I’m glad you're here. I'm Levi Smith, an assistant professor based in Covington, OH. Below, you'll find content devoted to my professional life, including my educational and work experiences, skills, certifications, a brief list of projects that I've worked on, and my service and charitable works. Additionally, there's a contact form if you need to get in touch.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m Levi Smith. I’m a highly motivated individual that is continuously looking to learn new things. I have a lot of patience (with most things), so I’m uniquely well-suited to teaching (see my work experience). I despise needless repetition and will do whatever it takes to get something done right the first time so I don’t have to do it again. I have many hobbies, including reading (both fiction and textbooks), playing video games (when time allows), playing with anything technical, programming (primarily web development), riding my bike, spending time with my friends and family, walking my dog, Sachsen, (for more on him click the button below), and weight-lifting, among others.
As my educational background will tell you, I graduated from Covington High School in 2007. I spent the last two years of my high school education taking part in the PSEOP program (where students earn high school and college credit simultaneously). I was also on the Student Technology Assistance Team (STAT), which is where I met my mentor, Nadine Zimmer. In the twelve years that followed, our relationship grew, and she ended up having a very profound impact on my life. I went from a severe introvert to an extrovert over these many years. Nadine was extraordinarily extroverted and never knew a stranger. Sadly, she is no longer with us, but her impact on the world carries on. I now sponsor a little girl from Bolivia named Natalia, who shares her birthday (and, by the look of her picture, her personality as well). I now share many of the experiences and life lessons that I learned from Nadine with Natalia.
After high school, I immediately went off to college at Wright State University, where I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science in 2011. Throughout my time at Wright State, I continued working at Covington Exempted Village Schools in the Technology Department with Nadine. After graduating, Nadine took on additional responsibility to make room for me to work there full-time. When Nadine retired (the first time), I took her place as the Technology Director and continued to work with her as my subordinate. Fortunately, our relationship was one that allowed us to make this transition with ease. When Nadine retired entirely from the district, I also began working at Edison State Community College as an Adjunct Instructor. I enjoyed teaching so much; I made the difficult decision to leave the district and pursue a full-time career as an educator. Another primary motivator was my desire to pursue additional education (such as a Master’s degree), which wasn’t possible with my weekly workload at the district. This brings me to where I am now.
In my short time at Edison State, I have already accomplished quite a bit. I spent my first year updating the information technology curriculum at the college. This was no easy feat. The changes and proposals that I brought forward were not well received (at first), but with my patience and justifications, everyone ended up coming around to my way of thinking. The next year, I set out on the task of building an entirely new program: Interactive Media. I had discussed this as a possibility during one of my interviews but never dreamed that I would be putting the idea into practice so quickly. In the end, I managed to get three new degree options approved in Graphic Design, Web Design, and Web Development. Of course, during all of this, I’d been barreling through Master’s courses at Franklin University. Completing a Master’s degree would not have been possible for me in my previous career (as I simply didn’t have the time), but I managed to graduate in August 2020. Now I'm on to working on my Doctorate in Information Technology with an Information Security focus. Wish me luck!
Sachsen (pronounced Saxon) is my German Shepherd. He also goes by Shashon, Shasony, and Bozo. Very few people have had the privilege of meeting Sachsen as he tends to be extremely over-protective. He generally takes a “bite first, ask questions later” approach to virtually all situations, so I have to be careful with him. Honestly, I think he was abused as a puppy (before he came into my care), and I was the first to ever show him any compassion, so he immediately bonded to me.
Sachsen excited to go for a walk.
Anyway, despite his over-protective nature, Sachsen is generally a good dog. He loves to play a lot (mainly fetch, tug-of-war, and bubbles). He also loves to go for car rides, walks, and to the park. Generally, he gets so excited when we undertake these activities that he endlessly chases his tail. He is also a cuddle-bug and frequently violates my personal space. The owner’s manual for a German Shepherd should explicitly mention that they don’t understand the concept of personal space.
Sachsen watching his favorite show Archer.
He is also an avid TV viewer and loves barking at the TV whenever there’s a dog or ball on it. One of his favorite “balls” is the white dot that goes across the screen during the theme song of the TV show Archer. Just hearing the theme song for the series will bring him from anywhere in the house, so that he can bark at that white dot. He is also extremely bright. For example, he quickly figured out how to open the doors in my house (since they have handles, rather than knobs). This fact essentially means that there’s no room in my house that’s off-limits to him. All in all, Sachsen is an excellent dog once he gets to know you (until then, just leave him alone).
The course examines risks, threats, and countermeasures to secure data, personnel and hardware. This involves facility creation and selection concerns, facility access control methods, and safety issues.
In this course the students explore key data analysis and management techniques, which applied to massive datasets are the cornerstone that enables real-time decision making in distributed environments, business intelligence in the Web, and scientific discovery at large scale. In particular, students examine the map-reduce parallel computing paradigm and associated technologies such as distributed file systems, no-sql databases, and stream computing engines. This highly interactive course is based on the problem-based learning philosophy. Students are expected to make use of technologies to design highly scalable systems that can process and analyze Big Data for a variety of scientific, social, and environmental challenges.
This course goes beyond looking at risk management from the confines of quantitative topics to cover the full spectrum of risks that may emerge in enterprises. It covers a more holistic approach that includes the decisions and actions of employees in an active enterprise. It uses case studies to demonstrate the issues and challenges in total risk management. Finally, the course explores techniques for balancing enterprise risk and reward to enable performance optimization.
The course examines controls over personnel, hardware, software, and systems. It also covers possible abuse channels and proper countermeasures.
This course helps students understand the various types of cybercrimes, and law enforcement’s responses to them through digital forensics. The legal environment of cyberspace will be unpacked as the student becomes familiar with how technology facilitates social relationships between deviants and criminals. From hacking and online fraud to sexual exploitation, intellectual property theft, cyberbullying, and even cyber-terrorism and warfare, digital forensics investigations, cybercrime policies, and legislation are presented as strategic solutions to make the world wide web and its users secure.
This course discusses methods to increase the security of application development and thwart attacker attempts to manipulate code. It also explores the software lifecycle and change control to reduce the probability of poorly written applications that allows an attacker to exploit coding errors. Database development models will be introduced focusing on choosing the best model to increase security.
This course presents key issues related to the discipline of information governance and how it is being applied to electronic document and records management, email, social media, cloud computing, mobile computing, and, in fact, the management and output of information organization-wide. IG leverages information technologies to enforce policies, procedures and controls to manage information risk in compliance with legal and litigation demands, external regulatory requirements, and internal governance objectives. Information Governance: Concepts, Strategies, and Best Practices reveals how, and why, to utilize IG and leverage information technologies to control, monitor, and enforce information access and security policies.
The course provides an in depth study of the three main security principles: availability, integrity and confidentiality. The course examines mechanisms used to control what resources an entity can access, and the extent of the entity’s capabilities to interact with the resource. The course also examines approaches to auditing how the entity interacts with the resource.
Covers security issues and current best practices in several applicative domains, ranging from the enterprise to the military. Discusses emerging security threats and available countermeasures with respect to the most recent network and computing technologies, including wireless networks, computer-controlled physical systems, and social networks. Concludes by presenting current trends and open problems.
The course provides fundamental concepts of networking including: examination of public and private communication systems, networking topologies, devices, protocols, and remote access. It additionally explores strategies on identifying areas for security vulnerabilities on networks.
This course covers theory, development and impacts of national and international policy on IT. It explores how frequent shifts in public policy require IT businesses to adjust rapidly to adhere to regulations. Students will develop sophisticated strategies to be able to adapt to the changing environment including new technologies, global transfer and analysis.
The course examines methods and techniques for concealing data for security purposes. Topics covered will include cryptographic techniques, approaches and technologies.
This course focuses on the information technology leader’s collaborative roles working with an organization’s senior leadership, including aligning business strategy with IT strategy, acting as an equal contributor to the formation of organizational strategy, and integrating ethical policies and practices into an organization. Learners evaluate multidisciplinary research and practices related to leadership, organizational structures, and culture. Through the lens of complexity/chaos and change theories, learners analyze information technology’s role in contributing to organizational resiliency.
This course, the final one in the Master of Science - Computer Science program, challenges students to research a current topic of interest in Computer Science and produce an original paper and presentation on the topic. In addition to the research paper, students are introduced to the economics of software development and the tools needed to estimate the cost of a software development project for management in a corporate environment. The last topic in the course is a discussion of ethics as it relates to Information Technology. Current topics in ethics will be discussed through the use of relevant case studies.
This course covers the fundamentals of security in the enterprise environment. Included are coverage of risks and vulnerabilities, threat modeling, policy formation, controls and protection methods, encryption and authentication technologies, network security, cryptography, personnel and physical security issues, as well as ethical and legal issues. This foundational course serves as an introduction to many of the subsequent topics discussed in depth in later security courses.
This course focuses on the issues of delivering high quality software, especially in large complex systems. Topics covered include testing strategies (black box, white box, regression, etc.), unit testing, system integration, system verification and support tools. It also will reinforce the need for requirements that are testable and traceable from the early design stages.
This course provides an introductory overview of methods, concepts and current practices in the growing field of Data Analytics. Topics to be covered include data collection, analysis and visualization as well as statistical inference methods for informed decision-making. Students will explore these topics with current statistical software. Some emphasis will also be given to ethical principles of data analytics.
This course introduces the design of distributed computing systems and distributed application programming. Major concepts of distributed systems covered include: transparency, heterogeneity, process communication, consistency, fault tolerance, and security. Students will also learn to develop a real-world distributed application as a RESTful Web-service on an application server.
This course focuses on the problems, principles and techniques of communicating technical and scientific information. Types of communication addressed include: proposals, reports and manuals. The course uses a case-study approach to give students both the theoretical foundations and hands-on practice they need to work effectively in heterogeneous corporate groups.
This course covers various algorithm design paradigms, mathematical analysis of algorithms, empirical analysis of algorithms and NP-completeness.
This course focuses on the fundamental design considerations in designing a database. Specific topics include performance analysis of design alternatives, system configuration and the administration of a popular database system. The course also offers an in-depth analysis of the algorithms and machine organizations of database systems.
This course surveys current practices in software development and software design, especially in the area of object-oriented design. The course will examine and contrast current and leading edge methodologies and practices, including agile, extreme programming, test-driven design, patterns, aspect-oriented programming, model-driven architecture, Unified Modeling Language, and integrated development environments.
Study of object-oriented design and programming. Programming topics emphasize the core concepts of encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism, and dynamic binding. Additional topics include class organization, software maintenance, and design of reusable components.
Introduction to the theory of formal languages and automata. Emphasis is on those classes of languages commonly encountered by computer scientists (e.g., regular and contextfree languages).
Topics include flip-flops, registers, counters, programmable logic devices, memory devices, register-level design, and microcomputer system organization. Students must show competency in the design of digital systems.
Required laboratory for CEG 360.
Concepts of software engineering. Analysis, design, and implementation of software engineering concepts that comprise structured programming and design. Case studies serve as examples illustrating the software lifecycle model.
Selected topics in computer science. May be taken for letter grade or pass/unsatisfactory, at instructor's option.
Elementary course in matrix theory covering matrices, linear equations, determinants, linear transformations, eigenvalues, and eigenvectors.
Introduction to PC networking hardware, concepts, and technologies. Focus is on LAN administration and hardware and software configuration using in class hands-on exercises. Internet resources, from the PC network perspective, are utilized.
Study networking protocol and system design in mobile computing. Focus on concepts, architecture, design, and performance evaluation of mobile computing principles, protocols and applications, including: wireless TCP, Mobile IP, 802.11, agent techniques, etc.
Presentation of statistical techniques as applied to engineering testing, development, and manufacturing. Introduces and applies probability distributions, measures of association, inferences on responses, and basic experimental design. Emphasizes application of statistical tools.
Overview of operating systems internals. File-system usage and design, process usage and control, virtual memory, multi user systems, access control. Course projects use C++ language.
Examines the impact of computers and computing on society. Topics include privacy, dangers introduced by computers performing critical tasks, the effect of robots on the work force, the impact of computers on education, and the new legal issues introduced by computing.
Required writing component for COM 415.
Topics include switching algebra and switching functions, logic design of combinational and sequential circuits using TTL, combinational logic design with MSI and LSI, busing, storage elements, and instrumentation.
Required laboratory for CEG 260.
Survey of modern digital communications techniques. Focus on serial transmission over public communications channels. Topics include information content and coding, asynchronous and synchronous formats, concentrating and multiplexing, channel properties, modulation techniques, common carrier services, error sources and control, regulatory policies, and networks and their analyses. Students must design both hardware and software components of computer communications systems.
Required laboratory for CEG 402.
An introductory course to the use of graphic objects in a windows eventdriven environment providing a case study of object-oriented programming with Visual Basic in Microsoft Windows to develop simple graphic user interfaces. Need to be familiar with programming concepts.
A modular approach to oral and written communication of complex technical information to an expert audience. Includes describing technical mechanisms and processes; designing and using tables, graphs, charts, and figures; producing technical proposals, progress reports, feasibility reports, and formal reports; and doing technical briefings.
Required writing component for EGR 335.
Basic concepts and special-purpose facilities in programming languages examined through several representative languages.
Comprehensive treatment of external and internal processes of the earth and the resulting landforms. Introduction to earth resources and other earth-like plants.
Laboratory for topographic and geologic map and geologic cross sections interpretation to recognize geological structures and their relation to geomorphology and landforms.
Applications of the definite integral, polar coordinates, and parametric equations. Infinite series, power series, and vector al gebra in the plane and space.
Overview of operating systems internals. File-system usage and design, process usage and control, virtual memory, multi user systems, access control. Course projects use C++ language.
Survey of logical and physical aspects of database management systems, including entity-relationship and relational data models; physical implementation methods; query languages; SQL, relational algebra, relational calculus, and QBE; experience in creating and manipulating databases.
Comprehensive treatment of the dynamic systems and materials of the earth. External processes and resulting land forces are also studied.
Laboratory for mineral and rock identification in hand specimens.
Introduction to basic concepts of biology. Topics include evolution, ecology, and the diversity of life.
Required laboratory for BIO 115.
Terminology and understanding of functional organizations and sequential operation of a digital computer. Program structure, and machine and assembly language topics including addressing, stacks, argument passing, arithmetic operations, traps, and input/output. Macros, modularization, linkers, and debuggers are used.
Study of the implementation of data structures and control structures in professional computer programs. Introduction to the fundamentals of complexity and analysis. Study of common standard problems and solutions (e.g., transitive closure and critical path). Emphasis on high-level language software design.
Introduction to basic concepts of biology. Topics include genetics and the molecular and cellular basis for the unity of life.
Required laboratory for BIO 112.
Required writing component for BIO 112.
Grammar review, reading, and discussion of selected texts with practice speaking and writing the language.
Definite integral, antiderivatives, fundamental theorem of calculus. Derivatives of logarithmic, exponential, and inverse tri gonometric functions. L'Hopital's rule. Integration techniques. Applications of the definite integral.
Introduction to form and function of animal groups using an organ system approach. This course is intended for science majors.
Required laboratory for BIO 111.
Study of the vocabulary and structure of the German language; practice in conversation, reading, and writing.
Examination of the character of the premodern world from prehistory through the 14th century with special attention to those aspects of ancient and medieval life that had the greatest effect on the development of Western society, politics, and culture.
Discrete mathematics useful in computing. Emphasis on mathematical induction, recurrence relations, asymptotic behavior of functions, and algorithm analysis.
Further refinement of the concepts covered in CS 241.
Required laboratory for CS 242.
Study of the vocabulary and structure of the German language; practice in conversation, reading, and writing.
Study of the vocabulary and structure of the German language; practice in conversation, reading, and writing.
Examination of political power relationships in contemporary society. Emphasizes the origins and forms of power and the key social structures exercising power with contemporary public issues. Provides case studies of the consequences of political relationships
A continuation of CS 240. The emphasis is on data abstraction and software engineering.
Required laboratory for CS 241.
Examines diversity from an anthropological perspective, utilizing concepts and methods of cultural anthropology. Students will use a holistic approach to analyzing nonWestern cultures while gaining understanding of the distinctive research methods of cultural anthropology.
Required writing compnent for CST 241.
Study of the vocabulary and structure of the German language; practice in conversation, reading, and writing.
Linux and Windows; GUI; files, directories, permissions; programs, processes; system calls, libraries; loading; dynamic linking; command line shells; scripting languages; regular expressions; clients and servers; Web browsers; secure shell, sftp; SSl/TSL; system administration.
Basic concepts of programming and programming languages are introduced. Emphasis is on structured programming and stepwise refinement.
Required laboratory for CS 240.
An introduction to the cultural diversity and uniqueness of selected areas of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East as reflected in art.
Required writing component for CST 243.
AUGUST 2018 - PRESENT
AUGUST 2017 - MAY 2018
MARCH 2014 - JULY 2018
SEPTEMBER 2011 - MARCH 2014
AUGUST 2006 - SEPTEMBER 2011
Description: In ACUE's courses in effective teaching practices, educators learn about and implement the essential, evidence-based teaching practices shown to promote student success. Working across five comprehensive units of study, educators collaborate with peers, receive expert facilitation, and develop practices necessary to: 1. design an effective course 2. establish a productive learning environment 3. use active learning strategies 4. promote higher order thinking 5. assess in ways that inform and promote deeper levels of learning. These courses prepare educators in all of the core competencies defined in ACUE's Effective Practice Framework and lead to a Certificate in Effective College Instruction awarded in collaboration with the American Council on Education. Criteria: Individuals who earn this certificate have satisfied the expectations of an ACUE course in Effective Teaching Practices or Effective Online Teaching Practices, including successful completion of the required modules aligned to ACUE's Effective Practice Framework. Certificate holders have demonstrated knowledge of and skill in implementing teaching practices that promote student success. Certificate holders typically have invested approximately 50 hours to meet course requirements.
Systems Administration (including Windows and Linux), Networking (Design, Administration, and Security), IT Strategic Planning, IT Governance, Contingency Planning, and Compliance (Policies, Standards, and Regulations).
Fully proficient in HTML & CSS, Java, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, and Python. Some experience with Node.JS.
Fully Proficient with Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe XD, draw.io, GitHub, Microsoft Office, MySQL, Neo4j, NetBeans, Notepad++, PyCharm, Visual Studio Code, and XAMPP.
I used to spend a ton of time curating the syllabi for my classes. In the Spring of 2021, I also started revamping my courses to support new and improved introduction materials. The prospect of integrating these new elements into each individual course was a daunting task. Instead, I decided to build IS3, which houses all of this material. It also significantly improves my ability to maintain, curate, and deploy it into new courses (and for new terms). It's also great because it provides an online archive of my course syllabi (starting with the Summer 2021 term). If you were a student in one of my classes, and you need to access a syllabus from a previous course, feel free to use IS3 to find it. You could also use it to preview future syllabi (if I have them ready yet).
After using IS3 for a bit, it became apparent rather quickly that it didn't meet all of my needs. Additionally, one of my goals was to make my syllabi more interactive and engaging for students. Thus, Syllabee was born. Syllabee now houses all of my syllabi, makes it extremely easy to maintain my syllabi, and provides the interactive features that IS3 lacked. Students should use Syllabee to access past syllabi starting with the Spring of 2023 term.
Ever wonder why there are months with different days? Or why October is the tenth month of the year (when the prefix oct- means eight)? There are so many things about the Gregorian calendar that just don’t make sense. That’s why a friend of mine (Luke Lindeman) and I came up with a new calendar: the Luvi calendar. The name is derived from the combination of the letters from both of our first names. There’s more information about the Luvi calendar (and how it works) on the “About” page of the Luvi calendar web app.
This organization is a ministry of my church, Christian Life Center. The ministry executes our church’s mission: To know God, to be His people, value others, and change our world. We achieve this by essentially collecting gently used items and furniture and then redistributing them to those that need them throughout the Miami Valley. Generally, we have monthly givings on the first Saturday of the month at CLC’s main campus. My responsibility is to manage any technology required for the monthly giving, as well as coordinate the giving process when the ordinary coordinator is unavailable to attend. I thoroughly enjoy being a part of God’s plan and using my spiritual gifts to help those in need.
Compassion International is an organization dedicated to assisting kids in poverty-stricken countries. I have been a Compassion sponsor since 2014. The first child that I sponsored was Denis (from Honduras). Fortunately, Denis and his family rose out of poverty, but losing him as one of my sponsees was bittersweet. I was sad that I could no longer write to him but overjoyed that he no longer needed my financial support. After my sponsorship with Denis ended, I began sponsoring Jair (from Ecuador) and Natalia (from Bolivia). I enjoy writing to these children and sharing my experiences with them. I hope that they both grow up and rise out of poverty, just as Denis has and become all that they can be!
I have served in the Covington Community Vacation Bible School since I was old enough to be a child participant (with one or two gap years). Many of these years, I served as a group leader (primarily responsible for shepherding the children from station to station throughout the week). In this capacity (and over these years), I shepherded children from Kindergarten through 5th grades. One year, I served as a station leader and delivered a lesson each day to all of the children that attended VBS. The annual VBS in Covington is one of my favorite events, and I look forward to assisting with it every year.
The PLUS Overnighter is an organization devoted to the development of the youth of Covington. On an annual basis, 5th and 6th graders from Covington Elementary School come together for a 36-hour lock-in. The students participate in team-building exercises, learn about the dangers of various issues (like drugs and alcohol, distracted driving, teen pregnancy, etc.), and receive inspiring messages from numerous speakers. Students are divided into family groups (of around ten) and are assigned several TEAM members (high school students that elect to participate), as well as multiple family group leaders. I have served in this latter capacity for several years. Participating in the PLUS Overnighter is a lot of work, but it is an enriching experience that I look forward to year after year.
