Abstract:  Is there something about our distinctive nature as embodied beings that will inevitably frustrate the attempt to develop web-based virtual agents which, operating as our online surrogates in dynamic cyber-environments, perform acts of context-sensitive information exchange and decision-making on our behalf? I shall begin this talk by identifying certain considerations which, it might be thought, strongly indicate that the answer to this question is ‘yes’. However, using, as an analytical tool, a conceptual distinction between implementational materiality (according to which the body is conceptualized as ‘no more than’ a material realizer of functionally- specified cognitive architectures) and vital materiality (according to which bodily acts and structures make a non-substitutable contribution to thought and reason), I shall argue that what really matters about our physical embodiment may be rather less hostile to virtuality than my preliminary analysis suggested.

Abstract:  High performance computing (HPC) is a tool frequently used to understand complex problems involving large amounts of data in numerous areas such as aerospace, biology, climate modeling. In order to satisfy the demand for increased performance to achieve breakthrough science and engineering, we turn to parallelism through large systems with multi-core chips. This talk will give an overview of the Blue Gene/Q system and the ever-increasing amounts of data from simulations. There is tremendous potential with this new system but new approaches may be needed to take full advantage of this potential and follow on systems as we move ever closer to Exascale.

Abstract:  The capabilities of computers have improved at such an astounding rate over the past few decades that they have even out-paced the wildest speculations of experts in the field. While there is every reason to expect continued growth at this rate for some time, we are in a period of change. The improvements in performance for many years were driven by the fundamental properties of semiconductors and our ability to continue shrinking the size of devices and improving their switching speed. We have reached a point of diminishing returns from this approach, in recent years, forcing new kinds of innovation in system and software design to stay on the historical performance curve. In this talk, I will survey the state of the art in computer architecture and explain some trends that we can expect to unfold over the next 5-10 years.

Abstract:  The Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI) is sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation, with a mission to enable the study of evolving technological and social networks. These networks, intertwined and worldwide in scope, are rapidly transforming societies and economies. GENI’s work is open and broadly inclusive, providing collaborative and exploratory environments for academia, industry, and the public to catalyze groundbreaking discoveries and innovation in these emerging global networks. GENI is building a virtual laboratory at the frontiers of network science and engineering for exploring future internets at scale.