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IT PC - Saturday April 26, 2008, Room BSC-210

10:15 am to 11:100 am
Agile Software Develeopment
Matthew Ganis, IBM/Pace University

Abstract :

As organizations strive to compete and deliver Web 2.0 applications (fast delivery of beta-level code) they need to operate with a new mindset. Development organizations need to look for ways to become more efficient and cost effective, while delivering functionality to the market sooner. Agile methods have traditionally been the answer for development teams (for example, Extreme Programming, Scrum, RUP, etc). One flaw with these approaches is that the development team is at times dependent upon groups outside of its immediate control. This tends to make the development team only as Agile as its "weakest (slowest) link". This session will discuss some of the more popular agile techniques in use today and his experiences with them. These techniques typically rely on fast (instantaneous) communication between developers and the customer. It will explore the concept of the "Whole Team" or how to involve all functions within an organization on a single Agile team. It will also discuss the problems that arise and benefits of implementing such a team.

Bio :

Matt Ganis is a Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM) at IBM. He has held many architectural and managerial roles in IBM over his 20+ year career. He is currently part of the ibm.com Site Architecture team that is responsible for overseeing several of the new and interesting technologies being deployed on the ibm.com home page. He was instrumental in introducing Agile techniques into the IBM's corporate webmaster development process and is currently partnering with sister organizations to expand its scope. Matt maintains an Agile Community of Practice of over 1000 IBM'ers, is session chair for Agile at Share 2008 in Tampa, Florida and is on the editorial board of the International Journal of AGILE AND EXTREME SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT.

11:20 am to 12:15 pm
Introduction to Searching with Regular Expressions
Christopher Frenz, New York City College of Technology

Abstract :

The explosive rate of information growth and availability often makes it increasingly difficult to locate information pertinent to your needs. These problems are often compounded when keyword based search methodologies are not adequate for describing the information you seek. In many instances, information such as Web site URLs, phone numbers, etc. can often be better identified through the use of a textual pattern than by keyword. For example, many more phone numbers could be picked up by a search for the pattern (XXX) XXX-XXXX, where X could be any digit, than would be by a search for any specific phone number (i.e. the keyword approach). Programming languages typically allow for the matching of textual patterns via the usage of regular expressions. This tutorial will provide an introduction to the basics of programming regular expressions as well as provide an introduction to how regular expressions can be applied to data processing tasks such as information extraction and search refinement.

Bio :

Christopher Frenz is the author of two computer programming books, "Visual Basic and Visual Basic .NET for Scientists and Engineers" and "Pro Perl Parsing", as well as numerous computer programming and research articles. He has extensive experience in the field of computational biology and has an active research interest in the development of machine learning and artificial intelligent approaches to protein engineering. Frenz also researches the application of text mining methodologies to biomedical literature.

12:25 pm to 1:20 pm
Service Oriented Fabric - A Clean Slate
Head Bubba, IT Research and Development for Credit Suisse

Abstract :

The "Head" Bubba will be discussing why a Clean Slate approach today's data centers is needed. He will propose: 1) taking a fresh look at how virtualization would impact the data center and how data is moved from one application to another, 2) the introduction of a Quality of Service/Service Level Agreement (QoS/SLA) Manager, and 3) using an Interactive Theorem Prover?to determine where applications should be run.? Additionally he discuss the concept of Virtual Resource Market (VRM) to manage user demand for resources.? A fresh look at how systems are designed will also be investigated with a dive into a possible optical interconnect solution allowing the concept of "building blocks" to make up what a server is by assembling components together (including memory and storage building blocks).

Bio :

Head Bubba is Vice President, IT Research and Development for Credit Suisse. He has 21 years experience in IT. He has been at Credit Suisse for the past 10 years, and has been a member of IT Research and Development since its inception where he is currently heading up Systems & Network Fabric Research. Before joining R&D, he was a member of the Investment Banking CTO office working on high availability solutions and started out as a developer for Equity trading floor applications. Prior to Credit Suisse, he was an independent consultant designing systems using object oriented design methodologies. Head Bubba has a degree in Computer Science from the City College of New York.

1:30 pm to 2:25 pm
Comparison of Popular Social Networking Tools for Professionals
Ron Graham, Isles YouthBuild Institute, Trenton NJ

Abstract :

In this paper the three most popular social networking Web sites, Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace, will be compared and contrasted. Their potential usefulness by various professional people (including you) will be discussed.

Bio :

Ron Graham has worked in aerospace engineering for some 15 years. He has worked for a robotics start-up and has helped other start-ups as an advisor and micropatron. He has mentored entrepreneurs and has taught on both the University and High School level. He's been on the Internet longer than most of the people you know, and now returns to TCF after several years' absence.

3:40 pm to 4:35 pm
Wireless Body Area Networking
Maulin Patel, Philips Research North America

Abstract :

Recent advances in device miniaturization and wireless technology have made it possible to design a wireless network of, in, on and around the body for electronic devices. Body Area Networking (BAN) can unleash a wave of innovative applications in healthcare, lifestyle, gaming, entertainment and consumer electronics, which can improve the quality of our life in an unprecedented way. The wide range of BAN applications and corresponding stringent requirements bring new set of research challenges such as scalability, energy efficiency, security, QoS and co-existence. IEEE 802.15.6 Task Group has recently been formed to lead the initiative of developing a single unifying BAN standard that can enable connected consumer experience. In this presentation, Maulin Patel will discuss the key applications and highlight the core set of technical requirements that must be addressed for BAN to become pervasive and ubiquitous.

Bio :

Maulin Patel received his M.S. degree in Computer Science and his Ph.D. degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2002 and 2006 respectively. Since 2006, he has been a senior member research staff at the Wireless Communication and Networking Department of Philips Research North America where he does research on Body Area Networking. His current research interests include energy efficient protocols for Body Area Networks and Sensor Networks.