orientation package, pro- viding new users with pertinent information about how to use the WCC and where to obtain assis- tance . HEWS FROM REGIOH 3 Ted Stindish, Region 3 ADP Branch Chief Work is continuing at a steady pace on the design of the Hazard- ous Waste Data Management System for the Hazardous Waste Program. Several meetings of the Steering Committee were held and, as a re- sult, we at Region 3 sent to the other regions information on a design proposal for the Notifi- cations System and the Permit Issuance System. In addition, we also requested regional comment on several data processing issues. We will keep the regions informed as work on this system progresses. Last week, Arthur Young and Company briefed the Steering Com- mittee on the status of the Data Standardization Project. Commit- tee members agreed that Arthur Young should define alternative ways for the Agency to implement a Data Management and Standardi- zation Program. This briefing was videotaped and will be sent with a briefing document to each region. ------- Region 3 arranged for WCC Users Support to operate the Model State Information System on a daily basis. We have documented this arrangement. At the end of the fiscal year, together with User Support, we will issue a report on the advantages and disadvantages of this arrangement. The meeting of the regional Branch Chiefs should occur in October, in conjunction with either the meeting of the minicomputer re- gions or the proposed Agency Data Processing Conference. As soon as I have a firm date, I will let each of you know. Please let me know if you have any information you wish to include in this column. NETWORK ACTIVITIES Fred Hastier The General Services Admin- istration recently granted approval for seven new data circuits. This will allow EPA and COMNET to proceed with a network reconfiguration to improve acces- sibility and reliability for San Francisco, Dallas, New Orleans, Grosse lie, and other northeastern cities. RJE access to NCC is still not available over the network facil- ities. COMNET is testing the capability and cannot at this time provide an implementation date. COMNET currently provides WATS lines and commercial numbers in Washington to access NCC and WCC with 1200 bps full-duplex VADIC modems. But access to either system with similar Bell 212 modems is limited to local Washington commercial numbers. To service Bell 212 modem users outside the Washington dialing area, COMNET will install WATS lines by August 2. Users are reminded and encouraged to report all communications prob- lems. If you are not satisfied with problem resolution or if you are still experiencing problems, please contact me a (919) 541-2932 or (FTS) 629-2932. EPA/HUB CONTRACT Robert Yoni, UP letvork Services, lie. EPA has awarded a contract to ADP Network Services, Inc., through First Data Corporation, to provide a "Mathematical Modeling Time- Sharing Service" to all EPA loca- tions throughout the country. This service centers around the MLAB software package developed by NIH and resides on a DEC System-10 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The net- work is readily accessible by phone from most major U.S. cities. MLAB is an interactive system for mathematical modeling. The heart of the system is a curve-fitting program which will adjust the parameters of a model function to minimize the sum of the squared errors. Mathematical operators and functions, routines for tele- type and CRT plotting, and mechan- isms for saving data between sessions provide a powerful and convenient environment for data manipulation, arithmetic calcu- lations, and building and testing models. MLAB was originally de- signed and programmed by Gary Knott and Douglas Reece. It was inspired by earlier work of Richard Shrager at NIH and uses the Marquardt-Levenburg method of curve-fitting. The user communicates with MLAB by typing commands. Most commands are executed at once, but a few, such as the FIT command, will ------- prompt the user for additional information. Should the user have questions, typing "HELP" will put the system documentation at his disposal. In addition to its suitability for quick and convenient curve- fitting, MLAB provides facilities for data manipulation and graph- ics. Models are expressed as real-valued functions of arbitrary numbers of independent variables and parameters. These functions may be expressed in terms of the built-in operators and functions, other functions defined by the user, and recursively in terms of themselves. Systems of differen- tial equations may be specified and solved or used to implicitly define functions to be used as models in curve-fitting. The graphics routines provide a means of rapidly examining the results of a fit, and, using a CRT display, a graph can be prepared for publication. Special facili- ties for drawing perspective views of 3-dimensional surfaces or space-curves are included. Vari- ous means of modifying the views are available. The most salient feature of MLAB is its civilized interface with the users. Its statements are simple and direct, and all un- necessary details relating to pure programming have been suppressed. Functions are evaluated inter- pretively, avoiding the need for user programming. A comprehensive set of assumptions or "defaults" is in force to allow command components to be neglected when desired. The PDP-10 monitor is easy to interact with, and no elaborate operating system control specifications such as JCL are required. The use of files is relatively simple. MLAB has been used to solve dif- ferential equations, fit models to data, and produce pictures for publication in a variety of situ- ations . The system is available to all EPA personnel. For more information on MLAB or to set up an account, please contact: David Cline Environmental Protection Agency Athens, Georgia 30605 (H04) 546-3123 (FTS) 250-3123 or Bob Young First Data Corporation 2011 Eye Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20006 (202) 872-0580 The commercial number for the National Com- munciations Network is (202) 537-2611. Marvin Rosenstein is the Branch Chief for Region 1. EPA Data Talk gave this in- formation incorrectly in the June issue . EPA Data Talk is published monthly by the National Computer Center, Manage- ment Information and Data Systems Division, for EPA personnel and con- tractors interested in general ADP topics. Comments and suggestions are solic- ited and should be addressed to: William G. Allen Editor, EPA Data Talk National Computer Center Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27711 To ensure that our distribution list is up-to-date, please indicate any required changes on the mailing label attached to this issue and mail it to the above address. ------- DEVELOPMENT, MAINTENANCE & OPERATIONS CONTRACT Anne Parkis [Editor's Note: Anne Parkis, formerly of the WCC Project Office, accepted the DM&O Project Manager position within MIDSD. This position became vacant when Frank Bullock transferred to the Department of Defense. Anne wel- comes any questions or comments concerning the DM&O contract and can be reached at 755-2839.] Elgin Fry of the Office of Pesti- cide Programs (OPP) must process huge quantities of site/pest data to analyze the composition and effect of various pesticides. Elgin asked CSC to supply profes- sionals in entomology, agronomy, microbiology, plant pathology, and plant physiology, who will encode pesticide data into a computer- compatible format, run the data through the COMNET computer system after key-to-disk conversion, and verify the computer edit output before sending the data on to EPA scientists for final analysis. The key-to-disk conversion is performed by CSC under the DM&O contract. With CSC's help, Elgin and the OPP will soon get the bugs out of their systems. Bruce Almich is establishing a Minicomputer Software Exchange for the EPA PDP-11 user community. This exchange should help elimi- nate duplicate minicomputer soft- ware development in the Agency and provide software sharing to PDP-11 users. The exchange will be de- veloped through two DM&O con- tracts. The first will produce minicomputer documentation stan- dards and policies/procedures for the exchange. Draft copies of the results will be distributed for review and comment at the EPA minicomputer managers meeting scheduled this fall. The second contract will establish and oper- ate the exchange. The CSC staff at the Large Lakes Research Station (LLRS), Grosse lie, just published their first newsletter giving their user com- munity general interest informa- tion concerning data operations. Dr. Swain, Station Director, wrote, "I think reviewing it that you will discover why we consider Ralph [Allen] and his group to be such a valuable asset to the over- all LLRS program." Anyone inter- ested may request a copy from Bill Richardson, the EPA Project Officer. AGENCY SAMPLE FILE CONTROL SYSTEM Brace Alnicb, Gonputer Services and System Division Computer Services and Systems Di- vision (CSSD) is currently engaged in the design and implementation of data management software for the EPA analytical service labora- tories. A prototype "Sample File Control" (SFC) system for ERC-Cin- cinnati is in the detailed imple- mentation design phase and will run on the EPA-Cincinnati PDP- 11/70 minicomputer under In- form-11. The prototype is ex- pected to be operational by the end of 1978. During 1979, the CSSD-developed automatic telecommunications net- work (available to all PDP-11 IAS sites using HASP) will be aug- mented to provide automatic data exchanges of laboratory sample backlogs and results through PDP-11 batch jobstreams between laboratory minicomputers and the regional RJE minicomputers. Thus the laboratory minicomputers will serve as data concentrators, re- porting on automated instrument analytical quality control, sample status, and project results before the data is either purged or sent to the national data bases, either STORET or SAROAD. The SFC system is also designed for entry of man- ual results data into the PDP-11 data base and as a protocol for ------- automated entry by other mini- computers. These machines would be programmed to transmit the appropriate PDP-11 Batch Inform jobs and receive reports via HASP emulators and 4800 baud synchro- nous telecommunications with the PDP-11 SFC systems. A larger Regional Service Labora- tory Sample File Control System is now in the Data Elements Diction- ary definitions phase of implemen- tation design. Delivery of Sample File Control systems to primary users is sche- duled for 1979, with all major de- sign issues to be frozen during the fall of 1978. Anyone inter- ested in obtaining further design or status information is invited to request a copy of the recent report from CSSD and/or to be added to the design documents mailing list. STATUS OF HOP STUDIES Ed Franklin. Project Officer Of the current nine active and seven proposed Directives of Work (DOW) under MIDSD's Feasibility Study contract with Arthur Young and Company, four projects are nearing completion and are in an EPA review phase. The Hazardous Waste Data Management Supple- mentary Study and Underground Injection Control System Feasi- bility Study are now being re- viewed by EPA Headquarters and the regions. MSED is now reviewing the alternatives definition evalu- ation and cost analysis for their Emissions Data Feasibility Study. For further information from MIDSD on these studies call Ed Franklin (755-0879) or Mike Carpentier (755-0623). UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY National Computer Center Research Triangle Park North Carolina 27711 OFFICIAL BUSINESS PENALTY FOR PRIVATE USE S3OO AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYE* POSTAGE AND FEES PAID U S ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY EPA-333 THIRD CUSS BLK. RT. ------- |