Computing Symposium Chair:

Presentations
9:00am-9:25am		COM04	Semiconductor Innovation: Reshaping Our World
9:30am-9:55am		COM02	Virtual Reality and Advanced Interfaces: Out of the Lab and Into the Street
10:00am-10:25am		COM03	EEG/EP Analysis Using Piecewise Prony Method
11:00am-11:25am			Coffee Break - Visit the Open Technical Exchange Poster Session
1:00pm-1:25pm		COM05	Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing: Trends and Needs
1:30pm-1:55pm		*COM06	Scenario/Timeline Integration and Analysis for Complex Systems
2:00pm-2:25pm		COM07	Integrating Security in Fault-Tolerant Distributed Systems
2:30pm-2:55pm		COM08	Collaborative Technologies - What Do They Mean for Women Professionals?
3:00pm-3:25pm		COM09	Genetic-Fuzzy Controller for Truck Trailer Backer-Upper
3:30pm-3:55pm		COM01	Trends in the Computing Industry
Posters
		COMP01	Enterprise Storage: Can Your Enterprise Do This?

Session Codes
*xxxnn		Both an oral presentation and a poster
xxxPnn		Poster Only

*COM01
Trends in the Computing Industry
Mary McDowell, Vice President, Server Division Marketing, Compaq Computers Inc.
Thursday, 3:30pm-3:55pm

The explosive growth in the computing industry, fueled largely by increased hardware and software standardization, brings with it dramatic changes for all computers, from the palmtop to the data center. New technologies will enable standards-based components to serve as building blocks for the most powerful computing systems. At the same time, these components will also be used in client devices of all types, devices that will hit new, aggressive price points. The result is an unprecedented technology continuum, paving the way for new levels of innovation in computing.

COM02
Virtual Reality and Advanced Interfaces: Out of the Lab and Into the Street
Linda Jacobson, Virtual Reality Evangelist, Silicon Graphics
Thursday, 9:30am–9:55am

Virtual reality is not a videogame you wear on your head. An emerging technology, it provides a set of diverse, real-world problem-solving tools for interaction with 3D graphics, real-time simulation and volume visualization. It's also a communications medium. How will it affect your life? How does it improve the experience of computing? Find out in this compelling, practical presentation that investigates virtual reality technologies, applications and leaders. We'll focus primarily on VR applied to manufacturing, engineering and the sciences. We'll explore the strengths and limitations of VR technologies, the R&D challenges and issues, the relationship of VR to VRML, and the great potential for professional growth and interactivism in the VR developers community. We'll cover stereoscopic displays, trackers, haptic feedback devices, and Pyramid Systems' CAVE, among other systems, and screen the award-winning short documentary, "Six Degrees of Freedom: Designers & Engineers Put Virtual Reality to Work." This interactive talk is presented by Linda Jacobson, Virtual Reality Evangelist for Silicon Graphics, whose visualization supercomputers are the industry standard for driving advanced VR. Linda is also a journalist, author and educator who's long worked to support the advancement of women working in technology.

COM03
EEG/EP Analysis Using Piecewise Prony Method
Violet Garoosi, University of Houston, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
B.H. Jansen, University of Houston, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
Thursday, 10:00am–10:25am

Evoked potentials (EPs) are the responses of the brain to external sensory stimulation. The physiological and anatomical basis of EP generation is poorly understood. Active hypotheses are: 1) EP is due to the activation of previously "silent" neural structure, 2) it is due to a phase resetting phenomenon, or 3) it is due to increased activation of already active cortical areas. The present study is aimed at solving some aspects of this mystery.

We have developed at Piecewise Prony Method (PPM) to analyze single EP trials by decomposing the signal into exponentially increasing and/or decreasing sinusoidal components. By studying the energy and phase changes imposed on the oscillatory components of the EEG following sensory stimulation, we can assess the degree of frequency specific enhancement/attenuation and/or phase reorganization.

Results from visual evoked potentials confirm that stimulation drastically attenuates alpha activity during the first 0.5 second post-stimulus, with alpha activity returning after that. Enhancement was found in the 0-2 Hz and beta (>12 Hz) bands. Phase reorganization was observed in the delta and beta bands.

These findings suggest that EP is partly due to enhancement and phase reorganization in the delta band, suppression of alpha activity, and enhancement in the beta band.

COM04
Semiconductor Innovation: Reshaping Our World
Pam Tatge, Member Group Technical Staff, Texas Instruments
Thursday, 9:00am-9:25am

The steam engine. The telephone. The microchip. Innovations that changed the world. Texas Instruments has a six-decade history of technical innovation, from the first commercial silicon transistors, to Jack Kilby's invention of the integrated circuit (or microchip), and now to our ability to pack 125 million transistors into a single chip. Semiconductor companies develop critical technologies that drive the worldwide digital revolution. Today's innovations include TI's world-leading Digital Signal Processing (DSP) Solutions. A DSP is an advanced form of microprocessor that processes large amounts of digital information with blazing speed. They improve products that you use every day: DSPs make your wireless phone lighter, use less battery power, and improve the sound quality of calls. They make your hard disk drive faster and able to hold more information. They speed up your modem. They make pictures smoother in desktop video-conferencing systems. DSP solutions are the enabling technology that drives our networked society. Another recent TI innovation is Digital Light Processing - an ingenious new optical technology that uses tiny mirrors to reflect light, yielding sharper, clearer projected images.

COM05
Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing: Trends and Needs
Mariana Hentea, PhD, Member of Technical Staff, Lucent Technologies
Thursday, 1:00pm–1:25pm

A manufacturer's goals are to provide high quality products, operate at low cost and respond rapidly to marketplace demands. Often the company aims to achieve high quality by doing it right the first time, achieve low costs by reducing duplicate efforts, and by integrating new technology in the manufacturing process. The field of manufacturing automation is moving to domains that require real-time responses and real-time systems are moving toward more complex applications that require intelligent behavior. They meet at "real-time intelligent control" or "real-time Artificial Intelligence".

The presentation will focus on the current trends on using Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques such as: knowledge-based expert systems, neural networks, fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms. Successful applications using AI techniques are implemented for various manufacturing tasks: planning, scheduling, process control, quality control. The knowledge-based systems, artificial neural networks, and fuzzy logic are the most promising approaches of AI for control applications such as: alarm monitoring, diagnosis, supervisory and adaptive control. The new generation of AI is being called to provide decision support capabilities. There is a need to combine the real-time problems of process control programs with AI problem-solving and adaptation mechanisms to build flexible and intelligent systems. The intelligent systems are systems used to help personnel in the decision-making process during manufacturing. They are created based on either expert system or neural network approach. Examples of systems that use AI technologies will be discussed.

*COM06
Scenario/Timeline Integration and Analysis for Complex Systems
Suzanne Stanton, Staff Engineer, United Defense, L.P.; Patti Stewart, Senior Systems Engineer, United Defense, L.P.
Thursday, 1:30pm–1:55pm

System engineering of a complex system begins with the statement of objectives, requirements (hardware and software) definition and analysis, and eventually, allocation of functionality to designated element areas. This process includes initial allocation of timing requirements to all the elements involved, in order to meet certain stated performance criteria. Depending upon the division of functionality between the elements, the implementation of these requirements can become highly interdependent. This paper outlines an ideal process for allocation and validation of timing requirements, and compares and contrasts this with an actual case on a large military system. In the actual case, the element level allocations were made, designs and software architecture definitions begun, and the detailed timelines integrated later. These timelines were created at an element level and mapped to a model of the entire system in the RDD-100 CASE tool at a subsystem level. Outcomes of this process and lessons learned will be discussed.

COM07
Integrating Security in Fault-Tolerant Distributed Systems
Meng-Jang Lin, PhD Candidate, University of Texas at Austin
Thursday, 2:00pm–2:25pm

We discuss the security issues in the design of fault-tolerant distributed systems. In fault tolerance, replication is used to maintain high availability and ensure correct functionality of a system. However, replication might introduce more entry points for intruders. Moreover, if replicas are identical, a security attack can compromise all of them, provided there is an exploitable security flaw. That would defeat the purpose of using replication, which is expensive. In this paper, we analyze the tradeoff between fault tolerance and security, and suggest ways to make a system resilient to both intrusions and system faults.

COM08
Collaborative Technologies - What Do They Mean for Women Professionals?
Charlene A. Dykman, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Houston - Downtown
Thursday, 2:30pm–3:25pm

Collaborative technologies include a diverse assortment of products that provide a variety of different services to their users. The Society for Information Management working group defines it as a "collection of hardware, software, and networks that uniquely enables organizations to communicate, to collaborate, and to coordinate business processes. It allows businesses to create inter- and intraorganizational memory and to share knowledge and expertise across time and geography from both structured and unstructured information sources." This paper investigates the organizational changes caused by the use of these technologies and more specifically, how women professionals can optimize their potential through the skilled use of these systems.

This paper discusses twenty years of research and analysis efforts looking at the organizational and behavioral impacts of collaborative technologies. The impact of electronic mail on communication patterns in organizations will be discussed in detail. Additionally, results and insights from research efforts involving GroupSystems, a popular group decision support system, will be presented. The distribution of power in shaping decision outcomes can be radically changed through the skillful use of these systems. There are lessons to be learned in using these technologies to become full members of the "old boys network".

COM09
Genetic-Fuzzy Controller for Truck Trailer Backer-Upper
Thongsay Vongpaseuth, Graduate Student, The University of Alabama, Department of Mechanical Engineering
K. Nishita, Graduate Student, The University of Alabama, Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics
Thursday, 3:00pm–3:25pm

This paper investigates the use of a genetic algorithm to develop a fuzzy controller for a truck trailer backer-upper problem. The objective for the truck backer-upper problem is to guide the truck to the loading dock from almost any position without any forward movements. The backing up of trucks is often a difficult task for most people except for a few skilled truck drivers. A great deal of practice is required to develop the requisite skills for backing the truck up to a desired position. The truck backer-upper problem is also difficult for machines to solve because the system is highly nonlinear and controller performance cannot be evaluated until the end of the simulation. The powerful technique of combining control capabilities of fuzzy logic with the search capabilities of genetic algorithms will be used to tackle this problem.

COMP01
Enterprise Storage: Can Your Enterprise Do This?
Lynne VanArsdale, Product Manager, EMC Corporation
Kim Frost, EMC Corporation

Losing sleep over your boss' directive to revamp your diaster recovery process, steel your enterprise against the ravages of Y2K, improve your backup/recovery strategy, reduce planned and unplanned downtime, increase performance for your users, centralize information control, and, oh, by the way, migrate your entire mainframe/open systems operation to NT by the end of next year? This is a story about a person using enterprise storage to create a blueprint for success, addressing cost issues as well as revenue generating opportunities.