Picturing Time: Data Visualization for Studying Biomechanical Motions

In this talk, I will present recent research designed to discover how computer graphics and user interface techniques may be used to help scientists better understand complex data sets. I will describe our recent collaborations with scientists in orthopedic biomechanics and evolutionary biology. New measurement technologies are changing the way these scientists work and creating an urgent need for new data analysis tools. For example, it is now possible to collect high-speed, high-resolution 3D motion capture data from humans and animals performing a variety of interesting motions. Evolutionary biologists are using this information to better understand historical diversification among animals. Orthopedists are using new high-resolution data to better understand and treat injuries and diseases. I will describe challenges in collecting and analyzing these data and demonstrate some of the visual analysis tools that we have recently developed. Specific applications that I will discuss include, understanding neck and back injuries in humans, understanding how bats fly using data captured in wind tunnels, and understanding the unique chewing motions that pigs make.

Dr. Keefe is an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Before coming to Minnesota, Keefe did post-doctoral work with the departments of Computer Science and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Brown University. He received the Ph.D. in Computer Science from Brown University in 2007, where his dissertation was nominated for the ACM Dissertation Award. He received the Masters in Computer Science from Brown University in 2001 and the B.S. in Computer Engineering with summa cum laude honors from Tufts University in 1999. He has published in the areas of scientific visualization, interactive computer graphics, virtual reality, and digital art and design, while exploring applications of computing in medicine, biology, and engineering.

Parallelization on Multicore --- Power and Performance Perspectives

Today's system designers are facing unique challenges never encountered before. These challenges are often referred to as the ILP wall, memory wall, and power wall, symbolizing obstacles to the path of future generations of computer systems. Nevertheless, these walls also presented opportunities for both system designers and users. At present, multicores are identified as the most viable technology to continuously push processor performance for a reasonable power budget, and are on the roadmap of almost every major computer vendor. However, even though parallel processing has been around for more than three decades, how to best utilize multicore processors for improving system performance and power efficiency is still unclear.

In this presentation, we will present our research on exploring the potentials of multicore processors from both performance and power perspectives. In particular, we will focus on the extraction of threads with hardware support for thread-level speculation (TLS) that allows potentially dependent threads to execute speculatively in parallel. While TLS offers significant performance potentials for applications that are otherwise non-parallel, extracting efficient speculative threads in the presence of complex control flow, ambiguous data dependences, as well as architecture- and input-sensitive behaviors is a real challenge. This task is further complicated by the fact that speculative threads consume power and may or may not be desirable for power constraint systems. We will present our work on statically and dynamically extracting speculative parallel threads for improving performance and power-efficiency.

Dr. Zhai is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota. She received her Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University in 2005 for her research on developing advanced compiler technologies to exploit the potential of thread-level speculation for general-purpose applications. Prior to that, she received her B.A.Sc. and M.A.Sc. degrees in Computer Engineering from the University of Toronto in 1996 and 1998 respectively. She is interested in developing novel compiler optimizations and architecture features not only to improve the performance for such processors, but also to enhance non-performance features, such as programmability, security, testability and reliability.

Thinking about the client/consultant relationship

What is it that attracts some people to consulting; either as consultants or as clients? And what is it that makes or breaks a successful consulting engagement? Awareness of one's own skills and limitations is key.

We will discuss the importance of knowing your (and your client's) levels of competence and ignorance. Though often not the intent, these words, competence and ignorance, have come to have negative connotations in our society. Negative connotations aside, competence and ignorance are useful if not essential considerations when looking at client/consultant dynamics and communication patterns. And successful communication leads to successful engagements.

Using a series of "pattern languages" to analize frequently encountered aspects of consulting (people, communication, requirements, estimation, implementation, quality, delivery and deployment) we will lay out techniques for building self awareness of your consulting skills.

Andrew Miller With 20+ years of software development experience Andy Miller's expertise is both technical and organizational. Though he started his computing career using TECO macros to translate programs from PL/1 to VAX basic, today his work most often focuses around the java platform.

Andy received a B.A. in computer science from Gustavus Adolphus College and an M.S. from Kent State University. He lives in St. Paul, MN and works as a Principal Consultant at Object Partners in Minneapolis where he helps clients throughout the region with software development, technical team leadership, development process re-engineering, and mentoring. His professional interests include the clear articulation of system requirements, architectures, designs and code using object technologies and methods; avoiding nasty surprises; and getting the job done.

Andy can be reached at .

Further Reading:

• Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used, Peter Block.
  Addresses the process of consulting distinct from the domain in which you are consulting.
• Crystal Clear, A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams, Alistair Cockburn.
  This is both a great software process reference, and a wonderful example of multi-leveled discussion of information (defined, explained, examined, ...).
• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Edward Tufte.
  Along with Tufte's later books, this is an excellent reference for thinking about how information is displayed and perceived.
• The Timeless Way of Building, Christopher Alexander.
  An excellent read and a great way to get into the "thinking about thinking about things" place!

Business Semantics: Best Practices for Gathering Precise Requirements

This presentation will deal with the complexities of gathering complex business requirements from users that use industry-specific terminology. I will use examples from healthcare, insurance, finance, law enforcement, real estate, education and banking. I will also discuss the use of controlled vocabularies and metadata registries to manage this process and standards for creating and storing metadata (SKOS and 11179). I will also discuss case studies in federal data exchange standards. We will show how the skills for developing semanticlly precise data defintions are critical for areas such as business intelligence and enterprise data reporting.

I will have PPTs for the class with screen shots and (hopefully) some working demos from actual software used in companies in the area.

Dan McCreary is an enterprise software architect with over 29 years of experience. He worked for Bell Labs, Steve Jobs (at NeXT Computer) and owned his own consulting company with over 75 employees. He has been active in the adoption of innovative software architectures that empower non-programmers. He has been very active in establishing XML standards in the areas of Criminal Justice, Education, Taxation, Real Estate, Banking, and Insurance. He is interested in all things XML, metadata management, data governance, the semantic web, and enterprise data strategy development. He has a special fondness for XForms, REST, and native XML databases.

Pragmatic Agility: Sustainable Use of Agile Methods

Agile methods are now part of mainstream development around the world. Many companies are trying to codify the process which often cuts deep into the most valuable aspects of agile development. This session will provide an introduction to various aspects of agile development. Instead of trying to give you a specific process in a neat set of predefined steps, we will examine agile practices as a collection of tools which can help you building strong project communities, define and plan product releases, and some of the practices that aid in iteratively delivering in predictable and timely ways. The session will start by examining tools and techniques for assessing a potential project. From there we will dig into building common vision, defining products, planning releases, and more. The format will be a combination of lecture and small group exercises.

David Hussman is an Agile Coach and Teacher. David's work revolves around helping people design and deliver. Most of his time is spent teaching, mentoring and coaching the adoption and improvement of agile methods. David coaches works with companies of all sizes all over the world. Sometimes he is pairing with developers and testers, while other times he is helping people plan products. David also spends a great deal of time helping leaders at all levels find ways to pragmatically use agility as another way to grow and innovate their business. Prior to working as a fulltime coach, David spent years building software in a variety of domains: digital audio, digital biometrics, medical, financial, retail, and education to name a few. David now leads DevJam, a company composed of agile collaborators. As mentors and practitioners, DevJam focuses on agility as a tool to help people and companies improve their software production skills. DevJam provides seasoned leaders that strive to pragmatically match technology, people, and processes to create better and cooler products in competitive cycles. Along with teaching and coaching, David presents and leads workshops at conferences around the world. He has contributed to several books (e.g. "Managing Agile Projects" and "Agile in the Large"), worked on agile curriculum for The University of Minnesota and Capella University, and is currently writing a book for the Pragmatic Programmer series. For more information, check out the DevJam website.