Clean Slate Special Guest Speaker: Jeannette Wing

Jeanette Wing,

Assistant Director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering,

National Science Foundation

 

Title: Network Science and Engineering Research Challenges

Date: May 21, 2008

Time: 12 - 1 PM; Lunch served 11:30 AM

Location: Packard 101

 

Abstract:

Our computing networks are complex systems.  We are in an age where nodes in our networks range from billions of small, mobile physical devices to billions of people around the world; links range in technology from wireless and optical at the physical layer to acquaintance and trust relationships at the societal layer.  I pose the following challenge to the research community: Can we develop a science to understanding the complexity of our networks so that we can engineer them to have predictable behavior?   I  frame the challenge to define a compelling research agenda for network science and engineering in terms of three dimensions: societal, technical, and science drivers.  In imagining our networks of the future, this research agenda would naturally include an identification of experiments to validate our new theories.