Lecture Notes

The Grace Hopper Lecture Series

Ruth Schwartz Cowan, Janice and Julian Bers Professor of the History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania, presented a lecture on January 27, 2004 entitled “Women in Engineering: History Matters.” (See story on page 24.) Dr. Cowan is a historian of science, technology and medicine. Before coming to Penn in 2002, she served on the faculty of the State University of New York at Stony Brook since 1967. Two of her newest projects are the history of American women engineers and a history of genetic screening. Prior to the school-wide lecture, Dr. Cowan met informally with a group of female students and faculty to discuss gender issues within science and engineering.

Jennifer Widom, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, was the speaker at the April 2, 2004 Grace Hopper Lecture sponsored by the Department of Computer and Information Science. Her lecture, entitled “Old Systems for New Data: Querying XML and Data Streams,” presented her research on dropping basic assumptions about database applications and the data itself and considering data in the form of continuous, unbounded, possibly rapid “data streams.” The development of a prototype database management system for data streams was discussed, including challenges and contributions to date.

Technology, Business and Government Lecture Series

Paul M. Horn, Senior Vice President and Director of Research, IBM Corporation, presented a lecture on March 18, 2004 entitled “Innovation in the Information Technology Industry.” Dr. Horn directs IBM’s worldwide research program with 3,200 technical employees around the world. Prior to his 24 years at IBM, he was a professor of physics in the James Franck Institute and the Physics Department at the University of Chicago. Dr. Horn’s lecture described innovation as the “intersection of invention and insight.” He discussed the application of invention, the business side of information technology, and the trends that are transforming business today.

Britton Chance Distinguished Lecture

Deborah E. Leckband, James W. Westwater Professor and Head, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was the honored speaker at the April 12, 2004 Britton Chance Distinguished Lecture sponsored by the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Institute for Medicine and Engineering. Dr. Leckband’s talk, “Molecular Mechanisms of Biological Adhesion,” explored the fundamental principles underlying the mechanical properties of adhesion proteins in mediating morphogenesis, wound healing and the immune response. The Britton Chance Distinguished Lecture is named in honor of Dr. Britton Chance, the Eldridge Reeves Johnson University Professor Emeritus of Biophysics, Physical Chemistry and Radiologic Physics. Dr. Chance is one of the world’s leaders in transforming theoretical science into useful biomedical and clinical applications.

Saul Gorn Memorial Lecture

David Clark, Senior Research Scientist, MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, was the honored speaker at the Saul Gorn Memorial Lecture on April 15, 2004 sponsored by the Department of Computer and Information Science and the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science. Dr. Clark’s lecture entitled “Does Computer Science have Fundamental Design Principles?” drew some simple examples from the Internet to speculate on what a few real design principles for systems might look like and what some important goals for the computer science field might be. The Saul Gorn Lecture Series was established in honor of the late Dr. Saul Gorn who played a key role in the establishment of the Computer Science Graduate Group in the Moore School, which later became the Department of Computer and Information Science.