Br. David Carlson, O.S.B.
Associate Professor of Computing and Information Systems
General Information
Office: Dupre W217
Phone: (724) 805-2416
Email: david.carlson@stvincent.edu
Br. David got started in the computer science world (especially software development and computer architecture) by wiring together the dining room chairs as a young child. Early on in high school he wanted to continue this by becoming an electrical engineer. However, an outstanding high school math teacher got him interested in both math and teaching, with the result that he completed a B.S. and an M.A. in mathematics. A few computer science courses got taken along with the math, so the wiring together of things was not completely forgotten.
After entering the monastery, Br. David learned that a monk at Saint Vincent cannot just pray all day, there had to be both work and prayer. Since the college had a need for faculty to teach in the relatively new field of computer science, he agreed to head back to graduate school for another degree, an M.S. in computer science.
After returning to Saint Vincent with the new degree in hand, Br. David began his full-time teaching the same year that the CIS major began at the college. Since then he has taught in the areas of computer science, computer and network security, IT, mathematics, artificial intelligence, operating systems, and cryptography. He also served as department chairperson for a total of about 20 years. He especially enjoys building a working product, often software, that others can use – still wiring things together in a sense! Br. David likes working in a Linux environment, and has interests in search engines, web applications, how computer exploits work, and many other specific topics in computing. His favorite hobbies are bicycling and playing piano and saxophone. He enjoys reading good literature, theology, history, and spirituality.
Current Courses
- CS 111 C++ Programming II
- CS 171 Introduction to Computability
- CS 221 Data Structures
- CS 330 Operating Systems
- Br. David's Spring 2024 Office and Class Schedule
- Br. David's Software
- Software Design Using C++ (online book)
- Parser Freeware and Examples
- Javascript Image Cycler (used here)
- Prolog Examples
- Unix and Linux Information
Projects and Links
Previous Courses
- CS 110 C++ Programming I
- CS 170 Discrete Structures
- CS 205 Website Design and Programming
- CS 225 Computer Security
- CS 255 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
- CS 270 Introduction to Numerical Computation
- CS 305 Web Technologies
- CS 312 Introduction to Algorithms
- CS 315 Server-Side Programming
- CS 321 Data Communications
- CS 325 Advanced Topics in Security
- CS 375 Applied Cryptography
- ENGR 115 Intro to Engineering Computation
- MA 104 Elementary Functions
- MA 109 Calculus with Applications I
- MA 111 Analytical Calculus I
- MA 112 Analytical Calculus II
Recent Publications
- Carlson, D., Sophomores Meet the Traveling Salesperson Problem. The Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 33(3), 126-133, 2018.
- Carlson, D., Serapiglia, A. A Framework for Cybersecurity Educational Activities, 2019 Proceedings of the EDSIG Conference, ISCAP.
- Carlson, D., Poster presentation: A framework for teaching cybersecurity on the topic: Software development - what could possibly go wrong? The Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 35(3), 205, 2019.