Blaise Agüera y Arcas is the Architect of Bing Mobile and Places at Microsoft. He works in a variety of roles, from designer and prototype, to strategist. Blaise joined Microsoft when his startup company, Seadragon, was acquired by Live Labs in 2006. Shortly after the acquisition of Seadragon, Blaise directed his team in a collaboration with Microsoft Research and the University of Washington, leading to the first public previews of Photosynth several months later. His TED talk on Seadragon and Photosynth in 2007 is still rated “most jaw-dropping” on ted.com. Blaise has a broad background in computer science and applied math, and has worked in a variety of fields, including computational neuroscience, computational drug design, data compression and others. In 2001 he received press coverage for his discovery, using computational methods, of the printing technology used by Johann Gutenberg. Blaise’s work on early printing was the subject of a BBC Open University documentary, entitled “What Did Gutenberg Invent?”. He has published essays and research papers in theoretical biology, neuroscience and history in The EMBO Journal, Neural Computation and Nature. In 2008-9 he was a recipient of MIT Technology Review’s TR35 award (35 top innovators under 35) and Fast Company’s MCP100 (“100 most creative people in business”).
Abstract:
Computer vision, the inverse problem to computer graphics, has now reached a stage of development where it has become accessible for commodity computing—in laptops, and most importantly, on mobile phones. This opens the door to large-scale intentional and collective projects to reconstruct the visual world from crowdsourced imagery. We’ll briefly cover the technical underpinnings of this work, and demonstrate how multiresolution representations, Photosynth, Streetside mapping and other emerging technologies are combining to help us realize this vision.
Deborah Estrin
Title: Participatory Sensing: from Ecosystems to Human systems
is a Professor of Computer Science with a joint appointment in Electrical Engineering at UCLA, holds the Jon Postel Chair in Computer Networks, and is Founding Director of the NSF-funded Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS). Deborah received her Ph.D. (1985) in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and her B.S. (1980) from U.C. Berkeley. Deborah's early research focused on the design of network and routing protocols for very large, global, networks, including: multicast routing protocols, self-configuring protocol mechanisms for scalability and robustness, and tools and methods for designing and studying large scale networks. Since the late 90’s Deborah has focused on embedded networked sensing systems, with emphasis on environmental monitoring applications. Most recently this work includes participatory sensing systems, leveraging the location, acoustic, image, and user-contributed data streams increasingly available globally from mobile phones. Ongoing projects include Participatory Sensing campaigns for citizen science, civic engagement and STEM education, and self-monitoring applications in support of health and wellness (urban.cens.ucla.edu).
Deborah has been a co-PI on many NSF and DARPA funded projects and has been an active participant in numerous government sponsored studies. She chaired a 1997-98 ISAT study on sensor networks, and the 2001 NRC study on Networked Embedded Computing which produced the report Embedded Everywhere. She later chaired the Sensors and Sensor Networks subcommittee of the NEON Network Design Committee (neoninc.org). Deborah also served on the Advisory Committees for the NSF Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and Environmental Research and Education (ERE) Directorates, and is currently a member of the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) of The National Research Council (NRC). She has also served as an editor for the ACM/IEEE Transactions on Networks, and as a program committee member for many networking related conferences, including Sigcomm and Infocom. She was Steering Group Chair and General Co-Chair for the first ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems, Sensys 2003, and served as one of the first Associate Editors for the ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks. Deborah is a fellow of the ACM, AAAS and the IEEE. She was selected as the first ACM-W Athena Lecturer in 2006, was awarded the Anita Borg Institute’s Women of Vision Award for Innovation in 2007, inducted into the WITI hall of fame in 2008, and awarded Doctor Honoris Causa from EPFL in 2008. Deborah was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007 and into the National Academy of Engineering in 2009.
Abstract:
Participatory Sensing systems leveraging mobile phones offer unprecedented observational capacity at the scale of the individual; at the same time they are remarkably scalable and affordable given the wide proliferation of cellular phone infrastructure and consumer devices that incorporate location services, imagers, accelerometers, easy programmability, and connectivity to web services, social media, and mashups. These systems can be leveraged by individuals and communities to explore a range of issues, from endangered ecosystems to chronic disease management and prevention. I will discuss the social innovations enabled by Participatory Sensing, as well as the technical challenges that these applications raise in sensemaking, open architectures, and data privacy. This talk draws upon pilot projects ongoing at the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing at UCLA.
Alan Eustace
Title: Organizing the world's information
Alan is one of Google’s senior vice presidents of engineering. He joined Google in the summer of 2002. Prior to Google, Alan spent 15 years at Digital/Compaq/HP’s Western Research Laboratory where he worked on a variety of chip design and architecture projects, including the MicroTitan Floating Point unit, BIPS—the fastest microprocessor of its era. Alan also worked with Amitabh Srivastava on ATOM, a binary code instrumentation system that forms the basis for a wide variety of program analysis and computer architecture analysis tools. These tools had a profound influence on the design of the EV5, EV6 and EV7 chip designs. Alan was promoted to director of the Western Research Laboratory in 1999. WRL had active projects in pocket computing, chip multi-processors, power and energy management, internet performance, and frequency and voltage scaling. In addition to directing Google’s engineering efforts, Alan is actively involved in a number of Google’s community-related activities such as The Second Harvest Food Bank and the Anita Borg Scholarship Fund. Alan is an author of several publications and holds numerous patents. He earned a bachelor‘s degree, a master‘s degree and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Central Florida.
Abstract:
Fifteen years ago I was convinced that advances in computer storage and memory technology would make it possible to store all the world's information on a single, personal device. Instead, the explosion of data, computation, and access has spawned Google to build increasingly large data centers, connected by extremely high speed networks, where hundreds or thousands of computers are used in parallel to answer a single user search query. This talk will highlight the fundamental changes in our industry, and the impact these changes have had on Google fulfilling it's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Illya Hicks
Title: Optimization and Social Networks
Illya was born and raised in Waco, TX. Illya lettered in football and received a BS in mathematics (1995) from Southwest Texas State University (currently Texas State University at San Marcos). Illya also received an MA and PhD in Computational and Applied Mathematics (2000) from Rice University through an AT&T Labs Fellowship. Illya joined the faculty of the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at Texas A&M University in 2000 and is currently an associate professor in the Computational and Applied Mathematics Department at Rice University. Illya's research interests are in combinatorial optimization, graph theory, and integer programming. Some applications of interest are in network design, cancer treatment, social networks, and logistics. Illya is also the recipient of the 2005 Optimization Prize for Young Researchers from the Optimization Society of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) and the 2010 Forum Moving Spirit Award from INFORMS for his work with the Minority Issues Forum of INFORMS.
Abstract:
Network analysis has garnered significant attention in diverse fields as an effective tool for studying complex natural and engineered systems. Novel network models of data arising from internet analytics, systems biology, social networks, computational finance, and telecommunications have led to many interesting insights. In this talk, we explore discrete optimization techniques for finding cohesive data within these network-based models. The goal is to detect cohesiveness in spite of missing information (linkages). In this regard, we will explore different aspects of cohesiveness and how they are used for different applications. In particular, we will focus in on one particular structure called a k-plex , first utilized for social network analysis
Ayanna Howard
Title: Robotic Scientific Explorers for Understanding Climate Change
Anyanna received her B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Brown University, her M.S.E.E. from the University of Southern California, and her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles in 1999. Her area of research is centered around the concept of humanized intelligence, the process of embedding human cognitive capability into the control path of autonomous systems. This work, which addresses issues of autonomous control as well as aspects of interaction with humans and the surrounding environment, has resulted in over 60 written works in a number of projects - from autonomous rover navigation for planetary surface exploration to intelligent terrain assessment algorithms for landing on Mars. To date, her unique accomplishments have been documented in over 12 featured articles - including being named as one of the world's top young innovators of 2003 by the prestigious MIT Technology Review journal and in TIME magazine's "Rise of the Machines" article in 2004. From 1993-2005, Ayanna was at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, where she led research efforts on various robotic projects utilizing vision, fuzzy logic, and neural network methodologies. Following this, she joined the Systems and Controls Group at Georgia Tech in 2005 and founded the Human-Automation Systems (HumAnS) Laboratory.
Abstract:
Recently, it has been discovered that the giant ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica have been shrinking at an accelerated rate. While it is believed that these regions hold important information related to global climate change, there is still insufficient data to be able to accurately predict the glacial behavior and the subsequent global ramifications. Satellites have been able to map the ice sheet elevations with increasing accuracy, but data about general weather conditions (i.e. wind speed, barometric pressure, etc.) must be measured at the surface. In order to obtain a denser set of measurements, human expeditions could be sent to these remote and dangerous areas. Alternatively, a group of autonomous robotic rovers could be deployed to these same locations, mitigating the cost, effort, and danger of human presence. For this to be a viable solution though, methodologies must be developed for deployment of this surface-based mobile science network in these arctic environments. Specific technological achievements that must achieved include designing a robust Arctic rover platform, methods for navigating arctic terrain, and developing schemes to deploy multiple robotic scientific explorers to specific science sites of interest. In this talk, we discuss an infrastructure that addresses these issues in order to enable successful deployment of these robotic scientific explorers.
John Kubiatowicz
Title: Reinventing Operating Systems for Manycore Computing
John is a Professor of EECS at the University of California at Berkeley. He received a dual B.S in Physics and Electrical Engineering (1987), as well as an MS in EECS (1993) and PhD in EECS (1998), all from MIT. John was chosen as one of Scientific American's top 50 researchers in 2002, one of US News and World Report's "people to watch for 2004", and is the recipient of an NSF PCASE award (2000). John was also co-founder of the $3M DARPA QUIST Quantum Architecture Research Center, which received the DARPATech Most Significant Technical Achievement award in 2002. Kubiatowicz's research interests include manycore Operating Systems, multiprocessor and manycore CPU designs, Internet-scale distributed systems, and quantum computing design tools and architectures.
Abstract:
The brave new world of ubiquitous manycore computing systems leads us to reexamine the design of operating systems in the pursuit of responsiveness, realtime guarantees, power efficiency, security, and correctness. I will argue that a new OS primitive, called a "Cell", should replace processes as the basic unit of isolation, protection, and scheduling. Cells contain guaranteed fractions of system resources, including gang-scheduled groups of processors, as well as guaranteed fractions of system resources such as caches and memory bandwidth. I will describe "two-level scheduling" which separates the assignment of resources to Cells from the user-level scheduling of these resources. Cells are a fundamental component of Tessellation, a research operating system being designed at UC Berkeley
Patty Lopez
Title: Testing to Ensure that Moore's Law Continues
Patty spent 19 years as an Imaging Scientist for Hewlett Packard, creating and transferring technology in imaging and color algorithms into scanner, camera, and all-in-one products. She released over fifty imaging products for HP and holds seven imaging patents, and served on the organizing committee for the HP Imaging and Color Symposium for several years. Patty joined Intel in Fort Collins, Colorado in August 2008 and now works on microprocessor logic validation for manufacturability. Patty graduated with high honors from New Mexico State University with a B.S. in Computer Science and earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science at while working at NMSU’s Computing Research Laboratory, a state funded center of technical excellence. In 2001, Patty received the HP Technical Leadership Award for her imaging work. She served as the HP Campus Recruiting Manager for NMSU for ten years, building relationships with academia and K-12 schools to obtain grants for equipment and outreach.
In 2003, Patty was named a Distinguished Alumna for the NMSU College of Arts and Sciences, Sciences Division. She chairs the Governance Committee of the NMSU Foundation, has established the Ross & Lydia Lopez Minority Scholarship, and serves an advisory board member for several STEM departments and programs at NMSU. She joined the Computing Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institutions (CAHSI) Board and CRA-W Board in 2010, and represents Intel on the Anita Borg Institute Advisory Board. She has served as co-chair for the GHC Birds of a Feather Committee in 2009, co-chair of the GHC Technical Poster Session Committee in 2010, and is serving as the co-chair of the GHC Panels and Workshops Committee for 2011. She is a founding member and co-chair of Latinas in Computing, a grassroots organization whose mission to promote and develop Latinas in technology, and received the HENAAC/Great Minds in STEM Community Service Award in 2010. Patty is a MentorNet mentor, and is a member of the NCWIT Workforce Alliance. Her current passion is computer science education, building the STEM pipeline for K-16, and creating an inclusive organizational culture in the workplace.
Abstract:
As microprocessors scale beyond three billion transistors and incorporate diverse components into a complete system-on-a-chip (SoC), these products push the scaling limits of design complexity and process technology. To maintain the expected scaling of Moore’s Law, design teams are challenged to manage the increasing variability of state-of-the-art process technology while maintaining yield, quality, and cost. This talk will discuss the increasing importance of “Design for Test” (DFT) methodologies as microprocessors scale to higher and higher levels of complexity
Irving Wladawsky-Berger
Title: The changing nature of research and innovation in the 21st Century
Irving has an M.S. and Ph. D. in physics from the University of Chicago. Irving is a former chair of the IBM Academy of Engineering, AAAS Fellow, and 2001 HENAAC Hispanic Engineer of the Year. He is also a Citigroup Strategic Advisor, helping with innovation and technology initiatives across the company. While at IBM Irving was responsible for identifying emerging technologies and marketplace developments. Irving was also responsible for university relations and served as the Chairman of the Board of Governors for the IBM Academy of Technology. Irving led the effort to formulate IBM’s Internet integration strategy into IBM’s mainstream business. Irving led companywide initiatives like Linux, Grid Computing and IBM’s On Demand Business initiative.
Irving is a Visiting Lecturer at MIT's Sloan School of Management and Engineering Systems Division; Senior Fellow at the Levin Institute of the State University of New York; and Adjunct Professor in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at the Imperial College Business School. He is also a member of BP’s Technology Advisory Council, the Visiting Committee for the Physical Sciences Division at the University of Chicago and the Board of Visitors for the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. Irving served as co-chair of the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) from 1997 to 2001, and was a founding member of the Computer Sciences and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council in 1986. Irving is a former member of University of Chicago Board of Governors for Argonne National Laboratories and of the Board of Overseers for Fermilab. A few years ago, Irving was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Having been born in Cuba and come to the U.S. at the age of 15, one of the things of which Irving is proudest is having been named 2001 Hispanic Engineer of the Year.
Abstract:
Over the past century, science and technology have been successfully applied to innovation in the industrial sector of the economy, leading to very high productivity and quality, and to the development of highly sophisticated and complex objects like airplanes, skyscrapers and microprocessors. The 21st century defines a new set of challenges, especially in the complexity of the systems we are now developing in all kinds of industries, including energy, health care, financial services and urban systems. It is critical to once more leverage technology, science and innovation to address these challenges and make major improvements in the productivity and quality of these highly complex systems, including services, organizations and the very way the world works. Continuing advances in digital technologies promise to be as pivotal to the 21st century as steam power was to the industrial revolution, leading to an information and services driven economy which is changing the focus, design objectives and the methods by which the world innovates to meet global challenges. The presentation will explore the key differences between "classic" industrial sector innovation and innovation in this emerging information and services economy, as well as the growing technical capabilities and business opportunities for organizations that embrace these new modes of innovation.
