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Colloquium Series | 2006-2007 Series

SyD: A Middleware for Collaborative Applications over Small Heterogeneous Devices and for Distributed Biological Workflows over Web Services

How to Find Us

Interested in attending this NRC-IIT Colloquium? Here are driving directions to find our Fredericton, NB facility.

Sushil K. Prasad
Georgia State University

Thursday, October 26, 2006
9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
NRC-IIT - e-Business Building — Training Room
46 Dineen Drive
Fredericton, NB

Abstract

Currently, it is possible to develop a collaborative application running on a collection of heterogeneous, possibly mobile, devices, each potentially hosting data stores, using existing middleware technologies such as JXTA, BREW, compact .NET and J2ME. However, they require too many ad-hoc techniques as well as cumbersome and time-consuming programming. Our System on Mobile Devices (SyD) middleware, on the other hand, has a modular architecture that makes such application development very systematic and streamlined. The architecture supports transactions over mobile data stores, with a range of remote group invocation options and embedded interdependencies among such data store objects. The architecture further provides a persistent uniform object view, group transaction with Quality of Service (QoS) specifications, and XML vocabulary for inter-device communication. I will present the basic SyD concepts; introduce the architecture and the design of the SyD middleware and its components. We will discuss the basic performance figures of SyD components and a few SyD applications on PDAs.

The SyD platform has led to developments in web service coordination and workflow technologies, which we will briefly discuss. There is a vital need to develop methodologies and systems to empower common users, such as computational scientists, for rapid development of such applications. Our Bond Flow system enables rapid configuration and execution of workflows over web services. The small footprint of the system enables them to reside on Java-enable handheld devices.

Speaker's Biography

Sushil K Prasad received his B. Tech. in Computer Science and Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, in 1985, M.S. in Computer Science from Washington State University, Pullman, in 1986, and Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of Central Florida, Orlando, in 1990. Currently, he is a Full Professor at Computer Science Dept. at Georgia State University (GSU), Atlanta. As P.I. of the Yamacraw/GEDC Distributed, Mobile and Embedded Systems research contracts, he has led a GSU team of seven faculty and 20 Ph.D. /M.S. students on developing the System on Mobile Devices (SyD) middleware for collaborative computing over heterogeneous mobile devices and data sources. Prasad has carried out theoretical as well as experimental research in parallel and distributed computing, with 70 refereed publications, and made 3 utility patent applications and over a dozen provisional patent applications. His current research interests are Parallel Algorithms and Data Structures, Parallel Discrete Event Simulation, Web-based Distributed and Collaborative Computing, Middleware’s and Collaborative Applications for Handheld Devices, and Bio-computing.

For More Information

Stephen MacKay (Steve)
Coordinator, Research Support
Research Programs, New Brunswick
NRC Institute for Information Technology
46 Dineen Drive
Fredericton, NB E3B 9W4
Telephone: +1 (506) 444-0488
Fax: +1 (506) 452-3859
E-mail: Stephen MacKay