The One Laptop Per Child project and the MontanaLinux.org OLPC Lending Lab

Topics covered:
1) OLPC project overview - Goals, Successes and Failures
2) Current status of the hardware and software
3) MontanaLinux.org's OLPC Lending Lab overview - Goals

There will be several (probably 5) OLPCs XO-1 laptops for hands on.

Topic TBA

An Introduction to Discrete Frechet Distance and Its Applications

Dr. Binhai Zhu, Professor, Computer Science Department

MSU-Bozeman

Abstract

Frechet distance was first introduced by Maurice Frechet in 1906.

It has been widely used to measure the similarity of polygonal chains

since early 1990s. In this talk I will introduce the discrete Frechet distance,

which is simpler and sometimes biologically more meaningful than the

(continuous) Frechet distance, and some of its applications. I will also

describe several research problems for graduate students.

While containing some technical details, this talk is expected to be

understandable by the general public.

Abstract: Software designs decay as systems, uses, and operational environments evolve.  As software ages the original realizations of design patterns may remain in place, while participants in design pattern realizations accumulate grime – non-pattern-related code.  In this talk I discuss the extent to which software designs actually decay, rot and accumulate grime by presenting research about the aging of design patterns in successful object oriented systems.  By focusing on design patterns we can identify code constructs that conflict with well formed pattern structures.  Design pattern rot is the deterioration of the structural integrity of a design pattern realization.  Grime buildup in design patterns is a form of decay that does not break the structural integrity of a pattern but can reduce system testability and adaptability.

The Rocky Mountain Supercomputing Centers, Inc. (RMSC) is a catalyst and leader offering supercomputing platforms as a service model for Cloud Computing. RMSC can help remove the capacity and time-to-solution constraints of an enterprise showing the strategic impact that supercomputing can make to generate insight and results traditionally not possible before. RMSC's mission is to enable academia, business, governments and tribal nations to use high-performance computing (HPC) to solve difficult problems and gain a competitive advantage. We work with organizations of all sizes to create collaborations, projects and programs appropriate to their goals and budget. Effectively, RMSC has democratized supercomputing for the masses. This seminar will describe RMSC's business model and the Supercomputing Platform as a Service (SPaaS) offerings that are readily available to academia.

Prof. Dapeng Oliver Wu
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Florida

Abstract
Next-generation wireless networks are expected to provide quality of service (QoS) guarantees. In this talk, I will present our recently developed theory, called RED theory, for QoS provisioning in wireless networks. The RED theory is used to quantify the relationship among data rate (R), packet error probability (E), and delay bound (D), under the interaction between the link layer and the physical layer. Our results provide important insights about optimal rate control policy for joint link layer and physical layer design; the proposed RED Pareto surface represents a major step toward deriving the probabilistic delay-constrained channel capacity of fading channels, which is an unsolved problem in information theory.

Attendance is required for all graduate students and faculty. John Paxton will discuss graduate regulations and our new courses-only MS. Faculty will briefly describe their research interests.