Meeting Agenda

Wednesday, May 21^th, 1997

Location:

DC 2303 --- ***NOTE CHANGE FROM USUAL LOCATION***

Time:

13:30

Chair:

Liddy Olds

1. Adoption of the Agenda - additions or deletions

2. Coffee Hour

Coffee hour this week:

Navid Sadikali

Coffee hour next week:

???

3. Next meeting

Date:

May 28^th, 1997

Location:

DC 1304

Time:

13:30

Chair:

Clara Tsang

Technical presentation:

Navid Sadikali

4. Forthcoming

Chairs:

1. Teresa Yeung (6/4)
2. Tali Zvi (6/11)
3. Balasingham Balakumaran (6/18)

Tech Presenters:

1. Clara Tsang (6/4)
2. Teresa Young (6/11)
3. Tali Zvi (6/18)

5. Technical Presentation

Presenter:

Mark Riddell

Title:

From Concept to Compositing: The Digital Animation Process

Abstract:

Computer generated imagery (CGI) has become a buzzword in the entertainment industry. I will discuss the pros and cons of digital animation in contrast to classical drawn and stop-motion animation techniques, as well as give a brief walk-through of the process that studios use to create an animation.

6.General Discussion Items

• Gilles: PC Maintenance
• Steve: May 18th CGL meeting in DC1302 not DC1304.

7. Action List

• Alias Brown Bag Seminar Series

8. Director's Meeting

9. Seminars

• Computing Values of Two Factor Options: How to Spot an Opportunity


Peter Forsyth, Dept of Comp. Sci., Univ. of Waterloo
Friday, May 23, 1997
11am-12noon
DC 1304

The total notional value of outstanding options in 1994 was over $20 trillion, and continues to grow. The rapid growth in options (derivatives) markets is due to the increased demand for such products from banks, corporations, insurance companies, and individual investors. This talk will give a general overview of the assumptions used in option pricing models, and will specifically deal with two factor pricing models. Examples of such models include: stochastic volatility, convertible bonds, two asset options, and Asian options. All these pricing problems can be solved using a general finite-element/finite-volume technique. American early exercise constraints and barriers can also be easily accommodated using this method.

• USING THE C++ STANDARD TEMPLATE LIBRARY


ICR Short Course
June 23, 1997 (Note: rescheduled from May 5, 1997)
9:30 am to 4:30 pm
DC 1304

This one-day course will provide an introduction to C++ templates, with an emphasis on the Standard Template Library. The morning session will focus on templates: why and how to use them. Topics will include class and function templates, member function templates, overload resolution, and specialization. Some vagaries of templates will be discussed: source code organization, instantiation mechanisms, code bloat, and performance issues.

The afternoon session will examine the Standard Template Library. After an introduction to the design philosophy of STL, the components of the library and their use will be described through examples: containers, iterators, function objects, and algorithms.

Course prerequisites: Attendees should be familiar with C++. Some experience in writing class and function templates is recommended. Students who have taken previous ICR introductory courses in C++ will be well prepared for this seminar.

About the Instructor: Todd Veldhuizen is a graduate student in Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo. His articles on C++ template techniques have appeared in C++ Report and Dr. Dobb's. His areas of interest include using templates to solve performance problems associated with object-oriented numerical computing.

Registration Information: Everyone is welcome to attend. Employees of companies that are ICR Corporate Partners/Corporate Associates may attend free-of-charge. ICR faculty members and graduate students supervised by ICR faculty may attend free-of-charge, subject to availability of space.

Fees: The registration fee for this one day short course is $250 (+GST). The fee includes one set of prepared course notes, lunch and refreshment breaks.

To Register: Contact Jean Webster, Institute for Computer Research, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Tel: (519) 888-4530, E-Mail: jrwebste@icr.uwaterloo.ca.

• `Server-Supported Signatures' and 'Optimistic Protocols for Fair Exchange'


N. Asokan, IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Switzerland
Tuesday, May 20, 1997
2:30-3:30 p.m.
DC 1304

Talk #1: 'Server-Supported Signatures'
Non-repudiation is one of the most important security services. In this talk I will present a novel non- repudiation technique, called Server-Supported Signatures, S^3. It is based on one-way hash functions and traditional digital signatures. The basic idea is to enable ordinary users to generate strong signatures by using a powerful server. The trust placed on the server is limited since the design of S^3 makes the behaviour of the server 'verifiable.' S^3 is efficient in terms of computational, communication and storage costs. It also offers a degree of security comparable to that of existing techniques based on asymmetric cryptography.

Talk #2: 'Optimistic Protocols for Fair Exchange'
Exchange is a basic primitive operation in commercial transactions. An important requirement for exchanges is `fairness.' Known solutions to the fair exchange problem fall roughly into two categories: special- purpose cryptographic protocols involving several rounds of interactions and protocols using a third party, mutually trusted to some extent.
In this talk, I will describe an optimistic approach for the fair exchange of various types of digital goods. The protocol is optimistic since a trusted third party is involved only in the case of exceptions. I will also discuss the tradeoff between performance and fairness guarantee in different approaches to using a third party to ensure fair exchange. The optimistic approach can guarantee strong fairness for the exchange of certain classes of goods.

• `SEMPER - Secure Electronic Marketplace for Europe' and 'Designing a Generic Payment Service'


N. Asokan, IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Switzerland,
Thursday, May 22, 1997
3:30-4:30 p.m.
DC 1302

Talk # 1: 'SEMPER - Secure Electronic Marketplace for Europe'
Backed by the European Commission and the Swiss Federal government, a consortium of partners from European industry, financial institutions, and academia has embarked on a research project to develop a framework for a ``secure electronic marketplace.'' In this talk, I will describe the architecture of SEMPER.

Talk #2: 'Designing a Generic Payment Service'
The growing importance of electronic commerce has resulted in the birth of a wide variety of different and incompatible payment systems. For business application writers, this implies several difficulties: they need to understand the details of different mechanisms and quickly adapt their applications as soon as new payment systems are deployed; they also need a way of finding a common means of payment between the payer and payee for every transaction.
In our work as part of the European SEMPER project, we have attempted to design a unified framework that provides a common payment system interface and services for transparent negotiation and selection of payment instruments. This allows applications to be developed independent of specific payment systems. In addition, the framework serves as a central point of control for payment information and policies.

10. Lab Cleanup (until 14:30 or 5 minutes)