Prof. Ram and I

By

Shashi Shekhar

(not Sushi Shekhar!)

May 6th, 2006

Good teachers describe,

better teachers explain,

and the best teachers inspire!

Graduate School- Berkeley (‘85-89)

• Four years of inspiration– From Summer 1986

• IEEE Computer special issue (by Prof. Wah)

– To Dec. 1989 – Graduation!• Advice on comparing job offers

• 1988 – Ph.D. Oral Exam.– Feedback: Thesis opens a new research area– Education on structure of scientific revolutions!– Inspired me to explore new areas

Spatial Data Mining - Example

Nest locationsDistance to open water

Vegetation durability Water depth

Implication of Auto-correlation

Classical Linear Regression Low

Spatial Auto-Regression High

Name ModelClassification Accuracy

εx βy

εxβWyy ρ

framework spatialover matrix odneighborho -by- :

parameter n)correlatio-(auto regression-auto spatial the:

nnW

SSEnn

L 2

)ln(

2

)2ln(ln)ln(

2WI

Computational Challenge: Computing determinant of a very large matrix in the Maximum Likelihood Function:

Graduate School- Berkeley (‘85-89)

• A new family in a new land• Great traditions to teach value of human relationships

– Garduation parties, post project-review lunches– La Vals, Anchor Steam beer and pizza

• Inspiration and encouragement to excel– Earn respect of scholars by addressing their questions– Not be afraid of starting a new area– Choose problems, which are important to society, even if not easy

to solve!

Evacuation Route Planning - Motivation

No coordination among local plans means Traffic congestions on all highways e.g. 60 mile congestion in Texas (2005)

Great confusions and chaos

"We packed up Morgan City residents to evacuate in the a.m. on the day that Andrew hit coastal Louisiana, but in early afternoon the majority came back home. The traffic was so bad that they couldn't get through Lafayette." Mayor Tim Mott, Morgan City, Louisiana ( http://i49south.com/hurricane.htm )

Florida, Lousiana (Andrew, 1992)

( www.washingtonpost.com)

( National Weather Services) ( National Weather Services)

( FEMA.gov)

I-45 out of Houston

Houston

(Rita, 2005)

A Real Scenario

Nuclear Power Plants in Minnesota

Twin Cities

Monticello Emergency Planning Zone

Monticello EPZSubarea Population2 4,675 5N 3,9945E 9,6455S 6,7495W 2,23610N 39110E 1,78510SE 1,39010S 4,616 10SW 3,40810W 2,35410NW 707Total 41,950

Estimate EPZ evacuation time: Summer/Winter (good weather):     3 hours, 30 minutesWinter (adverse weather):   5 hours, 40 minutes

Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ) is a 10-mile radius around the plant divided into sub areas.

Data source: Minnesota DPS & DHS Web site: http://www.dps.state.mn.us

http://www.dhs.state.mn.us

A Real World Testcase

Source cities

Destination

Monticello Power Plant

Routes used only by old plan

Routes used only by result plan of capacity constrained routing

Routes used by both plans

Congestion is likely in old plan near evacuation destination due to capacity constraints. Our plan has richer routes near destination to reduce congestion and total evacuation time.

Twin Cities

Experiment Result

Total evacuation time:

- Existing Plan: 268 min.

- New Plan: 162 min.

Professional Service and Recognitions

• 1996-2000 – Editor, IEEE Trans. On KDE– Prof. Ram inspired us as the founding EIC

• 2002 – Book – “Spatial Databases: A Tour”, Prentice Hall– Survey paper in 1999 IEEE TKDE spl. issue honoring Prof. Ram

• 2003 – EIC – Geoinformatica Journal (Springer)– Lesson about major rivers have contributing rivers

• 2003 – IEEE Fellow – Encouragement, guidance and recommendation

• 2004 – Mapping Science Committee,– National Research Council (National Academy of Science)

C. S. Faculty, U of Minnesota (1989- …)

• Recommendation, Guidance– Dec. 1989 – Joined as an Asst. Prof.– 1995 – Tenure, Associate Prof.– 2001 - Professor– 2005 – Distinguished University Professor

• Fall 2005 – Director, Army High Performance Computing Research Center– Encourage involvement in Minnesota Supercomputing research

Army High Performance Computing Center

Nanoscience & Engineering

Computational

Electromagnetics

EnablingTechnology

And ComputationalAlgorithms

Chemical

Biological

Defense

Projectile

Target

Interaction

Leading HPC Research to support Army’s science and tech. goals Computational methods = Third leg of modern science (w/ theory and experiments)

Bring to life theoretical models of phenomena too complex, costly, hazardous, vast or

small for experiments

Prof. Ram,

Thank you for the

Inspiration, Guidance and Kindness

over last two decades!

Happy 80th Birthday!