As part of our effort to preserve the history of Upsilon Pi Epsilon, Dr. Barry Bateman, UPE’s first president, recently shared additional recollections and materials from the organization’s earliest days at Texas A&M University.
According to Bateman, Dr. Dan Drew, who led computer science at Texas A&M, played a central role in establishing UPE. Bateman was serving as Drew’s teaching assistant at the time. He recalls that Dr. Jim Nash, a member of the computer science faculty, was also involved in the effort and that Drew selected four additional students to help establish the new honor society.
These recollections help provide context for UPE’s beginnings and the small group of faculty and students who worked together to establish the organization.
Historical Texas A&M yearbook materials preserved by Bateman document this formative period. An early ACM chapter photograph identifies Barry Bateman as Vice President and Dan Drew as Faculty Representative, demonstrating their involvement together in the university’s computing community before and during UPE’s formation.
The collection also includes a photograph from an early programming competition, providing another glimpse into the emerging computer science community and programming competitions that surrounded UPE during its formative years.