University of South Carolina Chapter of Upsilon Pi Epsilon Presents Exploring and Exploiting "The Several Branches" The UPE Keynote Address by H. Van Dyke Parunak 1:00 PM Tuesday, March 25, 2008 Faculty Lounge, Swearingen Building Open to the Public ABSTRACT The mission of Upsilon Pi Epsilon is "the recognition and promotion of high scholarship and original investigations in the several branches of the Computing and Information Disciplines." The tips of these "several branches" extend far beyond the traditional subfields of computer science and engineering, to encompass many other academic and practical disciplines, including (to name only a few) physics, manufacturing, and biology. I will begin by giving examples of how concepts from computer science enlighten the study of other fields. Once we realize that most processes in the world are doing computation in one way or another, we can exploit them for patterns that we can apply to computation narrowly construed. I will illustrate this potential by showing how concepts from social theory, biology, and physics can enrich our own research as computer scientists and engineers. H. Van Dyke Parunak is NewVectors' Chief Scientist, and a Corporate Analyst in the Emerging Markets Group. Dr. Parunak has extensive experience in both academic and industrial environments with chaos and complex systems, artificial intelligence, distributed computing, and human interfaces. He founded the AI group and directed their research, and now leads NewVectors' projects in software agents, emergent behavior, and nonlinear dynamics. His contributions to the theory and application of emergent behavior and complex adaptive systems are internationally recognized through his extensive publications, patents, and professional service. He has led projects applying these technologies to simulation and modeling, robotic and manufacturing control, navigation, information exploitation, sensor networks, geospatial reasoning, combat management, and other domains, for customers including DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, DARPA, IARPA, NGA, and NIST. His education is from Princeton, Harvard, and the University of Michigan. Sponsored by: The University of South Carolina Department of Computer Science and Engineering