Silberstein Computerizes Voting, Sectioning

Eric M. Silberstein '98 has a way of taking on more than is expected of him.

When the Adams House resident took a job at the University's Instructional Computing Group (ICG), neither he nor anyone else anticipated that he would computerize sectioning at Harvard.

When Silberstein joined the Undergraduate Council, nobody imagined that he would create an electronic way to cast votes which would make a campus-wide election easier.

Yet, in both cases he did those things by applying the computer skills he had been sharpening since the second grade to problems he saw at Harvard.

And, in fact, Silberstein, through two of his programs, is changing the way Harvard does business and is speeding its transition into the information age.

Sectioning

Silberstein's first creation, a general sectioning program, has been successfully used by more than 10 Harvard classes.

From the 70-person English 97 to the four 200-person Expos sorts, faculty have utilized Silberstein's work--and come away impressed.

"Eric's program is actually a very important facet of the services we provide to courses," said Paul Berger, head of the University's ICG.

The genesis for this idea began last summer, while Silberstein was employed at the ICG.

"He approached me with the idea while employed with us doing other tasks," Berger said. "Sectioning was a word I'd never heard before...I just kind of nodded my head at him for about a month until he finally sold it to me."

Silberstein designed the sectioning program to be useful to a wide range of courses.

"There was no one unified sectioning program," he said. "It was initially written just for math classes, but it's a very general program--it can be used for classes from Expos to math."

Silberstein added that the biggest hurdle was not, as one might expect, a technical one.

"I like programming," Silberstein said, "but the challenge here wasn't as much the programming as it was understanding how to accommodate the needs of teachers."

Features of the program include the ability to adjust section sizes, assign students to specific sections based on predetermined criteria and notify students of their assigned section via e-mail.

"It's really a whole suite of services for a teaching staff. He developed this software with a lot of understanding...it's a very smart package," Berger said.

Those using the program echoed Berger's sentiments.

"It used to take two people eight hours [to section BS-11]," said Lauraine Dalton, a molecular/cellular biology preceptor. "Now it takes one person two hours."

Suzanne T. Lane, a teaching assistant in Expository Writing, added that the program makes it possible for one person to complete the sectioning process in the same amount of time it took six people without the program.

Silberstein, who still works for the ICG, estimates that between working with TFs and staff members, writing the documentation for the program and writing the program itself, he has put in 200 to 300 hours on the project.

And despite all the time invested and glowing reviews, the program is still a work in progress.

"I guess my goal is to keep improving it until every class with a considerable number of students [more than 100] can use it if they want to," he said.

Streamlined Voting

When Silberstein joined the council during his first year, necessity proved to be the mother of invention.

"I thought of a voting program at the beginning of last year," Silberstein said. "Harvard had this whole Internet thing, but we were voting on paper ballots. There were a lot of problems."

So he teamed up with Eugene E. Kim '96 to write a computer voting program. Kim wrote the part of the program which actually tallies the votes, while Silberstein created the software's user interface.

Because council elections utilize a complicated proportional voting system, tallying used to take a few days. Silberstein saw an opportunity to use computerized tallying to save many hours of work.

Accessible over the Harvard network, the program was first implemented by the council for last fall's first-year elections.

According to the author, voter turnout exceeded 1,000 votes, roughly double that of the previous years.

And according to others, the new system is much easier to manage.

"This year [the tallying process] just went so quickly, it was unbelievable," said Manisha Bharti '98, one of the council members responsible for overseeing this year's first-year elections. "We'd allocated the whole night to work, but we finished in just a couple of hours."

An additional benefit of computerization, Silberstein said, is that it helps avoid any concern over voter fraud--a problem which had plagued elections in previous years.

Silberstein added that the voting program actually improves the quality of the votes, by allowing students more time to read the candidates' position papers.

"Students had only a minute or so to read a position paper," Silberstein said, referring to when voting was done in dining halls. "This way, voting is available 24 hours a day, and students can look at position papers before voting."

According to the programmer, if campus-wide elections for council offices are to become a reality, computerized voting will most likely be used--and that will mean adapting Silberstein and Kim's program to fill the task.

Outside Computers

Those who work with Silberstein universally commend his dedication to his work.

"It seems like anything he touches kind of turns golden. When he agrees to do something, he really puts his all into it," council member Rudd W. Coffey '97 said. "He's the kind of guy who does the dirty work. Things just wouldn't work without him."

"Everything he's worked on, he's put in 150 percent," Bharti added. "He does so much, but he's never talking about how stressed he is--he just takes it all in stride."

He has also been active in attempting to improve campus life in other ways. He came up with the idea for "Hello Day," a day where students could win prizes by greeting others.

"It was a good idea," said Coffey. "I'm sorry more Harvard students didn't buy into it...He did an amazing job."

In addition to his Harvard related work, Silberstein serves as a site coordinator for Partners for Empowering Neighborhoods (PEN), a program offering nightly adult education classes.

Amahl Bishara, education coordinator for PEN, praises not only Silberstein's dedication, but also his sense of humor.

"Eric is generally incredibly on top of things. He's a blast to work with--really quirky, funny, sort of random. I'm a big fan of Eric's," she said

Accessible over the Harvard network, the program was first implemented by the council for last fall's first-year elections.

According to the author, voter turnout exceeded 1,000 votes, roughly double that of the previous years.

And according to others, the new system is much easier to manage.

"This year [the tallying process] just went so quickly, it was unbelievable," said Manisha Bharti '98, one of the council members responsible for overseeing this year's first-year elections. "We'd allocated the whole night to work, but we finished in just a couple of hours."

An additional benefit of computerization, Silberstein said, is that it helps avoid any concern over voter fraud--a problem which had plagued elections in previous years.

Silberstein added that the voting program actually improves the quality of the votes, by allowing students more time to read the candidates' position papers.

"Students had only a minute or so to read a position paper," Silberstein said, referring to when voting was done in dining halls. "This way, voting is available 24 hours a day, and students can look at position papers before voting."

According to the programmer, if campus-wide elections for council offices are to become a reality, computerized voting will most likely be used--and that will mean adapting Silberstein and Kim's program to fill the task.

Outside Computers

Those who work with Silberstein universally commend his dedication to his work.

"It seems like anything he touches kind of turns golden. When he agrees to do something, he really puts his all into it," council member Rudd W. Coffey '97 said. "He's the kind of guy who does the dirty work. Things just wouldn't work without him."

"Everything he's worked on, he's put in 150 percent," Bharti added. "He does so much, but he's never talking about how stressed he is--he just takes it all in stride."

He has also been active in attempting to improve campus life in other ways. He came up with the idea for "Hello Day," a day where students could win prizes by greeting others.

"It was a good idea," said Coffey. "I'm sorry more Harvard students didn't buy into it...He did an amazing job."

In addition to his Harvard related work, Silberstein serves as a site coordinator for Partners for Empowering Neighborhoods (PEN), a program offering nightly adult education classes.

Amahl Bishara, education coordinator for PEN, praises not only Silberstein's dedication, but also his sense of humor.

"Eric is generally incredibly on top of things. He's a blast to work with--really quirky, funny, sort of random. I'm a big fan of Eric's," she said