Peter A. Freeman | José L. Muñoz | Valerie E. Taylor | Warren M. Washington | Margaret H. Wright

Seeking, and Sometimes Finding the Best in Work and in Life
The term "optimization" means, speaking broadly, finding or creating the best. In computer science and mathematics, optimization is a research area in which we try to understand what characterizes the best as well as how to compute an optimal solution. In life, of course, determining what each of us wants and how to achieve it is much more complicated. This talk will begin with an overview of recent developments in computational optimization (in some of which Richard Tapia has been involved) and then consider a few frequently asked questions about optimizing in life.

About the Speaker:
Margaret H. Wright is Silver Professor of Computer Science and chair of the Computer Science Department in the Courant Institute, New York University. From 1988-2001 she was with the Computing Sciences Research Center at Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies (formerly AT&T Bell Laboratories), where she became a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in 1993 and a Bell Labs Fellow in 1999. She served as head of the Scientific Computing Research Department from 1997-2000.

She received her B.S. in Mathematics, and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science, from Stanford University. Her research interests include optimization, linear algebra, numerical and scientific computing, and scientific and engineering applications. She is the coauthor of "Practical Optimization" (with Philip Gill and Walter Murray). In recent years she has worked on interior-point methods for nonlinear optimization and on direct search methods for unconstrained optimization.

She was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 1997 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001. During 1995-1996 she served as president of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). She chairs the Advisory Committee on Advanced Scientific Computing for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science, and was a member of the U.S. National Science Foundation Blue Ribbon Panel on Cyberinfrastructure.

Computational Grids: Analyzing the Performace

Currently, distributed systems, especially grid systems, are becoming available through programs and projects such as the TeraGrid, the NASA Information Power Grid, the Alliance, the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure, GriPhyN, and the Europen Grid Effort. Grids, in contrast to conventional parallel systems, have some unique features that pose significant challenges in terms of performance modeling and analysis. Performance is an important issue with any application, especially grid applications. Efficient execution of applications requires insight into how the system features impact the performance of the applications. This insight generally results from significant experimental analysis and possibly the development of performance models. This talk will focus on the current techniques used to analyze the performance of grid applications and present some examples.

About the Speaker:
Valerie E. Taylor earned her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1991. From 1991-2002, Dr. Taylor was a member of the faculty of Northwestern University. Dr. Taylor has since joined the faculty of Texas A&M University as Head of the Dwight Look College of Engineering's Department of Computer Science and holder of the Stewart & Stevenson Professorship II.

Her research interests are in the areas of computer architecture and high performance computing, with particular emphasis on mesh partitioning for distributed systems and the performance of parallel and distributed applications. She has authored or co-authored over 70 publications in these areas. Dr. Taylor has received numerous awards for distinguished leadership and research.

Issues and Problems with Diversity (Download pdf presentation)
Increasing the participation of underrepresented groups in the science and engineering workforce is widely recognized as key to maintaining U.S. world leadership in S&E. Much effort and rhetoric has been expended to achieve this critical objective. Although some success stories exist, as this symposium illustrates, critical issues continue to face the S&E community, including the computer and information technology professions: rapid growth in demand for S&E workers, increasing global competition for promising S&E students and skilled workers, insufficient number of domestic students in the S&E educational pipeline, and high attrition rates among S&E students and degree holders from S&E studies and careers. The desired diversity in S&E will not just happen. It will take coordinated and sustained action by academe, industry, government, and the broader public. The National Science Board has proposed a plan of action for the Federal Government in cooperation with other stakeholders. The plan addresses S&E education issues from precollege through graduate studies, with particular attention to developing domestic talent; the global nature of the S&E workforce; and the need to understand S&E workforce dynamics and develop strategies for ensuring the diverse, highly skilled workforce needed in the 21st century.

About the Speaker:
Warren M. Washington was born in Portland, Oregon, and earned a bachelor's degree in physics and a master's degree in meteorology from Oregon State University. After completing his doctorate in meteorology at Pennsylvania State University, he joined the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in 1963 as a research scientist. In 1975 he was named senior scientist, and he currently is head of the Climate Change Research Section in the Climate and Global Dynamics Division. His areas of expertise are atmospheric science and climate research, and he specializes in computer modeling of the earth's climate.

Since 1990 Washington has served on the Secretary of Energy's Biological and Environmental Research Advisory Committee (BERAC). Since 1996, he has been the chair of the Subcommittee on Global Change for BERAC. He served on the Modernization Transition Committee and the National Centers for Environment Prediction Advisory Committee of the U. S. National Weather Service. From 1978 to 1984, he served on the President's National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere. In 1998 he was appointed to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency Science Advisory Board. In April 2000 he was appointed a member of Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee by the U.S. Secretary of Energy.

Washington is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a Distinguished Alumnus and an Alumni Fellow of Pennsylvania State University and Oregon State University, a fellow of the African Scientific Institute, and a member of the American Geophysical Union. From 1991 to 1995 he was a member of the AAAS Board of Directors, and he served as president of AMS in 1994.

Washington received the Le Verrier Medal of the Societe Meteorologique de France in 1995. The U.S. Department of Energy awarded him the Biological and Environmental Research Program Exceptional Service Award for Atmospheric Science in 1997, for the development and application of advanced coupled atmospheric-ocean general circulation models to study the impacts of human activities on future climate. Also in 1997 he was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences Portrait Collection of African Americans in Science, Engineering, and Medicine. In 1999 Washington received the National Weather Service Modernization Award. In January 2000 Washington was awarded the Dr. Charles Anderson Award from the American Meteorological Society for pioneering efforts as a mentor and passionate supporter of individuals, educational programs, and outreach initiatives designed to foster a diverse population of atmospheric scientists. In March 2000 Washington received the Celebrating 20th Century Pioneers in Atmospheric Sciences Award at Howard University and in April 2000 the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Award in recognition of significant and unique contributions in the field of science.

Washington was appointed to the National Science Board in 1994, reappointed in 2000, and elected Chair in May 2002.

Revolutionizng Science and Engineering with Cyberinfrastructure (Download pdf presentation)
Computing and communications coupled with computational techniques are revolutionizing all areas of science and engineering. Computer scientists and engineers are at the forefront of many of these revolutions and should be involved in all for the benefit of CS&E as well as the other disciplines. Cyberinfrastructure is the integration of hardware, software, communications, and services, and is envisioned as a cross-discipline, cross-agency effort. The role individual researchers can play will be discussed in the context of major funding initiatives.

About the Speaker:
Peter A. Freeman was founding Dean of the College of Computing at Georgia Tech in 1990. Since May 2002, he has been on leave to be an Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation, heading the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate. As an Assistant Director he is part of the senior management team that helps formulate national science policy and that operates the NSF. As AD/CISE, he oversees a staff of approximately 90 and a funding budget of approximately $600M/year. Dr. Freeman received his Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1970.

Technology Challenges in High-End Computing (Download zipped pdf presentation)
There have been several studies/plans over the past two years looking at issues in high-end computing (e.g. IHEC, HECRTF). This talk will present what technologies need attention, some of the key ideas being discussed, what are the barriers to moving forward and where do the key drivers come from? Specifically, to be presented will be hardware, software and systems issues requiring attention and some fascinating innovations being considered to address them.

About the Speaker:
José Muñoz has been with the Federal government for the past 30 years. Currently, Dr. Muñoz is Director Simulation and Computer Science Office in NNSA's Advanced Simulation and Computing program (ASCI). Previous to that he served as Program Manager and Asst. Director in DARPA's Information Technology Office. While at DARPA he managed the Embedded Systems, Adaptive Computing Systems, Data Intensive Systems and Power-Aware Computing and Communications programs. Prior to DARPA he was at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) where he held several positions involving the application of high performance computing to sonar signal processing.

Dr. Muñoz Co-chairs the Federal government's High-End Computing and Computation Coordinating Group (HECCCG), part of the Federal government's Interagency Working Group for Information Technology. He has collateral responsibility in ASCI as Program Manager for ASCI's Advanced Architecture initiative and PM for ASCI's Institute program (an academic outreach initiative).

Dr. Muñoz received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Connecticut. He is a member of the ACM and the IEEE Computer Society. He has several publications in the areas of simulation, high performance sonar/signal processing in addition to patents.