June 7, 2009
June Meeting Announcement
Coming June 8, 2009
:: Last 2008—2009 Meeting ::
Last meeting of this year. We will have the council meeting at LMU (what, again?!?), yes, in the Doolan Hall Faculty Conference Room. We'll then move to Fishco for a (probably rowdy) wrap-up for the year.
Meeting Details:
-------------------
Location — Loyola Marymount University, Doolan Hall, Faculty Conference Room upstairs
Most everyone should know where that is and how to get there, but please feel free to contact B.J. Johnson if you need assistance.
5:30 to 6:30 — Council meeting; council business is discussed, but chapter members are welcome to attend.
6:30 to 7:00 — Dinner time; Move to Fishco for Professional Mixer.
ALL ARE WELCOME!!!
We are having our fun at the El Segundo Fish Company for food and an exchange of ideas. The restaurant has a wide assortment of sea food and other meals at reasonable prices. It is located at 210 E. Grand Avenue, El Segundo, CA 90245.
LA ACM holds its Council Business meeting starting at 5:30 PM, which you are welcome to attend. The Council meeting will be held in the faculty conference room in Doolan Hall on the Loyal Marymount University (LMU) campus. Council meeting attendees will move on to the restaurant for the networking event, scheduled to begin at 6:30 P.M. You are especially welcome to come to the 6:30 meeting and mix with those who are present. If the LA ACM Council is not there when you arrive, rest assured we will get there ASAP, so grab a table and start "mixing" with other arrivals. No reservations are required; we just gather around tables and mix conversation with food and drink. Our group has been receiving a 10% discount on previous months, which the restaurant seems to be ready to continue. Identify yourselves as LA ACM meeting attendees.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact: Mike Walsh at MP_Walsh@acm.org or at (818) 785-5056; email contact is preferred. You can also email B.J. Johnson at bjohnson05@gmail.com with questions or fo more information.
Hope to see you there!!
April 27, 2009
May Meeting Reminder
Coming May 4, 2009
:: We Have Issues! ::
This month we are again doing something new. We will hold an extended council meeting to discuss several issues which were raised at last month's meeting. All members are welcome to attend and provide their inputs.
Meeting Details:
-------------------
Location — Loyola Marymount University, Doolan Hall, Faculty Conference Room upstairs
Most everyone should know where that is and how to get there, but please feel free to contact B.J. Johnson if you need assistance.
5:30 to 6:30 — Council meeting; council business is discussed, but chapter members are welcome to attend.
6:30 to 7:00 — Dinner time; food may be procured at the LMU Lair or we may order in if it suits everyone
7:00 to 9:00 — Continuation of council business discussion.
Note, there is NO PRESENTATION this month. The council business issues to be discussed are listed on the programs page in the ACM Wiki pages.
March 30, 2009
April Meeting Reminder
Coming April 6, 2009
:: A Programmer's Garden of CM ::
This month we are trying something new. We will meet at the Chef Hannes Restaurant in El Segundo for a talk by the current chapter chair, about Configuration Management. This dodgy subject will be treated from the programmer's perspective, covering such things as why CM is important to programmers, issues of scaling CM plans for different size projects, a bit of SQA/CMMI processes and involvement, and will encompass some concepts and methodologies as well.
Meeting Details:
-------------------
Location -- Chef Hannes Restaurant, 411 ½ Main Street, El Segundo, CA. 90245 310.640.0164
Meeting is in the downstairs room, through the restaurant, past the serving area / bar.
5:30 to 6:30 -- Council meeting; council business is discussed, but chapter members are welcome to attend.
6:30 to 7:00 -- Dinner time
7:00 to 9:00 -- CM Presentation.
Directions:
-------------
The restaurant is on Main Street in El Segundo, on the west side of the street, between E. Pine and E. Holly Avenues. If you are coming by freeway, take the 105 westbound past LAX. The freeway turns into W. Imperial Hwy. There is a stoplight at Main Street, where you will turn left. Once on Main, you will continue past the high school on your left into the business district. The restaurant will be on your right. There are tables outside so look for those.
Here is a link to the website so you can see what it looks like. Also, here is a link to a google map of the location.
Also, here's a picture for easy reference.
SPECIAL LOCATION NOTE
We'll be at a different location than last month! Don't go to McIntosh Center, Doolan Hall or to Fishco — You'll miss out!
February 24, 2009
March Meeting Reminder
Coming March 2, 2009
:: The Matrix Has Us, Part Two ::
This month we are back at LMU for another interesting talk. Attempting to branch out, we will be enjoying another speaker from a different area of expertise this month. Mr. Thomas Ousterhout, a senior Psychology student at Loyola Marymount University, will explain the realism behind the imagination behind the popular film "The Matrix". This presentation should spark some stimulating discussion!!
Abstract
The current state and future development potential of various fields of military technology can and will establish dominance over humans with machines and autonomous vehicles programmed with strong intelligence exponentially superior to humans. Today there are robots and machines everywhere. They are increasingly given more capabilities to take care of responsibilities originally designed for humans. Autonomous vehicles have been designed to cross the Mojave desert by coordinating direction and movement all by themselves and have even proven able to navigate through open traffic by changing lanes, following the rules of the road, and parking. Such technology has proven useful for the Military, providing autonomous ground, air, underwater, and surface vehicles, some of which have even been equipped with weapons effectively rendering them autonomous combat vehicles that make navigation and hostile engagement decisions on their own. Instead of trying to program advanced forms of artificial intelligence into the machines, researchers have found ways for machines to problem solve and learn about the world in a manner similar function to human children. Theoretically, machines will soon become smarter and faster than humans and potentially will be able to control themselves to establish global dominance.
Meeting Details:
-------------------
Location -- McIntosh Center, Room UH3999, in University Hall on Loyola Marymount University campus. Free parking is available under the building.
Address is 1 LMU Drive, Los Angeles, CA., 90045.
5:30 to 6:30 -- Council meeting; council business is discussed, but chapter members are welcome to attend.
6:30 to 7:00 -- Dinner time, with attendees being responsible for their own meals, available at two locations in University Hall (see below).
7:00 to 9:00 -- CMSI seniors' presentation.
Meals may be bought from:
--------------------------------
Lion's Corner Cafe: A cozy, cafe serving salads, sandwiches, microwavable entrees, juices, and coffee/tea. Open on Monday until 8:30 PM. University Hall, rm 1982. See the U-hall map.
Directions:
-------------
Here is a link to a campus map in PDF format. University Hall is the big blue box in the lower left, marked "UNH".
LMU campus is in Westchester, on the bluff overlooking Playa Vista and Marina Del Rey, just off Lincoln Blvd. Here is a page of driving instructions to get to LMU campus from several directions.
Enter the LMU Campus from Lincoln Blvd., either northbound or southbound. After entering the campus on LMU Drive, University Hall is on your right. Parking is underground, under the building. Look for the Student/Visitor parking entrance, labeled "P2/P3". The McIntosh Center is on the third floor of the building, on the northwest side.
When you park, take the elevator from the parking garage to the first floor. When you exit the elevator lobby, turn left and go to the end of the atrium where the escalators are located. Take the escalators to the third floor. Turn left when you step off the escalator, turn left again at the end of the aisle, and continue back toward the big windows overlooking the city. When you get to the windows, turn left again and continue down the aisle with the windows on your right. When you get to a covered hallway at the end of the windows, McIntosh center is the first room on your left.
SPECIAL LOCATION NOTE
We'll be at a different location than last month! Don't go to Doolan Hall or to Fishco — You'll miss out!
February 14, 2009
Don't Forget — This Week's Meetings!
Tuesday and Wednesday
:: SSCC and Coffee Redux ::
Just a reminder that this week there are two (count 'em -- TWO) ACM functions.
First, Tuesday night is the second annual Software and Systems Chapters Congress meeting at the the Northrop Grumman "S-Cafe" off Marine Ave, between Aviation Blvd and Redondo Beach Ave in Redondo Beach, CA. Details are elsewhere on this blog at this link.
Second, Wednesday night we have the pleasure of a joint meeting with the IEEE-CCC at which our speaker will be Mr. Peter Coffee. We'll be meeting at the Chef Hannes Restaurant, 411 1/2 Main Street, El Segundo, CA 90245, (310) 640 - 0164, meeting at the Train Room. Hopefully you have already RSVP'd — this is a reminder so you don't forget!! All the information is at this link.
See you there!!
March 18–20, 2009 — PKC 2009
Public Key Cryptography
:: 2009 Conference in Irvine ::
We would like to inform all computer science professionals and academics in the greater LA area that UC Irvine will hold the 12th international conference on Theory and Practice of Public Key Cryptography, PKC'09, on March 18-20, 2009. Information can be found at:
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~pkc09/index.html
Everyone who is interested in cryptography and information security is very much encouraged to attend!
Also, if any IT-security/cryptography organization in the area would be interested in contributing some modest sponsorship to the conference, and gaining visibility this way within the cryptographic R&D community, we'd appreciate any extra help, and we can be contacted at pkc09@ics.uci.edu.
PKC'09 will be hosted by the Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), in Irvine, California. The meetings will take place at CalIT2, a research center and a conference facility located next door to the Bren School of ICS. UCI is located in Southern California, a mere 10-minute drive from the beach, 10-minute drive from the Santa Ana Airport (SNA) and a 50-minute drive from the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Conference attendees can stay at numerous hotels in the Irvine area; however, two nearby hotels offer discount rates to conference attendees: Atrium Hotel ($104/day) and Crowne Plaza ($116/day).
For more information about the venue and accommodations, see:
www.ics.uci.edu/~pkc09/local.html.
For more information about travel to Irvine and UCI, see:
www.ics.uci.edu/~pkc09/travel.html.
For general information about Irvine area, see:
www.ics.uci.edu/~pkc09/attractions.html.
February 6, 2009
February 28, 2009 — Fun With Statistics
American Statistical Association
:: 2009 Statistics Career Day ::
Two events coming in February and March for the Southern California Chapter of the American Statistical Association.
Statistics Careers Day
When:
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Where:
City of Hope
Platt Conference Center
1500 East Duarte Road
Duarte, CA 91010
Time and Schedule:
+ Events start at 9 AM
+ Presentations by panelists who work in various statistical fields followed by a Career Fair
+ This is the place to be to find out which statistical career is right for you!
Panelists:
John Adams, RAND Corporation
Gary Aras, Amgen
Nancy Gordon, US Census Bureau
Mark Hansen, UCLA
Keiko Powers, JD Power
Jessica Utts, UCI
Ted Younglove, Antelope Valley College
For more information, or if you are interested in being a sponsor or presenter, please contact Marika Suttorp. Also check the website at this location and the official flyer here.
Applied Statistics Workshop
When:
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Where:
UCLA
Tthis is all the information we currently have. Check their website frequently for more information. As things develop, we'll post an update for March.
February 18, 2009 — Peter Coffee Redux
Peter Coffee Returns
:: "Surf's Up?" An Evening with Peter Coffee ::
A Joint Meeting with the IEEE-CCC group.
This will be our second meeting of the 2008–2009 year at which Mr. Peter Coffee, Director of Platform Research for salesforce.com, will be the featured speaker. It is also our second collaborative meeting this year, this time with the IEEE-CCC group.
Abstract and Bio:
Ted Nelson once wrote, "If computers are the wave of the future, displays are the surfboards" ‐‐ twenty years before people talked about "surfing the Web." There's just something that appeals to people about the image of finding a source of energy and riding it to new places. Join us for an evening of exploring compelling visualizations, global wireless connections, ubiquitous sensor networks, and other candidates for the role of your personal surfboard on the high‐tech waves that are breaking today.
Peter Coffee has been with salesforce.com for two years, following 18 years as Technology Editor of the enterprise IT journals PC Week and eWEEK. He was previously the first manager of PC planning at The Aerospace Corporation, where he also worked in space asset management applications of AI techniques. Before that, he was a Senior Engineer in arctic project management, chemical facility construction, and synthetic fuels project planning for several divisions of Exxon.
He holds an engineering degree from MIT and an MBA from Pepperdine University; he has been a faculty member in IT management at Pepperdine and also at UCLA (computer science) and Chapman College (business analytics). He is the author of two books, How to Program Java and Peter Coffee Teaches PCs.
Meeting Details:
Place: Chef Hannes, 411 1/2 Main Street, El Segundo, CA 90245, (310) 640 - 0164 meeting at the Train Room
RSVP: By Feb 13 to Ms. Irena Kageorgis, irenakageorgis@ieee.org
Information: Dr. Antonio Mendez, mendezRDA@aol.com
Dinner: $20/IEEE & ACM Members, $25/Non-members, $10/Student Members
6:00 — Chef Hannes Dinner and Professional Networking
7:30 — Presentation (no fee for the presentation)
A complete flier, in PDF format, with a map and picture of the restaurant for easy reference, is posted here.
Many thanks to Dr. Antonio Mendez for setting this up and including us!
February 17, 2009 — SSCC Meeting
2009 Software and Systems Chapters Congress
:: Second Annual Meeting ::
On Tues, Feb 17, 2009, from 5:00pm-9:00 pm, representatives of local chapters of professional and technical societies involved with software and systems development in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. We will be gathering the Northrop Grumman "S-Cafe" off Marine Ave, between Aviation Blvd and Redondo Beach Ave in Redondo Beach, CA.
The SSCC gathering is for general members, event coordinators, and officers of local chapters of professional or technical societies in the greater Los Angeles and Orange County area. The congress will feature various local chapters of professional and technical societies presenting their groups, events, and opportunities for involvement. The event will consist of refreshments, social and networking time, short (5 minute) presentations by various local chapters about their events, and tables for the chapters to distribute information about their group and events.
Prelim list of of invited chapters:
+ Southern California Software Process Improvement Network
+ Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Coastal Los Angeles Section
+ IEEE Computer Society's Coastal Los Angeles Section
+ Los Angeles Chapters of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE)
+ Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
+ Society for Women Engineers (SWE)
+ Data Management Association (DAMA)
+ American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
+ Southern Salifornia Quality Assurance Association of San Fernando Valley
+ Project Management Institute (PMI )
Participating groups will be presenting their calendar of upcoming events and looking to partner up to host larger events in the local area.
When:
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Where:
Northrop Grumman
"S-Cafe" (building R6)
2050 Marine Ave.
Redondo Beach, CA 90278
Time and Schedule:
5:00 PM — Chapter table setup
5:30 — Refreshment & visit society tables & network
6:30 – 8:00 — Chapter society presentations (5 - 10 minutes)
8:00 – 9:00 — Chapter coordination meetings and cleanup
February 13, 2009 — SoCal SPIN Meeting
Agile Development Talk
:: The Agile Way of Managing Software Development ::
This presentation will provide an overview of Agile development practices and to achieve optimal results in the face of complex projects. The presentation will cover key features of Scrum, an Agile Project Management Framework, to satisfy competing requirements for Cost, Time, Functionality and Quality. The discussion will present real life impact of the transition to Scrum at Kofax, including the successes, challenges, and remaining issues.
Speaker:
John Cornell, currently Director, Agile / Distributed Product Development at Kofax, has over 15 years experience in hands on coding and managing software development teams. Mr. Cornell's current role is to lead a corporate wide initiative to transition development practices from a waterfall methodology to a more iterative framework. Mr. Cornell also works to reduce or eliminate the overhead associated with distributed software development teams. Mr. Cornell is a Certified ScrumMaster and Product Owner and is an active participant in the global Scrum community.
All events are and most presentations are (or will be) posted to the SPIN website, http://www.uces.csulb.edu/spin/ so check there for updated information.
The SoCal SPIN is sponsored by Northrop Grumman and
California State University, Long Beach (CSULB)
University and College Extension Services (UCES).
When:
Friday, February 13, 2009
Where:
Northrop Grumman E2 Presentation Center
(in tall building off of Entrance 2)
Redondo Beach, CA (formerly TRW)
2299 Marine Ave.
Redondo Beach, CA 90278
Directions:
Take the 405 Inglewood exit.
+ (Southbound it's the exit after Rosecrans East. Turn left at the end of the ramp onto Inglewood Ave. heading north)
+ (Northbound it's the exit just after Hawthorne. Turn right at the end of the ramp onto Inglewood Ave. heading north)
Turn left at Marine. Go west under the freeway past the railroad tracks and Redondo Beach Ave. to Simon Ramo Dr. (the signal near the tall building). Turn left into the parking lot. E2 is the tall building to your left.
(See page 733 A5 of the Thomas Brothers Guide.)
Time and Schedule:
9:00 AM – noon —
February 12, 2009 — Microsoft vs. Adobe
The Great Debate
:: Microsoft Siverlight vs. Adobe AIR/Flex Debate ::
The battle for control of the future of computing will be debated at 7 PM (PST/GMT +8) on Thursday, February 12 in the Bronco Student Center (Ursa Minor) at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona. Microsoft Corp. and Adobe Systems Inc. will present their contenders for whose technologies will dominate. Adobe (maker of Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver) is encouraging developers to create media-rich desktop computer applications that operate independently of the Internet through its Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR). Microsoft wants developers to create media-rich applications that can be used online through its Silverlight technology.
Sam Stokes, academic developer/evangelist at Microsoft Corporation and Kevin Hoyt, platform evangelist at Adobe will represent the two sides. The free event is sponsored by the Interactive Web Development Student Association and the Computer Information Systems department in the College of Business Administration and will be streamed live over the Internet. Pizza, refreshments and a free drawing for multimedia software will be provided.
If you can't make it in person, you can watch it live or afterwards at this link.
Changing Process
Request From Our Members...
:: Blog Entry Re-org ::
Hello everyone. At the February meeting, it was brought to my attention that the blog announcements are somewhat less than useful, due to the way I've been entering things. For example, a couple of people were unable to locate the information for the Peter Coffee meeting next week.
This is, shall we say, "sub-optimal". . .
This blog is supposed to be the place for announcements of our meetings, and we are also using it to announce meetings and events from computing-related or technology-related sister organizations in the Southern California area, whenever we can. However, if people can't find the information easily, it's not very effective, is it??
There's a handy feature on this blog, in the navigation pane on the left of the page, called "Archives". In this little area is a reverse chronological list of every month for which there is any blog entry. As I write this, "January" is at the top, but when I finish and post this, "February" will appear. When you click on the month name, a page appears that contains links to each individual post page that has been posted for that month, with a synopsis of what appears on that page. It's similar to the way Google and other search engines display results. The links to the entries also appear in reverse chronological order (latest at the top of the page), but the important thing is that each link is to a single page for each post. It's a bit like a "table of contents" of the entries for the month.
The old process was for me to put multiple announcements for one entry on one blog page, with a set of hyperlinks to the different entries. These hyperlinks would appear in the synopsis for the entry, although they weren't very well deliniated. That didn't seem to be effective to our members.
So, the new process is to have a separate posting for every announcement, so that each announcement will show up individually on the synopsis page.
I hope this is a better method, and that it makes the announcements easier to navigate. I'm constantly trying to improve our information dissemination methods. If anyone has more suggestions, I'd welcome your input and/or your comments. You can post them as comments here, or you can email me directly at bjohnson05@gmail.com.
. . . And that's what's happening now . . .
January 30, 2009
Other Announcements
A Little Help From Our Friends
Cal State L.A ACM Meeting
Startonomics
Ben Shneiderman
Ground System Architectures Workshop
February 04, 2009
Hello everyone, our 3rd general meeting is coming up! Topics are going to include: Progfest 2009 If you don't know what Progest is yet, it's a programming competition that we host here at Cal State LA for young programmers from High Schools and Community Colleges to come and show off their programming skills.
More info at: http://groups.google.com/group/cal-state-la-acm/t/63dbcb05c7008699?hl=en
February 06, 2009
Conference: 8AM — 6PM (UCLA)
After Party at Whisky Blue, W-Hotel
STARTONOMICS — a One-day conference for entrepreneurs, developers, students to learn metrics and strategies for building better products and startups. Whether you're launching a new startup, building a new product, or just in 'concept' mode – you'll learn from veterans who've been there, done that, and won.
Including MySpace, Mahalo, PayPal, and others.
Special Pricing for UCI Students!
Student Price: $175 Register here: http://tinyurl.com/d59fmo
Regular price is $295 Register here: http://startonomics.com/register
SPEAKERS & SESSIONS:
Scalability for Startups: How to Grow Up without Blowing Up
Speaker: Jim Benedetto, VP Technology, MySpace
Product Development 101: Designing & Prototyping The DNA of a Killer App
Speaker: Mark Jeffrey, CTO, Mahalo
Building on the Cheap: Starting Up When the Economy is Down
Speaker: Mike Jones, CEO, Tsavos Media
7 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website
Speaker: Jason Nazar, CEO, DocStoc
Searching For Users: SEO as an Engine for Customer Acquisition
Speaker: Neil Patel, Co-Founder, ACS
Team Building for Entrepreneurs
Speaker: Frank Addante, CEO, Rubicon Project
Afternoon Keynote
Speaker: Richard Rosenblatt, Co-Founder, Demand Media
DIY Social Media Marketing
Speaker: Sean Percival, Director of Content, Tsavos Media
How to Create a Website that Users Eat Up & Beg for More
Speaker: Ted Rheingold, Top Dog, Dogster
Pitching & Packaging for Partnerships
Speaker: Peter Pham, CEO, BillShrink
Revenue, What a Concept! - Monetizing by Numbers
Speaker: Jay Weintraub, Creator, LeadsCon
From A- Z: Idea to Advisors to Angel Funding to Series A
Speaker: Dan Gould, VP Technology, Fox Interactive Media
The Metrics of Early Stage Funding
Speakers: Mark Suster, Partner, GRP Partners
David Travers, Associate, Rustic Canon Ventures
Brian Garrett, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Crosscut Ventures
More information and registration at: http://startonomics.com
February 13, 2009
UC Irvine Distinguished Speaker
University of California, Irvine
Institute for Software Research
http://www.isr.uci.edu/
2008 — 2009 Distinguished Speaker Series
Ben Shneiderman
Professor, Department of Computer Science
Founding Director (1983-2000) of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory
University of Maryland, College Park
"Information Visualization for Knowledge Discovery"
More information here
Friday February 13, 2009
1:30 — 2:00 Refreshments and Networking
2:00 — 3:30 Presentation
Location: UCI, Donald Bren Hall, room 6011 (building #314)
Email RSVP is required
To: Jessica Garcia, jessicmg@ics.uci.edu
By: Monday, February 9
Cost: No cost to attend.
ISR Faculty Host: Alfred Kobsa, http://www.isr.uci.edu/~kobsa
Directions and Parking information are available at: http://www.isr.uci.edu/directions.html
Abstract: Interactive information visualization tools provide researchers with remarkable capabilities to support discovery. By combining powerful data mining methods with user-controlled interfaces, users are beginning to benefit from these potent telescopes for high-dimensional data. They can begin with an overview, zoom in on areas of interest, filter out unwanted items, and then click for details-on-demand. With careful design and efficient algorithms, the dynamic queries approach to data exploration can provide 100msec updates even for million-record databases.
This talk will start by reviewing the growing commercial success stories such as www.spotfire.com, www.smartmoney.com/marketmap, and www.hivegroup.com. Then it will cover recent research progress for visual exploration of large time series data applied to financial, medical, and genomic data (www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/timesearcher).
Our next step was to combine these key ideas to produce the Hierarchical Clustering Explorer 3.0 that now includes the rank-by-feature framework (www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/hce). By judiciously choosing from appropriate ranking criteria for low-dimensional axis-parallel projections, users can locate desired features of higher dimensional spaces. Finally, these strategies of unifying statistics with visualization are applied to network data and electronic health records (www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/lifelines2). Demonstrations will be shown.
About the Speaker: Ben Shneiderman is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Founding Director (1983-2000) of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory at the University of Maryland. He was elected as a Fellow of the Association for Computing (ACM) in 1997 and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2001. He received the ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.
Ben is the author of "Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction" (5th ed. April 2009, forthcoming). With S. Card and J. Mackinlay, he co-authored "Readings in Information Visualization: Using Vision to Think" (1999). With Ben Bederson he co-authored "The Craft of Information Visualization" (2003). His book "Leonardo's Laptop" appeared in October 2002 (MIT Press) and won the IEEE book award for Distinguished Literary Contribution.
For More Information:
Debra A. Brodbeck, Technical Relations Director, brodbeck@uci.edu
March 23 — 26, 2009
Don't miss the thirteenth annual Ground System Architectures Workshop, GSAW2009, which will take place March 23 - 26, 2009, at the Torrance Marriott South Bay in Torrance, California. Preworkshop tutorials will take place on March 23. Classified (TS/SI/TK) session will be hosted at The Aerospace Corporation on Thursday (afternoon), March 26.
This year's theme is "Focusing on the User."
Register before Feb. 27, 2009 and save $50 off the regular registration fee. Special fee offered to full-time students.
Complete workshop information and online registration are available at: http://csse.usc.edu/gsaw
January 26, 2009
February Reminder
Don't Forget — February 2, 2009
Council and Fishco
Join us!! See previous post below for details.
Council is at Loyola Marymount University, in Doolan Hall. Professional Mixer is at Fishco.
There will be travel. . .
January 21, 2009
Big Doings In February!
OMG — It's Really Busy. . .
February ACM Meeting
Peter Coffee Redux
ISR Speaker
MS vs. Adobe Talk
February 02, 2009
We're having another Professional Mixer Meeting at El Segundo Fish Company, so come have some fun with us. ALL ARE WELCOME!!!
We are having our meeting at the El Segundo Fish Company for food and an exchange of ideas. The restaurant has a wide assortment of sea food and other meals at reasonable prices. It is located at 210 E. Grand Avenue, El Segundo, CA 90245.
LA ACM holds its Council Business meeting starting at 5:30 PM, which you are welcome to attend. The Council meeting will be held in the faculty conference room in Doolan Hall on the Loyal Marymount University (LMU) campus. Council meeting attendees will move on to the restaurant for the networking event, scheduled to begin at 6:30 P.M. You are especially welcome to come to the 6:30 meeting and mix with those who are present. If the LA ACM Council is not there when you arrive, rest assured we will get there ASAP, so grab a table and start "mixing" with other arrivals. No reservations are required; we just gather around tables and mix conversation with food and drink. Our group has been receiving a 10% discount on previous months, which the restaurant seems to be ready to continue. Identify yourselves as LA ACM meeting attendees.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact: Mike Walsh at MP_Walsh@acm.org or at (818) 785-5056; email contact is preferred. You can also email B.J. Johnson at bjohnson05@gmail.com with questions or fo more information.
Hope to see you there!!
Meeting Details:
-------------------
5:30 to 6:30 -- Council meeting; council business is discussed, but chapter members are welcome to attend.
6:30 to done -- Professional Mixer and Networking over dinner of your choice
February 06, 2009
University of California, Irvine
Institute for Software Research
2008 — 2009 Distinguished Speaker Series Presents:
John L. King
Professor, School of Information and Vice Provost for Academic Information
University of Michigan
"Society as Software"
Abstract and Bio:
This talk is in the grand tradition of turning the inanimate into metaphor for the animate. It's a fool's errand, to be sure, but it can be jolly fun and, with luck, instructive. The purpose of this endeavor is to knock together two things we don't understand very well -- society and software -- and see if we can learn something. The exercise is a form of non-destructive testing: neither software nor society will be injured in the process. A former UCI faculty member once said that the law is just software. And Larry Lessig said that both software and law are "code." If one digs far enough back into the history of ICS, one can find reference to "procedures and procedure-followers." Things of this sort form the basis of a set of conjectures about society and software that hopefully enhance our understanding and uphold the honor of the fool's errand.
John Leslie King is Vice Provost for Academic Information and Professor and former dean in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. He has published more than 150 books and articles on the relationship between information technologies and institutional change. His work focuses primarily on IT use and effect in highly institutionalized production sectors, including government, education, health care, transport, finance, electric power utilities, and common carrier communications. He served as Editor in Chief of the INFORMS Journal Information Systems Research, and associate editor for many other journals. He has recently served on the Board of Directors of the Computing Research Association, and is currently a Senior Scientific Advisor with the National Science Foundation, and a member of the advisory committees for the NSF Directorates for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, and Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences. He was until recently a senior scientific advisor for cyberinfrastructure for the National Science Foundation as well as a member of the the NSF advisory committee for Computer and Information Science and Engineering. He is currently on the NSF advisory committees for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences and for Cyberinfrastructure. He is a member of the Council of the Computing Community Consortium. King is a Fellow of the Association for Information Systems and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Meeting Information:
Date: Friday February 6, 2009
1:30 — 2:00 Refreshments and Networking
2:00 — 3:30 Presentation
Location: UCI, Donald Bren Hall, room 6011 (building #314)
Email RSVP is required
To: Jessica Garcia, jessicmg@ics.uci.edu
By: Monday, February 2
Cost: No cost to attend.
ISR Faculty Host: Richard N. Taylor, http://www.isr.uci.edu/~taylor
Directions and Parking information are available at: http://www.isr.uci.edu/directions.html
February 12, 2009
Microsoft Siverlight vs. Adobe AIR/Flex Debate
The battle for control of the future of computing will be debated at 7 PM (PST/GMT +8) on Thursday, February 12 in the Bronco Student Center (Ursa Minor) at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona. Microsoft Corp. and Adobe Systems Inc. will present their contenders for whose technologies will dominate. Adobe (maker of Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver) is encouraging developers to create media-rich desktop computer applications that operate independently of the Internet through its Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR). Microsoft wants developers to create media-rich applications that can be used online through its Silverlight technology.
Sam Stokes, academic developer/evangelist at Microsoft Corporation and Kevin Hoyt, platform evangelist at Adobe will represent the two sides. The free event is sponsored by the Interactive Web Development Student Association and the Computer Information Systems department in the College of Business Administration and will be streamed live over the Internet. Pizza, refreshments and a free drawing for multimedia software will be provided.
If you can't make it in person, you can watch it live or afterwards at this link.
February 18, 2009
"Surf's Up?" An Evening with Peter Coffee
A Joint Meeting with the IEEE-CCC group.
This will be our second meeting at which Mr. Peter Coffee, Director of Platform Research for salesforce.com, will be the featured speaker. It is also our second collaborative meeting this year, this time with the IEEE-CCC group.
Abstract and Bio:
Ted Nelson once wrote, "If computers are the wave of the future, displays are the surfboards" ‐‐ twenty years before people talked about "surfing the Web." There's just something that appeals to people about the image of finding a source of energy and riding it to new places. Join us for an evening of exploring compelling visualizations, global wireless connections, ubiquitous sensor networks, and other candidates for the role of your personal surfboard on the high‐tech waves that are breaking today.
Peter Coffee has been with salesforce.com for two years, following 18 years as Technology Editor of the enterprise IT journals PC Week and eWEEK. He was previously the first manager of PC planning at The Aerospace Corporation, where he also worked in space asset management applications of AI techniques. Before that, he was a Senior Engineer in arctic project management, chemical facility construction, and synthetic fuels project planning for several divisions of Exxon.
He holds an engineering degree from MIT and an MBA from Pepperdine University; he has been a faculty member in IT management at Pepperdine and also at UCLA (computer science) and Chapman College (business analytics). He is the author of two books, How to Program Java and Peter Coffee Teaches PCs.
Meeting Details:
Place: Chef Hannes, 411 1/2 Main Street, El Segundo, CA 90245, (310) 640 - 0164 meeting at the Train Room
RSVP: By Feb 13 to Ms. Irena Kageorgis, irenakageorgis@ieee.org
Information: Dr. Antonio Mendez, mendezRDA@aol.com
Dinner: $20/IEEE & ACM Members, $25/Non-members, $10/Student Members
6:00 — Chef Hannes Dinner and Professional Networking
7:30 — Presentation (no fee for the presentation)
A complete flier, in PDF format, with a map and picture of the restaurant for easy reference, is posted here.
Many thanks to Dr. Antonio Mendez for setting this up and including us!
