Meeting Agenda
Wednesday, January 31, 1996
- Location:
- DC 1304
- Time:
- 12:30 PM
- Chair:
- Saar Friedman
1. Adoption of the Agenda - additions or deletions
2. Coffee Hour
- Coffee hour this week:
- Don Dragomatz
-
- Coffee hour next week:
- ???
3. Next meeting
- Date:
- February 7, 1996
- Location:
- DC 1304
- Time:
- 12:30 PM
- Chair:
- Ryan Gunther
- Technical presentation:
- Ed Dengler
4. Forthcoming
- Chairs:
- Fabrice Jaubert
- Rick Kazman
- Gilles Khouzam
- Tech Presenters:
- Don Dragomatz
- Saar Friedman
- Ryan Gunther
5. Technical Presentations
- Presenter:
- Matthew Davidchuk
- Title: Efficient collision detection
- Abstract:
-
Collision detection is a fundamental problem in solid
modeling, robotics, animation, and computer-simulated
environments. I will briefly discuss a collision
detection library which implements algorithms
based on the coherence of objects being modelled.
6. General Discussion Items
- Fabrice Jaubert: I will take physeter down for about 15 minutes sometime
this week, to fiddle with some jumpers. The exact date and time is not set,
and depends on when the local SGI expert can come over and lend a hand.
Expect approximately 10 minutes notice.
7. Action List
- Richard, Rob: Side FX/U of T visit; early March
8. Director's Meeting
9. Seminars
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
SEMINAR ACTIVITIES
SYMBOLIC COMPUTATION SEMINAR
-Thursday, February 1, 1996
Ernst Joachim Weniger, Dept of Applied Math, will speak
on ``Nonlinear sequence transformations for the
summation of strongly divergent series.''
TIME: 3:30-4:30 p.m.
ROOM: DC 1304
ABSTRACT
Sequence transformations, which transform a slowly
oo
convergent or divergent sequence {s } into a new
n n=0
oo
sequence {s ' } with hopefully better numerical
n n=0
properties, are principal tools to overcome convergence
problems [C. Brezinski and M. Redivo Zaglia,
Extrapolation methods (North-Holland, Amsterdam,
------------- -------
1991)]. Some sequence transformations are presented,
which use explicit remainder estimates and which are
consequently particularly suited for the summation of
strongly divergent series [E.J. Weniger, Comput. Phys.
Rep. 10 (1989), 189 - 371].
Some examples from special function theory and from
quantum mechanical perturbation theory are presented
which show that divergent series can be used for the
computation of the functions they represent if they are
combined with sequence transformations of the kind
mentioned above.
For example, it is shown that the so-called strong
coupling expansion
(m) 1/(m+1) oo (m) -2n/(m+1)
E (BETA)=BETA ,sum K BETA
n=0 n
(m)
for the ground state energy E (BETA) of an the
anharmonic oscillator described by the Hamiltonians
^ (m) ^2 ^2 ^ 2m
H (BETA)=p +x + BETA x , m=2,3,4
can be constructed from the strongly divergent weak
coupling expansion
(m) oo (m) n
E (BETA)= sum b BETA .
n=0 n
==================================================================
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
SEMINAR ACTIVITIES
DATABASE SEMINAR
-Friday, February 2, 1996
Weiye Zhang, graduate student, Dept. Comp. Sci., Univ.
Waterloo, will speak ``SQL Predicate Conversion in
Multidatabase Systems''.
TIME: 2:00-3:00 p.m.
ROOM: DC 1331
ABSTRACT
In a multidatabase system, the local database systems
may use different character sets. The difference
between the collating sequences of the character sets
results in the semantic difference of queries. When a
query moves among these local systems, the predicates
of the query have to be converted to keep the semantics
consistent. This talk presents a general solution of
the SQL predicate conversion based on the difference
between the collating sequences. Since the converted
predicates are usually complicated, we introduce
several techniques for predicate simplification.
Imprecise queries and simplification optimization are
the major concern in our current research.
==================================================================
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
SEMINAR ACTIVITIES
DATABASE SEMINAR
-Friday, February 2, 1996
Professor L. Kerschberg, Director, Center for
Information Systems Integration and Evolution Chair,
Department of Information and Software Systems
Engineering School of Information Technology and
Engineering, George Mason University will speak on ``The
Engineering of Large-Scale Data-Intensive Information
Systems''.
TIME: 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
ROOM: DC 1331
ABSTRACT
Large-scale data-intensive information systems require
architectures that allow them to evolve over their
life-time. In this presentation we present a case study
of an architectural design study of NASA's Earth
Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS).
This is presently the largest US government-sponsored
science project.
The architecture describes the multiple facets of this
complex data and information system: data acquisition
and storage, product scheduling and generation, meta-
data and knowledge representation and management, as
well as information access, retrieval and distribution.
A federated client-server software architecture is
developed to support EOSDIS. Client software presents
an integrated view of information resources through a
collection of active, intelligent thesauri which
constitute an "information web."
Information integration and mediation services support
user subscription services for data products, the
distribution of large quantities of data, and the
production of value-added data products. Moreover,
intelligent and cooperative query formulation
strategies are used to assist users in browsing and
retrieving large data sets, which may reside in
multiple heterogeneous information systems.
Specialized servers handle meta-data, product
generation, product storage and product distribution. A
data warehouse concept is proposed to store and
distribute popular data products, while "Info Marts"
develop value-added data products for specialized user
communities such as global change research, weather
forecasting, and K-12 educational materials.
Biographical Sketch for Dr. Larry Kerschberg
Larry Kerschberg is Professor and Chairman of the
Department of Information and Software Systems
Engineering in the School of Information Technology and
Engineering at George Mason University. He is also
Director of the Center for Information Systems
Integration and Evolution. Professor Kerschberg holds a
Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from Case Western Reserve
University, an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a B.Sc. degree in
Engineering Science from Case Institute of Technology.
Dr. Kerschberg's research is in the areas of data and
knowledge models, database design, active data
dictionaries, distributed query processing, object-
oriented systems, software architecture, knowledge
discovery in databases and expert database systems. His
current research projects include Information
Integration and Interchange: A Federated Systems
Approach as well as Knowledge Discovery in Databases,
both sponsored by ARPA, Sustaining Engineering - Life
Cycle Support for Evolutionary Software Development,
sponsored by NASA.
He recently served as a Co-Principal Investigator on an
interdisciplinary team consisting of Earth Scientists,
Information Scientists, and Computer Scientists who
formulated a hardware and software architecture for
NASA's Earth Observing System, called Mission to Planet
Earth.
Dr. Kerschberg serves as Coordinating Editor-in-Chief
of the Journal of Intelligent Information Systems. He
served as General Chair of the ACM SIGMOD/PODS
Conference held in Washington, D.C., in May 1993. Dr.
Kerschberg organized and has served as Program Chairman
of both the First and Second International Conferences
on Expert Database Systems. These conferences helped to
provide impetus for ongoing research in the integration
of artificial intelligence and database technologies.
He is past Chairman of the IEEE Computer Society's
Technical Committee on Data Engineering.
10. Lab Cleanup (until 1:30 or 5 minutes)