Colloquia

Next-Generation Integration of Distributed Software Systems

M. Brian Blake
Department of Computer Science, Georgetown University

January 30th 2008
Amos Eaton (AE) 215 - 11:00 am - 12:00pm
Refreshments at 10:30 p.m.

Abstract:

The inception of the Internet has greatly enhanced the modularity in distributed software systems. Either by accessing networked services realized as web services, or by downloading and exploiting component-based software from open source repositories, consumers have a greater capability for incorporating the software modules of other entities into their own systems environment. Sometimes referred to as enterprise integration, this area is equally applicable to the electronic commerce domain as it is for integrating government and military information systems. Our research investigates how new systems can be created, on-demand, through the discovery and composition of externally, openly-available software services. Our work tries to alleviate the potential mismatch that occurs when integrating open services into new environments using semantic approaches and enhanced syntactical methods while leveraging the knowledge/context of the user environment. This talk discusses our lines of research and subsequent contributions in the areas of service discovery, composition, and evaluation. Underlying our approaches in this area is the use of interaction or workflow modeling to model, analyze, and manage such cross-organizational systems using industry-standard software engineering techniques.

Bio:

M. Brian Blake is an Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Computer Science at Georgetown University. Dr. Blake conducts applied research in the development of automated approaches for the sharing of information and capabilities across organizational boundaries, sometimes referred to as enterprise integration. With respect to this area of interest, his investigations cover the spectrum of software engineering: design, specification, proof of correctness, implementation/experimentation, performance evaluation, and application. He has published over 80 journal articles and refereed conference papers in the areas of service-oriented computing, intelligent agents and workflow, enterprise systems integration, component-based software engineering, distributed data management, and software engineering education. His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, DARPA, Federal Aviation Administration, the MITRE Corporation, Air Force Research Lab, SAIC, and the National Institute of Health. Dr. Blake received a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering for Georgia Institute of Technology and PhD in Information and Software Engineering from George Mason University.

Hosted by:

James Hendler (x4401) and Deborah McGuinness (x4404)
Administrative support: Jacqueline Carley (x4384)

For more information:

More information about Dr. Blake can be found here.

Last updated: January 16, 2008