Dr. Sean Arthur
The Pervasiveness of Software Engineering
Absract: The goal of software engineering is to produce a quality product, on time, and within budget. Over the years, many process models, activities and tools have been proposed and developed to support the software engineering effort. This presentation provides an introduction of several related research areas that focus on models and activities intended to advance the objectives of software engineering. The first research component addresses Software Quality Assessment (SQA), and the Objectives, Principles, Attributes Framework that resulted from that research effort. Observations stemming from our SQA work then leads us to the second research component, Verification & Validation (V&V), and in particular, the importance of Independent V&V. In a similar manner, results from our (I)V&V research has led us to explore the Requirements Engineering arena, and to investigate better ways to support requirements generation. This work, too, is outlined. Finally, the last two components of this presentation will focus on SE research as it relates to Agile Software Development and Software Security. |
Presenation Slides
Presentation Audio
Hi-Bandwidth Video
Low-Bandwidth Video |
Dr. Godmar Back
Towards a new infrastructure for the World Wide Web
Abstract: Recent years have seen a dramatic shift towards the World Wide Web as both the deployment platform and primary user interface for many, if not most, new applications. Yet, the existing systems infrastructure, which has been designed for a simple hypertext system, is woefully unprepared to support and sustain this change.
This talk will present LibX, a large-scale distributed web application we have built, to highlight the potential benefits and uses of these new types of applications. We will also use it to illustrate how and why existing web browser and server technology is insufficient when it comes to supporting these cloud applications. We discuss an ongoing research project that creates abstractions and implementations intended to provide sustainable solutions for these problems.
|
Presenation Slides
Presentation Audio
Hi-Bandwidth Video
Low-Bandwidth Video |
Dr. Ali Butt
The "coolness" of reliability and other tales
Abstract: As storage capacity of disks experience unprecedented growth, latent sector errors have become the main obstacle to ensuring data integrity and improving storage reliability. In this talk, I will discuss the latest trends in circumventing such errors, and present the concept of energy-cost of storage reliability. I will also present how latent errors affect modern High-Performance Computing Centers and reduce their serviceability, and describe a decentralized data offloading approach for mitigating the impact of center storage failures. |
Presenation Slides
Presentation Audio
Hi-Bandwidth Video
Low-Bandwidth Video |
Dr. Yong Cao
GPUs for Smarties: From Gaming to General Purpose Computing
Absract: Due to the tremendous performance improvement of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) in recent years, the desktop PCs equipped with state-of-art GPUs are labeled as "Personal Supercomputer". These commoditized GPU systems can reach a computing capacity of approximately 7 Tera FLOPs, and only cost around 4,000 dollars. However, only a certain type of algorithms, data parallel algorithms, can take full advantage of the GPU power, because of high memory latency and the lack of synchronization mechanism.
In this talk, I will discuss algorithm optimization strategies for NVIDIA GPUs, focusing on how to maximize the level of parallelism and how to hide memory latency. I will use several research projects as examples. These projects include both data-parallel applications, such as video processing and volume rendering, and non data-parallel algorithms, such as a PDE (partial differential equation) solver and temporal data mining. |
Presenation Slides
Presentation Audio
Hi-Bandwidth Video
Low-Bandwidth Video |
Dr. Steven Harrison
Creative Computing: The Art of Innovation
Abstract: When we think about technological innovation, we often think first of the scientist, engineer, or driven tinkerer addressing a problem of great import, turning what was `science fiction' into technological fact. There are other ways that innovation occurs; in this talk, I will argue that one way is the intersection of art and engineering. I'll give some historical precedents, show a few projects that I have been involved in, and explain how this approach can get computer scientists to think differently. Along the way, we'll revisit a few milestones in innovation and the underlying ideas of human-computer interaction.
|
Presenation Slides
Presentation Audio
Hi-Bandwidth Video
Low-Bandwidth Video |
Dr. Caitlin Kelleher
Looking Glass: Supporting Learning from Peer Programs
Abstract: Computer programming has become a fundamental tool that enables progress across a broad range of disciplines including basic science, communications, and medicine. Yet, Computer Science is failing to attract the number of students necessary to sustain progress both within the discipline and in those disciplines supported by computer science. Some recent research has focused on creating programming environments that introduce young students to computer programming in a motivating context. One of these systems, Storytelling Alice motivates middle school children, particularly girls, to learn programming in order to build animated stories. In a formal study, we found that 51% of Storytelling Alice users versus 17% of Generic Alice users snuck extra time to keep programming. While a motivating context for learning computer programming is necessary to increase the number of young students who learn to program, it is not sufficient. For many pre-high school students, formal opportunities to learn computer science simply do not exist. |
Presenation Slides
Presentation Audio
Hi-Bandwidth Video
Low-Bandwidth Video |
Dr. Barbara Ryder
Blended Program Analysis
Absract: A new analysis paradigm, blended program analysis, enables practical, effective analysis of large framework-intensive Java applications for performance diagnosis. Blended analysis combines a dynamic representation of program calling structure with a static analysis applied to a region of that calling structure with observed performance problems.
The initial instantiation of the paradigm addresses the issue of performance bottlenecks stemming from overuse of temporary objects, common in these applications. A blended escape analysis, which approximates object effective lifetimes, has been designed and implemented. Experiments demonstrating its utility in explaining the usage of newly created objects in a program region have yielded promising results (ISSTA07, FSE08). A case study on the Trade benchmark shows how blended escape analysis helped to locate the single call path responsible for a performance problem involving objects created at 9 distinct sites and as far away as 6 levels of call, in a region which calls 223 distinct methods with a maximum call depth of 20.
This talk will present the blended analysis paradigm, discuss the blended escape analysis results obtained, new metrics designed to measure precision and cost of the analysis, and future work. t creates abstractions and implementations intended to provide sustainable solutions for these problems. |
Presenation Slides
Presentation Audio
Hi-Bandwidth Video
Low-Bandwidth Video |
Dr. Manuel Perez-Quinones
Personal Information Management: "Where is my next meeting?"
Abstract: With the increasing proliferation of computing-enabled devices and the resulting overload of digital information, personal information management (PIM) has become a challenge to all. PIM research is mostly concerned with studying how people find, keep, organize, and re-find (or reuse) information in and around their personal information space (computers, phones, home, desks, etc.). In this presentation, I will present a brief overview of my group's PIM research focused on trying to understand the use of multiple devices to manage one's digital life. The talk will conclude with the implications of some of these findings on the design of future PIM tools and a view into the future of PIM research. |
Presenation Slides
Presentation Audio
Hi-Bandwidth Video
Low-Bandwidth Video |
Dr. Cliff Shaffer
CS Educational Research at Virginia Tech
Absract: Digital education is one of the most active areas of research within the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech. In this talk, I will introduce CS education as a research topic, discussing such issues as whether it can be considered to be Computer Science, or even a science at all. We will see that, like all education-related research, it is difficult to achieve meaningful pedagogical results. I will describe a number of projects that I have been involved in, present some results (both successful and unsuccessful), and outline plans for future research. |
Presenation Slides
Presentation Audio
Hi-Bandwidth Video
Low-Bandwidth Video |
