Cool Stuff in Computer Science

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February 25, 2004

Thursday 26th

[copy and paste from matt]
WHEN : Tomorrow (Thursday), 5:30 PM
WHERE : SE 14
WHAT : C.G. Johnson speaking on "Swarm Intelligence"
WHY : Because it's cool stuff in computer science

Even though I messed up his time slot a few weeks back, Collin has agreed
to reschedule and present to the CSCS group this week on the topic of
swarm intelligence. This is the study of systems where many agents, often
dumb as rocks when left on their own, work together in ways that cause
useful behavior to "emerge" when thousands or millions of agents are
working together.

CSCS is open to anyone and everyone; if the topic sounds interesting,
please come along for the talk. It will last around 45 mintues, and be
followed with some open-ended discussion on the topic and (to a lesser or
greater degree) how it relates to the current project going on in CSCS.

Get there or die trying,
Matt

PS -

If you want to read a quick overview on the topic, you might look at

http://dsp.jpl.nasa.gov/members/payman/swarm/sciam/

which is a scan of an article written in 2000 from the magazine "Nature".

Posted by rwatkins at 09:03 PM | Comments (0)

February 12, 2004

Evolution of a language

Via Lambda the Ultimate, you might find this article on the evolution of Lua interesting.

Languages are tools. You wouldn't hire a carpenter to build your house who only knew how to use a hammer: everything he saw would look like a nail. You'd want a carpenter who knew how to use a tape measure, screw driver, level, chalk line, and a host of other tools. Likewise, as an up-and-coming computer scientist, you should (I think) make understanding each new programming language you encounter a priority. They represent new ways of thinking.

At Kent, you get to see three languages in depth, at least two of which are interesting: Haskell, Java, and occam. Enjoy them.

Posted by mjadud at 03:21 AM | Comments (0)

February 09, 2004

Talks this week

I'll start trying to post talks in the department that look interesting.

---

TITLE	Mathematical models of immune system interactions
WHO	Andy Hone (Applied Maths, University of Kent)
WHEN	Wednesday 11th Feb at 1pm.
WHERE	SW 102
ABSTRACT	Some simple deterministic models of the biological immune system are reviewed and compared with descriptions of artificial immune systems (AIS). Both discrete and continuous models are considered, in order to see what the theory of dynamical systems can tell us about the behaviour of AIS, and whether this can provide us with better models of real immune systems.
PRE-REVIEW	Because this is a maths talk in the CS department, it probably assumes less background, and is therefore probably suitable for people with an interest, but not a solid background, in either the maths or the AIS stuff. Probably a good talk for CSCS people interested in this stuff.

---

TITLE	Flexible, Transparent and Dynamic occam Networking With KRoC.net
WHO	Mario Schweigler (Computing Laboratory, University of Kent)
WHEN	Thursday 12th Feb at 4pm.
WHERE	SW 102
ABSTRACT	KRoC.net is an extension to KRoC supporting the distribution of occam channels over networks, including the internet. Starting in 2001, the development of KRoC.net has gone through a number of stages, each one making the system more flexible, transparent and dynamic. It now enables the occam programmer to set up and close network channels dynamically. Configuration has been simplified. All occam PROTOCOLs can now be sent over network channels, without need for conversion. Many of the new dynamic features in occam have been used to improve KRoC.net. Many of the concepts in KRoC.net are similar to those in the JCSP Network Edition (JCSP.net), KRoC.net's counterpart in the JCSP world. This talk will give an overview over KRoC.net, its usage, its design and implementation, and its future. It will also provide some benchmarks and discuss how the new occam features are being used in the latest KRoC.net version.
PRE-REVIEW	Probably not intended for people new to occam, and may be challenging for newbies (or people who have never seen the language before) to follow. Will be about the implementation of a language with many concurrency and parallel programming features, which might appeal, however.

Posted by mjadud at 03:06 PM