What's at the other end? - Server System Design and Deployment - MIT Club of Northern California

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 18:30:46 GMT

Whenever your “information device”… computer, pad computer, smart phone, video streaming device, etc. … is connected to a network of any sort… home network, office network, the internet, etc. … by either a wired or wireless path, at the other end of that connection is a server of some sort. It may be a small local memory backup server or a huge, remote “server farm” providing enormous amounts of streamed data, or anything in between those two extremes. For many of us, this is a hidden world that we are only vaguely aware of, yet it is central to the digital revolution that surrounds us. This program will pull the curtain back on that world and bring us up to date on some of the major issues influencing server system design and deployment.

Video Mesh: Three-Dimensional Video Editing

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 17:30:17 GMT

Researchers at MIT's CSAIL have developed the video mesh, a data structure for representing video as 2.5D "paper cutouts."

Making the Invisible Visible in Video

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 20:43:47 GMT

MIT researchers have developed new software that amplifies variations in successive frames of video that are imperceptible to the naked eye.

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 26

Mon, 21 May 2012 17:30:09 GMT

MIT's course 6.033, Computer Systems Engineering, focuses on topics on the engineering of computer software and hardware systems: techniques for controlling complexity; strong modularity using client-server design, virtual memory, and threads; networks; atomicity and coordination of parallel activities; recovery and reliability; privacy, security, and encryption; and impact of computer systems on society. Case studies of working systems and readings from the current literature provide comparisons and contrasts.

6.170 Software Studio - Lecture 23

Mon, 21 May 2012 17:30:09 GMT

Laboratory in Software Engineering

As taught in: Fall 2005

This course is a core electrical engineering computer science subject at MIT. It introduces concepts and techniques relevant to the production of large software systems. Students are taught a programming method based on the recognition and description of useful abstractions. Topics include: modularity; specification; data abstraction; object modeling; design patterns; and testing. Several programming projects of varying size undertaken by students working individually and in groups.

6.170 Software Studio - Lecture 22

Sat, 19 May 2012 07:03:21 GMT

Laboratory in Software Engineering

As taught in: Fall 2005

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 25

Thu, 17 May 2012 17:30:09 GMT

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 24

Thu, 10 May 2012 20:30:11 GMT

recorded 5/9/2012

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 23

Thu, 10 May 2012 14:30:10 GMT

recorded 5/7/2012

6.004 - Computation Structures - Lecture 22

Tue, 08 May 2012 17:30:10 GMT

6.004 - Computation Structures - Lecture 21

Mon, 07 May 2012 17:30:10 GMT

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering -Lecture 22

Mon, 07 May 2012 17:30:10 GMT

6.170 Software Studio - Lecture 21

Mon, 07 May 2012 17:30:10 GMT

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 21

Wed, 02 May 2012 17:30:10 GMT

6.170 Software Studio - Lecture 20

Wed, 02 May 2012 17:30:10 GMT

6.004 - Computation Structures - Lecture 20

Tue, 01 May 2012 17:30:09 GMT

6.170 Software Studio - Lecture 19

Tue, 01 May 2012 17:30:09 GMT

6.004 - Computation Structures - Lecture 19

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:30:10 GMT

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 20

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:30:10 GMT

6.170 Software Studio - Lecture 18

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 07:02:47 GMT

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 19

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:30:10 GMT

6.004 - Computation Structures - Lecture 18

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:30:10 GMT

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 18

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:30:10 GMT

6.170 Software Studio - Lecture 17

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:30:10 GMT

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 17

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:30:11 GMT

6.170 Software Studio - Lecture 16

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:30:11 GMT

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 16

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:30:09 GMT

6.170 Software Studio - Lecture 15

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:30:09 GMT

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 15

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 17:30:11 GMT

Recorded 4/4/12

6.170 Software Studio - Lecture 14

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 17:30:11 GMT

Recorded 4/4/12

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 14

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:30:09 GMT

6.170 Software Studio - Lecture 13

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:30:09 GMT

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 13

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 07:03:01 GMT

6.170 Software Studio - Lecture 12

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 07:03:01 GMT

Lecture 12 for 6.170, Software Studio, taught by Daniel Jackson.

This course focuses on introducing the language, libraries, tools and concepts of Java^TM. The course is specifically targeted at students who intend to take 6.170 in the following term and feel they would struggle because they lack the necessary background. Topics include: Object-oriented programming, primitives, arrays, objects, inheritance, interfaces, polymorphism, hashing, data structures, collections, nested classes, floating point precision, defensive programming, and depth-first search algorithm.

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 12

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 20:30:09 GMT

6.170 Software Studio - Lecture 11

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 20:30:09 GMT

Lecture 11 for 6.170, Software Studio, taught by Daniel Jackson. Recorded 2-27-12.

This course focuses on introducing the language, libraries, tools and concepts of Java^TM. The course is specifically targeted at students who intend to take 6.170 in the following term and feel they would struggle because they lack the necessary background. Topics include: Object-oriented programming, primitives, arrays, objects, inheritance, interfaces, polymorphism, hashing, data structures, collections, nested classes, floating point precision, defensive programming, and depth-first search algorithm.

6.170 Software Studio - Lecture 10

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:30:07 GMT

Lecture 10 for 6.170, Software Studio, taught by Daniel Jackson. Recorded 3-14-12.

This course focuses on introducing the language, libraries, tools and concepts of Java^TM. The course is specifically targeted at students who intend to take 6.170 in the following term and feel they would struggle because they lack the necessary background. Topics include: Object-oriented programming, primitives, arrays, objects, inheritance, interfaces, polymorphism, hashing, data structures, collections, nested classes, floating point precision, defensive programming, and depth-first search algorithm.

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 11

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 17:30:07 GMT

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 10

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:19:33 GMT

Recorded 3-12-12

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 9

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:30:07 GMT

Recorded 3/7/12

6.170 Software Studio - Lecture 9

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:30:07 GMT

Lecture 9 for 6.170, Software Studio, taught by Daniel Jackson. Recorded 3-7-12

This course focuses on introducing the language, libraries, tools and concepts of Java^TM. The course is specifically targeted at students who intend to take 6.170 in the following term and feel they would struggle because they lack the necessary background. Topics include: Object-oriented programming, primitives, arrays, objects, inheritance, interfaces, polymorphism, hashing, data structures, collections, nested classes, floating point precision, defensive programming, and depth-first search algorithm.

6.170 Software Studio - Lecture 8

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 18:30:09 GMT

Lecture 8 for 6.170, Software Studio, taught by Daniel Jackson. Recorded 3-7-12.

This course focuses on introducing the language, libraries, tools and concepts of Java^TM. The course is specifically targeted at students who intend to take 6.170 in the following term and feel they would struggle because they lack the necessary background. Topics include: Object-oriented programming, primitives, arrays, objects, inheritance, interfaces, polymorphism, hashing, data structures, collections, nested classes, floating point precision, defensive programming, and depth-first search algorithm.

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 8

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 21:30:09 GMT

MIT's course 6.033, Computer Systems Engineering, focuses on topics on the engineering of computer software and hardware systems

6.170 Software Studio - Lecture 7

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 18:30:06 GMT

Lecture 6 for 6.170, Software Studio, taught by Daniel Jackson. Recorded 2-29-12.

This course focuses on introducing the language, libraries, tools and concepts of Java^TM. The course is specifically targeted at students who intend to take 6.170 in the following term and feel they would struggle because they lack the necessary background. Topics include: Object-oriented programming, primitives, arrays, objects, inheritance, interfaces, polymorphism, hashing, data structures, collections, nested classes, floating point precision, defensive programming, and depth-first search algorithm.

Grad School 102: MIT Information Services and Technology

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 08:03:17 GMT

MIT provides students with a wealth of information services and technology, including wired and wireless networks, the Athena computer network, free software, and much more. Stuart Peloquin teaches you how to use all of it here.

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 8

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 18:30:06 GMT

Lecture 7 for 6.033, Computer Systems Engineering, taught by Prof. Robert Morris and Prof. Samuel Madden. Recorded 2-29-12

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 6

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 21:30:06 GMT

Lecture 5 for 6.033, Computer Systems Engineering, taught by Prof. Robert Morris and Prof. Samuel Madden. Recorded 2-27-12

6.170: Software Studio - Lecture 4

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 08:03:09 GMT

"Representing web pages." Recorded 2/21/12

6.170: Software Studio - Lecture 5

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 08:03:09 GMT

Recorded 2/22/12

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 4

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:30:07 GMT

Discussing naming in computer systems. Recorded 2/21/12

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 5

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:30:07 GMT

Operating system structure and how to use operating systems to force modularity on a single machine. Recorded 2/22/12

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 3

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:03:20 GMT

The introduction of technical material including soft modularity. Recorded 2/15/12

6.170: Software Studio - Lecture 3

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:03:20 GMT

Focusing on structuring with object models, including how you invent structures. Recorded 2/15/12

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 2

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:03:12 GMT

The second lecture of the Spring 2012 course, 6.033, Computer Systems Engineering.

6.033: Computer Systems Engineering - Lecture 1

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:02:50 GMT

The first lecture of the Spring 2012 course, 6.033, Computer Systems Engineering.

Impurity-to-Efficiency (I2E) Simulation Tool

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:02:52 GMT

An online tool called "Impurities to Efficiency" (known as I2E) allows companies or researchers exploring alternative manufacturing strategies to plug in descriptions of their planned materials and processing steps.

Meet 2011 TR35 Winner June Andronick

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Andronick presents her work at EmTech 2011: Software that can’t crash

Meet 2011 TR35 Winner Paul Wicks

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Wicks present his work at EmTech 2011: Networking patients to combat chronic diseases PatientsLikeMe Read the full story here: http://techre.vu/AFcW6M

Meet 2011 TR35 Winner Piya Sorcar

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Piya Sorcar presents her work at EmTech 2011. Piya creates software that can be localized to teach taboo topics. Company: TeachAIDS

Meet 2011 TR35 Winner Brian Gerkey

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Gerkey describes his work at EmTech 2011: A common language for robots Willow Garage PROBLEM: People who want to program robots have had to either write software from scratch or purchase proprietary software that is hard to modify. SOLUTION:

Urban Network Analysis: A Toolbox for ArcGIS 10

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:35:05 GMT

The City Form Research Group is releasing a state-of-the-art toolbox for urban network analysis. As the first of its kind, this ArcGIS toolbox can be used to compute five types of graph analysis measures on spatial networks: Reach; Gravity; Betweenness; Closeness; and Straightness. For more information go to: http://cityform.mit.edu/projects/urban-network-analysis.html

Affordable Speech Synthesizers

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Ajit Narayanan, founder of Invention Labs and one of the 2011 TR35, has designed a low-cost tablet-based speech synthesizer system called Avaz.

Leading through Change

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Tom Glocer says the financial information company Thomson Reuters has been determined to deploy the latest technology in the service of information-hungry customers

How to Read 1,000,000 Manga Pages: Visualizing Patterns in Games, Comics, Art, Cinema, Animation, TV, and Print Media

Fri, 21 May 2010 04:00:00 GMT

05/21/2010 6:45 PM e14"638Lev Manovich, Professor, Visual Arts, University of California, San Diego; ; Director, Software Studies Initiative, California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2); Description: In his introduction, moderator Ian Condry advocates utilizing the expertise and innovation of all disciplines in order to best explore new directions in the humanities. He suggests that the challenge of discovery may ultimately be useful as theoretical exploration, which incorporates the transformative power of art as well. What would it mean, Lev Manovich asks, to "be stupid?" That is, what would it mean to take risks and start creating artifacts, interpretations and analysis that reach beyond language? To begin analyzing patterns in massive cultural data sets, Manovich uses computer"based techniques, already commonly employed in the sciences, for quantitative analysis and interactive visualization. "An image is worth thousand words. An interface is worth a thousand images. Why not have both?" he asks. Manovich sorts visual media analysis into one of two categories: 'direct visualization' and 'visualization without quantification." In the first technique, images are manipulated to produce new images, which reveal patterns. The image grid made up of thousands of Time magazine covers reveals a gradual evolution in the design and content of the magazine: black & white imagery doesn't become color immediately; there is a gradual shift. Waves of color are apparent over time, as are patterns of cultural content. Manovich demonstrates the 'visualization without quantification' technique by using the same data set (Time covers), but visualizing contrast & saturation. In contrast to 'direct visualization,' this technique "allows you to see the variability of cultural data. We get this wonderful cloud of history," he explains. Manovich introduces cultural analytics as interpreted on the HIPerSpace Wall (Highly Interactive Parallelized Display Wall) at Calit2, a high"capacity tool generally used for earth science research. The demonstration explores a set of more than 150 Mark Rothko paintings. "Graphs developed from features of paintings _ texture, brightness, number of shapes, saturation _ can be used to explore trends in this painter's life and work." Finally, Manovich looks at a dataset of a million pages of manga represented in a scatterplot matrix; a "manga universe." The position of each page is determined by level of contrast (on the x axis) and level of grayscale (on the y axis). Visualizations such as this provide a unique way of describing culture in all its complexity and variability. He concludes with his hope that visualization will continue to emerge as a source of new and powerful questions leading to more revealing interpretations of culture. About the Speaker(s): Born in Moscow, Lev Manovich studied fine arts and architecture before moving to New York in 1981. He began working in computer animation in 1984 at Digital Effects, one of the first commercial companies devoted to producing 3D animation for television and film and has worked with computer media as an artist, computer animator, designer, and programmer since that time. In 2007 Manovich founded the Software Studies Initiative in order to facilitate work in the emerging field of software studies. The lab, housed within the UC San Diego division of the California Institute for Telecommunication and Information Technology (Calit2) and the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA), is focused on projects in cultural analytics (data mining and visualization of patterns in large cultural data sets) and game studies. Manovich's best"known book is The Language of New Media, which has been widely reviewed and translated. His awards include Mellon Fellowship and Guggenheim Fellowship (2002"2003). Manovich as an MA degree in Experimental Psychology from NYU, (1988), and PhD in Visual and Cultural Studies from the University of Rochester (1993). Professor, Visual Arts, University of California, San Diego Director, Software Studies Initiative, California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) http://www.manovich.net/ Host(s): School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, HyperStudio

Lifeline for Renewable Power

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:00:00 GMT

General Electric's Juan de Bedout demonstrates the company's software system to improve the electric grid.

Session III: Mapping Communities in Large Virtual Social Networks

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:37:44 GMT

Michiel van Meeteren, Ate Poorthuis, Elenna Dugundji (Universiteit van Amsterdam, NL). 10/12/2009

StarGenetics

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:05:03 GMT

Network-Driven Transportation

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

11/03/2009 4:00 PM 32"124Li"Shiuan Peh, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer ScienceDescription: Today, cell phones are a menace to safe driving, as they distract operators who should otherwise focus on the road. Tomorrow, cell phones could actually improve our driving, and help drivers avoid traffic congestion, use the road system more effectively, and manage the parking supply. Li"Shiuan Peh says that the key to these services are future mobile devices that will have the computer power equivalent to today's large servers in data centers. Combined with rapid advances in wireless networking, these mobile devices will be harnessed to provide new apps, like next generation transportation programs. We currently use the Internet and Wi"Fi or 3G and then run our programs in the cloud on heavyweight servers. Peh says that an opposite case is likely to emerge, with a move towards collaborative computing, using mobile devices and localized cell phones to replace the heavyweight servers. She envisions a time when advanced cell phones will be "stitched together" to run a single piece or information or a program. Peh says this grassroots type of computing will appeal to the general public, "the sociology" of users, who like to be involved in transportation activities. Behind this collaborative computing, engineers are fine"tuning a sophisticated mesh"network of communications. One of the key protocols for the mesh network is for dedicated short"range communications (DSRC). It is vital for mobile applications, like accident prevention, because it is micro"seconds faster than current standards. DSRC will have very high local coverage, provide faster and more complete transmissions than existing cell towers, and, in particular, be able to overcome the coverage issues of tunnels and dead"spots. Moore's Law scaling would predict that the computing power needed to advance DSRC applications would be more powerful and more efficient that what we know today. Location resident services are quite demanding from a communications point of view. Engineers must design around the fact that the phones must be able to hand"off information and exchange it with each other, since the handsets/cars will move in and out of a cordon. Peh notes that existing intelligent vehicle programs in the United States, Europe, and Singapore are using elements of mesh communications today, and that collaborative computing will become the better solution. Mesh computing can also have very local and practical applications. Stitching cell phones, cameras, and databases together could provide a real"time tool for Amber Alerts, and help solve problems that require geographic sensing, such as locating missing children. Similar sets of technologies could be stitched together to reduce congestion and fuel use as they guide drivers to open parking spots. Host(s): School of Engineering, Transportation@MIT

The Future of Computing

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 04:00:00 GMT

04/28/2009 2:00 PM 8"404Anant Agarwal, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MITDescription: Wielding numerous analogies for his audience of MIT students, Anant Agarwal makes the case that the next generation of computers, not to mention much of the technology in everyday life, will be built with smaller, simpler parts "combined in a clever way." Agarwal starts with Puerto Rico's enormous Arecibo radio telescope, 400 meters in diameter, tuned to detect extraterrestrial life. Rather than being carved from a single gigantic material, the dish consists of "a whole bunch of tiles" adjusted to create a spherical surface. In the same way, CPU designers no longer make "one big honking processor," says Agarwal, but lots of little processing elements called tiles or cores. This engineering movement, which MIT helped spark in the 1990s, has brought about multicore processors on chips, which overcome not just the number"crunching limitations of single processors, but their power drain as well. Agarwal uses the example of eating ice cream: You really enjoy the first few spoonfuls, but by the 30th or 40th taste, "you're tapped out." By illustrating the marginal value of eating one more spoonful, Agarwal tries to get at the idea that once you've got a big processor, "making it bigger doesn't give you much return." In fact, as he shows with some math and graphs, having two or more processors works much better, including burning less power. He applies Moore's law and predicts that beyond the four or more cores on chips we now have (he's already developed a 64"core chip), we'll be seeing 1000 tiles per chip in the next five years or so -- assuming we can overcome three big "P" challenges. There's the performance hurdle of getting all those multicore chips to talk to each other and to the outside world without the gridlock found on a busy city street; power efficiency, which will require rethinking CPU architecture; and a very big programming obstacle, which may involve deploying an optical broadcast medium. Crack these, and "multicore could replace all hardware in the future," claims Agarwal. About the Speaker(s): Anant Agarwal is also the Co"Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Tilera Corporation. His research and teaching work focus on computer architecture, VLSI, compilation, and software systems. Agarwal is a co"leader of the Oxygen Project. He led a group that developed Sparcle (1992), an early multithreaded microprocessor based on the SPARC architecture, and the Alewife machine, a scalable shared"memory multiprocessor (1993). At MIT's CSAIL laboratory, Agarwal led the Raw project which developed a tiled multicore microprocessor for instruction level parallelism (ILP) and streams (2002). Agarwal also led the VirtualWires project at MIT. He has launched several startups, including Virtual Machine Works, Inc., and InCert Software Corporation. Agarwal won the Maurice Wilkes prize for computer architecture in 2001, the Presidential Young Investigator award in 1991, and the Louis D. Smullin Award for teaching excellence at MIT in 2005. He holds a Bachelor's Degree from IIT Madras and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.Host(s): School of Engineering, Materials Processing Center

MUSIC Session 04

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:33:18 GMT

MUSIC Session 4

A Few Things Learned from Craigslist

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT

11/14/2008 12:00 PM NE25Craig Newmark, Founder, CraigslistDescription: In his unassuming way, Craig Newmark believes his eponymous website might just help nudge people toward greater civic engagement. While Craigslist.org "is a simple platform where people help each other out," focusing on everyday needs like getting a job or an apartment, it is also a profoundly collaborative venture, with political potential. Newmark outlines the Craigslist success story, which began as a hobby for him in the early 1990s. Newmark quickly detected the Internet's social networking possibilities, and built an email list for friends "to get the word out on cool events, arts and technology." He developed an instant fan base, with people suggesting new items to add to the list like "stuff to sell," and he soon felt encouraged to expand. His name for the site was "SF Events," but friends nixed that title, infinitely preferring their own version: "Craig's List." Says Newmark, "I had a brand already, and it was personal and quirky. I didn't know what a brand was at that point, but I learned and they were right." < br> By the end of 1997, the site was receiving one million page views per month, but was still being run on a volunteer basis. Newmark was doing software and customer service, and recognized he could not also provide strong leadership. As a self"professed nerd who "lived the Dilbert life," Newmark grasped that his hobby had grown too big to manage on his own, so in 2000, after having formally incorporated, he hired a CEO, and threw himself into customer service, corporate governance, and staying on top of technological innovations that could enhance the website. Craigslist is now approaching 13 billion page views per month. Through this explosive growth, Newmark has remained true to his business values: "We can do well as a company financially by doing good stuff for people." He has no plans to sell Craigslist. "There's nothing altruistic, noble or pious about it. We figure once we make enough money to live comfortably and provide for the futureit's more satisfying to change things." He's been involved for years "with a guy named Barack" and views himself as a "community meta organizer," using the internet to allow face to face communication on a scale of tens of millions. Some prominent interests: using social networking to spark volunteer national service; making government more transparent; shining a light on campaign financing, and helping out returning Iraq and Afghanistan vets and their families. About the Speaker(s): In 1995, Craig Newmark began his career in community organizing by starting "craigslist" as a list service to share community information on upcoming events in San Francisco with his close circle of friends. Craigslist has evolved to a community service website with over 50 million community members located in more than 576 cities in 50 different countries who are generating over 15 billion page views per month, sharing common values and information. Newmark earned a B.S. in Computer Science from Case Western Reserve University. Newmark is a vocal advocate of keeping the Internet free. He has donated $10,000 to a non"profit group, NewAssignment.Net, which plans to combine the work of amateurs and professionals to produce investigative stories on the Internet.Host(s): Sloan School of Management, MIT Center for Collective Intelligence

Software Innovation-Do You Think the Last 20 Years Were Exciting? The Next 20 Years Will Blow Your Mind

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT

06/07/2008 10:00 AM Brad Feld, '87, SM '88, Managing Director at Foundry; Group and Mobius Venture CapitalDescription: In a trip down memory lane, Brad Feld regales us with the pre" and recent history of electronic innovation, with a rapid"fire delivery that achieves vaudevillian pitch. Via a slide"laden PowerPoint presentation -- and, by the way, Feld claims to hate PowerPoint, because as a venture capitalist "I've only received about 6,723,000 of them" -- he narrates landmark moments in the evolution of the computer age. He touches on the room"size ENIAC computer, and pays tribute to the Jetsons cartoon as embodying his view of the future as a child. He cites his first programming language (APL, 1976), and first computer (Apple II, 1978). Feld speaks sentimentally of the familiar A> prompt as a quaint relic of the DOS operating system era. Jump to the late '80s, when Hypercard on the Macintosh was a pre"web foreshadowing of distributing data through multiple applications"a major breakthrough." Windows 3.0 heralded the '90s and subsequent leapfrogging of Microsoft and Apple on the personal computer frontier. He cites the renegade Linux operating system (1991), then the ignoble Michelangelo virus (1992)"the first time the mainstream media got crazy about computer security." Feld detours from history to recount naming his software consulting firm Feld Technologies; whenever anything went wrong "people called up and asked for Mr. Feld." Therefore, he warns "lesson #1 of entrepreneurship is don't name your company after yourself." In the mid"'90s, the emergence of the Internet in mass culture made ubiquitous such terms as Mosaic, Yahoo!, Java, Explorer, and other iterations of web browser, search engine, and email protocol. In 1999, E"commerce and the Y2K scare entered common parlance. Around 2000, OS X and iTunes burst on the scene, in spite of post"Internet bubble depression. Feld credits Apple with changing "the way we think about digital content." Catching up to recent times, he invokes social networking, the astronomical Google IPO, and the notion of Web 2.0. As a venture capitalist, Feld seeks new paradigms in software development as investing prospects for 10 to 20 years _ "the next big thing." He is interested in "immersive experience" that alters human interaction with the computer. His attention is also drawn to decoupling mouse and keyboard from control of the computer toward methods requiring no tactile input. Lastly, he speaks of "cloud computing" where "everything is disconnected from what is on your desktop" and "you don't have to worry aboutdata storage and equipment." Then, elliptically, he reprises a slide of a 1960s room"size computer, suggesting it resembles a latter"day incarnation of a server farm. Full circle. About the Speaker(s): Brad Feld has been a self"described nerd since boyhood, an auspicious beginning to his trajectory from software developer to tech consultant to entrepreneur to venture capitalist. MIT proved a natural melding of Feld's longtime and evolving interests in computer science and business. Even before completing his graduate degree, his first company, Feld Technologies, was established. Since then he has had a hand in over 100 companies, including serving on the boards of over a dozen. Feld is also a member of the Dean's Advisory Council at MIT Sloan. Feld is an insatiable reader, dedicated blogger, art collector, and forward thinker. As a marathoner, his goal is to participate in races in all 50 states and on every continent before age 50. Not least, Feld is a philanthropist, supporting causes in education, environment, arts, and women's issues. He makes his home in both Colorado and Alaska Host(s): Sloan School of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management

Reflections on an MIT Education

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 04:00:00 GMT

04/28/2008 4:30 PM 6"120A. Neil Pappalardo, '64, SB EE '64 Chairman and CEO MeditechDescription: In a neat series of time capsules tagged to his MIT experience, Neil Pappalardo shares his story with MIT graduates in the hope that it will give them "an idea of the possibilities that lie ahead." His story begins in 1964, when as a senior majoring in Physics, he decided to pursue a thesis on a medical topic, without, Pappalardo notes, having attended a single course in design or synthesis. He met cardiologists at a Boston hospital searching for a labor"saving way to analyze hours' worth of EKG data. In a matter of months, he had invented a device to solve the problem, graduated in Electrical Engineering, and set out for a career at Mass. General Hospital. Lesson learned: "An MIT education will awaken creativity and discovery within you." Pappalardo recounts his early financial hardships (he had to sell blood for 12 weeks in order to buy a piano for his wife), as well as setbacks in trying to improve the complex and often error"prone workings of the hospital, via the entirely new concept of computer systems. "Everyone knows computers can be used for financial accounting," Pappalardo recalls people telling him, "but they can never orchestrate clinical processes, treatment or care." No one believed someone as young as he could tackle the complexities of hospital administration. He was determined, though, and took "every computer science course MIT has to offer -- all two of them." With some partner programmers, Pappalardo in six months came up with an automated system to reduce errors in clinical laboratory tests at the hospital. Lesson: A rigorous MIT education will ignite passion within you. In 1968, a 26"year"old Pappalardo, father of three, departed Mass General to start his own company. While venture capital liked his software, they didn't think his business plan would fly if hospitals had to purchase it on $200 thousand computers. So Pappalardo tweaked the plan with a bold innovation: Run the software on his company's computer and use a phone line to connect to the hospital. The VCs were impressed, and Meditech was formally born, August 4, 1969, the same day as Pappalardo's fourth child. Since then, Pappalardo's company has grown to provide a comprehensive set of medical, administrative, and financial software products, serving 25 million patients in 2,200 hospitals worldwide. And he has become one of MIT's most generous patrons. Says Pappalardo: "An MIT degree will open doors, and bestow confidence." Pappalardo closes: May your own children be proud of you, of your accomplishments and of your contributions to society. About the Speaker(s): After earning his S.B. in Electrical Engineering at MIT, A. Neil Pappalardo founded Medical Information Technology (Meditech), one of the earliest software companies. Meditech is a leading supplier of information system software for hospitals in the US, Canada and the UK. Meditech employs over 2,600 people, all in Massachusetts. Pappalardo is a Life Member of the MIT Corporation and serves on the Institute's Executive committee, the Audit committee and three visiting committees. For the Mechanical Engineering department he has funded a full professorship, the construction of a major undergraduate teaching laboratory, a book series and the construction of a nano"technology manufacturing laboratory. For the Physics department he has helped fund the construction of the world"class Magellan optical telescope observatory in Chile, provided the funds to initiate and sustain a program for Physics fellows and provided major funding for the construction of the Green Center. He is a Trustee of the New England Aquarium, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, the Dibner Institute and the Boston Lyric Opera. In 1996, he received an honorary degree from Suffolk University. In 2000, the International Astronomical Union named an asteroid in his honor. In 2007, he received an honorary degree from the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. Host(s): School of Engineering, School of Engineering

A Roadmap for the Edge of the Internet

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 04:00:00 GMT

04/08/2008 8"404Dr. Alan Benner, Senior Engineer, IBM Server DivisionDescription: In the curious way of technological evolution, we first had computers that occupied entire rooms, watched them shrink to desktop, laptop and palm"sized devices, and now find ourselves coming full circle, and then some, Alan Benner reports. He tells this MIT class about warehouse"sized data centers, linking processors, and ensembles of processors, in dizzyingly complex hierarchies. These gigantic operations, some with their own power and air conditioning plants, are central to the enterprise of Internet behemoths Google, Amazon and YouTube, but have not yet percolated out to more traditional companies like insurance firms -- a situation Benner and his IBM colleagues would like to remedy. Benner describes in broad strokes how these data operations are organized into levels of "virtualization and consolidation," where the hardware is hidden, yet the data is both fully accessible and secure, no matter where the user and the computers are located. These new enterprise data centers aim to maximize efficiency, both in utilization and power consumption. It's better to have fewer, bigger and well"integrated machines, says Benner, working as much as possible. Since even idle servers use a lot of power, users should share processing time in a manner that keeps the processors occupied. Benner describes computer architecture and software that aims at "statistically multiplexing jobs," matching peaks in one group's workload to nonpeaks in another group's. Ideally, users remain blissfully unaware of this traffic management, and need never worry whether their information is getting crunched next door, or on the other side of the planet. Benner hopes that companies will see advantages in migrating their data and services to a bigger, shared infrastructure, especially now with the near"ubiquity of high bandwidth networks. Given the rapid rise of energy costs, and the burdens of supporting a growing IT administration, it may save money "to move work to where it can be done most efficiently," he says. About the Speaker(s): Alan Benner focuses on the architecture, design, and development of optical and electronic networks for high"performance servers and parallel systems. Benner earned a B.S. at Harvey Mudd College (Physics, 1986), and M.S. and Ph.D (1992) from the University of Colorado at Boulder's Optoelectronic Computing Systems Center, researching nonlinear interactions between wavelength"multiplexed optical fiber solitons. He has also done research work at AT&T Bell Laboratories on photonic networks and components. He has written 2 editions of a book on Fibre Channel, and co"authored several of the specifications for the InfiniBand architecture. He has over 20 technical publications and 25 issued patents in the U.S. and other countries. Benner is currently working on I/O and networking infrastructure for Cell"based blade servers.Host(s): School of Engineering, Materials Processing Center

Recent Advances in Digital Processing of Images and Audio

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 04:00:00 GMT

09/29/2006 4:00 32-123Henrique Malvar, PhD '86, Director, Microsoft ResearchDescription: Henrique Malvar hopes to impress a tough crowd with -tricks" hot from Microsoft's research labs. His show-and-tell features the latest magic in sound and image digital signal processing, soon to appear on your PC or laptop. Malvar's researchers have improved computer microphones so they can isolate a human voice within an acoustic din. They've also managed to reduce the echo often encountered on cell phone calls, and to clean up the -mooshy" sound of speaker phones. Another nifty advance from Malvar's folks: eliminating transmission delays in voice over IP, by speeding up or slowing down incoming data packets. Malvar's got high expectations for breakthroughs from the image processing labs. -I hope these will affect everybody's lives," he says. Malvar unveiled -image stitching" software that can automatically create panoramas from a bunch of unaligned pictures of a common theme. New software can also merge different photographs of the same subject into a single shot by -taking the best part of each one." Bye-bye red eye. There's also Malvar's Big Picture application, which can automatically meld hundreds of photos of some environment -to create a humongous panorama" in which one can delve at the finest of resolutions. He demonstrated this using a photograph of the entire Seattle cityscape, into which he zoomed to discover a pair of worker's green gloves lying atop a skyscraper work site. The piece de resistance was -Photosynth," recently released on the web, which enables disparate users to piece together -group images that share a context" into a single, three-dimensional image. Imagine hundreds of separate tourist photos of a famous site like St. Peter's Square, assembled into an organized whole by a digital higher power. Users can navigate through the entire environment, piece by piece or as a unified space. It is -augmented reality," says Malvar, -the collision of virtual and real worlds. People can go and visit to see things they've never seen before." About the Speaker(s): Henrique S. Malvar oversees research in several areas, including Microsoft's Adaptive Systems and Interaction, Communication and Collaboration Systems, Data Management, Exploration and Mining, Databases, Interactive Visual Media, Knowledge Tools, Machine Learning and Applied Statistics, Natural Language Processing, Speech Technology, and Text Mining, Search, and Navigation. Malvar received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 1986. Before coming to Microsoft, he was Vice President of Research and Advanced Technology at PictureTel. Prior to that, he headed the Digital Signal Processing Research Group at Universidade de Bras'lia, Brazil. He was elected a Fellow of the IEEE in 1997, and received the Technical Achievement Award from the IEEE Signal Processing Society in 2002. He holds over 40 patents and over 20 pending patent applications, and has published over 120 articles in journals and conferences.Host(s): School of Engineering, Research Laboratory for Electronics

Guanxi (The Art of Relationships): Microsoft, China and Bill Gates's Plan to Win the Road Ahead

Wed, 24 May 2006 04:00:00 GMT

05/24/2006 4:30 PM 26-100Robert Buderi, Founder, CEO, Editor in Chief, Xconomy; Gregory T. Huang, '92, PhD '99, Features Editor, New Scientist; Co-author, Guanxi (The Art of Relationships) Microsoft, China and Bill Gates' Plan to Win the Road Ahead Description: After Microsoft decided to set up a research lab in China in 1998, authors Bob Buderi and Gregory Huang tagged along to find out how one of the West's leading corporations tackled innovation and partnership with a developing economic giant. Says Buderi, -We tried to tell the story through the eyes of the people involved. We went to parties with them; played basketball with them.We hope in the process we've drawn out lessons of doing business with any emerging nation, in ways that are more fun and memorable than any management treatise." Microsoft, say the authors, went at the problem of opening up the China market in a way that was a departure for most Western companies. Instead of focusing on sales or cheap manufacturing possibilities, Bill Gates imagined tapping into China's vast pool of talented computer science students and harnessing their energy in a way that would be mutually beneficial to Microsoft and China. He visited China's top leaders repeatedly over the years, building a relationship and opening doors. He practiced Guanxi, a Chinese term that conveys trust and mutuality. Says Huang, the -most important principle is that relationships must be nurtured over time. They can't be bought or rushed." Microsoft found the perfect person to head the venture _ Kai-Fu Lee, who became one of the key characters in Guanxi. Born in Taiwan and educated in the U.S., Kai-Fu understood how to sell Microsoft's idea to Chinese officials and academics. He recruited the cream of the crop, says Huang, and hired senior staff to mentor young talent. There were bumps along the way: Brilliant as they were, young recruits, says Buderi, -were used to following specific instructions and wouldn't dream of taking off on their own course." This sparked a crisis in the lab, leading to much longer training times. Within a few years, the lab built up five core areas of expertise, in speech recognition, multimedia, graphics, wireless, and search, and began pumping out world-class papers and patents. Paradoxically, note the authors, Microsoft's success has inspired imitators, most notably Google, which snapped up Kai-Fu Lee to launch a similar lab in China. Vicious lawsuits notwithstanding, the authors believe -Microsoft had a nice run, but things will get better now with competition." Download this video at Apple's iTunesU site Host(s): Office of the Provost, MIT Libraries

Strategy for High Tech Companies-What to Think About

Sat, 05 Jun 2004 04:00:00 GMT

06/05/2004 10:00 AM WongMichael Cusumano, Sloan Management Review Distinguished Professor of ManagementDescription: If you are starting out in the software business, Michael Cusumano has some advice for you: think hard about whether to specialize in products or services, and take a serious look at trends in the industry. For the past 20 years, Cusumano has been consulting with and researching some of the top high technology companies worldwide. He has seen software companies enter the market with a "killer application," make some good profits, only to find their product "commoditized." In one case he describes, the price of a software license fell from $1.5 million in 2000 to $250k today. And, he cautions, "in bad economic times, product sales can fall off a cliff." So what works? "The only guaranteed revenues for software companies may be services and maintenance revenues," Cusumano says. In fact, his research shows one company after another (PeopleSoft, Oracle, SAP, for instance) transitioning from products to services in order to survive. Cusumano has graphed so many of these corporate "criss crosses" that he considers them "life-cycle models." Only one company, he says, has managed to stay exclusively true to product sales: Microsoft. To succeed, "most software products companies become services or hybrid companies 'where you've got the basic product and build some custom features or a special interface, so the solution you're selling becomes much stickier."About the Speaker(s): Michael A. Cusumano specializes in strategy and technology management in the computer software industry, as well as automobiles and consumer electronics. Cusumano is the author of six books, including Microsoft Secrets (1995), and Platform Leadership: How Intel, Microsoft, and Cisco Drive Industry Innovation (2002). He has also served as editor-in-chief and chairman of the MIT Sloan Management Review and has written for The Wall Street Journal, Computerworld, and The Washington Post. He has consulted for major companies around the world, and is a director of Infinium Software (ERP applications) and Investhink, Ltd. (financial services content and integration software), and an advisor to various companies including NetNumina Solutions (e-business software), firstRain (wireless and web services software), and H-5 Technologies (digital search technology). His book, "The Business of Software" is published by the Free Press. He received a B.A. from Princeton in 1976 and a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1984. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Production and Operations Management at the Harvard Business School during 1984-86. He is fluent in Japanese and has lived and worked in Japan for seven years. He received two Fulbright Fellowships and a Japan Foundation Fellowship to study at Tokyo University. Host(s): Sloan School of Management, MIT Sloan School of ManagementTape #: T18786, 18787, 18788

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