Eric Suess joined the faculty at California State University, Hayward in Fall 1998 upon completion of his Ph.D. thesis at the University of California, Davis. His thesis made extensive use of Gibbs sampling methods, and he has introduced computer simulation methods into several MS-level courses at CSU Hayward.

Chris Fraser was a graduate student in the statistics MS program at CSU Hayward at the time this article was written, completing his studies in Spring 2000. The concept of this paper grew out of a student project funded by his grant from the CSU Hayward Associated Students. He continues his studies of statistics in the PhD program at Purdue University starting Fall 2000.

Bruce Trumbo is a Fellow of ASA and the graduate advisor for the Statistics Department at CSU Hayward. His academic interests include statistical computation and the use of computers in teaching statistics. He used an early draft of the STATS article in his senior-level course on stochastic processes in Spring 1999 and thanks students in that class for their helpful comments.