Sally A. McKee was honored during convocation at Littlejohn Coliseum.
Sally A. McKee is the C. Tycho Howle Chair in Collaborative Computing Environments at Clemson University.
McKee, who comes from a family of teachers, received her bachelor’s degree from Yale University, master’s degree from Princeton University and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, all in computer science.
Her most recent occupation prior to joining Clemson in January was a sabbatical at Rambus Inc. in Sunnyvale, California, where one of her projects dealt with memory systems to support quantum computing. McKee’s return to higher education allows her to pursue her passion for helping students.
“I like the fact that I have the ability to help make other people’s dreams and goals happen,” she said. “Just being able to have a positive influence on students’ lives is fantastic.”
Howle’s $2.5-million contribution in 2008 made it possible for the university to create two positions that bear his name, the position held by McKee and the C. Tycho Howle Director of the School of Computing.
Matching dollars for the collaborative computing chair are provided by South Carolina’s SmartStateprogram, which is aimed at encouraging economic growth in key clusters. As part of the program, McKee will oversee the Center of Economic Excellence in Collaborative Computing.
“The role she is serving is very important in today’s world, whether the research be for the nation’s electrical grid or for research toward an implanted medical sensor reporting information back to an external monitor,” Howle said. “In such cases, data compromise could be catastrophic.”
McKee’s research focus is in high-performance, high-efficiency computing, especially memory systems.
“It doesn’t matter how fast your processor is if you can’t keep it fed with instructions and data,” she said. “So a lot of what I’ve done is work on memory systems, trying to break the memory bottleneck or find ways around it.”
That includes trying to figure out what slows things down or where the energy is going, McKee said.
Howle, a Lancaster native, is a retired CEO and civic leader, supporting several causes through the C. Tycho and Marie Howle Foundation.
He received his Bachelor of Science in physics and Master of Science in systems engineering (the forerunner to electrical and computer engineering), both from Clemson. Howle later received an MBA from Harvard Business School.
A company he founded in 1983, Harbinger Computer Services, grew to more than 40,000 active customers, 1,000 employees spread across eight countries, and annual revenues exceeding $155 million.
Howle welcomed McKee to the Clemson family.
“A number of research initiatives are under way across multiple disciplines at Clemson that require the use of advanced computing systems, data storage and information transfer across networks,” he said. “Wouldn’t it be great if we could incorporate best practices for cybersecurity for processors, memory and network security into the early-design stages of our research projects rather than trying to add protection as an afterthought as the research is nearing its conclusion?
“Sally and her team’s mission will be to help the Clemson research family build cybersecurity best practices into Clemson research from project outset.”
McKee has extensive experience in higher education. She was a professor at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, an assistant professor at Cornell University, a research assistant professor and adjunct assistant professor at the University of Utah and an adjunct assistant professor at the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology.
McKee has amassed a list of accolades, including several best paper and service awards from various professional societies. She is most proud of an article she co-authored in 1994 as a Ph.D. student.
The article was about computer memory at a time when many of the scholars in her field were concentrating on caches. McKee had trouble getting the research published, so on the suggestion of her adviser, they submitted the article to an unrefereed newsletter, ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News.
“Hitting the Memory Wall: implications of the Obvious” has since garnered more than 1,600 citations, but its reach is even larger.
“People use the term ‘memory wall’ without citing us, so it’s become part of the vocabulary,” she said.
McKee’s role at Clemson will be to serve as the leader and role model in research, education and scholarship in areas of robust cyberinfrastructure, including computing and network security. She will bridge and integrate research and educational activities at Clemson in advanced computing systems and networks, advanced computer architecture and cybersecurity.
McKee is now recruiting graduate students and preparing to teach a fall seminar on memory systems and technologies that will include some of what she learned about quantum computing at Rambus. In spring, she plans to teach an undergraduate advanced computer architecture course.
McKee is also working to create a program that would allow as many as four students to study under Martin Schulz at the Technical University of Munich.
“That’s going to be a great way to kick off some longer term collaborations with that institution,” she said.
Among those welcoming McKee to Clemson was Daniel Noneaker, chair of the Holcombe Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. McKee is a faculty member in the department.
“She brings something new to Clemson University in experience in advanced microprocessor architecture and advanced computer memory systems and their applications,” he said. “She also brings a lot of energy and great ideas for student engagement.”
Before graduate school, McKee worked for Digital Equipment Corporation and Microsoft Corporation. She has also held internships at Digital Equipment Corporation’s Systems Research Center (now HP Labs) and the former AT&T Bell Laboratories.
McKee’s talents extend beyond computing. She entered Yale as an English major and switched to Computer Science after taking a course on the programming language Fortran. McKee continues to impress upon her students the importance of writing well.
Anand Gramopadhye, dean of the College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences, said McKee’s appointment to the endowed chair is an important step forward in Clemson’s growing impact in the arena of computer engineering and computer science.
“Tycho Howle’s forward-thinking gift continues to pay dividends for our students and faculty,” Gramopadhye said. “His generosity is making a difference in their lives, and we are appreciative of his contributions. I extended to him my deepest gratitude.”
