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1998 Distinguished Lecture Series
in
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Note: When available, links to transparencies or other handouts will be shown following the speaker's abstract below.
| October 14, 1998 2:00pm |
Colonel John Silva "Architecting Usable Information Systems that Support Their Users" |
| November 10, 1998 11:00am |
Dr. Robert Kurshan "Formal Verification in a Commercial Setting" |
| December 3, 1998 11:00am |
Dr. Shari Lawrence Pfleeger "Making Change: Understanding Software Technology Transfer" |
| December 8, 1998 11:00am |
Dr. David Lorge Parnas "Software Engineering: An Unconsummated Marriage" |
| January 28, 1999 11:00am |
Dr. John Musa "Testing Faster, to Better Reliability with Software Reliability Engineering" |
| February 25, 1999* 11:00 am |
Dr. Dewayne Perry "Software Architecture and Software Engineering" |
The Departments of Computer Sciences and Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Software Quality Institute are proud to announce a Distinguished Lecture Series on Software Development and Software Engineering for the fall and winter of 19981999. This series will bring leading scientists and engineers to Austin to present important concepts of modern software development and engineering, practical applications in state-of-the-art software engineering and development, and results from leading research programs in software development technology. We anticipate that this lecture series will continue in future years in recognition of the great importance of software development to the Austin high technology community.
Joint sponsorship of this program by the Departments of Computer Sciences and Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Software Quality Institute recognizes the broad span of competence and experiences that are required for effective speakers and topics in software development and software engineering. The speakers in this initial lecture series include six distinguished researchers and practitioners. Each speaker will be at The University of Texas at Austin campus for two days. Each visit will include a lecture by the speaker, lunch with invited industrial contacts, meetings with faculty and students, and a dinner hosted by the faculty sponsor.
Videotapes of the lecture series will be shown during evening video-discussion events for software professionals. These events, which are sponsored by the Software Quality Institute, will be held at The University of Texas at Austin Pickle Research Campus. The dates for these events will be announced in a special mailing and at the SQI web site (www.utexas.edu/coe/sqi). The videotapes will also be used for educational purposes.
October 14, 1998, 2:00 p.m. in Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
2.214
Coffee at 1:30pm in the same room
John Silva, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
"Architecting Usable Information Systems that Support Their Users"
Abstract: Information Systems supporting a human's decision making process must deliver just enough information, at the right time and place and in the proper context, for the user to absorb. It also helps for the presentation format and its content to actually help solve the user's problem. These requirements demand a user-centered approach to the software engineering analysis, design, implementation, and test phases. Current software engineering methods and delivered information systems in the context of applications for Biological-Chemical Incident Response and the National Cancer Institute will be discussed.
- Colonel Silva's transparencies in powerpoint (3.35M)
Speaker Background: Colonel John S. Silva is the Program Manager for the Biological Warfare Defense and Health Information Systems division of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and also serves as director for the Office of Informatics of the National Cancer Institute. Colonel Silva has a diversified background-ranging from the development of national policy for health care to the National Information Infrastructure. He serves as chair for both the Information Systems Working Group Health Care Reform Task Force and the Immunology Peer Review Group Air Force Health Study. Colonel Silva is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.
November 10, 1998, 11:00 a.m., in Taylor Hall 2.106
Coffee at 10:30 am in Taylor Hall 3.128
Robert Kurshan, Bell Laboratories
"Formal Verification in a Commercial Setting"
Abstract: Now that hardware model-checking has been in the commercial venue for two years, it's appropriate to take another look at where it is, how it got there and where it may be going. This talk will take a high-level (mainly non-technical) look at these issues.
- A paper on this topic by Dr. Kurshan
- in compressed postscript form (252K, expands to 8.7M)
- in pdf form (76K)
Speaker Background: Dr. Robert Kurshan has been a member of the Mathematics Research Center at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, since 1969. His areas of research include ring theory, analytical number theory, coding theory, digital signal processing, approximation theory, and computer-aided verification.
December 3, 1998, 11:00 a.m., Taylor Hall 2.106
Coffee at 10:30 am in Taylor Hall 3.128
Shari Lawrence Pfleeger, Systems/Software, Inc.
"Making Change: Understanding Software Technology Transfer"
Abstract: As we maintain systems and build new ones, we have to make decisions about when to use old technology and when to adopt a new ones. I will look at how we make decisions about adopting new technology. We will see that the decision-making must involve information in three arenas: technological, organizational, and evidential. That is, we must know, not only about the contrast between the old and new technologies, but also about the characteristics of the receiving organization, and the credibility of the evidence that the new technology is an improvement over the old.
- Dr. Pfleeger's slides
- A paper on this topic by Dr. Pfleeger
- "Understanding and Improving Technology Transfer in Software Engineering", To appear in the Journal of Systems and Software, February 1999 (Full text in pdf format, 26 pages, 76Kb)
Speaker Background: Dr. Shari Lawrence Pfleeger is president of Systems/Software, Inc., a consultancy specializing in software engineering and technology, and a member of the Experimental Software Engineering Group of the University of Maryland's Computer Science Department. She is well known for her work in empirical studies of software engineering and has experience both with the practical problems of software development and the theoretical underpinnings of software engineering and computer science. Dr. Pfleeger is an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.
December 8, 1998, 11:00 a.m., Taylor Hall 2.106
Coffee 10:30 am in Taylor Hall 3.128
David Lorge Parnas, McMaster University
"Software Engineering: An Unconsummated Marriage"
Abstract: Although the first of many conferences on "Software Engineering" was held in Munich nearly three decades ago, communication between those who study software and those who work as engineers has not been effective. Today, the majority of engineers understand very little of the "science of programming." On the other side, the scientists who study programming understand very little about what it means to be an engineer, why we have such a profession, how the profession is organized, and what engineers learn during their education. In spite of this mutual ignorance, today's engineers spend much of their time writing and using software, and an increasing number of people trained in Computer Science or Mathematics pontificate about "what Engineers do." This talk attempts to explain each field to the other and to suggest why and how the two groups must learn to work together. The educational and societal implications of a more interactive marriage will be discussed.
Dr. Parnas welcomes comments on the ideas presented here, since he is constantly seeking to refine and improve them. Contact him by email at parnas@mcmaster.ca.
- Dr. Parnas's slides
- as a pdf file (47Kb)
- as a compressed postscript file (88Kb, expands to 215Kb)
- Papers by Dr. Parnas on this topic
- "SW Engineering: An Unconsummated Marriage", CACM, Vol. 40, No. 9 (Sept. 1997), p. 128 (ACM Digital Library Index Terms; Full Text in PDF Format, 185 Kb)
- "SW Engineering: An Unconsummated Marriage", ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, Vol. 22, No. 6 (Nov. 1997), pp. 1-3; in: SIGSOFT '97/ESEC '97. Proceedings of the 6th European conference held jointly with the 5th ACM SIGSOFT symposium on Software engineering (ACM Digital Library Index Terms; Full Text in PDF Format, 255 Kb)
- SW Engineering Programmes are not CS Programmes, McMaster University CRL Technical Report 361
- compressed postscript version (78 KB, expands to 175 KB)
- pdf version (42 KB)
Speaker Background: Dr. David Lorge Parnas is the holder of the NSERC/Bell Industrial Research Chair in Software Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at McMaster University in Canada. He is a member of the Communications Research Laboratory and Principal Investigator for the Telecommunications Research Institute of Ontario. Dr. Parnas is interested in most aspects of computer system design. His special interests include precise specifications, real-time systems, safety-critical software, program semantics, language design, software structure, and synchronization. Dr. Parnas seeks to find a "middle road" between theory and practice, emphasizing theory that can be applied to improve the quality of our products. He became well known outside of his profession when he resigned from a committee advising the "Star Wars" Project and, over the next three years, gave over 150 talks explaining why software problems would make President Reagan's dream project a nightmare for the world.
January 28, 1999, 11:00 a.m., Taylor Hall 2.106
Coffee 10:30 am in Taylor Hall 3.128
John Musa, Independent Consultant
"Testing Faster, to Better Reliability with Software Reliability Engineering"
Abstract: This talk will give you an overview of how to test to achieve more reliability faster and cheaper by applying Software Reliability Engineering (SRE). SRE is based on four simple, powerful ideas: (1) set quantitative reliability objectives that balance customer needs for reliability, timely delivery, and cost; (2) track reliability during test; (3) characterize quantitatively how users will employ your product with operational profiles; and (4) maximize efficiency of development and test by focusing resources on the most used and/or most critical operations, by realistically reproducing field conditions, and by delivering just enough reliability. SRE is a standard, proven best practice. It can be applied to any system that uses software, including legacy systems and members of software component libraries.
- Information related to Dr. Musa's presentation (from Dr. Musa's site):
Speaker Background: Dr. John D. Musa is an independent senior consultant with more than 20 years experience as software practitioner and manager in a wide variety of development projects. He is one of the creators of the field of software reliability engineering and is widely recognized as the leader in reducing it to practice. He was recently Technical Manager of Software Reliability Engineering (SRE) at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey. Dr. Musa is a Fellow of the IEEE.
February 25, 1999, 11:00 a.m., Taylor Hall 2.106
[This date is correct; the
originally posted date for Dr. Perry's lecture was incorrectly listed as
February 23.]
Coffee 10:30 am in Taylor Hall 3.128
Dewayne Perry, Bell Laboratories
Software Architecture and Software Engineering
Abstract: Software Architecture is emerging as one of the primary research areas in software engineering. I will look at the current state of architecture practice and research and how it can improve the engineering of software systems. I will also discuss future research and how these future developments will support the effective building and evolution of software systems.
Speaker Background: Dr. Dewayne E. Perry is a Member of Technical Staff, Software Production Research Department, Bell Laboratories. His research encompasses software fault studies, time studies focusing on people and organizational issues, experimental studies of process descriptions, visualization and analysis, process formalisms and process support, software architecture, software evolution, and the use of formal interface specifications in software construction and evolution. He is President of the International Software Process Association, Co-Editor in Chief of Software Process: Improvement and Practice, and an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.
The parking garage is located on San Jacinto south of Dean Keeton (formerly known as 26th Street). It is marked as PG1 in this map of the law area and this parking map of the law area. If you exit the parking garage on the San Jacinto side (to the west), you will reach Taylor Hall by walking west along 24th Street.
Taylor Hall is located at the southeast corner of Speedway and 24th Street. It is the building to the upper left, marked TAY, in this map of the east mall area.
The easiest entry to the building will be from any of the three sets of entry doors on the south side of Taylor Hall. (Due to construction at Taylor Hall during 1998-1999, other sets of doors will sometimes be inaccessible.) The central set of southern doors is marked with a green triangle on this accessibility map of the east mall area; the elevator, which is located in the middle of the long hallway that runs parallel to 24th Street, is marked with a blue square on the same map.
The various events at Taylor Hall will be in the following rooms:
- The coffee before all lectures except October 14 will be served in Taylor 3.128, the CS faculty lounge. This room is located on the first floor above ground level. If you take the elevator, this room is immediately to your left as you exit the elevator.
- All of the lectures except October 14 will be held in Taylor 2.106. This lecture hall is located on the ground floor of Taylor Hall, at the eastern end of the long corridor that runs parallel to 24th Street.
- The industry lunches will all be held in Taylor 2.144. This conference room is located on the ground floor of Taylor Hall, two doors west of the elevator. The door has a cipher lock, so you may need to knock to get someone to open the door for you.
The Chemical and Petroleum Engineering building is located on the northeast corner of Speedway and Dean Keeton (formerly known as 26th Street); it is marked CPE on this map of the engineering area. The coffee and lecture on October 14 will both be held in CPE 2.214
| Dr. Vicki L. Almstrum | almstrum@cs.utexas.edu | Computer Sciences |
| Dr. Tony Ambler | ambler@ece.utexas.edu | Electrical and Computer Engineering |
| Dr. K. Suzanne Barber | barber@mail.utexas.edu | Electrical and Computer Engineering |
| Dr. Don Batory | dsb@cs.utexas.edu | Computer Sciences |
| Dr. J. C. Browne | browne@cs.utexas.edu | Computer Sciences |
| Dr. Craig Chase | chase@ece.utexas.edu | Electrical and Computer Engineering |
| Dr. Al Dale | aldale@cs.utexas.edu | Software Quality Institute |
| Dr. J Strother Moore | moore@cs.utexas.edu | Computer Sciences |