Three trends in computing are changing the nature of computing. Web services and P2P systems are increasing the free flow of information and services, thus creating a global village. Sensor networks promise to change mechanical devices into intelligent, networked machines--increasing our safety and efficacy by providing assisted living for the elderly, smart civil structures, and pervasive computing. Multicore architectures promise to make personal computersorders of magnitude faster than current ones. These trends require a paradigm shift in our programming models and languages: we must be able to support scalable parallel and distributed computing for a broad range of applications. I will discuss some key concepts that will help address the challenge of programming such systems: these include actors, adaptive distributed control, and probabilistic models of computation. I will illustrate the ideas based on our research.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Gul Agha is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include models, languages, and tools for parallel, distributed and mobile computing. Dr. Agha serves as Editor-in-Chief of ACM Computing Surveys and was formerly Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Concurrency: Parallel, Distributed and Mobile Computing. Dr. Agha is a recipient of the IEEE Computer Society's 1999 Meritorious Service Award. He is a Fellow of the IEEE. He previously held research appointments at MIT and Yale University, and has been Visiting Professor at the University of Paris VI.