Instructors

The following individuals are affiliated with BrassHornet.

J. Eric Ivancich

Eric is our primary instructor. He has over fifteen years of technology education experience in both designing and teaching courses.

While still a high school student Eric taught computer programming to youngsters at computer summer camps and short-term courses.

As a graduate student teaching assistant at the University of Michigan, Eric taught courses on computer programming (C, C++, Pascal, assembly language), data structures and algorithms, and digital hardware design for fourteen semesters. While at the University of Michigan he also co-designed and co-taught graduate level courses on human information processing, cognitive functioning, and neural models.

Since 1994 Eric's focus has been on corporate education. He has designed and taught courses on UNIX, computer programming (Java, C++, C, Pascal, shell scripting), client-server computing, inter-process communication, and corporate finance.

During this time Eric's students have come from a wide variety of corporate, non-profit, and governmental organizations, including:

• Novell [operating systems, information solutions]
• EDS (Electronic Data Systems) [business process management, information solutions]
• ProQuest [information archiving and retrieval]
• HostPro (a division of Micron Electronics, now merged with Interland) [web hosting]
• Compuware [enterprise and e-commerce development and staffing]
• General Motors
• Ford Motor Company
• DaimlerChrysler (and the former Chrysler)
• TRW
• Bosch [automotive, engineering]
• Yazaki North America [automotive parts supplier]
• Smiths Industries Aerospace
• First National Bank of America Lansing, Michigan
• Ross Roy Communications (now InterOne Marketing Group, part of the BBDO Network)
• Handleman Company [music distribution]
• Ameritech [telecommunications]
• Consumers Energy [electric utility]
• ANR Pipeline [energy transport]
• Guinness / United Distillers / Schieffelin & Sommerset (now part of Diageo) [spirits, beer]
• Seagram [spirits, entertainment]
• Domino's Pizza
• Meijer [retail sales]
• U.S. Internal Revenue Service
• U.S. Army Tank Command
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Michigan Department of Transportation
• University of Michigan Medical Center
• Blue Cross / Blue Shield of Michigan
• American Automobile Association (AAA Michigan)

Eric is in the process of completing his PhD at the University of Michigan. His dissertation is in the field of neural modeling, specifically on the issue of knowledge integration -- how new information alters existing knowledge structures. He applies this theoretical knowledge of how the brain works both in course design and in instructing.

Here are some of Eric's peer-reviewed journal articles:

Ivancich, J.E., Schwartz, D.A., and Kaplan, S. (2000) Integrating exemplars in category learning: Better late than never, but better early than late, a commentary on Connectionist modelling in psychology: A localist manifesto, by Mike Page. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 23:4, pp. 481-2.

Ivancich, J.E., Huyck, C.R., and Kaplan, S. (1999) Cell assemblies as building blocks of larger cognitive structures, a commentary on Words in the brain's language, by Friedemann Pulvermüller. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 22:2, pp. 292-3.

Schwartz, D.A., Ivancich, J.E., and Kaplan, S. (1997) Suppression, attention, and effort: A proposed enhancement for a promising theory, a commentary on What memory is for, by Arthur M. Glenberg. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 20:1, pp. 36-7.