By Elizabeth Janczewski Dr. Rebecca Mercuri, B.Sci. Computer Science, '79, credits her Penn State education as a sturdy foundation that has been built upon during her career. Today she owns Notable Software, Inc., a consulting firm that specializes in computer forensics, security, and expert witness testimony. |
Rebecca grew up in Glenside, with her brother Sam and sister Adrienne. Each summer, her family visited many museums in Philadelphia, and Rebecca recognizes this time as providing early explorations of the arts and sciences. She attributes her love of the arts and music to her mother, Zelda, and her love of technology to her father, Joseph (who was a career science teacher in the Philadelphia School District), and is grateful to have inherited a knack for both fields.
She feels especially connected to the Abington campus because of the close mentoring and counseling she received. Her father, had earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, was disappointed by the quality of teaching he had there and believed his children would get a better undergraduate education by attending a state school where the teaching was by actual professors, rather than an ivy league where often inexperienced graduate students were assigned to teach the early undergraduate coursework.
So, Rebecca and her siblings attended Penn State Abington for their first two years of undergraduate studies. Sam and Adrienne then went on to complete their Bachelor’s degrees at other schools, but Rebecca remained at Penn State. Her mother also took classes at Abington -- she enjoyed hearing about what her daughter was learning, and enrolled in the Continuing Education program, ultimately earning an Associate's degree from Penn State and later a Bachelor's and Master’s in English Education at Beaver College (now Arcadia University). Zelda returned to Abington to teach classes in the English Department before being hired full time at Drexel University.
Rebecca was able to explore diverse fields at the Abington (then Ogontz) Campus, first as a Music Education major, and then as a transfer student into the Computer Science Department. Professor Tom Warms encouraged her to combine both fields and she wrote some software (on the IBM mainframe!) that used 17th century counterpoint rules to automatically generate musical compositions. Later, she began building an electronic synthesizer out of discarded electronic components.
While her passion for computer science was strong, she became discouraged after receiving a D in her first college calculus class. Rebecca considered returning to music education but a campus counselor, Dr. Frank Melone, encouraged her to take the next math class and strive to push herself harder. On this one she obtained a C, and in the next a B, and it was all uphill from there. This encouragement was crucial, as she acknowledges, “If he had not said this, maybe my whole career would be so different.” She notes that even today women tend to have adverse reactions to low scores and small setbacks can discourage them from pursuing a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) career. She reiterates Dr. Melone’s advice to students today, if you receive a bad score, don’t get discouraged and keep pushing yourself.
Rebecca had a unique experience at Abington. When she attended, students could only stay two years at Abington and then had to finish their Bachelor’s degree at University Park. However, Rebecca was determined to stay at Abington, in part because she was, by then, also pursuing a Bachelor of Music degree in Classical Guitar at the Philadelphia Musical Academy (now the University of the Arts). So she had to first convince University Park that all required courses for the Computer Science degree would be covered. She meticulously planned out her remaining two years of college (including some advanced coursework at Temple University in Computer Science and Statistics, independent study work with Professor Warms at Abington, and correspondence courses from University Park) in a detailed document, proposing this to University Park, who approved. Although Abington did not officially become a College until 1995, Rebecca is arguably the first Abington graduate, having received her Bachelor’s degree there in 1979.
After graduation, Rebecca began working at RCA's David Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton NJ. They were hiring people with a background in musical and computer skills so it was a perfect match. She was the only woman working in her research group at that time and although women have become more common in computer science, it still remains a heavily male dominated field. She spent a few years working on a personal computer project which ultimately did not go to market, but she approached the legal team and asked for a release for some of the work she had done, and was allowed to copyright this software on her own. She marketed these programs as educational computer games, under Notable Software, the firm she owns and continues to work at today.
In the mid-1980s, she did not foresee a future at RCA and left to spend time teaching in academia and pursuing her Master’s in Computer Science at Drexel University. After turning down an offer from Apple, she began building up Notable Software and venturing into other projects.
During the 1990's Rebecca pursued her Doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania while continuing to build Notable Software as a computer consulting firm. In 1998, the Office of the Public Defender in Trenton hired her from an ad she posted in the Yellow Pages. She was asked to recover deleted files from floppy disks in a murder case, and recovered thousands of files of evidence, even destroying one of her disk readers! At that time it was uncommon to have a Judge issue a warrant for digital information, unlike today when digital forensics are constantly used in cases. After completing this job, she realized how much she enjoyed forensics and began searching for similar work projects.
In addition to forensics, Rebecca is interested in electronic voting and is an international expert on the subject. Her doctoral dissertation -- “Electronic Vote Tabulation: Checks & Balances” -- was defended only eleven days before the 2000 Presidential Election. When the “hanging chad” controversy began, her friends and colleagues encouraged her to fax her work to news outlets, but instead she decided to set up a Website referencing her research. In a matter of minutes after launching the site, she was called by the Associated Press and her quotes were published just one day later. News outlets were reaching out and she became an overnight celebrity, providing insights for radio, telephone and print media. The phone was ringing non-stop and she could only find peace outside of her home where no one recognized her. Ultimately she was requested to submit sworn testimony by the Democratic Recount Committee, which was cited in the briefs to the Supreme Court for Bush v. Gore. Although she was not paid for that testimony, the experience she received, in learning to speak on her feet and author legal statements, was invaluable in her forensics career.
In the years following, Dr. Mercuri taught at Bryn Mawr College and then did 2 years of post-doctoral research at Harvard University. During her fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard she pondered what would be her next career move and decided to leave academia to pursue forensics full-time. She converted Notable Software into a focus on forensics and security consulting in order to support this work. Despite some downturns during the great recession, Rebecca has continued to grow the company. She enjoys owning a business where she is enthusiastic about the work and where she can set her own hours.
Rebecca has three pieces of advice for students. First is to follow your heart, she advises, “Whatever you are looking for in your career, if it is not something you love or are passionate for, you are wasting 40 hours a week.” Second is to set goals higher than you think you can reach and aim for that goal, as she explains, “we have a great capacity for doing better and more than we think we can.” And third and most important is to give back and pay it forward. She had the advantage of great mentoring and believes that alumni can serve as a resource for students to complement their studies.
Dr. Mercuri has contributed her time, talent, and money to numerous educational endeavors that she believes are meaningful. For over a decade she volunteered for MathOptions at Penn State, in a day of lectures, activities, and mentoring for young girls to introduce them to different mathematical career paths. She recently returned to Abington to share her knowledge of computer security with a lecture on the FBI vs. Apple case. Her family awards a memorial prize in English, in memory of their mother, at Drexel University. She also donates to the museums which were influential to her as a child.
Rebecca’s love of music is not overshadowed by her career. It continues on today and she says she gets great energy from music. She has been a member of the Philadelphia Folksong Society, on the board of the Philadelphia Classical Guitar Society, a frequent speaker at electronic music conferences, a soprano in the Princeton Society for Musical Amateurs, a member of the Adath Israel (Lawrenceville NJ) chorus and instrumental ensemble, and maintains her membership in the Philadelphia Musician’s Union Local 77. She enjoys assisting on audio engineering projects with her brother, including live sound reinforcement for the Neshaminy High School Jazz Band. Music has always been a big influence in her life and she appreciates being able to share it with others.
Dr. Rebecca Mercuri has had an exciting career and credits Penn State Abington for providing the early framework to build upon as she pursued higher education and founded her own company. Without the education, counseling and mentoring she received while at Abington her success may never have been realized.
Business website:
www.notablesoftware.com
Business email address :
[email protected]