RICE UNIVERSITY
COMPUTER SCIENCE
ANNUAL Corporate Affiliates CONFERENCE
Program Guide
OCTOBER 15-16, 2008
Welcome to the 2008
Chevron Corporation
Complete Solutions, Inc.
Cray, Inc.
ExxonMobil
First Genesis Inc
FrogPad, Inc.
Google
Hewlett-Packard Company
IBM Corporation
Intel
JP Morgan Chase
LogicBlox
Merrill Lynch
Microsoft Corporation
National Instruments
Numerical Algorithms Group
Patterson & Sheridan
The Department of Computer Science at Rice University is one of the
premier computer science departments in the United States, at the
forefront of educating information technology leaders and creating new
technology. Our research relies on input from industry, government, and
other sectors, and in turn, our work provides insights and early access
to the latest information in science and technology to those entities. This
relationship is the driving force for the collaboration between academia
and industry.
We have always valued our collaboration with industry, and we count
our successes in technology transfer among our most important
accomplishments. Our Corporate Affiliates Program has always been
the cornerstone of our long-term relationship with industry, and we hope,
through this meeting, to reenergize and renew that relationship through
conversation and interaction.
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Sincerely,
SAS Institute
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DH Martel Hall
Intimacy with Machines
Tony Gorry and
Dessert
Visual Numerics, Inc.
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Taming Parallelism
John Mellor-Crummey
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DH Martel hall
DH 3092
Poster and Demo Session/Competition
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THURSDAY, October 16, 2008
8:30AM Breakfast and Registration
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Welcome and School of Engineering Overview
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Winning Posters Announced and Closing (optional)
DH Martel Hall
CS Department Overview and
New Chair Introduction
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Viasat
DH McMurtry Auditorium
By Invitation only
3:00PM Break
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University of Houston - Clear Lake
From Robots to Biomolecules:
Computing meets the physical world
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DH M artel H all
DH McMurtry Auditorium
Building a More Appealing Computer
Science Curriculum
Joe Warren
DH McMurtry Auditorium
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Velostor Technologies
DH 3092
Corporate Affiliates Dinner
:
Vivek Sarkar
Chair, CS Corporate Affiliates Program
Meeting agenda
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Sternhill Partners
Texas Instruments
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Cohen House
SnapStream
Texas Institute for Genomic Medicine
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Schlumberger
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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Joint CS/ECE Cocktail Hour
11:45AM Lunch
Thank you for your participation, and please let us know if there is
anything we can do to make this meeting and our Affiliates Program
more productive.
PSI Technology
R7 Solutions
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We welcome you to our 2008 Corporate Affiliates Meeting. Each year,
this meeting provides the department and its corporate contacts an
opportunity to continue a conversation on some of the long-term,
fundamental needs of the United States in science and engineering.
10:30AM Break
Oshman Engineering
Design Kitchen
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BHP Billiton Petroleum
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Dear Colleagues:
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Baylor College of Medicine
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
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Advanced Micro Devices
Catalytic, Inc.
Meeting agenda
Computer Science Department
Affiliates CONFERENCE
:
The computer science department at
rice welcomes representatives from the
following companies and institutions:
Affiliate Members Meet with Students and Faculty
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Lydia Kavraki
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RESEARCH ABSTRACTS
WEDNESDAY, October 15, 2008
Intimacy with Machines
Speaker: Tony Gorry
7:30 PM
ROOM: DH MARTEL
Machines have amplified our abilities, relieved us of drudgery and danger,
and enriched the material aspect of our lives. As the Industrial Revolution
quickly demonstrated, they can also be intrusive, oppressive and even
dehumanizing. Over the past hundred years, however, new technologies
have emerged that test our notions of what machines are and how we relate
to them. Today our best machines seem made of sunshine: nothing but
signals, electromagnetic waves and slices of the spectrum. Yet by weaving
patterns of light, these devices erode the boundaries between nature and
technology, mind and body, person and machine. Our increasingly intimate
relationship with these machines is changing how we live—and it will
ultimately change who we are..
RESEARCH ABSTRACTS
thursday, October 16, 2008
From Robots to Biomolecules:
Computing Meets the Physical World
Speaker: Lydia Kavraki
9:45 AM
ROOM: ROOM: DH MARTEL
Representing shape and motion in the physical world is a core problem
in applications ranging from robotics to modeling biomolecular interactions.
This talk will discuss the challenges we face when solving complex
high-dimensional geometric problems arising in the physical world as
well as the opportunities we have to impact computer science, molecular
biology and medicine.
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Taming Parallelism
Speaker: John Mellor-Crummey
11:00 AM
ROOM: McMurtry Auditorium
Like it or not, parallelism is unavoidable in today’s computing platforms. In
low-end systems, multi-core processors have become ubiquitous. At the
high end, clusters now contain as many as tens of thousands of nodes,
each with one or more processors. Being competitive in today’s parallel
world means learning how to harness parallelism effectively. This talk
will describe challenges facing application developers as they struggle to
reengineer applications to exploit explicit parallelism and a new generation
of software tools under development at Rice that is designed to help
people get the most out of parallel platforms at any scale. Specifically, this
talk will introduce HPCToolkit---an integrated suite of tools that supports
measurement, analysis, attribution, and presentation of application
performance for parallel programs---and describe novel strategies used
by HPCToolkit to quantify, and pinpoint performance losses and scalability
bottlenecks in parallel programs. Tools such as HPCToolkit can help focus
development efforts where they are needed the most and where success is
most likely, thus maximizing return on investment.
Building a more appealing Computer
Science curriculum
Speaker: Joe Warren
3:30 PM
ROOM: McMurtry Auditorium
In the late 1990’s, CS enrollments boomed with the realization that
information technology was fundamentally changing society. However,
the dot.com crash, worries about overseas outsourcing of IT jobs, and
the emergence of exciting rival disciplines like biology have sapped CS
enrollments nation-wide. Rice’s previous curriculum, developed in
the late 1990’s during the CS enrollment boom, focused on a highly
rigorous introduction to the mathematical science of programming.
While very successful in training CS majors, the previous curriculum
left the fundamental question “Why major in CS?” unanswered until
late in an undergraduate student’s career.
In this talk, I will give an overview of Rice’s current efforts to revise
its undergraduate curriculum in CS so that it is more appealing to
top Engineering students, many of whom currently major in Electrical
Engineering or Bioengineering. In the first part of the talk, I will discuss
the key to this revision, the development of a collection of new introductory
classes that focus of exciting application areas of CS such as robotics,
AI, games and bioinformatics. One question raised by this revision is
how the upper-level portion of the curriculum should evolve in reaction.
Part of the process of answering this question is to identify a key set of
skills that all CS majors should have upon graduation. In second part of
the talk, I will share my own thoughts on what some of these skills are
and invite feedback from the audience on their own thoughts as to
what are the essential skills for a CS major.
Computer Science
Department
Featured Speakers 2008
Tony Gorry
Tony Gorry’s current research concerns the impact of
information technology on organizations and society.
He previously conducted research on the application of
artificial intelligence in medicine and on the development
of decision support systems for management.
Dr. Gorry directs Rice’s Center for Technology in
Teaching and Learning. The Center is developing
computing and telecommunications for sharing knowledge in schools,
universities, the work place and the home.
Dr. Gorry is also a Director of the W. M. Keck Center for Computational
Biology, a joint endeavor of Rice, Baylor College of Medicine and the
University of Houston. He directs a training grant on computational biology
funded by the National Library of Medicine.
Dr. Gorry served as Vice President for Information Technology at Rice for
seven years. Before that, he held the same position at Baylor College of
Medicine. He also held faculty positions at MIT in computer science and
management.
Dr. Gorry was the Chairman of the ForeFront Group from its founding until
its acquisition by CBT Systems. He serves on the boards of Gene Logic,
Inc. and the Kelsey Research Foundation and until recently was on the
boards of AirLogix, Inc., and the ABIM Foundation. He is a consultant to
corporations and institutions on the strategic use of information technology
and lectures widely on this subject.
He is a Member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of
Sciences and a Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics.
.
Lydia Kavraki
In Robotics Kavraki’s group works on motion planning
with emphasis on high-dimensional systems, assembly
planning, reasoning with sensing and control uncertainty,
flexible object manipulation, physical modeling,
probabilistic methods in robotics, the geometry of motion
and the use of new enabling technologies such as
MicroElectroMechanical Systems. We are also interested
in problems arising in the intersection of robotics and sensor nets.
In Bioinformatics Kavraki’s group develops computational tools on highperformance systems to model protein structure and function, understand
biomolecular interactions and help analyze, in the long run, the molecular
machinery of the cell. We integrate sequence information with threedimensional structural information to capture, represent and exploit
relevant molecular motion. Of particular interest are the identification of
three-dimensional functional motifs in protein databases, docking of flexible
molecules to flexible receptors, computer-assisted drug discovery, and the
understanding and compact representation of structural changes in large
biomolecular machines. We apply robotics and computational geometry
methods to the above problems.
Both areas above involve real-world problems and fall into the broader
category of physical computing. In both areas we seek to develop
physical algorithms: algorithms that are capable of solving complex highdimensional geometric problems arising in real-world applications (e.g.,
move a robot from A to B, predict a biomolecular complex). We believe that
as computers become ubiquitous, we need to use computers to represent,
simulate, and interact with the physical world. This is not an easy task,
however. Algorithms for physical problems differ in significant ways from
those for traditional (artificial world) problems. The latter algorithms have
full control over and perfect access to the required data. In contrast,
physical algorithms apply to objects in the real world which are subject
to the independent and imperfectly modeled laws of nature. Our long
term goal is to study the fundamental issues arising when algorithms
are designed for problems in the physical world and to develop coherent
solution frameworks which quantify, to the extent possible, the tradeoff
between accuracy and performance present in solutions developed for
realistic settings.
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computer science Affiliates
directory 2008-2009
Computer Science
Department
Intel
2200 Mission College Blvd.
Santa Clara, CA 95052
(408) 765-8080
www.intel.com
Featured Speakers 2008 Continued
John Mellor-Crummey
John Mellor-Crummey’s research focuses on software
technology for high performance parallel computing.
His ongoing research includes work on tools for
measurement and analysis of applicatin performance,
compiler and run-time technology for parallel and
scientific computing, application performance modeling,
and compiler technology for domain-specific languages.
Past work has included developing techniques for execution replay of
parallel programs, efficient software synchronization algorithms for sharedmemory multiprocessors, and a system for efficiently detecting data races
in executions of shared-memory programs using a combination of compiletime and run-time support.
Vivek Sarkar
Vivek Sarkar conducts research in programming
languages, program analysis, compiler optimizations
and virtual machines for parallel and high performance
computer systems, and currently leads the Habanero
Multicore Software Research project at Rice University
(www.habanero.rice.edu). Prior to joining Rice, he was
Senior Manager of Programming Technologies at IBM
Research. His responsibilities at IBM included leading IBM’s research
efforts in programming model, tools, and productivity in the PERCS project
during 2002- 2007 as part of the DARPA High Productivity Computing
System program. His past projects include the X10 programming
language, the Jikes Research Virtual Machine for the Java language, the
ASTI optimizer used in IBM’s XL Fortran product compilers, the PTRAN
automatic parallelization system, and profile-directed partitioning and
scheduling of Sisal programs. Vivek became a member of the IBM
Academy of Technology in 1995, an ACM Distinguished Scientist in 2006,
and the E.D. Butcher Professor of Computer Science at Rice University in
2007. He holds a B.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology,
Kanpur, an M.S. degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a
Ph.D. from Stanford University. In 1997, he was on sabbatical as a visiting
associate professor at MIT, where he was a founding member of the MIT
RAW multicore project.
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Joe Warren
Joe Warren’s research interests focus on the application
of computers to geometric problems and are centered
around the general problem of representing geometric
shapes. His specific areas of interest include geometric
modeling, or the construction and manipulation of data
structures for representing geometric objects, and
computational geometry, or using algorithms to solve
geometric problems. He is particularly interested in algorithms for solving
and manipulating systems of polynomial equations. His approach is to
develop interesting mathematical methods for representing shape that
can be used in practical applications. Topics he has worked on include
modeling with piecewise algebraic surfaces, methods for finite-element
mesh generation, properties of rational surfaces with base points, and
visualization of multivariate data. Warren’s current research focuses on
two related topics: subdivision, a method for concisely representing shape,
and wavelets, a method for building an associated hierarchy of shapes. He
is particulaarly interested in extending the theory associated with both to
handle irregular geometry.
One of the principal areas in which computing has changed the today’s
world is computer graphics and geometric modeling. In entertainment,
computer-animated movies such at “Finding Nemo” and advanced 3D
computer games such as “Halo 2” make heavy use of computer graphics.
In medicine, computer graphics allows physicians to visualize and simulate
disease processes and potential treatments in ways that were never
available until now. In manufacturing, geometric modeling allows
engineers to design and test goods without the need to build costly
physical prototypes.
All of these advances are based on algorithms and data structures
developed by computer scientist for representing, simulating and
visualizing geometric objects. At the core of these advances is an exciting
synthesis that arises from combination of new computational techniques
with existing mathematical disciplines such as algebraic geometry and
differential geometry. Professor Warren’s research lies at exactly this
boundary. His goal is to apply advanced mathematics to real world
problems and develop new methods in computer graphics and
geometric modeling for solving these problems.
Advanced Micro Devices
One AMD Place
P.O. Box 3453
Sunnyvale, CA 94088-3453
(408) 749-4000
www.amd.com
BHP Billiton
1360 Post Oak Blvd, Suite 150
Houston, TX 77056-3020
(713) 961-8500
www.bhpbilliton.com
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052-6399
(800) MICROSOFT
www.microsoft.com
National Instruments
11500 N Mopac Expwy
Austin, TX 78759-3504
(800) 531-5066
www.ni.com
Catalytic, Inc.
1076A East Meadow Circle
Palo Alto, CA 94303
(650) 846-2555
www.catalyticinc.com
The Numerical Algorithms
Group, Inc.
1431 Opus Place, Suite 220
Downers Grove, IL 60515-1362
(630) 971-2337
www.nag.com
Chevron Corporation
6001 Bollinger Canyon Rd.
San Ramon, CA 94583
(925) 842-1000
www.chevron.com
Schlumberger
300 Schlumberger Drive
Sugarland, TX 77478
(281) 285-8500
www.schlumberger.com
Google
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
(650) 253-0000
www.google.com
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
4150 Network Circle
Santa Clara, CA 95054
(800) 555-9SUN
www.sun.com
Hewlett-Packard Company
3000 Hanover Street
Palo Alto, CA 94304-1185
(650) 857-1501
www.hp.com
Texas Instruments, Inc.
13532 N. Central Expressway
Dallas, TX 75243-1108
(972) 644-5580
www.ti.com
IBM Corporation
1133 Westchester Avenue
White Plains, NY 10604
(800) IBM-4YOU
www.ibm.com
LogicBlox.
Two Midtown PlazaSuite 1880 1349
West Peachtree Street, N.E.Atlanta,
GA 30309(404) 478-2069www.
logicblox.com
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RICE
Rice University
Department of Computer Science - MS 132
P.O. Box 1892
Houston, TX 77251-1892
Tel 713-348-3820
Email cs-affiliates@cs.rice.edu
www.compsci.rice.edu/affiliates