Distinguished Lecture Series in Computer Science 2006-2007 | 
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| Title | Speaker | Affiliation | Flyer | Date | Time | Location | Co-hosted by |
| Distinguished
Lecture: And Logic Begat Computer Science: When Giants Roamed the Earth |
Moshe Y. Vardi | Department of Computer Science, Rice University | Oct. 19, 2006 | 3:30PM | Gerdin 1148 | ||
| Distinguished
Lecture: Self-Organizing Wireless Sensor Networks in Action |
John A. Stankovic | Department of Computer Science, University of Virginia | Feb. 8, 2007 | 3:40PM | Alliant Lee Liu Auditorium, Howe Hall | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | |
| Distinguished
Lecture: The Strange Relation of Mathematics to Cryptography |
Neal Koblitz | Department of Mathematics, University of Washington | Mar. 27, 2007 | 4:00PM | Room 001, Carver Hall | Department of Mathematics | |
| Robert Stewart Distinguished Lecture: Computer Science in the Information Age | John E. Hopcroft | Department of Computer Science, Cornell University | Apr. 19, 2007 | 4:00PM | 2055 Hoover |
Abstracts
And Logic Begat Computer Science: When Giants Roamed the Earth
Moshe Y. Vardi
During the past fifty years there has been extensive, continuous, and growing interaction between logic and computer science. In fact, logic has been called "the calculus of computer science". The argument is that logic plays a fundamental role in computer science, similar to that played by calculus in the physical sciences and traditional engineering disciplines. Indeed, logic plays an important role in areas of computer science as disparate as architecture (logic gates), software engineering (specification and verification), programming languages (semantics, logic programming), databases (relational algebra and SQL), artificial intelligence (automated theorem proving), algorithms (complexity and expressiveness), and theory of computation (general notions of computability). This non-technical talk will provide an overview of the unusual effectiveness of logic in computer science by surveying the history of logic in computer science, going back all the way to Aristotle and Euclid, and showing how logic actually gave rise to computer science.Self-Organizing Wireless Sensor Networks in Action
John A. Stankovic
Wireless sensor networks (WSN) composed of large numbers of small devices that self-organize are being investigated for a wide variety of applications. Applications, such as military surveillance and large scale assisted living facilities are key examples of applications that can benefit from WSN. Current research for WSN is widespread. However, many of the proposed solutions are developed with simplifying assumptions about wireless communication and the environment, even though the realities of wireless communication and environmental sensing are well known. Many of the solutions are evaluated only by simulation. In this talk I describe a fully implemented system, called VigilNet, consisting of a suite of more than 30 synthesized protocols (40,000 lines of code). The system supports a power aware surveillance, tracking and classification application running on 203 XSM motes and evaluated in a realistic, large-area environment. Technical details and evaluations are presented for several of the key services. I will also present AlarmNet - an assisted living and residential monitoring system that is under development. Lessons learned from building these two systems will be discussed.
The Strange Relation of Mathematics to Cryptography
Neal Koblitz
Starting in 1984, when Hendrik Lenstra introduced his elliptic curve factoring algorithm, the level of sophistication of the mathematics used in cryptography has risen dramatically. Many concepts from number theory and algebraic geometry have been applied to the study of elliptic and hyperelliptic curve cryptosystems, the number field sieve method for factoring, and other topics. More recently, though, mathematics has been used to give formal assurances of security, and this has raised some difficult questions and some suspicions that math is being misused. I will discuss the controversy surrounding ``provable security'' and give some examples that illustrate the need for caution and skepticism.
Robert Stewart Distinguished Lecture: Computer Science in the Information Age
John E. Hopcroft
The last forty years have seen computer science evolve as a major academic discipline. Today the field is undergoing a major change. Some of the drivers of this change are the internet, the world wide web, large quantities of information in digital form and wide spread use of computers for accessing information. This change is requiring universities to revise the content of computer science programs. This talk will cover the changes in the theoretical foundations needed to support information access in the coming years.
Biographies
Moshe Y. VardiMoshe Y. Vardi is the George Professor in Computational Engineering and Director of the Computer and Information Technology Institute at Rice University. He chaired the Computer Science Department at Rice University from January 1994 till June 2002. Prior to joining Rice in 1993, he was at the IBM Almaden Research Center, where he managed the Mathematics and Related Computer Science Department. His research interests include database systems, computational-complexity theory, multi-agent systems, and design specification and verification. Vardi received his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1981. He is the author and co-author of over 300 technical papers, as well as a book titled "Reasoning about Knowledge", and the editor of several collections. Vardi is the recipient of three IBM Outstanding Innovation Awards, a co-winner of the 2000 Goedel Prize, a co-winner of the 2005 ACM Paris Kanellakis Award for Theory and Practice, and a co-winner of the LICS 2006 Test-of-Time Award. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Saarland, Germany, and the University of Orleans, France. Vardi is an editor of several international journals and the president of the International Federation of Computational Logicians. He is Guggenheim Fellow, as well as a Fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Association for Artificial Intelligence. He was designated Highly Cited Researcher by the Institute for Scientific Information, and was elected as a member of the US National Academy of Engineering and the European Academy of Sciences. He recently co-chaired the ACM Task Force on Job Migration.
Visit Moshe Y. Vardi's homepage here.
Professor John A. Stankovic is the BP America Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Virginia. He recently served as Chair of the department, completing two terms (8 years). He is a Fellow of both the IEEE and the ACM. He won the IEEE Real-Time Systems Technical Committee's Award for Outstanding Technical Contributions and Leadership (first winner). He also won the IEEE Distributed Processing Technical Committee's Award for Distinguished Achievement (first winner). Professor Stankovic also served on the Board of Directors of the Computer Research Association for 9 years. Before joining the University of Virginia, Professor Stankovic taught at the University of Massachusetts where he won an outstanding scholar award. He has also held visiting positions in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie-Mellon University, at INRIA in France, and at the Scuola Superiore S. Anna in Pisa, Italy. He was the Editor-in-Chief for the IEEE Transactions on Distributed and Parallel Systems and was a founder and co-editor-in-chief for the Real-Time Systems Journal for 18 years. He was also General Chair for ACM SenSys 2004 and General Chair for ACM/IEEE Information Processing in Sensor Networks (IPSN) 2006. His research interests are in distributed computing, real-time systems, operating systems, and wireless sensor networks. Prof. Stankovic received his PhD from Brown University.
Visit John A. Stankovic's homepage here.
Visit Dan Gusfield's homepage here.
Neal Koblitz received his Ph.D. in mathematics
at Princeton in 1974 with a thesis on arithmetic algebraic geometry. Since 1979
he has been at the University of Washington in Seattle. In 1985 he was co-inventor
of Elliptic Curve Cryptography. Since then his research interests have centered
around applications of number theory in cryptography. He has written five books,
dealing with p-adic analysis, elliptic curves, modular forms, and cryptography.
Neal's main nonmathematical activity is assisting his wife Ann in running the
Kovalevskaia Fund for women in science in developing countries, of which she
is Director. In addition, he is chair of the mathematical sciences subcommittee
of the U.S. Committee for Scientific Cooperation with Vietnam. In these connections
he travels extensively, and uses the opportunity to give demonstration math
classes and talk with school teachers in various parts of the world.
Visit Neal Koblitz's homepage here.
John E. Hopcroft is the IBM Professor of Engineering and Applied Mathematics in Computer Science at Cornell University. From January 1994 until June 2001, he was the Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering. After receiving both his M.S. (1962) and Ph.D. (1964) in electrical engineering from Stanford University, he spent three years on the faculty of Princeton University. He joined the Cornell faculty in 1967, was named professor in 1972 and the Joseph C. Ford Professor of Computer Science in 1985. He served as chairman of the Department of Computer Science from 1987 to 1992 and was the associate dean for college affairs in 1993. An undergraduate alumnus of Seattle University, Hopcroft was honored with a Doctor of Humanities Degree, Honoris Causa, in 1990.
Hopcroft's research centers on theoretical aspects of computing, especially analysis of algorithms, automata theory, and graph algorithms. He has coauthored four books on formal languages and algorithms with Jeffrey D. Ullman and Alfred V. Aho. His most recent work is on the study of information capture and access.
He was honored with the A. M. Turing Award in 1986. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Association of Computing Machinery. In 1992, he was appointed by President Bush to the National Science Board, which oversees the National Science Foundation, and served through May 1998. From 1995-98, Hopcroft served on the National Research Council's Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications.
In addition to these appointments, Hopcroft serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the David and Lucile Packard Fellowships in Science and Engineering, the Nominating Committee for the National Academy of Engineering, and the Board on Mathematical Sciences and Applications. He chairs the International Advisory Committee on Informatics and Engineering at the National College of Ireland.
Visit John E. Hopcroft's homepage here.
Miller Distinguished Lecture
The Miller Lecture Series is made possible by the generosity of F. Wendell Miller, who left his entire estate jointly to Iowa State University and the University of Iowa. Mr. Miller, who died in 1995 at age 97, was born in Altoona, Illinois, grew up in Rockwell City, graduated from Grinnell College and Harvard Law School and practiced law in Des Moines and Chicago before returning to Rockwell City to manage his family's farm holdings and to practice law. His will helped to establish the F. Wendell Miller Trust, the annual earnings on which, in part, helped to support this activity.Robert Stewart Distinguished Lecture
The Robert Stewart Distinguished Lecture in Computer Science is made possible by the generous contribution of Dr. Long Nguyen, who got his doctorate from the Computer Science Department at Iowa State University in 1975. It is in honor of his mentor, Dr. Robert Stewart, Professor Emeritus and the first Department Chair of Computer Science at Iowa State University.Archives
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