Winter2 0 0 3 Alumni News

Research grants increase sharply 1997-2002

Deborah (Deb) Israel wasnamed the coordinator ofalumni relations anddevelopment for theDepartment of ComputerScience. Her years ofexperience in industry, theuniversity and thedepartment will be avaluable resource for thisposition.

“I am delighted to assumemy new role with CSstudents and alumni and

eager to contribute to the growth of this pre-eminentdepartment,” said Deb Israel. “Judy Tolliver establishedan outstanding foundation that I look forward tobuilding on as the department becomes even larger and

more influential. To realize the tremendousopportunities that the Siebel Center affords thedepartment, I plan to focus on supporting the vision forthis challenging enterprise.”

Most recently she was coordinator of researchprograms for Prof. Daniel Reed for four years and beforethat was a research editor for NCSA. Industry experienceincluded work at SubLOGIC Corporation as a promo-tions coordinator, Computer Teaching Corporation asdirector of communication, and McGraw-Hill as ascience and engineering representative.

“Deb has been several years with the department,and is very familiar with our students and faculty. Herenthusiasm and dedication will no doubtablyreinvigorate the critical relations with our alumni. Wewelcome Deb in her new job and wish her success,” saiddepartment head Marc Snir.

Israel named alumni coordinatorcontinued on p. 6.

Research continues to flourish in the department. Therange of topics has broadened as new faculty have beenhired in areas such as computer graphics andinformation systems while other areas that haverecently suffered due to retirements are being infusedwith new blood. In 2002, a dozen faculty received grantsof more than $200,000 and three received one million ormore in funding.

Steven LaValle, Jeff Erickson and John Hart’s 3Dvisibility research will help robots navigate throughcluttered spaces or make possible visualizations ofcomplicated molecular structures that undergoconformational and viewpoint changes. Daniel Reed willassess the use of game systems, with graphicscapabilities equivalent to high-end supercomputers, forparallel computing and scientific visualization. SaritaAdve, Robin Kravets, Klara Nahrstedt and Doug Jones(ECE) are using a hardware/software collaborativeapproach to multimedia applications for mobile devices

incorporating adaptivity in all layers of the system toenable quick responses to dynamic changes.

Research awards have risen dramatically within thedepartment in recent years. In 1997, $4.4 million ingrants were awarded and by 2002 $12.4 million ingrants were received. The highest one-year total was$22.5 million in 2001. Faculty submitted 81 proposalsthis year with 38 being funded for a 47% success rate.

In 2002, the National Science Foundation was thelargest granter with $6.1 million, followed by Office ofNavel Research with $4.1 and DARPA with $1.4 million.Other funding sources included: Motorola, NCSA and theState of Illinois.

Numbers are expected to continue to climb as the newfaculty, hired during the last two years, begin tocontribute. These numbers do not account for facultywhose grants are administered by other units such asthe Beckman Institute or research projects transferredfrom other institutions with the new senior hires.

Deb Israel

2 ALUMNI NEWS

Alumni News is published twice ayear. All ideas expressed in theAlumni News are those of theauthors or editors and do notnecessarily reflect the officialposition of the alumni or theDepartment of Computer Science.

Editor: Kathleen Zanotti

Send address changes orsubmissions to:

Editor, Alumni NewsDept. of Computer Science1304 West Springfield AvenueUrbana, IL 61801

Email: alumni@cs.uiuc.eduFax: (217) 333-3501www.cs.uiuc.edu

In this Issue Archived lectures are available at:www.cs.uiuc.edu/dls.

9.16.02 Surajit Chaudhuri, MicrosoftResearch, Self-Tuning DatabaseSystems: The AutoAdmin Experience

9.30.02 Vijay V. Vazirani, GeorgiaInstitute of Technology, Primal-DualAlgorithms and Market Equilibria

10.14.02 James R. Goodman, University ofWisconsin, Multiprocessors, CacheCoherence, and Synchronization

10.21.02 David Kirk, NVidia, GraphicsArchitectures: Evolving Faster thanMoore’s Law?

10.28.02 Radia Perlman, SunMicrosystems, How to Build an InsecureSystem out of Perfectly Good Cryptography

10.30.02 David A. Patterson, University of California, Berkeley, RecoveryOriented Computing, Robert Mueller-Thuns Lecture

11.11.02 John Canny, University of California, Berkeley, Human-CenteredComputing,

12.02.02 Monica S. Lam, Stanford University, Converting Cycles into RASS(Reliability, Availability, Serviceability, Security), Donald B. GilliesMemorial Lecture

12.9.02 Lixia Zhang, University of California, Los Angeles, Challenges inTackling Large-Scale Networks, CRA-W Distinguished Lecture

1.27.02 Anthony Ephremides, University of Maryland, Energy Efficiencyin Wireless Networking

2.10.02 Thomas Anderson, University of Washington, Considerations forRobust Internet Protocols

2.17.02 Daniel E. Koditschek, University of Michigan, ProgrammingMachines that Work

2002 Distinguished Lecturers

New crosswalkCrossing Springfield Avenue between GrangerLibrary and DCL has become much easier andsafer these days with the addition of a $25,000crosswalk.

No more waiting for a driver to feel pity; nomore squeals of tires as a bold/crazy individualsteps off the curb.

As a pedestrian passes between a set of postswith infrared sensors, solar-powered lights beginto flash, warning traffic to stop. A sign in thecenter of the street informs drivers thatpedestrians have the right-of-way.

The crosswalk is the first of its kind on campus and serves as a test forother busy sections of campus that have no nearby traffic lights.

Alumni News

Printed on recycled paper with soyink.

The University of Illinois is an equalopportunity and affirmative actioninstitution.

AlumniClassnotes 4Alumni coordinator 1Executive Advisory Council 5

DepartmentEthics and professionalism 8Faculty notes 7Industrial gifts 12Networking lab 12Real-Time research lab 14-15Research grants 1, 6-7Siebel update 10-11Student notes 9

Other newsCS summer camp 13

Safe crossings

Winter 2003 3

From the corner office . . .

— Marc Snir

I would like to use this columnto describe efforts we aremaking to improve departmentinteractions with two mostimportant constituencies: ourundergraduates and our alumni.

Since coming to the CSdepartment, I have beenconcerned with the highundergraduate student tofaculty ratio. It has peaked atover 30:1 and has resulted in

large classes and limited opportunities for student-faculty interactions. Over the next few years we plan toreduce this ratio to 20:1, a more manageable but stillsuboptimal ratio; this, through a significant increase infaculty and a slight decrease in the undergraduatepopulation. Last fall, we raised our acceptance thresholdfor freshmen and as a consequence our freshman classhas the highest qualifications of any department oncampus. The number of accepted freshmen declined byapproximately 20%.

We are working on a significant overhaul of ourundergraduate curriculum. The changes are intended toensure the acquisition of knowledge in key technicalareas such as networking and databases, and vitalpractical skills in software development and teamwork.The details of the proposed curriculum are posted on ourweb site and your comments are most welcome. Some ofthese changes include:

· A new sophomore-level system course (CS 241) willprovide a gateway to an expanded choice of junior- andsenior-level courses in distributed systems, networkingand information systems.

· A programming studio course (CS 242) will focuson the art of programming and on the practical skillsthat lead to elegance in programming.

· We shall require each student to participate in ateam senior project or write a senior thesis.

We also plan to experiment with new ways of using ITin support of education, as we move to Siebel Center. Thelast newsletter described the e-Fuzion project developedby two undergraduate students. This software facilitateselectronic interactions in class between students andtheir lecturer and TAs. We expect to deploy suchtechnologies more broadly in our new building. My goalis to establish an environment where students’contributions to our education and collaborativeinfrastructure become commonplace, and wheretechnology is used to enhance student-student andstudent-faculty exchanges.

Of course, technology is not an end-all solution. Wehave started a variety of initiatives to improve theconnection between undergraduate students and thefaculty and department. The Computer Science StudentAdvisory Council involves students in departmentaldecisions that affect them. The “power lunch” programprovides opportunities for students and faculty tointerface in an informal setting (www.acm.uiuc.edu/powerlunch/). A stronger emphasis on undergraduateprojects and research will also lead to closer links. I alsoexpect that the new building design (which includes anespresso bar!) will promote more informal contactbetween students and faculty.

As an aside, let me briefly address the impact that thecurrent economic situation is having on the university.The State of Illinois projects a significant deficit for thenext fiscal year – around $5B. At the time I write thiscolumn, plans for coping with this deficit have not yetbeen made public. One can expect that the stateuniversity system will bear its share of the expensereductions to help balance the budget. Illinois is notunique in this situation: most US states, hence most stateuniversity systems, face significant budget challenges inthe coming years. At the same time, many privateuniversities have been hit by a significant decrease in thevalue of their endowments due to the slide in the stockmarkets. Thus, one can expect a few rough years forhigher education. The challenge for the universityleadership will be to continue expansion and maintainexcellence in key areas, while reining in expenses overall.

Interactions between the department and its alumniwill be facilitated by the recently (re)establishedDepartment of Computer Science Executive AdvisoryCouncil (EAC). The current members of the EAC are: IraCohen, Ron Cytron, John Entenmann, Kumar Goswami,Tim Krauskopf, Doug MacGregor, Mary McDowell, EdReingold, Tom Siebel and Rick Schell. We plan our firstmeeting in April. EAC members will normally rotateevery three years, provide advice on department policiesand be involved in various activities in support of thedepartment. See page 5 for more details.

Relations with alumni are more important than ever,as we strive to continue our fast evolution through thesechallenging times. Therefore I am very happy to have anew energetic alumni coordinator, Deborah Israel. Pleasecontact either of us with any suggestions you have onways to improve the interaction between ourdepartment and its alumni. With your help and that ofthe EAC, I am confident that we shall meet the challengesahead and enhance excellence of our department.

Marc Snir

4 CS ALUMNI NEWS

Classnotes2000sAnthony Czupryna, BS 00, wasmarried to UI alum Britt Wilms lastJune. He is a computer programmerat Orbitz online travel agency. Theyare living in Chicago, Ill.

1990sSi Park, BS 98, is Senior EmbeddedSoftware Engineer with LockheedMartin Aeronautics in Fort Worth,Tx. Previously he had been asoftware engineer at ObjectComputing, Inc. in St. Louis, Mo.

Anupam Sharma, BS 97, received hisMS and JD from Stanford Universityand is currently working at InvestorGrowth Capital, a venture capitalfirm in Palo, Alto, Calif.

Joseph Saltiel, BS 96, married UIalum Michelle Hieggelke in May. Healso received his MS in ECE in 1998and his JD in 2001 from Urbana. Heis an attorney with Jenner and Blockin Chicago, Ill.

Subrata Mitra, PhD 94, was namedas General Manager of the IndiaDevelopment Center by TavantTechnologies, Inc. He was founderand VP of engineering for Firewhite,Inc. which was acquired by UbiquioCorp. Previously he had been atIBM’s T. J. Watson and Santa TeresaLabs, where he was an architect fortheir OOAD tool, called DynamicDesigner. He is the author of 8patents. Tavant is a provider ofsoftware products and solutions forbusinesses to manage multi-leveldistribution channels.

John Slagel, BS 93, was married lastFebruary to Deborah Wilderman. Heis a computer programmer withVolition, Inc. in Savoy, Ill.

1980sBill Sherman, BS ECE 86 and MS 89,and Alan Craig, MS Teaching of CS85, have written a book,“Understanding Virtual Reality:Interface, Application, and Design”.The book deals with applications ofVR and includes a history ofinformation presentation.

Steve Chien, BS 85, MS 87 and PhD91, was on campus to give seminarentitled “Move Over HalAutonomous Spacecraft in the NewMillennium”. He is at the JetPropulsion Lab as PrincipalComputer Scientist.

John Klein, BS 85, was ordained aRoman Catholic priest on June 1 atSt. Raymond in Joliet, Ill. He hadworked as a systems analyst,manager and sales before enteringthe seminary five years ago. He is anassociate pastor at VisitationCatholic Church in Elmhurst, Ill.

1970sMonty Denneau, MS 78, PhD Math78, received the 2002 Seymour CrayAward for sustained contributionsthat have advanced and shaped thefrontiers of high-performancecomputers as well as led to widelyused industry products. He is at theT. J. Watson Research Center.

Sohaib Abbasi, BS 78 and MS 80,and his wife Sara were honored bythe University of Illinois Foundationfor their contributions to thedepartment. The Abbasis havedonated $1.7 million to thedepartment to create a professorshipand a fellowship.

Richard Schell, MS 77 and PhD 79,was named CTO for NetIQ Corp. Hewill also serve as general manager ofthe Performance and AvailabilityManagement business unit and will

lead the development of the unit’svision and business plan. He hasheld executive leadership positionsin a number of companies includingIntel, Netscape and SunMicrosystems. NetIQ is a provider ofsystems and security management,and web analytics solutions.

Linda Petzold, AB 74 and PhD 78,was on campus to give a CSAR noonseminar on “Adaptive NumericalMethods for Sensitivity Analysis ofDifferential-Algebraic Equations andPartial Differential Equations”. She isa professor at the University ofCalifornia at Santa Barbara in thedepartments of computer scienceand mechanical and environmentalengineering.

1960sDaniel Dobberpuhl, BS 67 in ECE,was chosen for the 2003 IEEE Solid-State Circuits Technical Field Awardfor “pioneering the design of high-speed and low-powermicroprocessors.” He is vicepresident and general manager forBroadband Processor Business Unitat Broadcom in San Jose, Calif. He isa DEC Technical Fellow andauthored the classic, The Design andAnalysis of VLSI Circuits.

Sara and Sohaib Abbasi with firstfellowship holder, Mumtaz Ahman

Winter 2003 5

Alums party at IBM

Executive Advisory Council Announced

IBM hosted an alumni reception heldlast fall at the T. J. Watson ResearchCenter. The event included CS,physics, and ECE alums within IBMand the surrounding area.Department head Marc Snirwelcomed alums and gave a briefdepartment update to the group.Professors Roy Campbell, DavidPadua and Jiawei Han gavepresentations on their researchearlier in the day during the IBMTechnology Forum.

In early October, the NationalAcademy of Television Arts andSciences presented Emmy Awards toDonald L. Bitzer BS 55, MS 56, andPhD 55, H. Gene Slottow, PhD 64;and Robert H. Willson, BS 59, MS 61and PhD 66, for the invention anddevelopment of the plasma displaypanel. Bitzer and Willson were onhand in New York to accept theaward. UI representatives acceptedthe award posthumously forSlottow and later presented it to hiswidow Irene in a ceremony at herhome.

(From left) Calin Cascaval PhD 00, Robert Montoye MS 81 and PhD 84,

Jose Moreira, PhD 95 ECEtalk with Prof. David Padua

At the top of department head MarcSnir’s to do list has been theestablishment of an ExecutiveAdvisory Council. His goal for thecouncil, which has not been activefor several years, is to provide aforum for real involvement ofalumni in shaping the department’sfuture.

“With the rapid changes takingplace in industry and the new skillsets required of our graduates, it isessential that we have an advisorycouncil that will help us focus on thetrends ahead and for our students toremain competitive. Siebel Centerwill provide needed space for theexpansion of classrooms,instructional labs and faculty. Thesechanges will in turn foster newtechnologies, courses and researchareas. I hope we shall be able to takeadvantage of their uniquecontributions for the tasks ahead,”said Marc Snir.

We are pleased to announce thatour distinguished council willinclude:

· Ira R. Cohen (BS 81), VicePresident, Advanced SystemsConcepts, Inc.

· Ron K. Cytron (MS 82, PhD 84),Associate Professor, WashingtonUniversity

· John K. Entenmann (BS 84), VicePresident, Oracle

· Kumar Goswami (MS 88, PhD93), President and CTO, Kovair, Inc.

· Timothy K. Krauskopf (MS 87),Vice President and General Manager,Motorola

· Douglas B. MacGregor (MS 80),The MacGregor Institute

· Mary McDowell (BS 86), SeniorVice President, Compaq-HewlettPackard

· Edward Reingold, Head,Department of Computer Science,Illinois Institute of Technology

· Richard M. Schell (MS 77, PhD79), CTO and Director of Engineering,NetIQ

· Thomas M. Siebel (MS 85), CEOand Chairman, Siebel Systems, Inc.

The group will inform departmentabout+ long-term directions inresearch and education, SiebelCenter – establishing it as a vibrantliving laboratory and collaborativecommunity, industry-departmentinteractions and new ways to bridgethe gap between the “silicon prairie”and the “silicon valley,” studentplacement in industry, women andminority recruiting, and fundingmodels and fund raising.

The initial meeting will be heldApril 11.

Spring Alumnireception in ChicagoChicago area alumni can mark theircalendars for an alumni reception tobe held this spring. Meet Deb Israel,the new alumni coordinator, currentstudents and faculty, whilerenewing old ties, and meeting somenew CS alums. This is a joint eventheld with the Department ofElectrical and ComputerEngineering. For more information,see our alumni web site.

April 22, 5 - 7 pmChicago Marriott atOakbrook

Other news

6 CS ALUMNI NEWS

continued from page1

· Sarita Adve with KlaraNahrstedt, Robin Kravets and DougJones (ECE), A Hardware-SoftwareCollaboration Approach forMultimedia Applications, NSF ITR,$1,000,000.· Sarita Adve, Using SimultaneousMultithreaded Processors for SoftReal-Time Applications, NSF,$300,000.· Jiawei Han, Mining SequentialPatterns and Structural Patterns,Scalability, Flexibility,Extensibility, and Applicability,NSF $165,000.· Jennifer Hou with Lui Sha andP.R. Kumar (ECE), Data CentricSensor Networks, NSF, $540,000.· Laxmikant Kale with MarianneWinslett, Advanced ParallelComputing Techniques withApplications to ComputationalCosmology, NSF ITR, $1,000,000.· Steven LaValle, with Jeff Ericksonand John Hart, Making 3D VisibilityPractical, NSF, $499,623.· Steven LaValle, Multiple RobotSensor-Based Pursuit Strategies,ONR, $308,080.· José Meseguer with Gul Agha, ALogical Framework for AdaptiveSystems Interoperability, ONRMURI, $2,905,800.· José Meseguer, ComposableFormal Models for High-AssuranceFault Tolerant Networks, SRI,$400,000.· Daniel Reed, Intelligent High-Performance Computing on Toys,NSF ITR, $400,000.· Lui Sha, Defect Tolerant SystemIntegration and Evolution, ONR,$757,248.· Lui Sha with Vikram Adve andMark Spong (GEngr), Flexible andSurvivable Embedded Systems,NSF, $300,000.· Robert Skeel, Numerical Methodsfor Molecular Dynamics, NSF,$212,200.

NSF CAREER grants on page 7.

“The large increase in researchfunding is all the more remarkablegiven the large number of newfaculty members: more than half ofthe department members havejoined the department in the last sixyears. One would expect newcomersto be less ‘productive’ in obtainingresearch funding,” said departmenthead Marc Snir. “However, thepotential handicap of lack ofexperience or exposure has beenmore than compensated by thequality and dynamism of this newgeneration.”

Looking at grant dollars spent in ayear there is a telling accumulativeeffect. In 2001 total expenditureswere $6.6 million, nearly doublingfor 2002 to $11 million. Most of themoney awarded is earmarked forpeople-related costs, such asresearch assistants, and not forequipment purchases.

Spending is most noticeable in theincreased number of researchassistants. During 1997 there were88 half-time positions. In 2002 the

number sky rocketed to 150 and in2003 increased to 166. Space withinthe building is at a premium andeveryone looks to Siebel Centeranxiously.

“I believe that the quantitativeincrease in research funding in ourdepartment is accompanied by animportant qualitative change. Anincreased fraction of our fundingresults from broader researchprojects that involve multiplefaculty members in the department,faculty members from otherdepartments and collaborators fromother universities. There is asignificant amount of cross-fertilization that happens whenpeople from different disciplines anddifferent units collaborate; suchcollaborations break establisheddiscipline boundaries and generatenew ideas,” said Snir. “The shifttoward broader cross-disciplinaryresearch reflects on the evolution incomputer science research and onthe ability of our department tochange as the discipline changes.”

Research Major grants for 2002

Funded Departmental Research1997-2002

Winter 2003 7

Faculty notesGul Agha waselected to theEuropeanAcademy ofSciences. Some520 membershave been electedin recognition oftheir contribu-

tions to science. The academy is amulti-national body that promotesscience and technology, scientificcooperation and creates centers forresearch.

Jiawei Hanreceived the IBMFacultyPartnershipAward, whichrecognizes andfosters creativeresearch work. Healso received a

Microsoft Research Grant. Hisresearch interests include databasesystems; data mining; and datawarehousing.

John Hart co-authored the bookReal Time Shadingthat came out thispast July from AKPeters, with co-authors are MarcOlano, WolfgangHeidrich and

Michael McCool. The book describeshow to unleash the newly availableprogrammable features available inrecent PC graphics cards. He alsowas a contributing author of thethird edition of Texturing andModeling: A Procedural Approach,published in December. This hasbecome a bible of special effects inthe computer graphics industry, andthe third edition expands the toolspreviously used for movie specialeffects to real-time use for videogames.

Laxmikant Kaleand his researchgroup returned tocampus aswinners of twoawards from thisyear’ssupercomputingconference,

SC2002. Kale and co-authors JamesC. Phillips, Gengbin Zheng andSameer Kumar, won a Gordon BellAward for special accomplishmentfor their paper NAMD: BiomolecularSimulation on Thousands ofProcessors. The team achievedunprecedented scaling of NAMDusing Charm++, a code thatsimulates the behavior of largebiomolecules and biomolecularsystems, atom-by-atom. NAMD isthe result of an interdisciplinarycollaboration between Kale,computer science Prof. Robert D.Skeel and physics Prof. Klaus J.Schulten at the theoreticalbiophysics group of BeckmanInstitute. Charm++, developed byKale and co-workers, simplifiesparallel programming and providesautomatic load balancing, whichwas crucial to the performance ofNAMD.

The best research poster awardwas given to Kale and researchstudents Sameer Kumar, JayantDeSouza, Mani Potnuru andSindhura Bandhakavi for theirFaucets: Efficient Resource Allocationon the Computational Grid.

Jean Ponce, waselected an IEEEFellow for hiscontributions togeometric shaperepresentation incomputer vision.He also recentlybecame co-editor

of the International Journal of ComputerVision.

National Science FoundationCAREER grants were awarded tothree faculty members in 2002. Thefive-year grants are given tooutstanding and promising youngscientists and engineers.

Kevin Chang,MetaQuerier:Dynamic Ad-HocInformationIntegration acrossthe Internet. Hisresearch objectiveis to provideseamless and

transparent access to queryabledatabases on the “deep” Web; placeswhere current crawlers cannoteffectively query databases. He wasawarded $300,078.

Sariel Har-Peled,ApproximationAlgorithms forGeometricComputing. Hisresearch focuseson approximationalgorithms incomputational

geometry. He was awarded$320,000.

Yizhou Yu,Efficient andRealistic Spatial/TemporalAppearanceDetails. Hisresearch focuseson developingnovel and

powerful modeling andrepresentation schemes thatadvance the state of the art incomputer graphics and relatedareas; especially in the areas of 3Dand temporal appearance modelingand synthesis. His award was$325,000.

NSF CAREER grants

Gul Agha

Laxmikant Kale

Jean Ponce

John Hart

Jiawei Han

Kevin Chang

Sariel Har-Peled

Yizhou Yu

8 ALUMNI NEWS

Ethics and professionalism in computing“I found a security weakness onmy school’s network. I want topublish my findings on my webpage. Some of my friends say thatthis is ethically wrong whileothers have said that this is noproblem under the FirstAmendment. I am not sure whatI should do.”

Students are learning to thinkthrough problems similar to theabove in a new course, CS 210 Ethicsand Professionalism in Computing,being taught for the first time thissemester. The course helps studentsdevelop their moral reasoning skillsthrough case studies, current eventsand examples students bring into theclassroom from experience. Ethics,like computer science, has developedits own set of questions. This courseteaches students a methodology toobtain the answers.

“I worked as a networkadministrator one summer,and the biggest issue that

surprised me was howpasswords were handled.The senior administrator

had memorized everybody’spassword at this firm, anda good portion of the usershad the passwords written

down in their office.”

CS student

Marsha Woodbury, MS 91 injournalism and PhD 95 in computer-aided instruction, developed thiscourse to fill an area not usuallycovered in department classes.Presently CS210 is an elective butwill become a requirement forstudents entering in fall, 2003.

Students discuss ethical practicesin areas such as decision making andprofessionalism, cyber etiquette,computer crimes, copyright, privacy,e-commerce and social issues.

A high proportion of classroomtime is comprised of studentpresentations and discussion, givingthem many opportunities to expressthemselves and defend theirdecisions.

Most of the students are beingintroduced for the first time to theSoftware Engineering Code of Ethicsand Professional Practice and theACM Code of Ethics and ProfessionalConduct.

The course book, “Computer &Information Ethics,” has been an on-going project for Woodbury. Herinterest in professional ethics led herto become national chair of theComputer Professionals for SocialResponsibility organization and todeliver a number of papers atinternational conferences.Woodbury’s collection of casestudies, examples, quotes andresource lists are absorbing to readand ponder.

Woodbury finds the board game,“Dilbert Ethics Challenge” created byLockheed Martin and Scott Adams,to be a good device to encouragestudent interactions. Players arepresented with problems drawnfrom case studies that cover timelyissues such as honesty, trust,responsibility and integrity. Afterthe group decides on a course ofaction, points are awarded for howethical their response is and theircharacter moves around the board.

During his final presentation onethics of privacy and cryptography,Mike O’Connor used as his casestudy the commercialization of PGPand the problems that developed forPhil Zimmermann in the process.O’Connor took the initiative tocontact Zimmermann and interviewhim by phone.

“It is easier for our students nowto grapple with these stickysituations in the relative safety of theclassroom where they can developtheir reasoning skills. It becomesmore difficult to reason through aproblem in a real situation withoutsome practice,” noted Woodbury.

Students Lee Hyer, Mike O’Conner, Mani Partheesh, Jason Moore and Willam Gabriel test their ethical reasoning skills with with Dilbert board game.

New CurriculumThe proposed curriculum for thecomputer science majors is nowavailable. We would like to hearyour input on the revisedchanges which can be found onour home page.

Winter 2003 9

ACM R/P02 conferencea success

Sounds and Visions, a jointeffort by ACM’s special interestgroups SIGMusic and SIGGraph,kicked off the conference Fridaynight with their multimediaextravaganza event. The piecescan be viewed in a mpg formatfrom the ACM web site:

www.acm.uiuc.edu/siggraph/s&v/. Also available arethe 2001 pieces which won S&V first place in the Justfor Fun category at EOH 2001.

ACM’s eighth annual Reflections/Projections conferencewas held on campus in October. Around 300 students,who were mainly from the Midwest but came fromplaces as far away as North Dakota and Pennsylvania,participated the three-day event. They attended theever popular job fair, a variety of talks, paneldiscussions and workshops. The event was capped bythe final showdown in MechMania, a competition heldon Sunday afternoon.

The keynote addresswas delivered by CS gradsAlan Craig, BS Ed 83 andMS 85, and Bill Sherman,BS ECE 86 and MS 89,entitled “Visualization andVirtual Reality.” Theydiscussed virtual reality,its applications, and how ithas evolved over the years.They brought severalpieces of simulatorequipment includingheadsets and motion

sensing gloves. They demonstrated how computervisualization has changed the design process. Craig is aresearch programmerand Sherman is a seniorresearch programmer forNCSA.

This year’s speakersincluded CarstenHaitzler fromEnlightenment whospoke on the future ofLinux, Alexey Pajitnovfrom Microsoft whospoke about the problemsinvolved with designingand selling games, and a panel discussing the future ofopen source software with Marcus Brinkman from GNUHURD, Haizler and Debian founder Ian Murdock.

This year’s MechMania programming competitiontheme centered on military strategy. Teams of threewere given 17 hours to write and debug their programsfor a search and destroy mission that would be foughtout in the virtual arena. The winner of the competitionwas F4N3RF3W from Southern Illinois University inCarbondale. Second place went to Dirty Bits from NorthDakota State University and DDT from PennsylvaniaState University came in third.

Sounds and Visions opensACM conference

Senior Wojciech Jarosz receivedan honorable mention in the2003 CRA OutstandingUndergraduate Awardprogram. The award recognizesundergraduate students whoshow outstanding researchpotential in an area ofcomputing research.

He submitted two researchprojects: Implicit SurfaceModeler and High Dynamic

Range Image Editing. Jarosz worked on these projectswith Prof. John Hart in the graphics research group.

The software for the modeler can sample andinteractively model complex implicit surfaces. “Thesurfaces are previewed in real-time by constraining aparticle system to lie on the zero-set of the implicitfunction,” said Jarosz. “The result is a collection offloating disks which represent the shape and structure ofthe implicit surface. These surfaces can be modified byusing ‘control’ particles to push and pull the surface intothe desired shape, providing a much more intuitivemethod than working with the mathematicalrepresentation of the surfaces.”

The HDRIE was one of SIGGraph’s EOH projects thatinvolved creating a free, open-source, image editor. “Itworked on floating point precision images, as opposed tostandard 24 bit images. The extra precision adds a greatdeal of flexibility to the digital imaging process, and isessential when trying to simulate physically correctlighting phenomena,” said Jarosz. The project won 3rdplace for Original Undergraduate Research last year atEOH.

Jarosz is also quite involved with the Sounds andVisions group and many of his animations can bedownloaded from their web site (see below).

CRA research award

ACMer Nasko Oskovprepares for workshop

Wojciech Jarosz

Alexey Pajitnov andACMer Mary Pacold

Bouncy Bouncyby Wojciech Jarosz

10 ALUMNI NEWS

Siebel Center

Siebel Center is already filling with technology but thestructure is also an ideal art venue for continuouslychanging, synchronized plasma and laser displays, art-for-contemplation and interactive artworks. Anenvironment in which art intersects technology.

Imagine the possibilities. The ground floor includeswalls of plasma panels for rotating art exhibitions orinformation on our history, students or current research.The north-facing glass “monumental” staircase providesan open space for floating displays and culminates withthe third-floor glass ceiling which could utilize lighteddisplays and laser art. Commons areas include space forinformal presentations or those focused on specificresearch. The lower-level atrium offers a forum forstudent presentations. Digital information panels andglass display cases for historical artifacts will be spreadthroughout the building.

The goal is to create a living matrix of art, design anddigital technology that integrates with the daily life ofthe department. A collaboration has begun with art anddesign faculty and the Krannert Art Museum to definethe process, design art and information elements andinvolve students from both areas in this process.

The committee encourages comments and suggestionsfrom the alumni community.

Committee members: Barb Armstrong, Roy Campbell,Sheila Clark, Deb Israel Dave Raila, John Hart, Marc Snirand Kathleen Zanotti. Art department consultants KevinHamilton, Robb Springfield and Tim Van Laar.

artechnology

Roaming the halls of Siebel Center feels like being part ofa time-lapse. The eastern section is still very open. Thesouthern section, skeletal with some dry wall for cover.The western section is most complete; its wallswarming with color.

Some 200 workers can be found inside, outside and ontop of this 225,000 square foot structure during the day;two companies are running double shifts. The copperroofing panels as thick as a penny gleam as they are setinto place but have developed the patina of years ofexposure within a day or two. Workers remove thesnow and set the U.S. flag further down the peak beforeworking on the next section.

In the basement, the mechanicals are ready to comeonline. The room-sized main air duct snakes along thewestern wall, huge water pipes disappear to the floorsabove, an apartment house of fans with their front doorswarning visitors to keep out.

On the floors above, piles of tile in greens and beigeswait to be applied to the bathroom walls, metal armsalong the tops of the corridors wait for the miles ofcomputer wiring to be strung, and offices wait for people

Quick FactsOffices 84 faculty, emeritus, instructors1200 undergraduates 540 graduates (total) 271 research assistants 120 teaching assistants 13 visitors 42 professional and support staff 31 research programmers 11 computer support staff

Spaces 4 32-seat classrooms 5 46-seat classrooms 1 210-seat auditorium 7 instructional labs 14 conference/seminar rooms 16 commons areas 2 lounges with kitchen 1 espresso bar 17 research labs

to make them home.Final selections of furnishings, upholstery, tack boards

are being made to give the spaces warmth, texture,personality, and to blend with the theme of woods, slateand metal.

The technology for Siebel Center is currently beingfinalized. The next newsletter will have more details.

The department will still maintain a presence in DCL.CS will keep the two main lecture halls, first-floorinstructional labs and office space for 9-10 teachingassistants.

The move is scheduled for fall.

Our historyWe are gathering information, memories, photos,documents and bits and pieces of our history. If youhave something to contribute, please contact us.

Winter 2003 11

Moving in/out?research assistants’ office

Beyond the web cam

Looking up through the“monumental” staircase

Southwest entrance

Raised flooring inresearch labs and classrooms

ACM conference room

210-seat auditorium and espresso cafe (upper left)

Research lab

Hallway-sized air duct

Electric thruway

Room with view

Visit our web site for more photos.

12 ALUMNI NEWS

The area of networking has exploded with demands forsophisticated services, protocols and routing functions.Next generation network infrastructures requireenhanced services and management systems withintegrated support for areas such as QoS, securenetworking, distributed object systems, mobile andwireless networking and advanced architectures.Intel Corp. donated twenty workstations and a serverfeaturing Internet Exchange Architecture (IXA) that isbeing used to revise the current networking curriculumand create several new courses. The curriculum updatewill integrate theory and new research results innetworking, and provide students with exposure toapplied design, implementation and managementprojects. These systems mark the start of a state-of-the-art networking laboratory that will be part of SiebelCenter when it opens later this year.

Within the department, research in the Active Spaceinfrastructure, ubiquitous computing, HDTV streaming,QoS provisioning and MIST security research underlinesthe enormous potential of this area for innovation andnew technology.

With a recent equipment grant from Intel, revision ofthe networking curriculum is underway. The enhancedcurriculum will integrate theory and new researchresults, and provide students with exposure to hands-ondesign, implementation and management projects.

In addition to the current networking courses, severalnew courses will be offered. A 200-level undergraduatecourse will cover fundamental concepts in the areas ofoperating systems, computer architecture andnetworking. A 300-level course will be designed to teachstudents design, implementation and evaluationtechniques of computer network protocols at theoperating system kernel level. A set of 400-level courseswill be designed in specific networking areas such asadvanced computer networks and network security.

The laboratory consists of a front-end PC server/workstations for student access (local and remote) to thelaboratory. These production systems will support basicdevelopment, programming course work and access tothe back-end experimental systems. The back-end willconsist of protected, specialized PC hardwarespecifically designed to support network experimentsand additional hardware components to supportadvanced experimentation. The front-end will manageand mediate all access to the back-end systems, andprovide a convenient integrated environment that willallow rapid experimentation and reconfiguration.

Intel Corporation gifted the department with equipmentvalued at over $450,000 this past year. Equipmentincluded workstations for the new IXA networking laband Linux lab.

A Linux lab has been on our students’ anddepartment’s wish lists for quite some time. Their wisheshave become a reality with Intel’s gift of 35 Dell Precision340 workstations. More faculty are using the Linuxsystems in their research and software development.Many upper-level classes use faculty-developed softwarefor machine problems, which historically had beendeveloped primarily on Solaris but now Linux hasbecome more common.

Intel also donated approximately 60 8-port and 12-port Fast Ethernet switches that have been put to avariety of uses. The 100Mb/s ports have replaced theolder 10Mv/s ports in the department’s primary networkand ACM’s networking. The equipment will also be usedfor senior project groups. Three load balancing switcheswill probably be used for student projects.

Hewlett-Packard donated a i2000 one-way and fourtwo-way workstations, and a RX4610 Server worth$156,672.

Other recent gifts

Industry helps department through donationsNetworking curriculum updated with generous Intel gift

The new IXAnetwork lab will belocated in SiebelCenter and willprovideconfigurablesoftware andhardwarecomponents basedon an enhancedComoer model.“Our students willbenefit enormouslyfrom the new IXAlab. Not only will they be using cutting-edge equipmentbut it will provide them with a comprehensivedevelopment environment to design, implement, debugand evaluate new protocols, services and networkinfrastructures – a tremendous opportunity to learn,”said Prof. Roy Campbell.

New Intel machines demonstrated byDavidRaila, sr. research programmer

Winter 2003 13

CS summer camps a successThe department was alive with a younger than usualcrowd this past summer. Two College of Engineeringprograms gave students a taste of science andengineering in each of these week-long programs.

GAMESEighteen middle school girls came to campus to attendcomputer science camp that was offered for the firsttime by the college’s Women in Engineering program.GAMES began in 1998 to give girls a chance to exploremany areas of math, science and engineering in a funand pleasant environment.

 The very enthusiastic group of girls learned therudiments of programming, web design and other topics

in computer science,science andengineering.Numerous hands-onactivities weredesigned to explorebasic principals ofcomputer science andto make conceptseasier to grasp.

 Culminating theweek was theprogrammingcompetition.Throughout the week,teams of two weregiven blocks of time to

design and build their robot, write code to run it, designstrategies for the competition and of course name theircreation. The Lego robots were equipped with amicrocomputer, 2 motors, 2 touch sensors, a light sensorand an infrared transmitter.

 Prof. Lenny Pitt employed fun activities for thecampers that explored basic ideas of programming thatcould be used for their robot project. They also learnedLogo to create games programs. Marsha Woodburytaught campers either basic web design using standardtools, or HTML and style sheets to set up their personalpages.

 The program was not all work; there were a varietyof social activities, team building, a virtual realityexperience in the CAVE and faculty presentations. Campcounselors and team leaders were university women incomputer science, science and engineering.

 The final competition was amazing. Campers’ facesfilled with anticipation, worry and excitement. Theycradled their bots, and were concerned as to how theywould perform. The time had come; all their hard work

was be put to the test. The round robin competitionensued with three robots facing off in the arena; trying tobump their opponents three times while avoiding beinghit and going out of bounds. At the end, all were winners.

The annual camp is open to all middle school girls. Formore information, see: www.wie.uiuc.edu/games/cs.htm.

WYSEAll the students had to do was sit totally still for 18seconds to get their picture taken. Sound like somethingpeople did during the early days of photography? In thiscase, each student was posing for a 3D portrait. Fortyenthusiastic high school students visited thedepartment one morning as part of the College ofEngineering’s World Youth in Science and Engineeringprogram. Students came from a dozen states includingTexas, California, Florida, Maryland and Rhode Island.Approximately a third were females and 14% wereminority students.

For their portrait, each student sat on a platformwhile the capturing unit circumnavigated their headtaking in measurements of the head with all its ridgesand planes and recording the color information. In blackand white, the images look like a classic bust from amuseum, but the color images looked more likecomputer-generated characters. Senior researchprogrammer David Raila showed the group how theimages can then be “printed” using a stereolithographyas a very accurate 3D sculpture.

A tour of the ACM office was the next stop where theyspoke to current president Vilas Dhar. The final stop wasthe Active Spaces lab for a tour of a prototype roomcontaining state-of-the-art equipment, including a HDTVsatellite program and a wall-size display screening “StarWars.” Graduate students Manuel Roman, Chris Hessand Jalal Al-Muhtadi introduced them to ubiquitouscomputing and current research in the areas ofmultimedia, security, networking and distributedsystems.

Students, with theireyes aglow, were inanimated conversationsas to what they could dowith all these “toys.”They received a cd witha 3D image of eachstudent and the softwareto display them on theirhome computer. For moreinformation see:www.engr.uiuc.edu/wyse/.

GAMES robot competition

Group views 3D portrait

14 ALUMNI NEWS

Using simplicity to control complexity

Days after the Pathfinder spacecraft successfully landed on Mars in1997, it began encountering total system resets that resulted in dataloss. It was latter determined that the problem was due to a priorityinversion which was first described by Lui Sha, along with his CMUcolleagues John Lehoczky and Raj Rajkumar.

Michael Jones, at an IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium, reportedthat after hearing the full story behind the successful rescue of the MarsPathfinder, Sha and his colleagues received a standing ovation. “Whenwas the last time you saw a room of people cheer a group of computerscience theorists for their significant practical contribution to advancinghuman knowledge?:-) It was quite a moment,” commented Jones.

Mars Pathfinder

Neil Armstrong’s first step on themoon July 20, 1969 brought cheersfrom all corners of the world; arealization of dreams for spaceenthusiasts and the start of newdreams to aspiring astronauts.

When the news reached China,the impact of this event on theyoung Lui Sha was momentous; hetoo dreamed that one day he wouldobtain a higher education andcontribute to the exploration ofspace. He grew up during theCultural Revolution and after highschool was sent to a remote rubberplantation for nearly 8 years. Duringthis time his love for science andtechnology never diminished. Afterovercoming many obstacles a part ofhis dream came true, he received hisPhD from Carnegie MellonUniversity in 1985.

While working for the SoftwareEngineering Institute at CMU, he led

the development of generalized ratemonotonic scheduling (RMS) theory,provides a comprehensive solutionto many real-time computingproblems. Aaron Cohen, formerDeputy Administrator of NASA,noted in 1992 that RMS allowed theSpace Station Freedom tosuccessfully schedule and setpriorities for tasks. This was not thecase at first for the Mars Pathfindermission (see side bar below).

The 1991 Software TechnologyStrategy report by the Departmentof Defense called his work, “A majorpayoff, … system designers can usethis theory to predict whether taskdeadlines will be met long before thecostly implementation phase of aproject begins. It also eases theprocess of making modifications toapplication software.”

Prof. Lui Sha came to thedepartment in 1998 and became partof the Real-Time SystemsLaboratory with Prof. Jane Liu, whohas since retired. Sha became anIEEE Fellow in 1998 for research thattransformed real-time computingpractice from an ad hoc process toan engineering process based onanalytic methods. Today, every openreal-time computing standardprovides needed primitives tosupport the use of this theory.

Sha now dreams of creating anew generation of robust real-timesoftware systems.

“What happens to your steeringwhen you are speeding on thehighway but the engine suddenlystalls,” asked Sha. “No problem, youcan still safely steer your carwithout power. The power steeringin modern vehicles illustrates aguiding principle of reliabilityengineering: complex and lessreliable components should be usedin an architecture, where theirfailure will not jeopardize theessential services provided by thesimple and reliable components.”Sha calls this principle “usingsimplicity to control complexity.” Itis the guiding principle of hisSimplex architecture, whichsupports the dependable upgrade ofreal-time control software.

“High complexity is the rootcause of software faults and failures;and the complexity of softwaresystems is driven by useful but non-essential features,” said Sha, “Whatwe really need from a system or lifein general is quite modest but whatwe want, that is very large. If youbuild a system according to whatyou need, the system is simple andreliable. But you will not be happywith it because you want a lot more.

“A software system builtupon the principle of ‘using

simplicity to controlcomplexity’ can provide

what you want andguarantee what you need.”

Lui Sha

Winter 2003 15

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A software system built upon theprinciple of ‘using simplicity tocontrol complexity’ can providewhat you want and guarantee whatyou need.”

Simplex includes softwarearchitecture, real-time middlewareservices and supporting tools toallow the safe insertion of newtechnology or upgrading of existingtechnology in high-assurance real-time systems. In aerospace softwareapplications, fault tolerance is usefulin cases where new functionalityhas been partially tested but isnecessary for the success of themission.

In the spring 2002, theInternational Space Station becameoperational; Sha received anunexpected email from the station’ssoftware architect David Preuettcommending him for successfullyconvincing IBM to use RMSprinciples for the space stationsoftware ten years before.

Closer to the ground the JointStrike Fighter, one of the largest DODprograms, uses INSERT which is an

extension of Simplex architecturedeveloped for advanced avionicsapplications. The Navy has alsoexpressed interest in transitioningthis new software technology for itsSurface Combatant for the 21stCentury (SC21), the Next GenerationCarrier (CV(X)) and other navalsystems.

Broader applications for hisresearch may begin to take place.This January Larry Bernstein,retired senior vice president of BellLab, organized a meeting oftelecommunication executives andsenior engineers to explore potentialapplications of this technology.

Looking back over his career, Shanoted that he was never thesmartest one in the class and he hadinterruptions in his course ofstudies. He attributes most of hissuccess to the ability to choose theright problems. He advises hisstudents to read his very popularweb site article Elements of Research.“To excel in research, we mustsharpen our skills in positioningR&D strategically, identifying and

formulating high impact problemsand communicating ideas andresults effectively,” said Sha.

To read more about his research,visit his Web site at www-rtsl.cs.uiuc.edu/. An overview of thiswork was a featured article in IEEESoftware July-August 2002.

To see how Simplex works, visit the Real-Time Systems Laboratory web site, www-

rtsl.cs.uiuc.edu/drii/, and see if you cancreate an error to unbalance the pendulum.

Live Web cam and timelapse construction video at: www.cs.uiuc.edu

University of Illinoisat Urbana-Champaign1304 West Sprinfield AvenueUrbana, IL 61801

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