Dertouzos Lecturer Series: Dr. Alfred Spector
Dr. Alfred Spector from IBM gave a talk titled "Conundrum of Systems" on February 6th, 2003.
Abstract:
Most software systems are very complicated, by most any metric. As computer scientists, we have delighted in measuring the number of add operations or memory fetches, but the most telling metric would be one that measures the reactions (or pain level) of users and systems administrators, a reaction of frustration, befuddlement, and annoyance. Even programmers often view systems on which they work as ungainly and run amuck. While we computer scientists might like to justify these problems by the newness of our discipline, it is now over 50-years old, and many overly complex systems have been built using the best, widely prescribed techniques of modularity and layering. We try hard to build systems "right" yet they still turn out too complex.
In this talk, I discuss the need for computer scientists to undertake a new study of complexity, not the one focused on time and space, but rather one that defines (perceived) system complexity (to create, to maintain, and to use), objectively quantifies it, and and then seeks to reduce it. I motivate the problem with examples and explain why some well-considered approaches may not have been right. I describe the fascinating challenges in attacking complexity, (1) ranging from agreeing on the meaning of it, (2) learning how to measure it, (3) advancing the science and technology (as, for example, autonomic computing), and perhaps (4) even effecting cultural change within our field. I hope to engender lively discussion that does not end when my lecture is over.
Biography:
Dr. Alfred Z. Spector is vice president of Services and Software in IBM Research responsible for IBM'TMs worldwide services and software research. Previously, Dr. Spector was the general manager of Marketing and Strategy for IBM's AIM business, responsible for a number of IBM software product families including CICS, WebSphere, and MQSeries, and the general manager of IBM's Transaction Systems business. Dr. Spector was also founder and CEO of Transarc Corporation, a pioneer in distributed transaction processing and wide area file systems, and an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Spector is on the board of the Security Industry Middleware Council and a member of the NSF CISE Advisory Board.
Dr. Spector received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University and his A.B. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University. He was the 2001 recipient of the IEEE Computer Society's Tsutomu Kanai Award for major contributions to state-of-the-art distributed computing systems and their applications. Married and a father of three young children, Dr. Spector is an avid runner.
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