event
Thursday 10 May 2018: On some mathematical aspects of data centre networks
Professor Iain A. Stewart - University of Durham
Harrison 170 14:30-15:30
Abstract: Interconnection networks form the communication fabrics of distributed computer systems and are common-place in distributed-memory multiprocessor machines (supercomputers), systems on chips, and data centres. The massive number of processors involved in an interconnection networks means that it is simply not feasible to build prototypes and consequently interconnection network design is guided by appropriate graph-theoretical structural properties combined with simulation (in software). In this talk, I will illustrate a number of ways in which discrete mathematics impacts upon the design of interconnection networks for data centres. The talk will be suitable for a general audience.
Bio:
I am a Professor in the School of Engineering and Computing Sciences. I read mathematics at Christ Church, Oxford (1980-83) before completing my PhD in mathematics at Queen Mary College, University of London (1983-86). I was then appointed to a Lecturership in the Computing Laboratory, University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1986 before moving to a Lecturership in the Department of Computer Science, University of Wales Swansea in 1992. I was later appointed Senior Lecturer (1994) and then Reader (1995) before becoming Professor of Computer Science at Leicester in 1996. I moved to the Department of Computer Science at Durham as Professor in 2002.
I have a number of positions within the mathematics and computer science community which include the following: I am a member of the UK Computing Research Committee (UKCRC), having previously been on the Executive; I am a member of the Research Committee of the BCS Academy of Computing; I am a member of the EPSRC Computing College; I am an Editorial Advisor to the London Mathematical Society Journal of Computation and Mathematics; I am an Editor of the Journal of Discrete Algorithms; and I am an Associate Editor of The Computer Journal. In the past I have been: a Member of Council of the London Mathematical Society; Chair of the Computer Science Committee of the London Mathematical Society; Co-ordinator of the joint EPSRC and London Mathematical Society MathFIT (Mathematics for Information Technology) initiative; President of the British Colloquium for Theoretical Computer Science (BCTCS); and President of the European Association for Computer Science Logic (EACSL).
I have varied research interests including: computational complexity; finite model theory and descriptive complexity; graph theory and algorithms; interconnection networks for parallel and distributed computing; theoretical aspects of artificial intelligence; and group theory.
