Advanced Seminars and Tutorials

Wednesday is devoted to a series of tutorials and advanced seminars. Tutorials are cross-disciplinary in nature and are designed to give nonspecialists a brief overview of the subject matter. In contrast, advanced seminars are meant to be an in-depth survey for individuals who already have significant background in the topic area.
  1. The Ins and Outs of Multithreaded Programming; Doeppner
  2. A C++ Programmers View of CORBA; Vinoski
  3. State of the Art Operating Systems Technology; Preikschat and Milojicic
  4. The Java Programming Language and Environment; Weerawarana
  5. Electronic Commerce and the Internet; Blanning and King
  6. The Challenge of Engineering Complex Distributed Real-Time Systems; Stoyenko
  7. User Interface Design for Productivity Tools, Multimedia, and the Web; Marcus
  8. Hypermedia on the World Wide Web; Bieber and Isakowitz
  9. Business Process Improvement with Group Supported Dynamic Modeling; Nunamaker, Sol, Vogel and de Vreede
  10. Technology Supported Learning; Briggs and Nunamaker
  11. Technology Mangement - Current Issues and Research Needs; Lefebvre and Mason
  12. Tools and Techniques for Innovative Change in Organizations; Amoroso, Lewis and Newton

SESSION 1: The Ins and Outs of Multithreaded Programming

9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Thomas W. Doeppner Jr., Brown University

This tutorial will explain both how to write multithreaded programs and how thread packages are implemented. It will start by motivating the need for multithreaded programming and will look at a number of common situations in which the use of threads are either necessary or extremely helpful. It will then show how to write multithreaded programs in C and C++, using both the POSIX and Microsoft APIs. Finally, it will examine the issues that must be addressed by any implementation of threads, including operating-system overhead, multiprocessor memory architectures, scheduling threads on processors, and computing time-critical (soft-real-time) systems. It will also cover a number of ways in which threads have been implemented: user-level implementations, one-level and two-level kernel-supported implementations, and scheduler activation.

Thomas Doeppner has been on the Computer Science faculty of Brown University in Providence, RI, since 1976 where he is currently a research associate professor. Doeppner received his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from Princeton in 1977. Among his areas of interest is multithreaded programming, and he wrote one of the first threads packages for UNIX in 1985 which, by 1987, took full advantage of shared-memory parallel processors and was used by the Encore Computer Corporation as the basis for their multithreaded programming product. He is currently working on tools for performance-debugging multithreaded programming and on the use of multithreading in soft-real-time systems.

SESSION 2: A C++ Programmer's View of CORBA

1 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Steve Vinoski, Hewlett-Packard

Version 2.0 of the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) Specification provides a standard base on which distributed object computing systems and applications can be built. It was published in 1995 by the Object Management Group (OMG). Part of CORBA 2.0 describes the C++ language mapping, which details how applications can be developed and implemented using the OMG Interface Definition Language (IDL) and the standard CORBA interfaces with C++. This tutorial will show how CORBA applications can be written using the standard OMG IDL C++ Language Mapping. After the basics of the OMG and CORBA are presented, examples will be used to show how basic IDL constructs (such as interfaces, operations, object references, and sequences) can be used to describe and implement CORBA objects. It will also focus on how C++ applications can use client-side stubs and the Dynamic Invocation Interface (DII) to request services from such objects. The second half of the tutorial will show how standard OMG CORBA services (such as Naming, Events, and Lifecycle) can be used to support distributed applications.

Steve Vinoski is the lead architect for HP ORB Plus, Hewlett-Packard's C++ ORB product. Since 1994, he has served as editor of the OMG IDL C++ Language Mapping Specification, and he is a member of the Architecture Board of the OMG. Together with Doug Schmidt, he writes the "Object Interconnections" column for the C++ Report.

SESSION 3: State of the Art Operating Systems Technology

9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Wolfgang Schroeder Preikschat, University of Potsdam
Dejan Milojicic, Open Software Foundation

In this tutorial a two-level course will be offered. An introductory part introduces the field of operating systems to the audience. It is followed by an advanced case study giving a more focused description of an operating system, the OSF AD. Both the introductory and the advanced levels aim at the most recent developments in operating systems.

The tutorial aims at providing an in-depth overview of operating systems, including an architectural comparison and a discussion on the suitability of object-oriented design methodologies for operating system construction. It will be followed by a comprehensive case study describing OSF AD. The course will not go too much into the details, but rather, discuss some general principles that may be useful across various implementations and levels. At the same time, the authors will try to update the audience on the most recent trends in the OS development. Particular examples will be mentioned but with the goal to demonstrate general techniques. The general level is more suited as introductory, and it is recommended for the audience without prior experience in the field of OS. The advanced level will go into detail describing the OSF AD operating system and comparing it with other existing or important historical systems.

Dr. Wolfgang Schroeder-Preikschat studied computer science at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany, where he also received his Ph.D. From 1986 until 1995, he was a research associate and director of the system software department at the German National Research Center of Computer Science (GMD), Research Institute for Computer Architecture and Software Technique (FIRST), Berlin. His main research interests are embedded, distributed/parallel operating systems, object-oriented software construction, communications systems and computer architecture. Dr. Schroeder-Preikschat is member of ACM, FiFF, GI, IEEE and VDE/ITG.

Dejan Milojicic took part in design and implementation of various operating systems and distributed operating systems for over 12 years. He worked on the development of real-time kernels, various flavors of UNIX, and Mach. He received his BSc and MSc in Electrical Engineering from Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and Ph.D. thesis in Computer Science from University of Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern, Germany. His interests include operating systems, load distribution, distributed systems and real-time. He is member of IEEE, ACM and Usenix.

SESSION 4: The Java Programming Language and Environment

9 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Sanjiva Weerawarana, Purdue University

Java is opening up a new world of computing whereby the network, and not the individual computers and peripherals, plays the major role in a computing scenario. In this tutorial, the Java programming language and environment will be introduced. The tutorial will show how to use Java to build networked applications as well as how to provide network services using Java applets and applications. Discussion will be conducted on the security implications of Java programs and the safeguards that are in place to prevent malicious Java programs from destroying an innocent receiver's machine. This tutorial will provide the attendee with a broad understanding of the overall Java philosophy as well as the Java language environment, including security issues. This seminar is intended for a technical audience with some background in programming high-level languages such as C++ or Modula-3 Technology managers and researchers. Those attending will gather important knowledge about what Java is and realize what role it could play in their own organization.

Sanjiva Weerawarana holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Purdue University (1994). He researches software infrastructure for building high-level software environments called "problem solving environments" primarily for scientific computing applications. He is currently teaching Java in a senior-level special topics course about the Web at Purdue University. In addition, he has been certified as a (contract) Java instructor for The Technology Exchange Company's Java course.

SESSION 5: Electronic Commerce and the Internet

1 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Robert W. Blanning, Vanderbilt University
David R. King, Comshare

This tutorial will examine the convergence of two technologies - electronic commerce and the Internet. Although electronic commerce is usually done over specialized WANs and the Internet is currently being used primarily for purposes other than electronic commerce, the relationship between them is increasing as companies use the Internet to advertise and sell their products and to do electronic data interchange. This trend will continue, making the Internet an important vehicle for electronic commerce.

Three principal topics will be addressed here:
The session will conclude with an examination of future opportunities in this area, including research and the need for new electronic products and services.

Robert W. Blanning is Professor of Management at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. He holds a BS in Physics from the Pennsylvania State University, and MS in Operations Research from the Case Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in operations research and management information systems. He was a member of the faculties of the Wharton School and of the Schools of Business at New York University, a nuclear engineer at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory of the General Electric Company, and a research analyst in the Corporate Operations Research Department of the Mobil Oil Corporation. He has published in such journals as Management Science, Communications of the ACM, Decision Support Systems and Naval Research Logistics Quarterly.

David R. King is a Senior Research Fellow at Comshare Inc., specializing in the design and development of advanced executive and managerial support software. His current research interests focus on the application of agent-based technologies to managerial and executive support and the use of the Internet for competitive intelligence. He has over 40 publications and is the co-editor with Bob Blanning of a recent IEEE Press publication "Artificial Intelligence in Organizational Design, Planning and Control."

SESSION 6: The Challenge of Engineering Complex Distributed Real-Time Systems

9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Alexander D. Stoyenko, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Currently, the R&D emphasis in the real-time systems area is undergoing a rapid change, from traditional, smaller systems to a new generation of complex ones. Owing to a score of integrated functional and non-functional requirements (of which predictable and dependable real-time behavior in the presence of distribution is most significant) and the inherent complexity of the application, a new system cannot essentially be constructed with the methods used for either traditional real-time systems or modern non-real-time ones. This tutorial studies the concepts and construction methods which promise to be applicable to the new generation of systems. Through a systematic examination of major aspects of real-time system construction, the tutorial strives to present a complete, platform-independent view of the world of modern (and future!) distributed real-time systems. it will focus on topics in this area, such as scheduling fundamentals, parallelism and distribution, languages, resource management, system structure, hardware and schedulability analysis. The tutorial is targeted at engineers, system builders, managers and others who need a better practical understanding of both what complex distributed real-time systems are and how to develop them.

Alexander D. Stoyenko is Associate Professor of Computer and Information Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Director of the Real-Time Computing Laboratory at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey, USA, as well as President of 21st Century Systems, Incorporated, Chappaqua, New York, USA Dr. Stoyenko is currently leading a number of related projects for industry and government.

SESSION 7: User Interface Design for Productivity Tools, Multimedia, and the Web

9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Aaron Marcus, Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc. (AM+A)

Successful product development requires software developers to master many disciplines. This tutorial will introduce prinicples and techniques for achieving effective visual communication for all media, platforms, users, and content. Topics will include the user-centered, task-oriented design process, usability issues and design of metaphors, mental models, navigation, appearance and interaction. Case studies, including a major effort for American Airlines' SABRE Travel Information Network and multimedia training products for Oracle, will highlight well-illustrated lectures given by a pioneer of computer graphics, author/co-author of four books on the subject and the principal designer/analyst of one of the world's leading design firms.

Aaron Marcus is an internationally recognized authority on user interface, multimedia, and document design. His special interests include metaphor design and information visualization. He was one of the world's first professional designers of computer graphics displays at AT&T Bell Labs, 1967. Since 1980, he has given tutorials on the above subjects to more than 3,000 people at SIGCHI, SIGGRAPH, NCGA, NICOGRAPH and AUSGRAPH conferences in addition to satellite and on-site tutorials at major corporations (such as AT&T, Motorola, and Hewlett-Packard), and conferences in the USA, Australia, Canada, Europe, Israel, Singapore, Korea and Japan.

SESSION 8: Hypermedia on the World Wide Web

9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Michael Bieber, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Tomas Isakowitz, New York University

The morning seminar is a general introduction to "Hypermedia Information Systems" that covers the principles of Hypermedia on the WWW, its architecture and uses in IS. The afternoon session focuses on design and development of such applications. The intended audience is users of the WWW who are interested in developing applications. The course assumes some familiarity with HTML.

Morning Session: What Every Designer Should Know About Hypertext.
This tutorial covers many aspects of hypermedia and shows techniques for applying over 30 years of hypermedia research to the World Wide Web as well as to non-hypermedia information systems. Through examples on and off the World Wide Web, the full hypermedia feature set, including annotation, guided tours and overviews, are covered.

Afternoon Session: Hypermedia WWW Design and Development
The second part of the course covers the various aspects of design and development of WWW applications. The session starts with an overview and illustration of available design techniques and tools for the WWW; and their limitations. Then, it identifies a class of WWW applications that benefit from a structured approach to design and development. Then, the Relationship Management Methodology (RMM) for designing structured hypermedia applications and illustrate is introduced, via examples. The course will cover the various aspects of design and development of such applications.

Michael Bieber is Assistant Professor of Information Systems at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Dr. Bieber has been selected to direct the new Hypermedia Information Systems Lab. He currently is a Faculty Fellow in the Automation Technology Section at Goddard Space Flight Center at NASA. Dr. Bieber holds a Ph.D. in Decision Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania.

Tomas Isakowitz is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems at New York University Stern School of Business. His research interests are hypermedia technology and its applications, decision support and temporal databases. Professor Isakowitz received his B.Sc. in Mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, his M.Sc. in Mathematics at the University of California at Santa Barbara, his M. Eng. and Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Pennsylvania.

SESSION 9: Business Process Improvement with Group Supported Dynamic Modeling

9 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Jay F. Nunamaker, University of Arizona
Henk G. Sol, Delft University of Technology
Doug Vogel, University of Arizona
Gert-Jan de Vreede, Delft University of Technology

Dynamism and turbulence are inherent characteristics of the environment surrounding modern organizations. Consequently, organizations are under tremendous pressure to improve their effectiveness in order to survive. Business Process Improvement promotes the involvement of groups of subject matter experts in the change process to achieve a comprehensive and shared understanding of current and future processes. Electronic support for business process modeling and change enables Business Process Improvement to proceed efficiently and effectively. By simulating and animating the dynamics of business processes, users gain insight and learn about organizational performance. By working in teams and integrating information across sessions and between groups, users attain results that are not only robust, but recognized and "owned" by the people ultimately responsible to implement change.

This tutorial will describe and demonstrate how the benefits of Business Process Improvement can be achieved in an effective and efficient fashion through the combined application of methodology and information technology. Leading practitioners and academics in the field will expose tutorial participants to a variety of focus topics spanning a broad range of issues.

Jay F. Nunamaker, Jr. is Regents Professor of Management Information Systems at the University of Arizona. He received his Ph.D. from Case Institute of Technology in systems engineering and operations research. In 1974, he created the MIS department at the University of Arizona. His research interests include computer-aided support of systems analysis and design, and systems for management.

Douglas R. Vogel is an Associate Professor of Management Information Systems (MIS) at the University of Arizona. He received his Ph.D. in MIS from the University of Minnesota in 1986. His research interests bridge the business and academic communities in addressing questions of the impact of management information systems on aspects of distributed support for group problem solving and organizational effectiveness.

Henk G. Sol holds a Ph.D. from the University of Groningen. He is chaired professor of Systems Engineering and Dean of the School of Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis and Management of Delft University of Technology. His research interests include management information systems, (group) decision support systems, dynamic modeling and designing information-intensive organizations.

Gert-Jan de Vreede holds a Ph.D. from Delft University of Technology. He is an assistant professor at the School of Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis and Management of the same university. His research interests include the application of groupware, simulation and animation technologies to facilitate organizational change processes.

SESSION 10: Technology Supported Learning

1 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Robert O. Briggs, University of Arizona
Jay F. Nunamaker, University of Arizona

Learning is a fundamental component of human existence. From the prehistoric dawn of written language through the advent of mass-produced books in the industrial revolution, we have applied technology to improve learning. We are now in the midst of a computer-based knowledge renaissance that rivals any other in history. Do computers make it possible for people to learn faster, or more completely? Do computers make a difference, or do they just cost a lot of money and take up space?

In this tutorial you will hear about technology, research, practice, and the practical lessons learned in the front lines of technology-supported learning around the world. You will participate in hands-on demonstrations of new technologies, and engage in spirited on-line and face-to-face discussion about the issues surrounding technology-supported learning.

Robert O. Briggs investigates the use of technology to improve group productivity as a Research Fellow in the Center for the Management of Information at the University of Arizona. His work includes theoretical modeling of group productivity to support the design, development, use and evaluation of new technologies as well as laboratory and field testing of technologies developed at the Center. His most recent work examines the use of Group Support Systems in the classroom to support cross-disciplinary problem-based learning. Briggs holds a Ph.D. in Information from the University of Arizona. He received his MBA and B.S. in Information Systems, and a B.S. in Art History from San Diego State University.

SESSION 11: Technology Management - Current Issues and Research Needs

9 a. m. - 12 p.m.

Louis A. Lefebvre, Ecole Polytechnique Institute
Robert M. Mason, Case Western Reserve University

This tutorial/workshop is organized as three short presentations of critical technology management issues followed by discussions among the participants. Each of the three tutorials presents a different viewpoint: one is from the perspective of creativity in technology management, the other two from the viewpoints of academic researchers in a management school and an engineering school. Invited participants include leading academics and executives in technology management.

The issues to be covered include: how organizations can work with academia to capture the learning from successful (and not-so-successful) experience; the pedagogy of technology management-from the business school and the engineering school perspectives; the popularity of current research topics and the value to be gained from a combination of empirical and conceptual research efforts.

Louis A. Lefebvre is Professor of Industrial Engineering at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Canada. He has a Ph.D. in business administration, specializing in Management Information Systems, from the Hautes Etudes Commerciales (University of Montreal) and an MBA from the University of Ottawa. His research Information Systems, from the Hautes Etudes Commerciales (University of Montreal) and an MBA from the University of Ottawa. His research emphasizes the technology policy and practices of small manufacturing enterprises.

Robert M. Mason is Professor for the Practice of Technology Management at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, and Director of the Center for the Management of Science and Technology (CMOST). He has a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering (Georgia Tech) and an MS in Electrical Engineering (MIT). His research emphasizes the strategic application and implementation of technology and the organizational changes associated with these. He is American Editor of Technovation and the President of the International Association for the Management of Technology.

Other participants include John Ettlie, Professor at the University of Michigan, and Tudor Rickards, Editor of Creativity and Innovation Management and Director of the Creativity Unit, Manchester Business School.

SESSION 12: Tools and Techniques for Innovative Change in Organizations

1 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Donald Amoroso, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Edward Lewis, Australian Defence Force Academy
Charles Newton, Australian Defence Force Academy

There is a need for research into the development of tools and techniques for introducing and managing innovating change in organizations. This field shows the merger of many important streams of research in information systems including: 1) business process reengineering; 2) change management; 3) total quality management; 4) strategic alignment and political issues.

A major premise for conducting this research is the trend toward decoupling and non-interdependence of methodologies, techniques and tools to support innovative changes in organizations. Recommendations will be two-fold. First, how to conduct research programs in innovative change will be discussed. Second, using tools for innovative change in organizations will be demonstrated.

HICSS features a number special speakers and special events as part of the conference program. These include a distinguished lecturer and plenary speakers, special task forces, advanced seminars, and tutorials.

The Distinguished Lecturer Series features truly outstanding leaders in computer science, information systems, and other computer-related fields. Recent Distinguished Lecturers have been Nobel Laureates, recipients of the National Medal of Science, and winners of the Turing Award, the McDowell Award, the Goode Award, the Piore Award, and the Ekert-Mauchly Award. Several speakers have been members of the National Academy of Science and National Academy of Engineering.

Plenary speakers are chosen for their accomplishments, expertise, and experience in important emerging topics that cut across the boundaries of our traditional disciplines. Recent plenary speakers have introduced topics that have far reaching implications for future developments in the system sciences.

A special event this year will celebrate 30 years of the HICSS Conference. Many of the conference chairs, track chairs, plenary speakers, and distinguished lecturers from previous conferences will be in attendance to take part in this celebration. The session will be followed by a reception to allow conference attendees to visit with them.