Ellis Horowitz

American computer scientist

Ellis Horowitz

Photograph of Ellis Horowitz in November 2012

Born|  (1944-02-11) February 11, 1944 (age 81)

New York City, United States

Alma mater| University of Wisconsin-Madison
Brooklyn College
Known for| Data structures and algorithms
Scientific career
Fields| Data structures
Institutions| University of Southern California
Doctoral advisor| George E. Collins
Doctoral students| Sartaj Sahni, Alfons Kemper

Ellis Horowitz is an American computer scientist and Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC). Horowitz is best known for his computer science textbooks on data structures and algorithms, co-authored with Sartaj Sahni. At USC, Horowitz was chairman of the Computer Science Department from 1990 to 1999. During his tenure he significantly improved relations between Computer Science and the Information Sciences Institute (ISI), hiring senior faculty and establishing the department's first industrial advisory board.[1] From 1983 to 1993 with Lawrence Flon he co-founded Quality Software Products which designed and built UNIX application software. Their products included two spreadsheet programs, Q-calc and eXclaim, a project management system, MasterPlan, and a floating license server, Maitre D. The company was sold to Island Graphics.[2]

## Education

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* B.S. (Mathematics) Brooklyn College, 1964.
* M.S. (Computer Science) University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1967.
* Ph.D. (Computer Science) University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1969.

## Peer-to-peer systems

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Horowitz has been actively engaged as an expert witness testifying in numerous peer-to-peer file sharing legal cases. Generally, he has represented the copyright owner, including individual record companies, the Recording Industry Association of America, and the Motion Picture Association of America. His testimony has been cited numerous times in various decisions and orders, in particular:

* Horowitz was cited in the Arista Records LLC v. Lime Group LLC case.[3]
* His testimony was also cited in RIAA versus MP3tunes.[4]
* In several BitTorrent cases including MPAA versus isoHunt.[5]

More recently, Horowitz has represented Universal Music Group (UMG) and others against the music streaming service Grooveshark.com. Summary judgment was awarded to UMG, with the decision citing Horowitz' expert reports.[6]

## Distance education

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In 1999, Horowitz was appointed Director of Information Technology and Distance Education in USC's Viterbi School of Engineering. Part of his responsibilities included their satellite-based closed circuit instructional network. He renamed the organization USC's Distance Education Network (DEN)[7] and moved course delivery from satellite to the Web. DEN currently offers numerous graduate level courses leading to master's degrees, primarily in computer science and electrical engineering. In 2000 he received an outstanding distance education educator award from R1edu.org.[8]

## Selected publications

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Ellis Horowitz has published numerous technical articles[9] and several books, including:

* 1975\. Horowitz, Ellis (March 1975). Practical Strategies for Developing Large Software Systems (1 ed.). Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. ISBN 0-20102977-4.
* 1984\. Horowitz, Ellis; Sahni, Sartaj (1984). Fundamentals of Computer Algorithms (1 ed.). New York, USA: Computer Science Press, division of W. H. Freeman.
* 1989\. Horowitz, Ellis; Sahni, Sartaj (1989). Fundamentals of Data Structures in Turbo Pascal: for the IBM PC. Rockville, MD: Computer Science Press. ISBN 978-0-716-78152-3.[10]
* 1997\. Horowitz, Ellis; Sahni, Sartaj; Rajasekaran, Sanguthevar (1997). Computer Algorithms/C++. New York, NY: Computer Science Press. ISBN 978-0-716-78315-2.[11]
* 2007\. Horowitz, Ellis; Sahni, Sartaj; Anderson-Freed, Susan (2007). Fundamentals of Data Structures in C (2 ed.). New York, USA: Computer Science Press, division of W. H. Freeman. ISBN 978-0-92930640-7.

## References

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1. ^ Bekey, George A. (2015). A Remarkable Trajectory: From Humble Beginnings to Global Prominence. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. pp. 260–262\. ISBN 978-1-51161926-4.
2. ^ "Spreadsheets under Unix/X". 1993-02-10.
3. ^ "items 21, 35–37". Ruling in EMI v. Escape Media Group.
4. ^ "Memorandum & Order Capitol Records et al v. MP3Tunes et al" (PDF). pp. 3, 4, 22, 26.
5. ^ "Order Granting Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgement" (PDF). pp. 3, 4, 6, 8, 21, 40–42. (Mentions Horowitz in numerous places; see especially the footnote on page 4 admitting Horowitz' testimony.)
6. ^ "United States District Court, Southern District of New York Opinion in 11 Civ. 8407" (PDF).
7. ^ "Distance Education Network, United of Southern California, USA".
8. ^ "R1edu Awards".
9. ^ "Ellis Horowitz". DBLP. Retrieved 2014-09-27.
10. ^ Horowitz, Ellis; Sahni, Sartaj (1989). Fundamentals of data structures in Turbo Pascal: for the IBM PC. Rockville, MD. ISBN 978-0-716-78152-3. OCLC 18135361.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
11. ^ Horowitz, Ellis; Sahni, Sartaj; Rajasekaran, Sanguthevar (1997). Computer Algorithms/C++. New York, NY. ISBN 978-0-716-78315-2. OCLC 35928547.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

## External links

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* Official website

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF

National|

* United States
* France
* BnF data
* Korea
* Israel
* Belgium

Academics|

* Mathematics Genealogy Project
* zbMATH
* DBLP
* MathSciNet

Other|

* IdRef
* Yale LUX