[Pl-seminar] TALK @ MIT: Alfred Spector, February 6: 3:30pm

[Mitchell Wand]

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Subject: TALK: Dr. Alfred Spector, February 6: 3:30pm
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 14:59:21 -0500

** Please excuse any duplicate mailings **

LCS Dertouzos Lecturer Series

Thursday, February 6, 2003
3:30PM
Dr. Alfred Spector
Vice President of Services and Software
IBM Research Division

Abstract:
Most software systems are very complicated, by most any metric.  As
computer scientists, we have delighted in measuring the number of add
operations or memory fetches, but the most telling metric would be one that
measures the reactions (or pain level) of users and systems administrators,
a reaction of frustration, befuddlement, and annoyance.  Even programmers
often view systems on which they work as ungainly and run amuck.  While we
computer scientists might like to justify these problems by the newness of
our discipline, it is now over 50-years old, and many overly complex
systems have been built using the best, widely prescribed techniques of
modularity and layering.   We try hard to build systems =E2=80=9Cright,=E2=
=80=9D yet they
still turn out too complex.

In this talk, I discuss the need for computer scientists to undertake a new
study of complexity, not the one focused on time and space, but rather one
that defines (perceived) system complexity (to create, to maintain, and to
use), objectively quantifies it, and and then seeks to reduce it.  I
motivate the problem with examples and explain why some well-considered
approaches may not have been right.  I describe the fascinating challenges
in attacking complexity, (1) ranging from agreeing on the meaning of it,
(2) learning how to measure it,  (3) advancing the science and technology
(as, for example, autonomic computing), and perhaps (4) even effecting
cultural change within our field.  I hope to engender lively discussion
that does not end when my lecture is over.

Bio:

Dr. Alfred Z. Spector is vice president of Services and Software in IBM
Research responsible for IBM=E2=80=99s worldwide services and software=
 research.
Previously, Dr. Spector was the general manager of Marketing and Strategy
for IBM's AIM business, responsible for a number of IBM software product
families including CICS, WebSphere, and MQSeries, and the general manager
of IBM's Transaction Systems  business.  Dr. Spector was also founder and
CEO of Transarc Corporation, a pioneer in distributed transaction
processing and wide area file systems, and an Associate Professor of
Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University.  Dr. Spector is on the
board of the Security Industry Middleware Council and a member of the NSF
CISE Advisory Board.

Dr. Spector received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University
and his A.B. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University.  He was the
2001 recipient of the IEEE Computer Society=E2=80=99s Tsutomu Kanai Award=
 for major
contributions to state-of-the-art distributed computing systems and their
applications.  Married and a father of three young children, Dr. Spector is
an avid runner.

Building 34, Room 101
50 Vassar Street Cambridge, MA
Refreshments: 3:15PM
Lecture: 3:30PM

Free and open to the public.
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