Alumni Speakers

Monday 31 March 2008:

Dr Gordon Bell, Principal Research, Microsoft Research Group, San Francisco
Presentation Topic: Now it's all about data

Abstract

Computer Scientists are challenged by the need to exploit multiple core, multi-threaded processors per chip that are and a clock that just can’t easily be sped up. For the last decade the improvements are in disk technology that have exceeded Moore’s Law  providing a factor of 1000 in density, providing one Terabyte disks in 2007. In addition wireless and sensors are enabling the interconnection with everything everywhere to create a huge data source. In the case of science, just dealing with the vast amount of data is going to require a sea change in the way science is done. Collaboration with computer scientists who can help transform the world wide scientific enterprise will be essential. Likewise, business will change too as every transaction is of potential value in the operation of the firm. All data has to become “smart data” that conjures up the need for ontologies and controlled vocabularies.

Biography

Gordon Bell is a principal researcher with the Microsoft Research Group, San Francisco (1995-) working on a system, MyLifeBits to capture everything in a person’s life.  His career includes: vice president of R & D, Digital Equipment Corp. (1960-1983);  Professor of Computer Science and electrical engineering, Carnegie-Mellon University (1966-72); founding Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation's Computing and Information Sciences and Engineering (CISE) Directorate (1986-1988); National Research and Education Network (NREN) panel chair (1987-1988) for creating the internet; advisor/investor in 100+ start-up companies; and a founding trustee of the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA. He is a Diamond Exchange Fellow, on TTI Vanguard’s Advisory Board, and the Dept. of Energy’s Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee.

Since 1987 he has sponsored the ACM’s Gordon Bell Prizes for parallelism awarded annually at Supercomputing. He has BS and MS degrees from MIT (1956-57), University of New South Wales Fulbright Scholar (1957-58), honorary D. Eng. from WPI (1993), and is a member of the AAAS, ACM, IEEE, and the National Academies of Engineering (1977) and Sciences (2007). Awards include: ACM-IEEE Eckert-Mauchly Award, the IEEE’s Computer Pioneer and IEEE McDowell Awards, and the IEEE Von Neumann Medal (1992), Mellon Institute Award, Fellow of the Computer History Museum, the AEA Inventor Award for the economic contribution to New England, the IEEE 2001 Karapetoff Eminent Member's Award of Eta Kappa Nu, and The 1991 National Medal of Technology "for his continuing intellectual and industrial achievements in the field of computer design; and for his leading role in establishing ... computers that serve as a significant tool for engineering, science, and industry."

Specifically, he was the architect of various mini- and time-sharing computers (DEC PDP-6) and led the development of DEC's VAX and the VAX Computing Environment. Bell has been involved in or responsible for, the design of many products at Digital and a score of other companies.  Bell has authored books and papers about computers and start-up companies including Computer Structures with Allen Newell (1971) and Dan Siewiorek and Allen Newell (1982). High Tech Ventures: The Guide to Entrepreneurial Success (1991), describes the Bell-Mason Model and Diagnostic, for analyzing new ventures. Bell’s Law describes how semiconductor and communication technology evolves to create new computer classes and industries.