ECE & CISE Seminar: Erol Gelenbe -- Stochastic Discrete Event Networks with Product Form --

Part 2 of SeminarErol GelenbeIntelligent Systems and Networks GroupDept of Electrical & Electronic EngineeringImperial College, London UK-- Stochastic Discrete Event Networks with Product Form --Abstract: Probability models have long been used in computer science and engineering to study the performance of systems, software, networks and algorithms, and to analyse their reliability. Such models with closed form analytical solutions are commonly used in industry to compute performance metrics such as response times, throughput and resource bottlenecks. Yet the "product form property" still reserves some mysteries and surprises. This talk will focus on some intriguing probability models, including spiking neuronal networks and G networks, that have analytical or quasi-analytical solutions in "product form" ­ i.e., that are provably "separable" in steady-state, despite the fact that they are tightly coupled, leading to computational algorithms which are polynomial in the number of state variables, whereas purely numerical solutions would have to enumerate all possible combinations of states. Examples will be given from neural networks, systems of auctions, interacting resources, and gene regulatory networks.Bio: Prior to Imperial College, Erol taught in France where he founded or co-founded two computer science departments and developed the Performance Modeling groups at INRIA. A Fellow of IEEE and ACM, he headed the ECE Department at Duke University, and served as founding Director of the School of EECS, and associate dean of engineering at the University of Central Florida. His current work regarding network security, Cloud computing and energy in ICT is funded by two EU projects, and also by UK EPSRC (similar to NSF) and UK MoD (similar to DoD). Erol has received wide recognition for his work on the performance of computer systems and networks, including the invention of new mathematical models such as G-networks. A Fellow of ACM and IEEE, he was elected to the Academy of Sciences of Hungary, Poland and Turkey, and to the National Engineering Academy of France. He was made a Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur of France, a Commander of Merit of Italy, and an Officier du Merite of France. Prizes include the Grand Prix France Telecom (1996, French Academy of Sciences), the Oliver Lodge Medal (2010, Institution for Engineering and Technology (UK), the ACM SIGMETRICS Life-Time Achievement Award (2008), the "In Memoriam Dennis Gabor Award" (2013, Hungarian Academy of Sciences), and the Parlar Science Award (2004, Turkey). He received Honoris Causa doctorates from the Univerities of Roma II, Liege and Bogazici.Faculty Host: Prof. Ioannis Paschalidis (ECE)Refreshments will be available outside of PHO 339 at 3:45pm.

When 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm on Monday, October 6, 2014
Location Photonics Center, 8 Saint Mary’s Street, PHO 339