In addition, the Whittemore School and the computer science department have worked on special projects with major players in the high-tech industry, including Intel and Nokia. Ecora, a Portsmouth company that specializes in intelligent configuration management, is applying artificial intelligence technology developed at UNH. And students work directly with engineers from 136 of the world's leading software and hardware companies through the university's InterOperability Lab.

Eyeon Interactive's Welch, who serves on the advisory council for the Department of Computer Science, is helping to develop a proposal for a new graduate certificate program that would be a partnership between UNH and local companies. The program would be multidisciplinary and would involve on-site teaching at the companies. There is already a strong local demand for this kind of practical training, and Welch believes it will continue to grow. He says he recently met with the chief executive officers from 12 companies who expect to hire a combined total of 1,000 people this year.

Roy Torbert, dean of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, says that -- as recommended by the Taylor Report -- the university is keeping its course offerings up-to-date and exposing students to new computer languages, systems and technologies. However, he cautions, "We're quick to adopt technology relevant to our education and research mission, but the computer science field changes so rapidly that it is more important to teach students how to learn, rather than simply providing the details of a particular language that may be obsolete by graduation."

UNH certainly recognizes that many of its students will find their future in the fast-growing new economy. In total, e-commerce sales in the U.S. last year were $16 billion, according to A. R. "Venky" Venkatachalam, associate professor of information systems at UNH. And that is just the beginning. Forrester Research and The Yankee Group estimate that business-to-business Internet transactions could grow to $2.7 trillion over the next four years, and an eMarketer report predicts that business-to-consumer transactions, or online retail sales, will reach $100 billion in 2003, Venkatachalam says.

UNH students want to learn how they can be part of that e-business boom. When Ludwig Bstieler, a visiting professor from Austria who is teaching in the Whittemore School, offered an Internet marketing course this year, it was filled within two hours after registration opened. By the next day, there were 30 students on the waiting list. Bstieler decided to teach two sections of 30 students each.

"This generation grew up with computers," Bstieler says. "They are playing with ideas or thinking loudly about ideas all the time."

Thinking loudly -- you hear a lot of that on the e-Coast. And you thought it was just the sound of the surf. ~

Rachel M. Collins '81 is a free-lance writer who lives in York, Maine.

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