On Friday, November 6 the Computer Science Department will host its final colloquium of the Fall 2015 semester.  Dr. Mark Russo, an adjunct professor with the department, will give a talk entitled “Big Data in the Chem Lab”.  An abstract of his talk can be found below.

Abstract:
With the introduction of robotics and other forms of automation into the industrial chemistry laboratory it has become possible to monitor laboratory activities at a level of detail that previously has not been possible. In this lecture I will describe the information technology used to retrofit several analysis and purification laboratories at multiple geographic locations to capture, store, digest, and generate revealing real-time visualizations of chemist activities.  The architecture of the system necessary to ensure reliable delivery of event data will be described in detail.  Resulting visualizations of activities are collected into a chemist’s dashboard that is accessible through a web browser.  This dashboard has become a tool that chemists rely upon to carry out their daily activities and that managers use to make just-in-time resource and staffing decisions to ensure that their laboratories run in a highly efficient manner.

Bio:
Mark Russo is an Associate Director in Computational Genomics at Bristol-Myers Squibb where he has worked on a broad range of information technology and automation projects that span the scientific disciplines found in pharmaceutical and biotechnology research.  Mark earned his PhD in Biochemical Engineering from Rutgers University where he studied the artificial intelligence in high performance computing.  Prior to joining Bristol-Myers Squibb, Mark worked at several pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies where he led groups with the mission of applying diverse technologies to solving problems in research.  He has also served as the Executive Editor for the Journal of Laboratory Automation and taught professional short courses in laboratory robotics, computer programming and image processing.  Mark has held adjunct teaching positions in the computer science departments of Drexel University, Bryn Mawr College, Rowan University, and The College of New Jersey.

The first Computer Science Colloquium of the semester will be held on Friday, March 27.  Dr. André Bondi, Senior Staff Engineer at Siemens Corporation, Corporate Technology in Princeton will give a talk entitled “Methods and Processes for Ensuring the Performance of Software Systems”.  An abstract of his talk can be found below.

Please join CS faculty and students in Forcina Hall 408 from 12:30 – 1:30 PM for this talk.  Pizza and refreshments will be provided.

Abstract:
Performance is an essential and desirable attribute of any software system. Poor performance is a frequent cause of project failure, and can render a system difficult and undesirable to use. Despite this, it is often treated as an afterthought at many stages of the software lifecycle. The painful rollout of a well-known public web-based system in October 2013 underscores the resulting perils. In this talk, we discuss the role of various performance engineering techniques in ensuring the suitable performance of a software system. The choice of performance metrics is crucial to the development of testable performance requirements. The performance requirements influence architectural and technology choices for implementation. Performance models can aid in the planning of performance tests to verify that performance requirements have been met, while informing design and architectural choices that affect system performance and scalability. In this talk, we describe a performance engineering process and its role in the software lifecycle. We illustrate the talk with examples of the interpretation of performance test data in the context of performance models.

Bio:
André Bondi is a Senior Staff Engineer working in performance software and systems engineering at Siemens Corp., Corporate Technologies in Princeton. His book on performance engineering, Foundations of Software and Systems Performance Engineering: Process, Performance Modeling, Requirements, Testing, Scalability, and Practice was published by Addison-Wesley in August 2014. Dr. Bondi has worked on performance issues in several domains of application, including telecommunications, conveyor systems, financial systems, medical systems, railway control, building surveillance and management, and network management. He has developed and taught corporate training courses on performance requirements and performance engineering. Just prior to joining Siemens, he held senior performance positions at two startup companies. Before that, he spent more than ten years working on a variety of performance, standards, and operational issues at AT&T Labs and its predecessor, Bell Labs. He taught courses in performance, simulation, operating systems principles, and computer architecture at the University of California, Santa Barbara for three years. Dr. Bondi holds a Ph.D. and an M.S. in computer science from Purdue University, an M.Sc. in statistics from University College London, and a B.Sc. in mathematics from the University of Exeter. Dr. Bondi holds nine US patents.

The third Computer Science Colloquium of the semester will be held on Friday, November 7.  Mr. Shawn Sivy, Director of Networking & Technical Services at TCNJ, will give a talk entitled “This Is Not Your Home Network: Understanding the Design of the TCNJ Wireless and Wired Networks, How They Work, and How To Get the Most Out of Them”.

Please join CS faculty and students in Science Complex Room P101 from 12:30 – 1:30 PM for this talk.  Pizza and refreshments will be provided.