Despite the accolades, Dr. Terence Soule is simply “Terry” to his students, a supportive and friendly mentor inside and outside of the classroom who has shaped how computer science is taught at the University of Idaho.
Soule graduated from UI with a Ph.D. in Computer Science and was the department chair from 2018 to 2024. As chair, Soule created a needed Bachelor of Science in cyber security and co-founded the Polymorphic Games research and design studio at UI.
“I think a lot of my impact has been to help out student morale,” Soule said. Students seem to agree with his 4.9/5 score on Rate My Professor.
Jake Gendreau, now in his third year at the University of Idaho, is one of many students who owes his academic success and love for the computer science field to Soule.
“He is the one who really got me into computer science,” Gendreau said, “He was clearly very passionate about not only computer science, but also about teaching it.”
Both Gendreau and Soule himself think that one of Soule’s greatest strengths is being able to match people and opportunities, a skill which comes with his university-wide knowledge gained as department chair. At the start of his second year, Gendreau was offered a position at Polymorphic Games, which he said has been a significant asset to his education.
“I’m able to do my dream job while I’m on campus, make some extra money and get some experience with it,” Gendreau said.
The opportunities Soule created as department chair have been to the benefit of more than just computer science majors. Julia Tennant is an artist working at Polymorphic Games who said that Soule has been a great resource to her during her time at UI.
“Whenever we’re working on a project, Dr. Soule is always so willing to help despite his busy schedule and commitments. He’s always there to offer input and brainstorm with us,” Tennant said.
Gendreau said that he feels the same. Still, with Soule’s hands-off mentoring approach, he sometimes wishes for a little more guidance to avoid going off track with his work.
As for Soule, his love for computer science has been never ending. Beginning with the Atari systems from the 1980s, he was programming. With a single joystick and CRT-TV, he twisted and pushed the knob to select and place individual lines of code.
“It was ridiculous, but even all the time that it took to do that, it still sort of interested me,” Soule said. “With technology, you can create amazing things, and that’s in part where I ended up in the game studio, you can create whole virtual worlds.”
Soule’s research, which is also the focus of the game studio, focuses on evolutionary algorithms. This is a process in which a computer learns to navigate or survive an environment through executing many semi-random programs. Success metrics interpret the results of round one and identify the effective strategies to iterate on for round two.
This process repeats until the computer has created the necessary tools for success, which in the video game format means beating the human player.
Soule said that he enjoyed the extra time available for him to pursue research after stepping down as department chair in August 2024, though he misses the outreach with prospective high school students.
Soule is still a professor and advisor to undergraduate students, and participates on advisory research boards for the many AI related projects being developed at UI.
Technology continues to evolve, from the Atari systems of the 1980’s to the AI of today and into the machines of the future. Soule works hard to give students the knowledge and resources to navigate all ages of technology, not just the present. Ask his students, and they will speak about his strengths as a professor and the positive impact he has made on their lives.
Joshua Reisenfeld can be reached at [email protected].