Julie Thornton | Instructor

David and Lynda Dawson - Carl and Mary Ice Cornerstone Teaching Scholar

M.S. - 2005, Kansas State University
Computer Science
B.S. - 2003, Kansas State University
Computer Science
B.S. - 2003, Kansas State University
Mathematics

Contact information

2212 Engineering Hall
785-532-7785
juliet@k-state.edu

Professional experience

Julie Thornton received bachelor’s degrees in computer science and mathematics from Kansas State University in 2003. In 2005 she completed a master’s degree in computer science, also from K-State. In August 2005 she joined the department of computer science there as an instructor.

Research

Thornton is not currently active in research, but as an undergraduate and graduate student was part of the Knowledge Discovery in Databases group in the department of computer science. In this endeavor she helped develop BNJ, an open-source software development toolkit for research in probabilistic learning and inference using Bayesian networks. Her master’s thesis was on edge-deletion algorithms for Bayesian network inference.

Academic highlights

Thornton has helped develop several courses in the computer science department including C Language Lab, Introduction to Programming, Applied Cryptography, and the scholars section of Data and Program Structures. She currently serves as department chair of the Scholars Program, which targets high-achieving students in computer science.

In both 2010 and 2017 Thornton was named the Clair A. Mauch Adviser of the Year. In 2020 she was named a David and Lynda Dawson - Carl and Mary Ice Cornerstone Teaching Scholar.