Computing And Using The Voronoi Diagram
Nina Amenta, University of California, Davis
02/16/2006
The Voronoi diagram of a set of points divides space into regions, each region consisting of the part of space closer to a particular input point p than to any other input point. It comes up in a wide variety of computational problems. In computer graphics, it is used to construct a polygonal surface given a set of point samples from the surface with no additional connectivity information -kind of a 3D connect-the-dots. This talk is about how the Voronoi diagram is computed, and how it can be used to solve this problem.
Supercomputing: Historical Perspective, Present Trends And Future Promises
Larry Lesser, PSSC Labs, Lake Forest, California
02/23/2006
PSSC Labs is a leading provider of high performance computing equipment to government, university and corporate organizations. Founder and CTO, Larry Lesser, has been involved with supercomputing technologies over the past 35 years. Mr. Lesser will overview the history of supercomputers, present developments including multi-core processors and high speed interconnects as well as provide some insight into the future of supercomputing including environmental and commodity limitations.
Programming Language Evolution: Pushing The Limits Of Technology
Carol Thompson Eidt, Microsoft Research, Redmond, Washington
03/02/2006
Programming models, and their syntactical representation, have been forced over the years to compromise based on limits in supporting technologies. These technologies include the speed and capacity of the underlying processors, compiler techniques, software engineering methodologies and user interface design. Programming languages have continually evolved to maintain a balance between programmer productivity, compiler complexity, and runtime efficiency. This talk will trace the evolution of programming languages, along with the technologies that both constrained and enabled that evolution, with an emphasis on the interplay between processor architecture and compiler design.
The Nitty-Gritty On The Future Of Sensor Technologies
George Hsu, Sensor Platforms, Santa Rosa, California
03/09/2006
An overview will be presented on sensor fundamentals--how they work, how they’re made, what sorts of applications will use them, how the paradigms are shifting and Sensor Platforms’ role in helping enable the next revolution in bringing them to a broader market. Electronic sensors have been around for decades, but with the convergence and proliferation of low cost and pervasive computing, networking, RF and Internet technologies in conjunction with the staggering growth of enormous numbers of mobile communication and information platforms (i.e., think cell phones and MP3 Players) incredible opportunities abound for the right approach. Come see how one company views the future.
What Disaster Recovery Plan?
Tina Amper, Blue Sky Solutions / ADIC, San Francisco, California
03/16/2006
What if power went down or your facilities were flooded? How well can your organization handle and survive a disaster or business interruption? Best practices for business continuity and disaster recovery management are discussed in this talk.