Prograph is a commercially available, visual, object-oriented, data-flow language. It is well suited to graphical user interface development, but is as powerful for general-purpose programming as any textual language.
The talk will comprise a discussion of the problems of textual languages that visual languages solve, a live demonstration of Prograph, and some of my observations of the applications of Prograph to software development.
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
SEMINAR ACTIVITIES
MASTER'S ESSAY PRESENTATION/SYMBOLIC COMPUTATION
SEMINAR
-Thursday, March 16, 1995
Hoan Pham, Graduate Student, Symbolic Computation
Group, Department of Computer Science, University of
Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, will speak on "Finite
Fields and Error Correcting Codes in Maple".
TIME: 1:00-2:00 p.m.
ROOM: DC 1304
ABSTRACT
Finite fields and Euclidean domains of polynomials over
these fields represent one of the most basic concepts
of the algebraic theory of error-correcting codes. The
paper explores the use of Maple as a learning tool to
study the algebraic aspects of the theory of error-
correcting codes. This includes extending the
Gauss[GaloisField] of Maple to handle primitive
elements of finite fields, expressions containing
unevaluated variables, and different representations of
the same element. The Maple linear algebra package is
also supplemented to handle matrices over finite
fields. Based on the Maple operations on finite fields,
operations for linear codes, cyclic codes, encoding and
decoding for BCH codes and RS codes are implemented and
can be used as a learning tool to study the theory of
error correcting codes.
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
SEMINAR ACTIVITIES
MASTER'S THESIS PRESENTATION
-Friday, March 17, 1995
K.J. Lichtner, graduate student, Dept. Comp. Sci.,
Univ. Waterloo, will speak on "An Information Retrieval
Facility for USENET News".
TIME: 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon
ROOM: DC 1331
ABSTRACT
Sustained growth in the Internet has lead to a dramatic
increase in the amount of electronic information
available to users. Although potentially valuable,
much of the available information is of low-quality.
To cope with this fact, users require resource
discovery tools which not only selectively filter and
organize information for efficient browsing, but also
permit more expressive queries than traditional
information retrieval systems. In this talk I will
describe the Selective USENET Retrieval Facility
(SURF), a prototype Netnews information filter. SURF
extends standard information retrieval models by
allowing more expressive, regular-expression based user
queries, and uses descriptive markup to provide
consistent organization for the filtered information.
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
SEMINAR ACTIVITIES
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SEMINAR
-Monday, March 20, 1995
J. Greer, ARIES Laboratory, Dept. Comp. Sci.,
University of Saskatchewan, will speak on "AI in
Education - the old and the new".
TIME: 9:30 a.m. -11:30 a.m.
ROOM: DC 1304
ABSTRACT
There is a long tradition of applying AI techniques and
methods to the problem of conceptualizing and building
instructional systems. This work was characterized by
early research into Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs)
and has evolved into the (more politically correct)
construction of Adaptive Learning Environments (ALEs).
Education is an interesting application area for AI
techniques. Every technique is challenged and
stretched when forced to encounter real human learners.
Diagnosing bugs in learners' cognitive processes is no
trivial matter. Trying to make sense out of students'
creatively idiosyncratic plans is tough. Trying to
dynamically design interesting and motivating
instructional sequences is even tougher! Education
provides fertile ground for torture-testing AI.
Education also provides some context and purpose for
the study of Cognitive Science. It provides a ready
environment for testing theories of cognition. The
main challenge of this environment is its scientific
messiness; some call it ecological validity. In
educational settings normal scientific methodologies,
calling for strictly controlled experiments, fall far
short of being adequate.
This presentation will elaborate on the history of AI
in Education and will bring out some of the modern
issues and problems that researchers are currently
investigating.
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
SEMINAR ACTIVITIES
DATABASES SEMINAR
- Wednesday, March 22, 1995
Jnan Dash, Vice-President, Research, Oracle
Corporation, will speak on "Trends in Database
Technology".
TIME: 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
ROOM: DC 1304
ABSTRACT
As the largest database vendor, Oracle Corporation is
exposed to a variety of customer requirements to
address their needs well into the 21st century.
Database researchers and database vendors can no longer
afford to hide in the comforts of highly structured,
traditional business data. This seminar presents an
overview of database trends as witnessed from a
pragmatic viewpoint, including responses to the
emergence of an information highway, the widespread use
of unstructured data, the need for data warehousing and
data mining, an increasing reliance on client-server
architectures, and the increasing need for improved
systems management.
The University of Waterloo
200 University Avenue
Waterloo, Ontario
The Institute for Computer Research (ICR)
Presents a Colloquium on
Object Oriented PL/1 Support at The Mutual Group
by: Mr. Doug Fickling
Systems Engineer, Support Services
of: The Mutual Group
Mutual Life of Canada
Date: Wednesday, March 15, 1995
Time: 3:30 pm.
Place: William G. Davis Computer Research Centre, Room 1302
Abstract:
Object Oriented PL/1 Support at The Mutual Group has been
developed over the last several years. Included in this talk
will be discussions on the following aspects of the infrastruc-
ture support:
- Why OO PL/1?
What led The Mutual Group to develop this support in-house?
- PL/1 language enhancements
This is the physical alterations to the language to support
messages, data types, classes, and instances.
- Repository Support
This is used for documentation and maintenance of classes, code
and report generation.
- Object Request Broker
This class supports the messages, provides the data encapsula-
tion, polymorphism, and dynamic loading of classes at execution
time. Message tracing and final statistics are also created
here.
- Persistency
The use of storage managers to split the physical aspects of
data from the business view of it.
Biographical Sketch:
Doug Fickling has worked in Support Services on Object Oriented
Support in PL/1 for the last 2 years. He has been programming
PL/1 for 10 years. His role in OO PL/1 has been that of techni-
cal designer, analyst, programmer, and trainer/consultant.
Everyone is welcome. Refreshments served.
The University of Waterloo
200 University Avenue
Waterloo, Ontario
The Institute for Computer Research (ICR)
Presents an Evening Lecture Series on
Standard Generalized Markup Language,
Document Development and On-Line Training
by: Dr. Paul Beam
of: Department of English
University of Waterloo
Date: Monday, March 20, 1995
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Place: William G. Davis Computer Research Centre, Room 1302
Abstract:
Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) is a powerful tool
for organizing and managing documents. Until recently, its com-
plexity has limited its use to organizations with scales of
operation large enough to overcome the high overhead costs asso-
ciated with new concepts of what constitutes a `document'. To-
day, the increasing power of microsystems makes SGML practical on
personal computers. Furthermore, the wide spread of Hypertext
Markup Language (HTML), an SGML subset that drives the World Wide
Web (WWW), increases demand for SGML materials and makes them
widely available.
This talk describes a project to use the power of SGML for teach-
ing document preparation on campus and in business settings. The
testbed for this technology is a course to teach technical writ-
ing and the use of tools that improve technical writing. The
power of SGML makes it possible to modularize the course: users
train on specific techniques related to their own needs, and us-
ing written material from within their own organization. The
more advanced modules are, in effect, customized tools that
trainees will use in their regular operations and writing.
Professor Beam teaches and does research in computer-based learn-
ing, technical documentations and document management. He has
recently completed an appointment with the Canadian Imperial Bank
of Canada as Director of Procedures and Documentation and Forms
Management, where he began a program to implement on-line train-
ing and the development of electronic information tools. He has
worked in research with IBM Canada, Northern Telecom, Bell Cana-
da, the Department of Communications and the Ministry of Educa-
tion, among others and has been the Chair of the University of
Waterloo's Centre for Professional Writing. Current interests
include development of educational materials on the World Wide
Web and business-based on-line training in technical writing and
the development of information systems.
Everyone is welcome. Refreshments served.
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
SEMINAR ACTIVITIES
COMPUTER SCIENCE SEMINAR
-Wednesday, March 15, 1995
Allan Silburt, Manager, H/W System Modelling, Bell
Northern Research, will speak on "Behavioural Modeling
in ASIC Design and System Verification".
TIME: 1:30-2:30 p.m.
ROOM: DC 1302
ABSTRACT
The advent of gate level synthesis technology has
brought Hardware Description Languages such as Verilog
and VHDL into common usage in ASIC design. However,
the full potential of these languages as vehicles to
drive the specification and verification process has
not been fully exploited. In this talk, a process will
be described which involves the use of a behavioural
model as an essential component of an individual ASIC
specification, as well as serving an essential role in
ASIC and board verification. In deploying this process
on a large ASIC intensive system (8 ASICs totaling
about 500K gates of complexity) over 200 issues of
which 32 were of highest priority were made visible
early in the implementation. In addition, the ASIC
design cycle was reduced due to the concurrent RTL
coding and top level verification that was enabled by
following this flow. The presentation will include
metrics on design effort for these models, their
distinction from synthesizable RTL models, simulation
speed, bugs found during the various stages of
verification and overall impact on the design interval.
NOTE: Because of some job opportunities at BNR,
graduating students (preferably with Master's degree)
with experience and interest in hardware modelling and
verification using hardware description languages are
encouraged to attend.