Rex E. Gantenbein

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Professor of Computer Science

Adjunct Professor of Health Sciences and Director, Center for Rural Health Research and Education (CRHRE)

· Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Iowa, 1986

· M.S. in Computer Science, University of Iowa, 1983

· B.S. in Mathematics, Iowa State University, 1972

Curriculum vitae (MS Word)

Contact information

Center for Rural Health Research and Education, University of Wyoming
College of Health Sciences

1000 E. University Avenue, Department 3432

Laramie, Wyoming 82071
Phone: (307) 766-6544
Fax: (307) 766-4356
E-mail: rex@uwyo.edu

Department of Computer Science, University of Wyoming
College of Engineering

1000 E. University Avenue, Department 3315

Laramie, Wyoming 82071
Phone: (307) 766-4226
Fax: (307) 766-4036

Recent presentations

I have recently given a number of presentations on various research topics. These presentations can be viewed through the links below. Please contact me at rex@uwyo.edu if you would like copies of the papers themselves.

Designing An Internet-Based Collaboratory for Biomedical Research, presented at the 39th Annual Rocky Mountain Bioengineering Symposium in Copper Mountain, Colorado. (PowerPoint version here)

Affordable Knowledge Discovery Through Distributed Data Mining, presented at the 17th International Conference on Computers and Their Applications in San Francisco. (PowerPoint version here)

Providing Secure Internet Access to Health Care Information, presented at the 17th International Conference on Computers and Their Applications in San Francisco. (PowerPoint version here)

Authorized Access Only: Providing Secure Internet Access to Patient Information Using Windows 2000 Server, presented at Windows on HealthCare 2001 in San Diego, California. (PowerPoint version here)

eHealth: Using Information and Communication Technology to Improve Health Care, keynote address at the 3^rd International Conference on Information Reuse and Integration (IRI-2001) in Las Vegas, Nevada. (PowerPoint version here)

Current project

I am serving as Director of the Center for Rural Health Research and Education (CRHRE) in the University of Wyoming College of Health Sciences. The CRHRE's mission is to enhance health care research and education in Wyoming and the region through technology and data-driven decision making. Please visit the CRHRE’s Web site at http://www.health.uwyo.edu/. I also serve as Bioinformatics Core director for the UW/Northern Rockies Regional Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (BRIN), a project funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Telemedicine

One application of distributed processing is telemedicine, which involves the practice of medicine over distances or barriers. There are a number of projects nationwide ranging from remote database access to robotic surgery. I am affiliated with the Division of Biomedical and Health Informatics at the University of Washington School of Medicine because of my work in this area. Wyoming and Washington are two of the members of the WWAMI Rural Telemedicine Network, a project involving telemedicine links in the five-state WWAMI consortium for medical education. I also serve on the Wyoming Governor’s Telehealth Steering Committee, a group that works with the Wyoming Department of Health to develop telemedicine projects within the state.

I am particularly interested in the problems of performance, security, and data quality in telemedicine systems and how adequate information can be transmitted over the Internet to support medical consultations as well as education. I have taught a segment of the University of Wyoming College of Health Sciences' senior seminar on telemedicine. Materials from this course can be found here. I also recently gave a talk at the American Stroke Association's national conference on Wyoming's efforts to develop telehealth technology. Copies of the presentation are available here, as html (with frames) and PowerPoint slides.

Reliable computing

The complexity of computer systems, coupled with our increasing reliance on the services they provide, makes it imperative that we design and implement them to fail as seldom as possible. This is particularly true in safety-critical systems where human life or welfare depends on the system behaving in a predictable and reliable manner. When such systems include redundant hardware and software that support continued operation under failure conditions, they are known as fault-tolerant systems. I have worked for NASA and for the U.S. Air Force's Rome Laboratory on projects relating to the design and evaluation of reliable distributed computer systems, including fault-tolerant C3 (command, control, and communications) systems.

Security is an important facet of reliability, particularly in Internet-based systems. I am particularly interested in developing systems for distributing information across the Internet without compromising privacy or confidentiality. These systems incorporate technology for authorization, accountability, encryption, and other mechanisms for protecting information. I recently gave a presentation on ways that this could be achieved using off-the-shelf components. Copies of the presentation are available here, as html (with frames) and PowerPoint slides.

Professional ethics

As a socially responsible scientist, I feel it is important to examine the consequences of the research I perform. I am interested in the ethics of computing research, as well as the issues of free speech on the Internet and the protection of personal privacy in the information age.