2001-2002 Abstracts
Computer Science Distinguished Lecturer Series:
UrbanSim: Integrated Land Use, Transportation and Environmental Modeling
Alan Borning,
University of Washington
4:10pm, Monday October 15, 2001
Room 124, Bright Building
Abstract
Patterns of land use and available transportation systems play a critical
role in determining the economic vitality, livability, and sustainability
of urban areas. Transportation interacts with land use, and both have
significant environmental effects, in particular on emissions, resource
consumption, and conversion of rural to urban land. Decisions concerning
land use and transportation are frequently contentious; further, the
long-term consequences of decisions may not be apparent at the time they
are being made. Strong technical support may help foster informed
deliberation on these issues. Toward this goal, we have been developing
UrbanSim, a reusable urban land use and transportation modeling system.
Our purpose is to provide a tool for citizens' groups, urban planners,
elected officials, and others to help predict future patterns of urban
development and impact under different possible scenarios over periods of
20 or more years.
The talk will include an overview of the modeling activity, followed by a
technical discussion of the system and of particular computational aspects,
including designing a software architecture to support relatively
independent implementation and evolution of the different component models,
automatically choosing appropriate visualizations, and supporting new model
development with a domain-specific programming language. I'll conclude
with a discussion of current and future research directions. In human
computer interaction, these include providing more effective ways of
understanding the results from and interacting with complex simulations,
and ways of linking stakeholder values with design choices in simulations
and their interfaces. In software engineering, research directions include
supporting fully disaggregated microsimulation, including programming
language support and improved techniques for semantically-based implicit
invocation. In computer graphics, we plan to produce simulated street-level
animations of urban environments from a policy-driven simulation; and in
statistics, we want to apply Bayesian networks and multi-agent
microsimulation to support complex inference modeling in a problem domain
with inherent uncertainty.
This is joint work with Paul Waddell and others at the University of Washington.
Biography
Alan Borning, Professor, grew up in Idaho, and graduated from
Reed College in 1971 with a B.A. in mathematics. He did graduate work in
computer science at Stanford University, receiving an M.S. degree in 1974
and a Ph.D. in 1979. His dissertation research, which was done
while working with Alan Kay's group at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center,
described ThingLab, a constraint-oriented simulation laboratory.
After receiving his Ph.D., he spent a year as a post-doctoral fellow at
the Department of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh in
Scotland. He joined the
Computer Science Department at the University of Washington
in 1980, and has
been there since, except for the odd sabbatical in England and Australia.
One of his current research interests is the computational aspects of
environmental modeling, in particular modeling in support of planning
livable, sustainable cities and transportation systems. Another interest
continues to be constraint-based systems, particularly for interactive
user interfaces. He has also done work on constraint languages,
object-oriented languages, and social implications of computing, and has
published papers in all these areas. Alan has served as an associate
editor of Computing Surveys, as an ongoing member of the Organizing
Committee for the Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming
conferences, in various other program committee and refereeing
capacities, and as a member of the Board of Directors of Computer
Professionals for Social Responsibility.
Alan is the only faculty member in the department whose employment history
includes driving a semitruck for a traveling carnival.
Faculty Contact:
Frank Shipman (shipman@csdl.tamu.edu)
Computer Science Distinguished Lecturer Series:
Social Creativity and Meta-Design in Lifelong Learning Communities
Gerhard Fischer,
University of Colorado, Boulder
4:10pm, Monday October 22, 2001
Room 124, Bright Building
Abstract
Complex design problems require more knowledge than any one single
person can possess, and the knowledge relevant to a problem is often
distributed and controversial. Rather than being a limiting factor,
the symmetry of ignorance (or asymmetry of knowledge) can provide the
foundation for social creativity. Bringing different points of view
together and trying to create a shared understanding among all
stakeholders can lead to new insights, new ideas, and new artifacts.
Social creativity can be supported by new media that allow owners of
problems to contribute to framing and solving these problems. These
new media need to be designed from a meta-design perspective by
creating environments in which stakeholders can act as designers and
be more than consumers.
Biography
Gerhard Fischer is a professor of Computer Science, a fellow of
the Institute of Cognitive Science, and the director of the Center
for LifeLong Learning & Design (L3D) at the University of Colorado
at Boulder. Current research interests include new media supporting
lifelong learning, human-human and human-computer collaboration,
(software) design, domain-oriented design environments and universal
design (assistive technologies). More information about the (L3D)
center can be found at:
http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~l3d/ .
Faculty Contact:
Frank Shipman (shipman@csdl.tamu.edu)
Computer Science Distinguished Lecturer Series:
Deep Blue: IBM's Massively Parallel Chess Machine
Gabriel Silberman,
IBM Center for Advanced Studies
4:10pm, Wednesday December 5, 2001
Room 101, Richardson Building
Abstract
IBM's premiere chess system, based on an IBM RS/6000 SP scalable parallel
processor, made history by defeating world chess champion Garry Kasparov in
1997. Deep Blue's chess prowess stems from its capacity to examine over
200 million board positions per second, utilizing the computing resources
of a 32-node IBM RS/6000-SP, populated with 512 special purpose chess
accelerators.
In this talk we describe some of the technology behind Deep Blue and how
chess knowledge was incorporated into its software, as well as the attitude
of the media and general public during the match.
Biography
Dr. Gabby Silberman is Program Director for CAS, IBM's Center for Advanced
Studies, with affiliates in Toronto, Canada, Austin, Texas, and Raleigh,
North Carolina. Previously, he was with the applications systems
technologies department at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center in New
York.
From 1980 to 1990, Dr. Silberman was on the faculty of both the Computer
Science and Electrical Engineering Departments at the Technion, Haifa,
Israel, and from 1988 to 1990 he was visiting faculty at the Electrical and
Computer Engineering Department, at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr.
Silberman has published research in computer architecture and systems,
compilers and testing of digital circuits.
During the original Kasparov vs. Deep Blue chess match, and again for the
rematch, Dr. Silberman's group provided the technical infrastructure and
support for the computing and audio-visual systems, both on- and off-site.
In 1997, he also served as Deep Blue team coordinator and liaison to the
Kasparov team.
Dr. Silberman is a member of the Association for Computing (ACM), and
serves as the program director for IBM's sponsorship of the ACM
International Collegiate Programming Contest. He is also a member of the
International Federation of Information Processing Working Group 10.3, and
a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
Computer Society. In 1999, Dr. Silberman was elected to IBM's Academy of
Technology, which recognizes him as one of IBM's top technical leaders.
Dr. Silberman received a bachelor's degree in science and a master's degree
in science from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. He received a
doctorate in computer science from The State University of New York at
Buffalo.
Facutly Contact:
Lawrence Rauchwerger (rwerger@cs.tamu.edu)
Texas A&M University's 125th Anniversity Celebration
Distinguished Lecturer Series in Information Technology
Next-Generation Information Networking
Avi Silberschatz,
Bell Laboratories
4:10pm, Monday January 14, 2002
Room 124, Bright Building
Abstract
Next generation information networking will incorporate the best
features of today's voice and data networks. They will seamlessly
combine communications, software, and contents. These systems will
need to deal with multimedia data, the Web, and real-time applications.
Some of the key challenges that need to be addressed are the need for
handling exabyte of data in terms of storage and delivery, quality of
service, availability, security, and privacy.
This talk will present a grand tour of the wide variety of issues facing
next-generation information networking, highlight their characteristics,
and introduce a few research projects carried out at Bell Labs that
address these challenges. We conclude the talk with seven predictions
for the new millennium.
Biography
Avi Silberschatz is the Vice President of the Information Sciences Research
Center at Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey. Prior to joining
Bell Labs, he held a chaired professorship in the Department of Computer
Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests
include operating systems, database systems, real-time systems, storage
systems, and distributed systems.
In addition to his academic and industrial positions, Silberschatz served
as a member of the Biodiversity and Ecosystems Panel on President Clinton's
Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology, as an advisor for the
National Science Foundation, and as a consultant for several private
industry companies.
Professor Silberschatz is an ACM Fellow and an IEEE Fellow.
He received the 1998 ACM Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award,
the 1997 ACM SIGMOD Contribution Award, and the IEEE Computer Society
Outstanding Paper award for the article "Capability Manager," which
appeared in the IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering. His writings
have appeared in numerous ACM and IEEE publications and other professional
conferences and journals. He is a co-author of two well known
textbooks -- Operating System Concepts and Database System Concepts.
Facutly Contact:
John Leggett (leggett@cs.tamu.edu)
Computer Science Distinguished Lecturer Series:
Evolutionary Algorithm Based Off-line / On-line Path Planner for UAV Navigation
Kimon Valavanis,
Technical University of Crete
4:10pm, Wednesday January 30, 2002
Room 124, Bright Building
Abstract
An Evolutionary Algorithm based framework, a combination of modified
Breeder Genetic Algorithms incorporating characteristics of classic
Genetic Algorithms, is utilized to design an off-line / on-line path
planner for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) autonomous navigation.
The path planner calculates a curved path line with desired
characteristics in a 3-D rough terrain environment, represented
using B-Spline curves, with the coordinates of its control points
being the Evolutionary Algorithm artificial chromosome genes.
Given a 3-D rough environment and assuming flight envelope restrictions, two
problems are solved: i) UAV navigation using an off-line planner in a known
environment, and, ii) UAV navigation using an on-line planner in a
completely unknown environment. The off-line planner produces a single
B-Spline curve that connects the starting and target points with a
predefined initial direction. The on-line planner, which is based on
the off-line one, given on-board radar readings, gradually produces a
smooth 3-D trajectory aiming at reaching a predetermined target in an
unknown environment; the produced trajectory consists of smaller B-Spline
curves smoothly connected with each other. Both planners have been tested
under different scenarios and they have been proven effective in guiding an
UAV to its final destination, providing near-optimal curved paths
quickly and efficiently.
Biography
Kimon P. Valavanis is a Professor of Production Systems and Director of the
Laboratory of Intelligent Systems and Technology and the Robotics Laboratory
in the Department of Production Engineering and Management at the Technical
University of Crete, Chania, Greece, where he has been since 1998. His
research interests are in Distributed Intelligence Systems and Robotic
Systems. He received a Ph.D. in Computer and Systems Engineering from
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, in 1986. Dr. Valavanis
is a Fulbright Scholar and a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Robotics
and Automation Society.
Facutly Contact:
Dick Volz (volz@cs.tamu.edu)
Texas A&M University's 125th Anniversity Celebration
Distinguished Lecturer Series in Information Technology
Multiparadigm Programming in Standard C++
Bjarne Stroustrup,
AT&T Labs - Research
Friday February 15, 2002
Seminar: 2:00-3:30pm, Room 102 Zachry Engineering Center
Reception: Immediately following the seminar in the Zachry Lobby
Abstract
Multi-paradigm programming is programming applying different styles of
programming, such as object-oriented programming and generic programming,
where they are most appropriate. This talk presents simple example of
individual styles in ISO Standard C++ and examples where these styles
are used in combination to produce cleaner, more maintainable code than
could have been done using a single style only.
Slides from Dr. Stroustrup's talk are available
here.
Biography
Bjarne Stroustrup is the designer and original implementer of C++.
Over the last decade, C++ has become the most widely used language
supporting object-oriented programming by making abstraction techniques
affordable and manageable for mainstream projects. Using C++ as his tool,
Stroustrup has pioneered the use of object-oriented and generic
programming techniques in application areas where efficiency is a
premium; examples include general systems programming, switching,
simulation, graphics, user-interfaces, embedded systems, and scientific
computation.
His book "The C++ Programming Language" (Addison-Wesley, 1st edition
1985, 2nd edition 1991, 3rd edition 1997, "special" edition 2000)
is the most widely read book of its kind and has been translated into
14 languages. A later book, "The Design and Evolution of C++"
(Addison-Wesley, 1994) broke new ground in the description of the way
a programming language was shaped by ideas, ideals, problems, and
practical constraints. In addition to his five books, Stroustrup has
published more than sixty academic and more popular papers. He took an
active role in the creation of the ANSI/ISO standard for C++.
Born in Aarhus, Denmark, Bjarne Stroustrup received his Cand. Scient.
degree (Mathematics and Computer Science) in 1975 from the University of
Aarhus Denmark, and his Ph.D. (Computer Science) in 1979 from
Cambridge University, England.
Dr. Stroustrup is the head of AT&T Lab's Large-scale Programming Research
department, an AT&T Bell Laboratories Fellow, and an AT&T Fellow. He is
actively involved in the ANSI/ISO standardization of C++. He received
the 1993 ACM Grace Murray Hopper award for his early work on C++ and
is an ACM fellow.
More information can be found at
http://www.research.att.com/~bs
Facutly Contact:
Lawrence Rauchwerger (rwerger@cs.tamu.edu)
Texas A&M University's 125th Anniversity Celebration
Distinguished Lecturer Series in Information Technology
On Fighting Two Varieties of Spam
Cynthia Dwork, Microsoft Research, Silcon Valley Campus
4:10pm, Monday March 25, 2002
Room 124, Bright Building
Abstract
The internet and the web are public places with concommitant exposure
to obnoxious behavior. In this talk we discuss two forms of "spam,"
junk e-mail and search engine spam, and present two different
technologies for fighting back.
Biography
Cynthia Dwork received her PhD from Cornell University in 1983 under
the supervision of John Hopcroft. After a two-year post-doc at MIT,
she joined the IBM Almaden Research Center, where she remained until
becoming Compaq Staff Fellow in 2000. In 2001 she joined the nascent
Silicon Valley campus of Microsoft Research. Most of Dwork's research
has been in cryptography and other topics in distributed computing.
She is the co-inventor of non-malleable cryptography and of the only
public-key cryptosystem for which random instances are provably as
hard to break as the hardest instances of the underlying mathematical
problem.
Facutly Contact:
Jennifer Welch (welch@cs.tamu.edu)
Computer Science Distinguished Lecturer Series:
Detecting Traffic Patterns at High Speeds in Routers
George Varghese,
UC San Diego
4:10pm, Wednesday March 27, 2002
Room 124, Bright Building
Abstract
In this talk I will describe my research into detecting traffic patterns
in real-time in Internet Routers. Any such processing must be done in a
packet arrival time (8 nsec at the highest link speeds today) and hence
must take a small number of memory references, and also store state
in high speed memories (analogous to cache or register memory) that are
limited in size. The problem is to detect important patterns (e.g., Internet
lookups, Denial-of-Service Attacks) in a small constant number of operations
using a relatively modest amount of state.
I will first briefly survey the work our group has done on detecting
both patterns *within* packets (e.g., IP lookups, firewall filters) as
well as patterns *between* packets (e.g., Quality of Service). I will
then describe in detail two larger examples. The first is a new
scalable packet classification scheme (SIGCOMM 2001) and new scalable
measurement schemes (IMW 2001). The scalable measurement algorithms
show how to quickly process a traffic stream to identify the customers
that send more than a threshold (e.g., 1% of the total bandwidth)
using memory only proportional to the maximum number of such customers
(e.g., 100). This in turn makes possible a new form of accounting
called threshold accounting in which only flows above a
threshold are charged by usage, while the rest are charged a fixed
fee. Threshold accounting generalizes the standard notions of
usage-based and duration-based pricing.
Biography
George Varghese worked at DEC for several years designing DECNET
protocols before obtaining his Ph.D in 1992 from MIT. He joined
Washington University in 1993 as an Associate Professor where he won
the ONR Young Investigator Award in 1996. He is currently a Professor
at the University of California, San Diego where he works on efficient
protocol implementation and protocol design. Several of the
algorithms he has helped develop (e.g., IP Lookups, timing wheels,
DRR) have found their way into commercial systems that range from
HotMail to the Cisco GSR Router.
Facutly Contact:
Jennifer Welch (welch@cs.tamu.edu)
