Ten Minute Madness Duncan A' Buell

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Ten Minute MadnessDuncan A. Buell
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Research Initiatives

• Parallel computing and scientific computation
• Reconfigurable computing
• Computational biology
• Computer security

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Parallel Computing/Scientific Computation

• 32 processor Beowulf machine
• Opportunities for collaboration with other depts
• Electrical engineering (VTB)
• Biological sciences
• Chemical engineering

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Reconfigurable Computing

• Design hardware with a computer program
• Not really special purpose hardware, but perhaps
  10x to 100x the performance of GP computers
• Applications in
• Computational biology
• Computer security
• Image processing

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Computational Biology

• Analysis of genetic data from a cancer experiment
• Image analysis
• Data mining
• Pattern finding
• Phylogenetics
• Tree searching
• Software to be parallelised
• Algorithms to be implemented on reconf HW

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Computer Security

• Can we improve the ability to analyse packet
  traffic?
• Perhaps using reconfigurable hardware to speed up
  the determination of signatures?

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• The purpose of computing is insight, not
  numbers.
• (Richard Hamming)
• Sometimes the purpose of computing is numbers.
• (Paul Schneck)