Important Note to Potential Graduate Students: I am a member of the undergraduate faculty in the School of Computer Science, and as such I am not qualified to supervise graduate students.

General Interests:
I am interested in the concepts and practice of networking (particularly Cisco networks) and security. I have founded a special interest group for network security, called CRIPT.

Industry Experience:
I have around 5 years of industry experience, starting from 1997 when I graduated with my bachelor degree.  As a developer I have been a C++ OpenGL developer, a C++ COM developer, a client-side and server-side Java web developer, as well as a C# ASP.NET web developer.  I have run my own technical consulting firm, with several developers under my control.

Teaching:
I have been teaching at the University of Windsor since 1999.  I particularly enjoy teaching courses related to my experience, since it is in these areas where much of my interest lies.

Courses taught:

• 60-100: Key Concepts in Computer Science
• 60-322: Object-Oriented Analysis and Design
• 60-334: WWW Information Systems
• 60-367: Computer Networks
• 60-368: Network Practicum
• 60-422: Agile Software Development
• 60-426: System Administration
• 60-436: Distributed Systems
• 60-499: Project Management: Tools & Techniques

• 60-100: Key Concepts in Computer Science
• 60-141: Introduction to Algorithms and Programming II
• 60-212: Object-Oriented Programming Using Java
• 60-254: Data Structures and Algorithms
• 60-256: Systems Programming
• 60-265: Computer Architecture I: Digital Design
• 60-266: Computer Architecture II: Microprocessor Programming
• 60-368: Network Practicum

Research:
My research interests presently lie in artificial intelligence.  I am currently investigating natural language query processors.  I am also interested in game development, particularly game AI and network collaboration.  My intension is to eventually combine these areas in some meaningful way, likely using games as an application for distributed AI/autonomous agents research.

While pursing my Master of Science (Computer Science), I researched distributed systems. My thesis was about a scalable world distribution protocol for distributed virtual environments. This allowed large virtual geographies with tens of thousands of participants to efficiently exchange participant state data across a network. Such large-scale virtual environments are used in military training. For my doctoral research (in progress), I am researching natural language systems, including interfaces to the WWW and database systems.

Recent Publications:
Conference: International Conference on Applications of Natural Language to Information Systems, NLDB 2007
Title: An Efficient Denotational Semantics for Natural Language Database Queries
Location: Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris, France
Authors: Richard A. Frost and Randy J. Fortier

Conference: High Performance Computing Symposium, 2000
Title: A Dynamic Scheme in Support of Scalability in General-Purpose Distributed Virtual Environments
Location: Simon Fraser University, Victoria, BC
Authors: Randy J. Fortier, Robert D. Kent

Conference: High Performance Computing Symposium, 1999
Title: World Distribution Protocol for Support of Scalable General-Purpose Distributed Virtual Environments
Location: Queens University, Kingston, Ontario
Authors: Randy J. Fortier, Robert D. Kent, Mordechay Schlesinger