Adaptive Software Systems Integration

Dr. M. Brian Blake
Thursday, January 26, 2006
1:30PM - CSB-232

Abstract


The inception of the Internet has greatly enhanced the general modularity of software systems. Either by accessing networked services, realized as web services, or by downloading and exploiting component-based software from open source repositories, consumers have a greater capability to incorporate the software modules of other entities into their own systems environment. Our research investigates how systems can be developed through the discovery and composition of externally, openly-available software services. A major problem is the potential mismatch that occurs when integrating these services into new environments. This talk discusses multiple approaches to dealing with this problem using intelligent personal assistants (or software agents) for service discovery, composition, and evaluation. In addition, this talk will discuss the use of interaction or workflow modeling to design such systems using industry-standard software engineering techniques.

Short Bio


M. Brian Blake is an Associate Professor in Department of Computer Science at Georgetown University. He received a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Mercer University, both in Atlanta, Georgia. He has a PhD of Information Technology from George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia with a concentration in Information and Software Engineering. Dr. Blake conducts applied research in the development of automated approaches for the sharing of information and capabilities across organizational boundaries, sometimes referred to as enterprise integration. With respect to this area of interest, his investigations cover the spectrum of software engineering: design, specification, proof of correctness, implementation/experimentation, performance evaluation, and application. He has published over 50 journal articles and refereed conference papers in the areas of service-oriented computing, intelligent agents and workflow, enterprise systems integration, component-based software engineering, distributed data management, and software engineering education. He is the recipient of several best paper awards and was selected the "Most Promising Engineer" by the Career Communications Group in 2003. In 2006, he will be the Program Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Services Computing (SCC 2006), and he sits on the editorial board of the MultiAgent and Grid Systems Journal and the Journal of E-Business Research. His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Federal Aviation Administration, the MITRE Corporation, Air Force Research Lab, SAIC, and the National Institute of Health. In addition, Dr. Blake has over 12 years experience as a full-time software engineer and/or consultant for companies such as General Electric, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and The MITRE Corporation.