Events & seminars

Today's events & seminars

No events have been scheduled for today.

Upcoming events

Tuesday, July 2, 2013 - 10:00am - 12:00pm
4310 Computer Sciences

Committee:
Prof. Shuchi Chawla (advisor)
Prof. Eric Bach
Prof. Jin-Yi Cai
Prof. Marzena Rostek
Prof. Jason Hartline (Northwestern university)

Abstract: The focus of this thesis is optimization in the presence of uncertain inputs. In a broad class of algorithmic problems, uncertainty is modeled as input being drawn from one among a large known universe of distributions, however the specific distribution is unknown to the algorithm. The goal then is to develop a single algorithm that for every distribution in this universe, performs approximately as well as the optimal algorithm tailored for that specific distribution. Such algorithms are robust to assumptions on prior distributions.

Prior robust optimization retains the robustness of worst-case analysis while going beyond the pessimistic impossibility results of worst-case analysis. Apart from this theoretical appeal, the ability to use the same algorithm for every prior distribution makes prior robust algorithms well-suited for deployment in real systems. Indeed, most prior robust algorithms in literature are simple to implement and some of them have been observed to perform well in large-scale systems.

In this thesis, we design and analyze prior robust algorithms in two distinct areas of research: online algorithms and mechanism design. In online algorithms, we use a hybrid argument to develop near optimal online algorithms for a general framework of problems, called the resource allocation framework, with several well motivated applications to Internet ad serving. In mechanism design, we use sampling and supply limitation techniques to develop prior robust truthful approximately revenue optimal auctions, and the first prior robust
truthful mechanisms for approximate makespan minimization in machine
scheduling.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013 - 2:00pm - 4:00pm
4310 Computer Sciences

Committee: Colin Dewey (advisor)
James Thomson
David Page
Mark Craven
Christina Kendziorski

Monday, September 9, 2013 - 11:00am - 12:00pm
1240 CS

Software modifications are often systematic. Adding features and fixing bugs often require similar, but not identical, changes to many code locations. In this talk, I will present three research themes on how to support systematic changes during software evolution. First, I will present LASE, an approach that automates systematic edits by learning context-aware edit scripts from examples. It handles both issues of recommending change locations and applying context-aware customized transformation. Second, I will present a field study of refactoring benefits and challenges at Microsoft. It is widely believed that refactoring improves software quality and developer productivity. However, few empirical studies quantitatively assess refactoring benefits. Our analysis of Windows 7 version history finds that the binary modules refactored by a designated refactoring team experienced significant reduction in the number of inter-module dependencies and post-release defects, indicating a tangible benefit of refactoring. Finally, I will present refactoring reconstruction and advanced program differencing techniques that detect systematic changes from program versions to help developers during peer code reviews.

Miryung Kim is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin since 2009. She received her B.S. in Computer Science from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in 2001 and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Washington under the supervision of Dr. David Notkin in 2003 and 2008 respectively. She received NSF CAREER award, Microsoft Software Engineering Innovation Foundation Award in 2011, and IBM Jazz Innovation Award in 2009. She also spent her time as a visiting researcher in the Research in Software Engineering (RiSE) group at Microsoft Research during the summer of 2011. She ranked No. 1 among all engineering and science students in KAIST in 2001 and received Korean Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology Award, the highest honor given to an undergraduate student in Korea.

Past events & seminars

Friday, September 3, 2010 - 9:00am - 10:00am

 

Friday, September 3, 2010 - 10:00am - 12:00pm

 Here is the abstract of the student's dissertation.

Friday, September 3, 2010 - 1:00pm - 3:00pm

 There will be a job fair.

Monday, September 6, 2010 - 4:00pm - 6:00pm

fake event

Wednesday, September 8, 2010 - 9:07pm - 10:07pm

 testing only

Monday, September 13, 2010 - 11:00am - 12:00pm

 

Tuesday, September 14, 2010 - 1:00pm - 2:00pm

This is another seminar.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010 - 3:00pm - 4:00pm

text for bogus seminar

Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 2:15pm - 3:15pm

testing

Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - 12:01pm - 3:00pm

Rollout of new web site (alpha release).