Database Processing

About our authors David M. Kroenke has more than 50 years of experience in the computer industry. He began as a computer programmer for the U.S. Air Force, working both in Los Angeles and at the Pentagon, where he developed one of the world's first DBMS products while part of a team that created a computer simulation of World War III. That simulation served a key role for strategic weapons studies during a 10-year period of the Cold War.

From 1973 to 1978, Kroenke taught in the College of Business at Colorado State University. In 1977 he published the first edition of?Database Processing,?a significant and successful textbook that, more than 40 years later, you now are reading in its?16th Edition. In 1978, he left Colorado State and joined Boeing Computer Services, where he managed the team that designed data-base management components of the IPAD project. After that, he joined with Steve Mitchell to form Mitchell Publishing and worked as an editor and author, developing texts, videos, and other educational products and seminars. Mitchell Publishing was acquired by Random House in 1986. During those years, he also worked as an independent consultant, primarily as a data-base disaster repairman helping companies recover from failed database projects.

In 1982, Kroenke was one of the founding directors of the Microrim Corporation. From 1984 to 1987, he served as the Vice President of Product Marketing and Development and managed the team that created and marketed the DBMS product RBASE 5000 as well as other related products.

For the next five years, Kroenke worked independently while he developed a new data modeling language called the?semantic object model.?He licensed this technology to the Wall Data Corporation in 1992 and then served as the Chief Technologist for Wall Data's Salsa line of products. He was awarded three software patents on this technology.

Since 1998, Kroenke has continued consulting and writing. His current interests concern the practical applications of data mining techniques on large organizational databases. An avid sailor, he wrote?Know Your Boat: The Guide to Everything That Makes Your Boat Work,?which was published by McGraw-Hill in 2002.

David J. Auer has more than 30 years of experience teaching college-level business and information systems courses and for over 20 years has worked professionally in the field of information technology. He served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Air Force, with assignments to NORAD and the Alaskan Air Command in air defense operations. He later taught both business administration and music classes at Whatcom Community College and business courses for the Chapman College Residence Education Center at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. He was a founder of the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop (now in its 41st year of operations). He worked as a psychotherapist and organizational development consultant for the Whatcom Counseling and Psychiatric Clinic's Employee Assistance Program and provided training for the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services. He taught for Western Washington University's College of Business and Economics from 1981 to June 2015 and served as the college's Director of Information Systems and Technology Services from 1994 to 2014. Now a Senior Instructor Emeritus at Western Washington University, he continues his writing projects.

Scott L. Vandenberg has over 27 years' experience teaching computer science to college students in computer science and business. Before completing his PhD, he worked for brief periods at Standard Oil Research, Procter & Gamble headquarters, and IBM Research. He taught for two years at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst before joining the faculty at Siena College in 1993. His main teaching interests are in the areas of database management systems and introductory computer science, with research, consulting, and publications focused on those areas as well. Some of his earlier scholarly work included development of data models, query languages, and algebras for object-oriented databases and databases involving sequential and tree-structured data. More recent research has involved applying database technology to help solve data science problems in the areas of biology and epidemiology. He has also published several papers relating to introductory computer science curricula and was a co-principal investigator on a multiyear NSF grant to develop methods to broaden participation and increase retention in computer science. Vandenberg has published over 20 papers related to his scholarly activity.