Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, February 2, 2004 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

William A. Wulf

"Challenges for Computing and Information Technology In the 21st Century"

ABSTRACT -- Information Technology, the convergence of computing and communications technologies has had an enormous impact on all aspects of life in the developed world. It will have even more impact in both the developed and developing world as we enter the 21st century. Powered by the unprecedented and continuing advances in microelectronics and photonics, the power and capacity of our expanding information infrastructure has risen exponentially while simultaneously its cost has fallen, also exponentially. At least for the foreseeable future, the exponential pace of technology improvement is likely to continue. In this lecture some of the non-technical, societal challenges and opportunities posed by information technology will be explored. If some of the right questions are asked, they may provoke serious thought that will provide answers for these challenges.

SPEAKER -- Dr. Wm. A. Wulf was elected President of the National Academy of Engineering in 1997. He is on leave from the University of Virginia, where he is a University Professor. His research spans computer architecture, computer security, programming languages, and optimizing compilers. In 1988-90 he was also on leave to be Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation. Prior to joining Virginia, Dr. Wulf founded a software company, Tartan Laboratories, based on research he did while on the faculty at Carnegie-Mellon University. In addition to being a member of the National Academy of Engineering, he is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Corresponding Member of the Academia Espanola De Ingeniera, and a Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is also a Fellow of four professional societies: the ACM, the IEEE, the AAAS, and AWIS. He is the author of over 100 papers and technical reports, has written three books, holds two US Patents, and has supervised over 25 Ph.D.'s in Computer Science.