The next talk in the STEP Lecture Series will be given by Prof. Jeannette Wing, President’s Professor of Computer Science in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University, on Friday, April 23rd at 5:00pm PST. The title of the talk is Computational Thinking. The talk will be streamed live and a brief Q&A session will follow the talk. Undergraduate and graduate students with non-engineering backgrounds are also encouraged to attend.

Title: Computational Thinking

Where: Air University, FAST-NU Islamabad, IMS Peshawar, LUMS, and NUST SEECS.

When: April 23rd, 2010, 5-7pm Pakistan Standard Time (8-10am EDT).

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Abstract: My vision for the 21st Century: Computational thinking will be a fundamental skill used by everyone in the world. To reading, writing, and arithmetic, let’s add computational thinking to every child’s analytical ability. Computational thinking involves solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior by drawing on the concepts fundamental to computer science. Thinking like a computer scientist means more than being able to program a computer. It requires the ability to abstract and thus to think at multiple levels of abstraction. In this talk I will give many examples of computational thinking, argue that it has already influenced other disciplines, and promote the idea that teaching computational thinking can not only inspire future generations to enter the field of computer science but benefit people in all fields.

Bio: Dr. Jeannette M. Wing is the President’s Professor of Computer Science in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University. She received her S.B. and S.M. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1979 and her Ph.D. degree in Computer Science in 1983, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 2004-2007, she was Head of the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon. Currently on leave from CMU, she is the Assistant Director of the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate at the National Science Foundation.

Professor Wing’s general research interests are in the areas of specification and verification, concurrent and distributed systems, programming languages, and software engineering. Her current focus is on the foundations of trustworthy computing.

Professor Wing was or is on the editorial board of twelve journals. She has been a member of many advisory boards, including: the Networking and Information Technology (NITRD) Technical Advisory Group to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Tecbnology (PCAST), the National Academies of Sciences’s Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, ACM Council, the DARPA Information Science and Technology (ISAT) Board, NSF’s CISE Advisory Committee, Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Academic Advisory Board, the Intel Research Pittsburgh’s Advisory Board, and the Sloan Research Fellowships Program Committee. She is a member of AAAS, ACM, IEEE, Sigma Xi, Phi Beta Kappa, Tau Beta Pi, and Eta Kappa Nu. Professor Wing is an AAAS Fellow, ACM Fellow, and IEEE Fellow.

Acknowledgments: Special thanks to Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) for facilitating the video broadcast of this talk.

Title: Fast and Accurate Simulation of Computer Systems

Where:
Air University
AKU-IED
BZU Multan
FAST-NU Islamabad
IMS Peshawar
LUMS
NUST SEECS
UET Taxilla
University of Sargodha
SZABIST

When: March 25, 2010, at 5:10-6:25pm Pakistan Standard Time (7:10-8:25am CDT)

Abstract:

Simulators of computers are essential starting from the architectural phase, through implementation and verification, and even during software development and tuning.  However, building computer simulators that are both fast and accurate has traditionally been a challenging problem that has recently been further aggravated by the proliferation of multicore processors. In this talk, I will describe the FPGA-Accelerated Simulation Technologies (FAST) methodology for building fast, parallelized, full-system, cycle-accurate-capable simulators of multicore target systems.  Our current implementation of a FAST simulator runs on a multicore+FPGA platform and simulates a multicore x86 system running unmodified Linux.  Simulation speeds are roughly 10MIPS range in cycle-accurate mode and significantly faster at lower accuracy.  The simulator is currently being augmented with power estimation and reliability modeling capabilities at the same simulation speeds.

Bio:

Derek Chiou is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin.  His research areas are high performance computer simulation, computer architecture, parallel computing, Internet router architecture and network processors.  Before UT, Dr. Chiou was a system architect for five years at Avici Systems, a manufacturer of terabit core routers.  Dr. Chiou received his Ph.D., S.M. and S.B. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT. His research is supported by a DOE Career award, an NSF CAREER award, NSF and SRC awards as well as donations from Intel, IBM, Xilinx, Freescale, Altera, and VMWare.

Acknowledgments: STEP is very grateful to Dr. Shahab Baqai at LUMS for his continued support and help in organizing the lecture series. Special thanks to Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) for facilitating the video broadcast of this talk.

Title: Wireless Electricity

Where:
Air University
FAST-NU Islamabad
LUMS Department of Computer Science (Room 10-404 SSE),
MCS
NUST SEECS

When: February 25, 2010, at 6:00 pm Pakistan Standard Time (8:00am EST)

Abstract:
Consider the plethora of modern devices which vitally depend on short-lived, environmentally unfriendly, costly batteries or whose performance and mobility are restricted by their attachment to a cord. Imagine now a world where these apparati can instead receive their power wirelessly. We have developed a technology, based on STRONGLY-COUPLED resonant induction, enabling power (from mW to KW) to be transmitted across medium-range distances (from cm to m) very efficiently (typically from 20% to 95%). The exact achievable distance depends on the size of the device, the targeted efficiency (maximum tolerated wasted power) and, in general, the particular application. Moreover, far-field radiation interference can be employed to further increase the achievable efficiency or reduce the produced radiation. Our power transmission technology utilizes low frequencies and the harmless magnetic field, thus it can comply with international safety regulations. This technology has been implemented into real-world electronic devices by WiTricity Corporation, and relevant pre-recorded demos will be shown.

Bio:

Aristeidis Karalis is a founder of WiTricity Corp. (2007), and was a member of the MIT research team that developed both the theoretical basis and experimental validation of this novel method for wireless energy transfer. Aristeidis is a Post-Doctoral Associate in the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT. He received his Sc.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 2008. He received his M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT and his B.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. Aristeidis is a co-author of nine scientific articles and six patents. He was awarded the Paris Kanellakis Fellowship and the Ioannis S. Latsis Fellowship as a student at MIT.

Acknowledgments: STEP is very grateful to Dr. Shahab Baqai at LUMS for his continued support and help in organizing the lecture series. Special thanks to Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) for facilitating the video broadcast of this talk.

The talks will be aimed at a general audience. Undergraduate and graduate students with non-engineering backgrounds are also encouraged to attend.

Title: Technology Blogging and Entrepreneurship

Where: LUMS Department of Computer Science, Saeed  Saigol Auditorium .
When: Sunday, February 7, 8:00am Pakistan Standard Time

Abstract:

Whether you want to blog as a professional, grow in your current job, start a technology company, or even influence policy — effective blogging and know-how about blogosphere can play a critical role in your success. This talk will primarily look at blogging as a career and blogging as a means to entrepreneurship. I will discuss what you need to do to be a successful technology blogger and how you can use blogging to start and sell your business

Bio:

Saad Fazil does freelance writing for VentureBeat, where he focuses on deep analysis of emerging trends in the industry. He is the founder of Whizner Consulting, a technology strategy consulting firm. Prior to consulting, he held business analyst, product management, and sales consultant positions at Kayak.com, Oracle, and Alcatel. He received his MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management. He blogs at IT Valley and tweets at @sfrocks.

Where: LUMS Department of Computer Science,  Saeed Saigol Auditorium.
When: Sunday, February 7, 9:00am Pakistan Standard Time

Abstract: 

Games will be the most prevalent medium of the 21st Century – more than radio, film, and television combined in the 20th. So as leaders in this medium, what do you hope to accomplish, and how can you get there?  In this talk, Kellee Santiago (President & Co-Founder) will discuss thatgamecompany’s approach to developing innovative games, and will explain why they hope that all of you will join them in doing so. She will walk through TGC’s process from first approaching a concept through prototyping and execution, taking examples from their previous PSN release, “Flower.”

Bio:

Kellee Santiago is President and Co-Founder of thatgamecompany (TGC). TGC’s goal is to make video games that communicate different emotional experiences, and expand the communicative possibilities of games. Kellee graduated from the MFA Interactive Media program at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts where her research focused on game design, interactive narrative, and physical and gestural interfaces for digital media. While at USC she teamed up with fellow student Jenova Chen to develop the student-created game, “Cloud.” The game went on to become critically acclaimed, after which the two decided to found their own studio, thatgamecompany, and landed a three game deal with Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc. to develop downloadable games for Playstation Network. Their first two commercial releases, “flOw”, and “Flower,” went on to become award-winning and two of the top downloaded games on PSN.

Kellee is also a TED2010 Fellow.

Title: Enabling Sustainable Rural Wireless Telemedicine

Where: LUMS Department of Computer Science, Auditorium A-16, NUST SEECS, Air University
When: November 12, 8:30pm Pakistan Standard Time (7:30am Pacific daylight time)

Abstract:
With one ophthalmologist per over 100,000 people in India, there is a critical need to improve the utilization of eye doctors. In this talk, we discuss our work in deploying a long distance wireless network that enables high quality video-based telemedicine between rural eye clinics and centrally located doctors at the Aravind Eye Hospitals. In particular, we take a close look at the issues of financial and operational sustainability.

Bio:
Dr. Sonesh Surana focuses on the design and implementation of low-cost information and communication technologies (ICT) and related power infrastructure for developing regions. He received his PhD in Computer Science with the TIER research group at UC Berkeley in 2009. As part of TIER, he co-developed new WiFi-based long-distance technology enabling inexpensive targeted rural broadband coverage, and demonstrated high bandwidth point-to-point links as long as 380 Kms, a new world record. He also led the deployment of this technology for a live video-based rural telemedicine network at the Aravind Eye Hospital in South India, managing a range of non-profit, government, university and private stakeholders. This network, now financially and operationally sustainable, provides coverage to 500,000 people in areas with no other option for eye care. It has enabled over 100,000 remote patient examinations in three years, and 20,000 of those patients have received their sight back due to early diagnosis. He has done ICT work in Romania, Rwanda, India and Venezuela. He advises several non-profit development organizations and is also the co-founder of QVSense Inc, a company focused on building photovoltaic power management hardware solutions.

Acknowledgments: STEP is very grateful to Dr. Shahab Baqai at LUMS for his continued support and help in organizing the lecture series. Special thanks to Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) for facilitating the video broadcast of this talk.

Correction: An earlier version of this post mistakenly posted the time for the talk as 7:30PM Pakistan Standard Time. The correct time for the talk in Pakistan is 8:30PM.

Image credits: http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/06/06_telemedicine.shtml

The first talk in this series titled, New Approaches to Modeling and Control of Complex Dynamics, will be given by Dr. Adrien Treuille of Carnegie Mellon University on October 15, 2009 at 7:30 PM Pakistan Standard Time (9:30 AM EDT). The talk will be streamed live to LUMS Department of Computer Science, Mil College of Signals (MCS), and Air University.  Below is the abstract of the talk and a short biography of Dr. Treuille.

Title: New Approaches to Modeling and Control of Complex Dynamics
When: October 15, 2009 at 7:30 PM Pakistan Standard Time.
Where: LUMS Department of Computer Science, Mil College of Signals, and Air University
Abstract: Complex phenomena such as animal morphology, human motion, and large fluid systems challenge even our most sophisticated simulation and control techniques. My overarching research goal has been to develop fundamentally new methods to approach such high-dimensional and nonlinear problems. This talk presents my work solving these problems across a wide range of phenomena, including a new model-reduction approach to fluids that is orders-of-magnitude faster than standard simulation methods and enables interactive high-resolution fluid simulation for the first time.
Another example is a continuum approach to crowd dynamics which efficiently reproduces empirical aspects of large crowd behavior that would be difficult or impossible to achieve with traditional agent models. The talk will also cover work on several other phenomena including human animation, animal morphology, and protein folding. Such new algorithmic approaches advance not only our ability to simulate and control complex systems but also our understanding of the systems themselves.

About the Speaker: Adrien Treuille is an Assistant Professor in the computer graphics group at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his PhD under Zoran Popovic in the computer graphics group at the University of Washington, and was a postdoc in the Baker Group under Zoran Popovic and David Baker. He was one of the creators of Foldit, the computer game where users contribute to science by folding proteins. He pursues research in the simulation and animation of very high-dimensional nonlinear phenomena like animal morphology, human motion, and large fluid systems. One thread of his research addresses the complexity of such systems by developing model reduction tools that generate compact representations. A complementary thread seeks to control such systems, which means learning to set inputs to produce desired effects. He is also deeply interested in the implications for science and engineering of these techniques, from fluid dynamics to laying down a joint cognitive and biomechanical basis for animal motion. Dr. Treuille was recently
named one of the top 35 innovators under the age of 35 by MIT Technology Review.

Image credits: http://grail.cs.washington.edu/projects/model-reduction/ and http://www.technologyreview.com/TR35/Profile.aspx?TRID=818