Fall04-Revised Csnewsletter Print
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
(Message from the Chair continued from page 10) news as it happens, by subscrib- 25 YEARS ing to our mailing list at http:// CS@CU lists.cs.columbia.edu/mailman/ listinfo/cucs-news. We are also experimenting with a depart- mental blog to provide links and comments on topics of general NEWSLETTER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY VOL.1 NO.3 WINTER 2005 interest in computer science (http://columbiacs.blogspot.com). Alumni can find our new portal at http://alum.cs.columbia.edu, where they can look up fellow alumni, see job listings received by the Department and share their current whereabouts and activities. We always look forward to hearing from our former students, faculty and staff. We plan to provide more opportunities to meet other alumni, as well as other alumni-oriented webservices. Please get in touch with me if you have ideas for alumni- related services and events. Regards, and best wishes for 2005. CS Building exterior construction completed, December 1982. Department of Computer Science Columbia University NON-PROFIT ORG. 1214 Amsterdam Avenue U.S. POSTAGE Mailcode: 0401 PAID New York, NY 10027-7003 NEW YORK, NY PERMIT 4332 At the 25th Anniversary Dinner (from left to right): SEAS Vice Dean Morton B. Friedman; SEAS Dean Zvi Galil, a former chair of the CS Department; Peter Likins, President of the University of ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED Message from the Chair Arizona and former SEAS dean under whose leadership the Department was founded; Professor Henning Schulzrinne; Professor Joseph Traub, the founding Chair of the Department; and keynote Henning those times computer science speaker Robert Kahn, President of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI). Schulzrinne, was not yet universally recog- nized as an academic discipline. students, about 160 Masters our broad and deep coverage to Professor The event was highlighted by a students, and 145 undergradu- provide more than just a text- & Chair one-day symposium by current ate majors. The Department’s book education to our students. This fall, the new faculty and alumni, with a research and teaching is For example, our low student- Department of keynote address by Bob Kahn supported by 16 administrative to-faculty ratio allows us to Computer Science at Columbia and a retrospective from the staff and 5 system administra- offer individually supervised University was proud to first department chair, Joe Traub tors. Last year, we conducted research projects, with almost celebrate its 25th anniversary (see pg.7). The article on pg.7 research supported by almost all MS students and many of under the banner “Academic provides more details and links $10 million of external funding. the undergraduates taking part Excellence, Innovative to photos and video recordings. Since 1979, we have graduated in at least one such project during their time at Columbia. Research.” The celebration The Department has now 34 more than 150 PhDs, now began with a dinner with Peter faculty, complemented by an working in most of the major Despite the vastly wider scope Likins, the current President of increasing number of adjunct computer-science-related labora- and reach of computer science the University of Arizona. professors from local research tories and in many universities, as a whole, the Department’s In the late 1970’s, Peter as laboratories teaching advanced both in the United States and faculty and students have provost of Columbia University graduate courses. Unlike most beyond. 1620 undergraduates continued to work together, in was one of the principal individ- other departments, our PhD, have received a Columbia CS research groups, long-term uals who helped create the MS and undergraduate student degree over the years, along collaborations and shorter-term Department. This was a bold populations are of the same with 1206 MS students. We research projects. move for Columbia because in magnitude, with 124 PhD want to continue to leverage (continued on page 10) CS@CU NEWSLETTER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY WWW.CS.COLUMBIA.EDU CS@CU WINTER 2005 1 Featured Project Other News In cooperation with the National Emergency Digital Number Association (NENA), MapInfo and Texas A&M University, two Columbia Computer Science Systems students, Matthew Mintz-Habib and Anshuman Rawat, together with Professor Henning Schulzrinne Group are working on designing and prototyping the next generation of emergency calling (“9-1-1”) for Luca Carloni Stephen Edwards Steven Nowick the United States and beyond. The Digital Systems Professor Luca Carloni joined Professor Stephen Edwards is Professor Steven Nowick is Group includes faculty Columbia University in Fall an Assistant Professor of an Associate Professor of 2004 as an Assistant Professor Computer Science, who joined Computer Science, who joined members Luca Carloni, of Computer Science after the department in 2001. the department in 1993. His Stephen Edwards, completing his PhD in His group works on applying research focuses on the devel- and Steven Nowick. Electrical Engineering and compiler technology to opment of asynchronous and The existing 911 system has Unlike the traditional telephone Computer Science at UC problems in embedded system mixed-timing digital systems. Re-Engineering evolved slowly since its begin- version, this system can Berkeley. Luca also holds design. The long-term goal is Asynchronous circuits are nings in the 1970s, often still easily migrate call handling a Laureate in Electrical to simplify the task of creating those which have no global using the same technology. should the primary call center Engineering from the such systems by supplying clock. Unlike synchronous the Nation’s For example, information about be overloaded or disrupted. University of Bologna, Italy, tools that raise the level of systems, which are governed the caller is limited to eight or Longer term, still photos and and a MS in Engineering from abstraction presented to by centralized control, asyn- 9-1-1 System ten digit phone numbers which live bidirectional video, e.g., UC Berkeley. His research a designer. Recent projects chronous chips are fine-grained are then used to look up the from camera phones, can interests include design include the first open-source concurrent distributed sys- street address of the caller allow emergency personnel to technologies for electronic compiler for the Esterel real- tems: composed of separate based on telephone company better assess the nature and systems, embedded systems time language able to produce hardware ‘objects’, which subscriber data. severity of the incident, as design, computer architecture both hardware and software operate at their own rates, and The proliferation of cell phones well as to provide pre-arrival and engineering, and combina- from the same specification, which coordinate and synchro- and, most recently, voice-over- first-aid instruction. torial optimization. In particular, domain-specific languages and nize through local channel IP (VoIP) technology is stretch- The project is funded by a Luca is interested in deriving compilers for device drivers communication. There has ing the ability of the system grant from the National new design methods for high and hardware/software-inter- been a recent resurgence of to keep up. For example, Telecommunications and performance integrated circuits faces, and program analysis interest in industry and acade- despite investment of billions Information Administration and for distributed embedded algorithms for pointer analysis mia in asynchronous design as of dollars, only about 30% (NTIA) and the Center for systems based on rigorous and incremental automata- a modular and scalable design of the nation can currently Advanced Telecommunication mathematical reasoning. based program verification. style, as synchronous design- receive caller location from Technology (CATT). During his PhD studies, ers confront formidable mobile phones, leading to Luca has developed the theory http://www.cs.columbia.edu/ challenges of managing chip delays in dispatching emer- http://www.cs.columbia.edu/IRT/sos of latency-insensitive design ~sedwards design complexity, high-speed gency assistance. For VoIP, and the companion design clock distribution, and power the old structure relying on methodology for integrated dissipation. Professor Nowick’s mapping telephone numbers circuits. This is a correct-by- research is supported by 2 to locations fails completely. construction approach that medium-sized NSF ITR grants handles latency’s increasing for $2.5 million (joint with This has led a number of impact on nanometer technolo- Profs. Peter Beerel at USC and organizations to work together gies and facilitates the reuse Kenneth Shepard at Columbia to design and prototype a next- of intellectual-property cores EE Department). His main generation, packet-based infra- for building complex systems- research projects include: CAD SIPc receives call structure that is slated to slowly on-chip, thereby reducing tools for the synthesis and replace the existing analog, the number of costly iterations optimization of asynchronous circuit-switched system over in the design process. The systems, high-speed asynchro- the next decade. The new concept of latency-insensitive nous pipelines, interface system relies on the Session design is now under close circuits for mixed-timing Initiation Protocol (SIP) for call investigation by major semi- domains, and design issues signaling, carrying end system conductor companies