*** So what's the worst that can happen? A brief look into IT security today and where we are headed
(October 30, 2007)
Glenn Brunette, Distinguised Engineer, Sun Microsystems.
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Abstract: It feels like nearly every day there is a new story in the news about privacy violations, security breaches and hacking incidents. As the world continues to become even more dependent upon technology, there is a growing need for heightened security and privacy assurances. Or is there? The goal of this talk is to illustrate some of the current IT security and privacy failures happening in the world today, identify several root causes, and discuss potential solutions to these challenges. In addition, this talk will make a few predications about the future of IT security and challenge you to become an active catalyst for positive change.
*** Creating a drug, where programming and science merge
(January 29, 2008)
Patrick Stump, Senior Clinical Data Scientist, GlaxoSmithKline.
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Abstract: The news headlines these days paint an unsettling picture: "Drug resistant Staph discovered", "Bird flu strain mutating to humans". These headlines emphasize the need for new drugs to be developed quickly, and with the least amount of cost to the consumer. It typically takes 10 years for a drug to reach the public from it's inception. The majority of this time is spent performing clinical trials, which answer two major questions: Is the drug doing what it's supposed to, and more importantly, is it safe for human consumption? These trials collect huge amounts of patient data, which requires some thought into the best way to database this information. This talk will give an overview of the different designs of clinical trials, as well the importance of ensuring these databases are standardized and structured in the most logical way.
*** Finding Order in the Unknown: The Erdos-Szerkeres Theorem
(February 5, 2008)
Karen Lange, Mathematics Candidate.
Abstract: One goal of mathematics to find regularity in the midst of chaos. It is a fact from analysis that any infinite sequence of distinct real numbers has an infinite increasing or decreasing subsequence. But what if we are only given a finite sequence of distinct real numbers? Does a reasonably long increasing or decreasing subsequence still exist? We will prove the beautiful Erdos-Szerkeres Theorem that exactly answers these questions.