ICDCS 2003 Keynote Addresses

Each day of the conference will begin with a keynote address.  This year we are very pleased to announce keynote addresses to be delivered by three outstanding leaders in the field of computing: Kristofer Pister, Alex (Sandy) Pentland, and Alfred Spector.  Titles and abstracts of their addresses follow.


 Tuesday, May 20

"Smart Dust - Hardware Limits to Wireless Sensor Networks"

Dr. Kristofer S.J. Pister, DUST, Inc.

Abstract: With the MEMS revolution in full swing, microsensors are now following manufacturing curves that are at least related to Moore's Law.  Combined with the push for low power communication and computation coming from the handheld community, this enables an exciting new field of low-cost, high-performance wireless sensor networks.  This talk will address some of the practical and physical limits associated with miniaturization of wireless sensor networks.

Biography: Kristofer S.J. Pister received his B.A. in Applied Physics from UCSD in 1982, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from UC Berkeley in 1989 and 1992.  From 1992 to 1997 he was an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at UCLA.  In 1996 he joined the faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley.  His research interests include MEMS, robotics, micro optics, sensor networks, and CAD for MEMS.  Dr. Pister is currently on leave from the University to serve as the CEO of Dust, Inc., a Berkeley startup working to commercialize the Smart Dust project.


 Wednesday, May 21

"Human Design: Wearable Computers for Human Networking"

Prof. Alex (Sandy) Pentland,  MIT Media Lab

Abstract: Computer technology has mostly focused either on the isolated individual, or has treated the person as a clueless extra wandering in a computer-controlled environment. Researchers seem to have forgotten that people are social animals, and that the quality of their lives is defined by their roles in human organizations.   Instead of inventing technology for the individual as an isolated entity, why not invent systems that support people’s organizational roles?  Or even invent new types of organizations?
                                                                      
My colleagues and I are inventing technology that can potentially produce organizations that are more creative and efficient, and that better support the individual.  Using wearable computers that actively analyze face-to-face interactions within the workplace we can extract conversational features, identify participants, define context, and determine content. By aggregating this information, high-potential collaborations and expertise within the organization can be identified, information movement and decision-making can be augmented, and social networks reinforced.   Examples using this technology to initiate productive connections are shown, and privacy concerns are addressed

Biography: Prof. Alex (Sandy) Pentland is a pioneer in wearable computers, health systems, smart environments, and technology for developing countries. He is one of the most-cited computer scientists in the world. He is the founding director of Media Lab Asia, and is a co-founder of the Center for Future Health, the Wearable Computing research community, and the international Digital Nations Consortium. He was formerly the Academic Head of the MIT Media Laboratory, and is the Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences. He has won numerous international awards in the Arts, Sciences and Engineering. He was chosen by Newsweek as one of the 100 Americans most likely to shape the next century. He currently directs the Human Design research group at the MIT Media Lab.

Thursday, May 22

 "The Conundrum of Distributed Computing"

 Dr. Alfred Z. Spector,  IBM Research Division

Abstract: We have been engineering distributed computing architectures according to roughly the same formulas for quite a number of years; yet each time, the end result has had greater complexity. Modern distributed computing architectures have an enormous number of protocols, layers, configuration parameters, APIs, etc. While we seem to be proceeding in the right direction in functionality, the growth in complexity is perplexing and has the potential to slow progress in research and in commercial use. I'll discuss this topic and propose areas of research that are relevant to resolving the issue.

Biography: Dr. Alfred Z. Spector is vice president of Services and Software in IBM Research responsible for IBM's worldwide services and software research. Previously, Dr. Spector was the general manager of Marketing and Strategy for IBM's AIM business, responsible for a number of IBM software product families including CICS, WebSphere, and MQSeries, and the general manager of IBM's Transaction Systems business. Dr. Spector was also founder and CEO of Transarc Corporation, a pioneer in distributed transaction processing and wide area file systems, and an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Spector is on the board of the Security Industry Middleware Council and a member of the NSF CISE Advisory Board. Dr. Spector received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University and his A.B. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University. Married and
a father of three young children, Dr. Spector is an avid runner.