Topic: The Mobile Companion: Mobility Research in Silicon Valley

Speaker:   Dr. Martin L. Griss
                Director, Silicon Valley Campus,& Associate Dean, College of Engineering,
                Co-Director, CyLab Mobility Research Center

Location:   Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley (NASA Research Park Building 23) Room 118
Time:        Wednesday, September 30, 2009, 4:00pm-5:00pm
Directions: http://www.cmu.edu/silicon-valley/about-us/directions.html

Slides:       PDF

Abstract:

Today, powerful mobile appliances offer greatly improved access to communication and "conventional" Internet services, integrating email, web access and messaging, and using voice and gesture to compensate for the limited mobile-device interfaces and situational constraints. But now, more can be done to create a next generation of proactive, intrinsically mobile applications that take full advantage of being with the user all day.

A suite of these applications and supporting services in the cloud can become your personal mobile companion or assistant. These context-aware application systems can know where you are, where you have been, and where you are going; they can know where your friends are, and what kind of food you like; they can actively find a preferred place to eat and coordinate with colleagues. They can select and customize useful advertisements, attract offers and coupons appropriate to your needs and interests, and recommend appropriate purchases and activities. They will dynamically adapt their interaction style to your current location and activity; they can filter messages to ensure that the right messages are delivered at the right time and place. To enable this highly personal user experience, these applications collect and use rich context to provide guidance and recommendations and to act on your behalf to enhance your many life, work and play activities, wherever you are.

This talk will describe the vision of the mobile companion and highlight the role of context, such as location, social environment, etc., in enabling the applications and services to realize this vision.  The speaker will also discuss the Silicon Valley Campus and several bicoastal education and research efforts, including the CyLab Mobility Research Center, the ECE PhD and the MSIT-INI program.

Biography:

With over 40 years of experience in software development, education, and research, Dr. Griss spent two decades as Principal Laboratory Scientist at Hewlett-Packard and as Director of HP's 70-person Software Technology Laboratory. Known as HP's "Reuse Rabbi," Martin is a leading authority on software reuse and component-based development and led HP's corporate reuse program. He spearheaded work on software agents and applications for the mobile professional, and software tools and process, UML standards, and component-based software engineering. He has been involved since 2003 in building Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley, directing programs in Software Engineering and Software Management, serving as Associate Dean for Education, and for Research, and now as Director of the Silicon Valley Campus, and Associate Dean, College of Engineering.