October – 2012 ^November

We present a method for structural summarization and abstraction of complex spatial arrangements found in architectural drawings. The method is based on the well-known Gestalt rules, which summarize how forms, patterns, and semantics are perceived by humans from bits and pieces of geometric information. Although defining a computational model for each rule alone has been extensively studied, modeling a conjoint of Gestalt rules remains a challenge. In this work, we develop a computational framework which models Gestalt rules and more importantly, their complex interactions. We apply {em conjoining rules} to line drawings, to detect groups of objects and repetitions that conform to Gestalt principles. We summarize and abstract such groups in ways that maintain structural semantics by displaying only a reduced number of repeated elements, or by replacing them with simpler shapes. We show an application of our method to line drawings of architectural models of various styles, and the potential of extending the technique to other computer-generated illustrations, and three-dimensional models.

Cloud computing is transforming IT. The way IT deploys infrastructure, provisions resources, builds applications and provides access to these applications is changing dramatically, promising both greater efficiency and agility. At the same time, many businesses now see data volumes growing so large they break traditional infrastructures – this is what EMC calls Big Data.

Managing Big Data represents a huge challenge for IT, but using analytics to provide insight into Big Data promises to transform business, delivering competitive advantage and breakthrough business value. Cloud computing and Big Data will only be viable if they are underpinned by a foundation of trust – trust that the infrastructure will be available 24x7 and trust that data will not be compromised by the latest advanced threat.

Brian Gallagher will discuss these trends and the changes necessary to move to a new model – one which requires IT to transform to an internal service provider, shifting focus from infrastructure cost to business agility.

New technologies and new use paradigms are revolutionizing IT and creating challenging technical opportunities. New disk technologies, ranging from slow and inexpensive large SATA drives to very fast and very expensive solid state drives create unique opportunities to improve performance and reduce cost simultaneously. Automatic Tiered Storage is a promising new technology, but it is in its infancy, and a lot of more research is required to explore its full potential. The move to virtual data centers and Cloud, and with that the elimination of the role of the expert storage administrator, requires a leap in how storage systems are managed. Storage systems need to be wise enough to automatically achieve performance goals, be aware of their environments and improve over time. The talk will focus on the new challenges that IT vendors like EMC face today in optimizing the use of the new technologies and addressing the needs of the new users of IT. Another focus is on how academia can help us address these challenges.