Principles of logic design

This study involves logic design and switching theory, in particular their practical application to the logic design and understanding of digital machines. Digital machines, of course, play an extremely important role in that large class of machines known as digital computers. But they also play an important role in many other kinds of practical devices important in the design of communications systems, digital control systems, counters, registers, digital meters, and so on. The basic content of switching theory is very simple. It embodies that body of machines and machine behavior that can be realized with "switches", things that are either "on" or "off", and nothing, really, could be much simpler than that. Of course the world is really comprised of very many complex structures which are really composed of exceedingly simple lesser structures, so that we really shouldn't be too surprised that even though the elements of switching theory are quite simple, their consequences are not necessarily so. The goals of our study are several, and include at least the following: 1) to develop some understanding and capability in using the techniques, design procedures, and models that have been developed for understanding and designing digital networks; 2) to explore in some modest detail the kinds of questions with which logic designers and practitioners concern themselves; 3) to develop an appreciation for the tremendous variation possible in digital design requirements and specifications, i. e,, for the complexity of the 'finite' digital problem, and hence an understanding of the need for systematic design techniques by which to attack such problems; 4) to gain some practice with the fundamental tools and techniques of logic design I so that the reader can adapt the techniques to the "new" problem presented by his own particular design constraints; and 5) to provide an introduction to the literature so that the discerning student can, in the future, dip into the ever growing literature in the field, and find it to some degree comprehensible, and advantageous to use

Oral history interview with W. Richards Adrion

Transcript, 33 pp. Audio file available at http://purl.umn.edu/96115Adrion was program director of Theoretical Computer Science for the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 1976-1978. After a brief period with the National Bureau of Standards, Adrion returned to NSF in 1980 as program director of Special Projects in Computer Science. From 1982 until 1985 he was program director of Coordinated Experimental Research, and then served as deputy division director of Computer Research. For a short time in 1986 he was named chief scientist for CISE, and then left NSF to join the faculty of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Adrion discusses the development of NSF programs relating to computer science, particularly those programs in which he worked. He begins by describing NSF's funding of cryptography during 1976-1978 and its relation to the National Security Agency. He gives a brief history of theoretical computer science in the United States and NSF's role in funding that area during the 1970s and 1980s, as well as a description of the leading academic centers and personalities. Adrion recounts his work with the Coordinated Experimental Research program, which grew out of a concern to retain good faculty and promote experimental research at academic institutions. Other areas discussed include computer networks, NSF's support of CSNET, the role of Kent Curtis in NSF, and the relationship between DARPA and NSF funding. The interview concludes with comments about the position of chief scientist and Adrion's decision to leave NSF

Developing and Deploying Software Engineering Courseware in an Adaptable Curriculum Framework

We describe an effort to design an adaptable framework for teaching and learning in software engineering. We are developing a repository of asynchronous, multimedia courseware that facilitates the rapid incorporation of new advances in research and technology, enables courses to be tailored to individual student needs and interests, leverages innovations in educational technology and encourages innovation in teaching and in student learning. Our emphasis is on developing composable multi-level “knowledge and topic units " (KU/TUs) that can be employed to tailor course content and depth to fit the needs of a diverse student population. We have developed “live” and on-line course material for KU/TUs in software engineering and taught courses using this material. The framework was deployed in three software engineering courses (previously taught concurrently) and provides quite different learning environments for the students in each course and, to some extent, tailors the courses to individual students within the classes based on their skills, objectives and backgrounds. We describe efforts at formative evaluation. Student satisfaction is high and available measures of success, e.g., student performance, have improved markedly. We also describe a project now beginning to build on this prototype that will be accompanied by more extensive formative and summative evaluation

Automatic capture and presentation creation from multimedia lectures

Abstract- For more than a decade, the RIPPLES grou

Improved whiteboard processing for lecture capture

In this paper we present an improved method for capturing information presented on a whiteboard in the context of lecture capture. The method produces better results than any method currently used and builds on methods available within the field of single-frame whiteboard enhancement. We present new techniques for both removing the lecturer from in front of the whiteboard and enhancing whiteboard content

Portable Lecture Capture that Captures the Complete Lecture

Lecture recording is not a new concept nor is high-resolution recording of multimedia presentations that include computer and whiteboard material. We describe a novel portable lecture capture system that captures not only computer content and video as do most modern lecture capture systems but also captures content from whiteboards. The white-board material is captured at high resolution and processed for clarity without the necessity for the electronic whiteboards required by many capture systems. Our presentation system also processes the entire lecture in real time. The system we present is the logical next step in lecture capture technology

The Evaluation Of Massively Parallel Array Architectures

THE EVALUATION OF MASSIVELY PARALLEL ARRAY ARCHITECTURES September, 1994 Martin C. Herbordt, B.A., University of Pennsylvania M.S., University of Massachusetts Amherst Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Amherst Directed by: Professor Charles C. Weems Although massively parallel arrays have been proposed since the 1950's and built since the 1960's, they have undergone very few systematic studies and these have covered only a small fraction of the design space. The major problems limiting previous studies are: computational cost of detailed and accurate simulations; programming cost of creating a test suite that compiles to the various target architectures and runs on them with comparable efficiency; and diversity of the architectural design space, especially communication networks. These issues are addressed in the construction of ENPASSANT, an evaluation environment for massively parallel array architectures that obtains performance measures of candidate designs with respect to real..

Excite: Enabling X-Campus Information Technology Education

A partnership of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, other University campuses, and state and community colleges has launched a new kind of undergraduate program in information technology (IT). Project EXCITE (Enabling X-Commonwealth Information Technology Education) is creating a flexible, integrative and innovative curriculum that crosses traditional academic boundaries to provide (1) fluency and motivation for students to employ IT effectively for broad social benefit; (2) syllabi and content suited to adaptation and reuse; and (3) new instructional technologies and delivery modes. This report describes efforts to organize the curriculum, encourage new pedagogy, develop multimedia modules, and incorporate assessment throughout the IT program