Quicksilver Minds

Inside the lab: the atomic-scale memory team at Almaden

2012-01-12T11:01:00.000-08:00

Today, researchers at Almaden were featured prominently in the media, for their atomic-scale memory discovery. By starting at the very end of data density - single atoms - IBM physicists and scientists in San Jose succeeded in reliably storing one bit of magnetic information at a low temperature in just 12 atoms. Today's hard drives use about 1 million atoms to store the same bit.

This is a huge breakthrough in understanding how to build smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient devices ranging from business-class servers to cell phones and laptops.

The team here at Almaden is a unique one - with outside-of-work interests such as winemaking, cross country skiing, photography and drawing, the 5 of them are usually found in their soon-to-be-expanded lab, listening to Pink Floyd, tinkering with the Nobel-prize winning scanning tunneling microscope (complete with the infamous Arizona iced tea aluminum can that "serves a very distinct purpose" - harnessing loose wires) and jotting down inspirational quotes to post around the lab, like the one above: "This could all be real!"

IBM researcher Susanne Baumann was the artist behind this representation of their work, which in the bottom starburst depicts today's discovery. Susanne completed her Master's in physics from the University of Basel in Switzerland and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. there. Seeing Don Eigler's atom manipulation images in her textbooks growing up, she became curious about atoms - the thing that makes up all the matter that surrounds us - and wanted to learn more. She took a position with the team at IBM Research - Almaden over a year ago, and is instrumental in navigating the STM for various experiments, including the one that concluded in this breakthrough discovery.

You can find more information in our press kit and at ibm.com/atomicscalememory. The IBM press release is here.

Social Business Research at Almaden

2011-12-13T15:41:00.000-08:00

Ten years ago there was a significant shift in the way people interacted with each other: the web came to the workplace and became a serious business tool for organizations in industries of every kind. The evolution continues with the coming of age of Social Business as social computing, analytics, policies, governance and cultures are integrated into enterprise design and organizations are focused on socially-enabling business processes.

Jeff Pierce, IBM Research - Almaden
Mobile Computing Research Lead

In a recent media event at IBM Research - Almaden focused on how Social Business is helping organizations around the world embrace a new culture of transparency and collaboration, IBM GM for Social Business Alistair Rennie spoke to about 6 reporters and 4 analysts about IBM's strategy and IBM mobile computing research lead Jeff Pierce led a discussion about user studies and mobile devices in the Social Business world.

The attendees had access to a number of mobile/social Research demonstrations, including the crowdsourcing mobile phone app CreekWatch, IBM Connections and a few Twitter analytics projects developed out of the Social Media Analytics & Engagement area of IBM Research - Almaden. Much of the research is developed out of behavioral studies - including the interesting result that even as early as 2007 some users were already managing their activities across an average of 6 devices - many of which were published in the last 3 years:

Smart Phone Use by Non-Mobile Business Users
Presented at Mobile HCI 2011

Understanding Information Preview in Mobile Email Processing

Presented at Mobile HCI 2011

No Smart Phone Is an Island: The Impact of Places, Situations, and Other Devices on Smart Phone Use

IBM Research Report

Triage and Capture: Rethinking Mobile Email

IBM Research Report

Also! ReadWriteWeb's article "IBM Rethinking Mobile Email" from December 2011

"It's on my other computer!": Computing with Multiple Devices

Presented at CHI 2008

Following the event, influential Forbes blogger Haydn Shaughnessy reported on the evolution of social media to social business highlighting IBM's embrace of social technologies across the organization. The article discusses IBM's evolution into a social business and cites IBM as a category leader in social software.

Jennifer Okimoto, Social Business Consultant from IBM's Global Business Services division, and speaker at this event, shared her thoughts on "Social Business Game Changers," which include behaviors, skills and attitudes:

You can learn more about IBM's Social Business here.

IBM storage gets more Hollywood hardware

2011-12-02T15:20:00.000-08:00

In October, we announced that IBM's Linear Tape File Storage project earned a spot at the Emmy Award Ceremony in Hollywood, where the team received a golden statuette for "improving the ability of media companies to capture, manage and exploit content in digital form, fundamentally changing the way that audio and video content is manager and stored" (as stated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences).

Since then, IBM was awarded the HPA Engineering Excellence Award, presented by the

Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA) for the invention of the Linear Tape File System, providing "a simple, cost efficient way to access and manage massive archives of data and digital assets." Arnon Amir, an Almaden researcher, received the award on behalf of IBM at the ceremony, at the Skirball

Cultural Center, Los Angeles.

Arnon shared some thoughts about the work he's done with his team to bring LTFS to this level of excellence.

IBM has been working, for a number of years, on developing innovative storage solutions for the M&E

market. LTFS is a prime example of IBM's ability to think out-of-the-box, develop a new technology and work with our partners and customers to lead a transformation through the industry. This collaboration, across multiple geographies, markets and technologies, demonstrates IBM's global leadership in storage systems.

When we started, the team was very small, however we only had a couple of shared tape drives in our lab to work with. One of core LTFS developers, Lucas Villa Real, worked remotely from IBM Brazil. We set for him a webcam in our lab, showing the front of the tape drive 24 hours a day. Looking at the live video he could see the tape drive loading and unloading the tape as he tested his software. This must have been one of the most boring live videos ever streamed. :-)

Later on, as the technology was hardened and transferred to product, the development team grew and span developers at multiple IBM locations Asia, Europe and America, with plenty of tape drives at all locations.

Seeing LTFS forming up from an idea to a product, now being adopted by many of our partners and customers in such a short time is truly fascinating. It is a great privilege to work with our excellent teams worldwide and to collaborate with so many IBM partners and customers. I feel very fortunate to have a part in this project.

IBM was also recognized as a Visionary M&E Company at this year's Storage Vision Conference (held in conjunction with the CES show). Also, December's issue of Storage Magazine Online listed LTFS as one of the six hot storage technologies for 2012, and was featured in Datamation's, "How Open Source Could Drive a Tape Storage Comeback" article.

More coverage and analyst reviews:

Computer Technology Review: LTO-5 and LTFS: Shaking the Pillars of Heaven

Backup Central: LTFS: Crazy Like a Fox

Clipper Group: Dealing with Cool and Cold Data — and Getting It 'Just Right'

B&L Blog: LTO-5: Changing the Way You Look at Tape

Dave Ferrucci on Watson: How it all began and what's next

2011-11-18T12:33:00.000-08:00

In his first west coast appearance, the IBM Watson creator gave a talk at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, followed by an exhibition Jeopardy! match between Watson and two brave volunteers with comedic host, IBMer Eric Brown.

Computer History Museum
president John Hollar

In front of what Computer History Museum president John Hollar called "the largest crowd for a Revolutionaries lecture" that he's ever seen, IBM Watson principle investigator Dave Ferrucci sat with Financial Times' Richard Waters on November 15th for a conversation about "A Computer Called Watson." To the audience of about 450 Silicon Valley techies, influencers, teenagers and inspired engineers, Dave kicked off the conversation by explaining how Watson came about; and it began with the notion of natural language processing, namely, contextual aspects of language.

"At our house, I'd always call the kids down to see something 'interesting' that I'd done - some type of experiment or science-related thing," Dave said. "After enough of these demonstrations, my daughter started to associate the word 'interesting' with 'boring' - so there's a little about language context."

IBM Watson principle investigator David Ferrucci (left)
with Financial Times' Richard Waters

It turns out Dave was headed toward a career in medicine and was pursuing an M.D. rather than a Ph.D. But the biology major quickly developed a fascination with artificial intelligence, and a passion for programming. "I thought it was incredible that you could tell the computer what to do - and that it would do it," he said.

After obtaining his BS in biology from Manhattan College, he pursued computer science with an emphasis in knowledge representation and reasoning at Renesslaer Polytechnic Institute, completing his Ph.D. in 1994.

Since joining IBM in 1995, Dave has contributed largely to the Research function as a computer scientist. But in 2007, when IBM executive Charles Lickel challenged Dave and his team to revolutionize Deep QA and put an IBM computer against Jeopardy!'s human champions, he was off to the races.

"I had to get funding," Dave explains. "I told the executives I could do this in 3-5 years. I kind of just guessed."

The executives bought it, and Dave had a huge task ahead. By assembling a team of eventually 28 researchers in the areas of natural language processing, software architecture, information retrieval, machine learning and knowledge representation and reasoning, Dave created Watson - a computer system, that, using a combination of sophisticated hardware and software, could understand natural language and deliver a single, precise answer with confidence and evidence for its decision.

At the end of the conversation, Dave told the crowd about Watson's new job in the medical field: "We want Watson to enable better judgement by humans in decision-making, whether it be in medicine, law, finance or services," Dave said. "While the human is the ultimate decision-maker, Watson will provide evidence and confidence by scouring millions of sources of related information in a short amount of time."

GigaOm's Stacey Higginbotham takes on IBM's Watson
and Sierra Ventures' Robert Walker in an exhibition match

In an exhibition Jeopardy! game following the talk, IBM's Eric Brown played host to GigaOm's Stacey Higginbotham, Sierra Ventures' Robert Walker, and "oh yeah, our third contestant, Watson, from Yorktown Heights, New York, built by a few computer scientists," an introduction met with laughter that would continue throughout the game.

The humans playfully 'teamed' up against the computer,
high-fiving and fist bumping on each correct answer

The animated human contestants instantly won over the crowd after trailing Watson through the first part of the game. In fact, when Stacey buzzed in with the first correct question for the humans, the crowd went wild.

The night continued in that way, and the human contestants even found themselves getting answers from the crowd, to which host Eric Brown responded: "Watson can't hear you, so humans have an advantage!" As it turned out, the trick was buzzing in before Watson - hard to do unless you're a seasoned Jeopardy! vet like Ken Jennings or Brad Rutter.

As the exciting match wound down, and all three contestants answered the Final Jeopardy! question correctly, Watson came away with the win, but left the auditorium with tremendous enthusiasm for this computer and its impact on the future of technology.

Check back here for a video clip of this event and the IBM Research news blog for more news about Watson.

More from the event:

Pre-game (post-practice game) thoughts from contestants*:

*apologies for the incorrect orientation

Meet Almaden's Master Inventors

2011-11-09T11:06:00.000-08:00

*leader in the invention community

*mentor to a broad community of inventors

*resource to Intellectual Property Legal office

This year, IBM Research has named forty-nine Master Inventors from its global community of researchers, including five from Almaden. Jim Hafner, Ray Strong, Alshakim Nelson, Tanveer Syeda-Mahmood and Tyrone Grandison, shared some thoughts about their motivations, their inspirations, and what it means to be part of an inventor community that has led the world in patents for 18 years.

Jim's current job is to "do whatever is needed for my project to succeed," but is known around IBM as a stellar mathematician in the Storage Systems department. Ever enthusiastic about the daily challenges - and opportunities to master stubborn ones - Jim credits QBIC (query by image processing) as the project he learned the most from, while his most inventive burst came from working on advanced RAID technologies.

By 6th grade, Jim knew that he was born to be a mathematician -- "it's in my genes," he says. "But I trained for and pursued an academic career for 6 years before coming to IBM." While he says he never aimed for IBM Research, the opportunity came up and "it was irresistible."

Thoughts from Jim on patent leadership and the freedom to explore:

It's exciting working for a corporation (or any institution) that regards invention, innovation and creativity as highly as IBM does. IBM supports the patent process and acknowledges special contributions to that process in order to keep the innovation train moving forward. As a company it needs new ideas to stay competitive. But I think IBM looks beyond just its own profit margins in its vision. From the old e-business initiatives to the current Smarter Planet initiative, it's about setting the agenda for world wide growth, improving the lives of people across the globe. That vision takes invention, innovation and creativity. It's good to be a part of this; to ride this train.

Favorite hobby: running and scuba diving, both physically challenging but with great rewards.

Ray Strong is a Services Research participant in three projects that involve "designing the future of work; transforming service cost cases into service delivery staffing plans; and providing a new approach to cost forecasting and predictive cost models for services." Driven by anticipation for discovering new ways to have an impact on the business, Ray is also a natural when it comes to math and science. "Growing up, I appreciated the fact that there were often objectively correct answers," he says. "And I enjoyed finding new ways to get at them. In grade school, I missed the coverage of 'subtraction,' so I invented my own (superior) method."

His favorite IBM project so far was a services-based solution offering called Impact of Future Technology, in which he served as the Research Technical Lead.

Ray shares with us his thoughts on invention:

Research means asking questions beyond those required to find good engineering solutions to problems. Almaden houses an outstanding group of research scientists and engineers who have the fun of inventing new stuff that can actually be used by the company. The invention disclosure process provides an early way to record these things and protect IBM's freedom of action at the same time. Our successful combination of science and business is an excellent motivator. What could be better than working with other enthusiastic inventors to explore areas where it is possible to have a big effect and being paid to do it?

Favorite hobby: Off trail mountain hiking and exploring.

Alshakim Nelson, a research chemist in the advanced organic materials group gets to work on technology at a fundamental scientific level, like working on magnetic particles with the tape storage group at Almaden.

Favorite hobby: Spending time with my daughter.

Tanveer Syeda-Mahmood has a very dynamic role as a manager in Almaden's computer science department - her job typically begins with an idea and typically ends with closing a deal. In between, she leads a team of researchers, develops algorithms, codes and presents. When asked what makes her excited to get out of bed and go to work in the morning, she answered, "The possibility of advancing the state-of-the-art technologies and developments in my field, building systems that others can use and change their ways of practicing medicine and freedom of action."

That doesn't stray too far from her passion for math and science that began as a child as well: "I was interested in the possibility of solving hard problems and excited about the discovery of new concepts and theories," Tanveer said. "I was inspired by famous scientists as role models."

The lead researcher behind AALIM, she credits that as her favorite project at IBM. "Motivated by personal incident, I conceived AALIM as a diagnostic aid to clinicians to help in their decision making," she said. "Seeing it used by clinicians around the world is still my dream."

Favorite hobby: Watching movies.

Tyrone Grandison is currently the Program Manager for IBM's Core Healthcare Services, but in a previous role at IBM Research developed the SoundIndex project for the British Broadcasting Corporation - his favorite project to date.

Asked why he pursued math and science in his youth, Tyrone answered, "I loved the elegance and simplicity of Mathematics, which could be used to model everything around me and in my estimation is the universal language that helps us get a better handle on the world."

As a strong contributer to the success of IBM IP, I asked Tyrone what it meant to him that IBM continuously breaks the worldwide record for patents in a year.

To me, it signifies IBM's commitment to innovation and its recognition of the importance of research in charting the future of the business. It also highlights the fact that IBM has an amazing collection of intelligent, creative and savvy employees who have the freedom to "dream" and make those dreams reality. IBM's patent leadership, worldwide for the past 18 years, is a testament to the corporation's consistent focus on long-term impact; both on society and business. Leadership over such a long period is only possible if innovation and impact are a part of one's DNA.

Personally, intellectual curiosity is the primary driving force behind my activities. The freedom to tackle the hard problems and invent the future is the main reason I am an IBMer. The opportunity to have a positive impact on the world and influence communities, both scientific and commercial, is one that would be hard to have anywhere else.

Favorite hobby: Writing poetry and photography.

Congratulations to Almaden's new class of Master Inventors.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T18:38:00.000-07:00

Spirited IBMers at enjoy a warm Halloween day at Almaden

One Million Healthy Children

2011-10-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, IBM Research announced a collaborative research effort with Georgia Tech that aims to improve pediatric healthcare from a payment and policy level. The project, called One Million Healthy Children, will apply advanced modeling and analytics to thousands children's healthcare records to better understand the inefficiencies that make up today's model, which encourages fee for service, rather than prevention and precise diagnoses. By examining factors far beyond the realm of medicine - the region's literary make-up, transportation hubs and access, healthy food stores and socioeconomic status of families - IBM and Georgia Tech hope to provide doctors, policymakers and patients a better idea of how to approach disease. The team will first look at diabetes, which accounts for over $174B in costs in the U.S. per year.

The modeling technology used in this initiative was born out of IBM Research - Almaden, by a services research team led by Paul Maglio. The Smarter Planet Platform for the Analysis and Simulation of Health is a tool that uses a plug-and-play type of format to insert factors making up a population's health - the systems of systems so to say. IBM researcher on the project, Cheryl Kieliszewski tells us a little more about the project:

We are thrilled to partner with Georgia Tech on the One Million Healthy Children project. Together, we aim to tackle a difficult, multi-dimensional problem in health – kids experiencing preventable chronic non-communicable diseases, such as obesity and diabetes, at ever younger ages, and which will have a major influence on overall health and well being throughout their lifespan. To do this, we will explore a number of ways to create and use complex composite models to examine what-if scenarios to improve children's health.

The partnership brings together Bill Rouse and his team at Georgia Tech, which has expertise in complex adaptive systems, in particular within healthcare modeling, and our team, which has expertise in composite model assembly. On the one hand, it provides the team an opportunity to help understand a difficult societal challenge – keeping our kids healthy – and on the other, it forces the team to confront technical issues, such as how to semi-automatically couple models from different domains, and also social and process issues to support complex decision making. We’re very excited about the potential of this project and for continued work with the Georgia Tech team.

IBM Press Release
"What Is or What If" - IBM Research news blog guest post by Professor William Rouse, Georgia Institute of Technology's Tennenbaum Institute Executive Director, co-chair of the National Academies Healthy America Initiative and member of the National Academy of Engineering
eWeek
HealthITNews
Information Week

We won an Emmy!

2011-10-21T12:50:00.000-07:00

Earlier today it was announced that IBM was presented a unique award. Together with FOX, an IBM Research project born out of Almaden won an Engineering Emmy award for Innovation from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. According to the Academy, by improving the ability of media companies to capture, manage and exploit content in digital form, IBM and Fox have fundamentally changed the way that audio and video content is managed and stored.

The Linear Tape File System (LTFS), invented by IBM's lauded Research Division, enabled major improvements in digital workflow and dramatic reductions in the costs associated with capturing, storing and repurposing media content while providing dramatic improvements in transfer rates, storage density, automated workflow, meta-data capture and content availability. Combining digital broadcast and IT standards in a broadcast environment, the LTFS has enabled real-time content recording and high-speed recovery of content to be a broadly-supported, multi-industry solution.

Michael Richmond, Brian Biskeborn, David Pease, Arnon Amir (Almaden Research), and Shinobu Fujihara (Yamato) at the 2010 NAB show where LTFS was announced and released.

In a blog post earlier this year, IBMer Tony Pearson, Master Inventor and Senior Managing Consultant for the IBM System Storage product line, wrote:

"With the capabilities of LTFS, IBM has introduced an entirely new role for tape, as an attractive high capacity, easy to use, low cost and shareable storage media. LTFS can make tape usable in a fashion like removable external disk, a giant alternative to floppy diskettes, DVD-RW and USB memory sticks with directory tree access and file-level drag-and-drop capability. LTFS can allow the for passing of information around from one system or employee to another. And as for high video storage capacity, a 1.5TB LTO-5 cartridge can hold about 50 hours of XDCAM HD video!"

Lead researcher on the project David Pease is a long time storage research expert at the Almaden lab in San Jose, CA. Pioneering many of the tape and disk storage technologies out of IBM Research over the last decade, David recalls a significant factor in deciding to pursue this project the way he did. "We really needed to make the first version open source," David said. "The idea of a file system that was cross-platform and interoperable was key; we wanted people to have an interface they were familiar with, similar to disk with file folders, drag and drop and double-click, but we also wanted to make sure it wasn't tied to only Windows or only Unix. The real future for acceptance for just about any kind of storage technology is interoperability and that people aren't tied to a platform."

David and his team developed LTFS from concept to fruition in just less than 3 years. An impressive feat in the research world, he shares some thoughts about winning an Emmy for his work:

First, I am truly stunned. This recognition is more than we ever expected so early in the project, and hopefully it reflects the importance of what we've done. When we started this work, we said that our goal was to change the tape industry and the Media and Entertainment business; it seems that we are well on the way to realizing these goals.

I have to point out that an idea and project like this are never the work of an individual. From Ed Childers and the other tape experts in Tucson, to the folks at Almaden who encouraged me to get involved with tape (again), to the team of great researchers and developers who worked on this in my group, to the tape specialists in the Yamato Lab who joined my team or worked to support it, I have to say that we couldn't have gotten here without the efforts of each of you. Thank you all for making this possible!

Fun fact: This past February, David Pease completed a 41-day motorcyle ride from San Jose, CA to Panama City, Panama with 3 companions on different stages of the trip. You can read about his travels through California, Northern, Central and Southeast Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and finally Panama at his blog here.

*****UPDATE Monday, October 31*****

Here's a picture of David with the Emmy. You can see more pictures of the team from the Awards Ceremony here.

IBM Research - Almaden in Councilwoman Nancy Pyle's Newsletter

2011-10-07T10:43:00.000-07:00

In 2005, Nancy began her first term on the San Jose City Council as the representative for District 10. A retired teacher of over 25 years and a former Community College Board Trustee, Nancy represents approximately 100,000 residents from Almaden Valley and Blossom Valley.

As District 10's City Councilmember, Nancy takes an innovative approach to solving today's challenges through creativity and collaboration. She has focused city government on the basics, maintaining our streets and parks, keeping our neighborhoods safe, investing resources in youth and senior programs and making city government more accountable.

Councilmember Pyle is the Chair of the Neighborhood Services and Education Committee and a member of the Airport Competitiveness Committee. She serves as the Council liaison to the Parks and Recreation Commission and the Disability Advisory Commission. Councilmember Pyle also serves on the Santa Clara County Emergency Preparedness Council.

Nancy Pyle is a graduate of LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, where she majored in French (she’s fluent!), and earned a Masters Degree in Educational Administration from the US International University in San Diego. In 1960, Nancy moved to San Jose with her family where she served as a teacher, Community Relations Manager, and Legislative Analyst for San Jose Unified School District.

Best Paper Award for "An Optimal Algorithm for the Distinct Elements Problem"

2011-10-03T14:04:00.000-07:00

Last month, the winners of IBM's 2010 Pat Goldberg Memorial Best Paper competition in computer science, electrical engineering and math were announced. IBM Research - Almaden computer scientist David Woodruff co-authored one of the winning papers, titled "An Optimal Algorithm for the Distinct Elements Problem" with Daniel M. Kane (Harvard University) and Jelani Nelson (MIT) for PODS 2010 (ACM Symposium on Principles of Database Systems).

The Professional Interest Communities at IBM Research (PICs) reviewed a total of close to 120 papers submitted by IBM Research authors and nominated 34 for best paper consideration. A worldwide Research team reviewed the nominated papers and selected four outstanding papers as the award winners.

All of the submitted papers represent IBM Researchers advancing our field and are indicative of our commitment to long-term, exploratory work that can change the way we look at the world.

Below, David explains a bit about his paper, what it might mean for the advancement of mathematical discovery and what it's like working for IBM.

Estimating the number of distinct attributes is a fundamental practical and theoretical problem in database applications dating back to the 1970s. It arises in trying to optimize a query sequence, where keeping the number of distinct elements small at intermediate stages in the sequence ensures the overall running time is low. It is also useful for comparing two data sets, e.g., how many new items did we get by putting the two datasets together?

The techniques in this paper will be useful for improving the memory and time complexity of a number of fundamental problems in the data stream literature, related to estimating the number of distinct elements, such as estimating rarity, similarity, union sizes of databases, etc.

They can also be used for estimating the number of distinct elements in the distributed model, sliding window model, and time-decayed model. In the distributed model, there are multiple servers, each holding a database, and we want to estimate the number of distinct elements in the union of the databases with as few communication and computational overhead as possible. In the sliding-window model, which could for instance be used on a router monitoring distinct source-destination traffic passing through it, it may be that we are only interested in the recent traffic, or we may at least want to give more weight to recent traffic. These variations correspond to the sliding-window and time-decayed models.

My work closes a long-standing problem in the area of data streams. IBM Research has made a sustained effort to design data stream and sub-linear algorithms for a wide variety of problems, e.g., those in graph theory, machine learning, network traffic analysis, numerical linear algebra, and statistics. This work significantly bolsters that effort.

I’m very grateful for the amazing amount of freedom and that I’ve been given at IBM, and have been able to use this to highly optimize my time and productivity. Interacting with interesting colleagues is one of the most exciting aspects of my job. It’s really enjoyable and a great learning experience.

Research interests: data stream algorithms, communication complexity, numerical linear algebra, graph algorithms, coding theory, and cryptography

Inspirational figures:The super theory group at IBM Research - Almaden

When I'm not working, I'm: home remodeling, playing basketball, practicing chinese, traveling

Favorite travel spots: Banff, Canada. Hangzhou, China. Venice, Italy.

David Woodruff is a Research Staff Member in IBM Research - Almaden's Principles and Methodologies Group. He received a B.S. in computer sceince, B.S. in mathematics, M.Eng in computer science and Ph.D in computer science, each from MIT. David also contributes to IBM's cognitive computing initiative, SyNAPSE.

IBM Research - Almaden Centennial Colloquia "Planet Scale Analytics"

2011-09-26T09:24:00.000-07:00

Over 150 eminent leaders in the area of big data and massive scale analytics came together on Tuesday, September 20th for the IBM Research - Almaden Centennial Colloquia to discuss "Planet Scale Analytics." A truly collaborative event, speakers like Gus Hunt, Chief Technology Officer, CIA, Peter Breunig, GM Technology & Strategy, Chevron Corporation and Arvind Krishna, GM Information Management, IBM, convened to discuss the emerging - and explosive - wave of massive scale structured and unstructured data and the rise of analytics for actionable insight.

Leading executives from Juniper Networks, Coca-Cola, Genetench, Yahoo!, Agilent Technologies and Intuit were among attendees who came together to discuss data challenges from a business perspective, and were intrigued to learn about the findings and potential solutions presented in the technical sessions. The academic and research communities were naturally anxious to hear customer concerns and needs. Todd Myers, Chief Scientist for the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency attended to learn about emerging technologies designed to tackle analytics for massive data sets and commented, "IBM does a very good job of convening great speakers and thought leaders."

The three V's of big data - and the fourth

Arvind Krishna opened the morning, describing big data from the perspectives of the 451 group, IDC and IBM - all very similar by definition - large, complex and dynamic. Krishna shared IBM's spin on the big data definition by 3 v's: volume - data at rest, velocity - data in motion and variety - data in many forms. A fourth 'v', Arvind added, is veracity - data in doubt, used to describe 'contradictory data,' or noisy data - ultimately, unstructured data that experts are not sure how to deal with.

In a much anticipated technical discussion about analytics solutions, Shiv Vaithyanathan, IBM Research senior manager in Intelligent Information Systems, again mentioned these 4 v's in his talk titled "Entity, Relationship and 360-degree View of customers." "Veracity is turning noisy data like jargon and acronyms, even wishful thinking and sarcasm into trustworthy insights," Vaithyanathan said. "We're dealing with social media data from hundreds of sources - 10,000 messages per second from over 100 million active users per source - that needs to be combined and correlated to make near real-time decisions."

Using IBM's System T and SQL language, Shiv and the database experts at Almaden have built a 360 degree customer profile built on more than 2,000 rules, analyzing an average of half a terabyte of data on any given day. Vaithyanathan explained the advantages of the analytics tool throughout his talk and via demonstration. System T uses less than 10% of the cores to keep up with Twitter's daily feed with no drop in quality due to its linear scalability; a sharp decline in core usage from both state-of-the-art statistical systems and state-of-the-art open source rule-based systems that require the thousands of cores that System T does not.

Big data challenges in cities and across industries
Through a series of discussions on industry applications such as "21st Century Water Data: Needs and Availability" presented by Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute and "Big Data in Finance: Quantitative, Qualitative and Relationship Information," by David Leinweber of Leinweber & Co., several challenges proving the need for deep analytical capabilities were shared. "We're entering a world where anyone can be a data source and upload some publicly interesting piece of data," Gleick remarked. "We can share information to an open source database, where you can add search capabilities." Adding to the notion of the changing face of data analytics, Leinweber commented, "Dealing with this is uncomfortable. We need to expect errors and strange innovations." He closed semi-jokingly with a quote by Ogden Nash: "Progress may have been all right once, but it's gone on far too long."

Chevron's Breunig presenting some noteworthy statistics from the oil and energy area: the alarming rate of data transfer and storage that Chevron is faced with daily. At 20PB day, doubling every 2 years with a declining signal to noise ratio, there's not only a dynamic cluster of data that needs to be wrangled, but a challenge in ways to apply that data to equally dynamic dimensions. "In the oil business, subsurface modeling has many uses, and its users have different needs," Breunig said. "This is a big data integration challenge."

Alexandre Bayen of UC Berkeley suggests that like traffic data, water and earthquake data needs to be online, sharing an interesting thought about traffic analytics: monitoring 2% of traffic in real time is sufficient to predict travel time. Additionally, Bayen proposes that tracking one year of yellow cab data in San Francisco can plot a map of the city with relative accuracy. In putting multiple sources of crowdsourced data, public feeds, texts and videos online, analytics can be applied in very similar ways, as long as they have the same basic properties: 1) a mathematical model, very important for physical phenomena, 2) data, 3) inverse modeling and data simulation resulting in estimates and eventually decisions.

Data privacy and sharing

A close collaborator with IBM, Fran Maier of TRUSTe usually has a hard time describing her job: internet privacy. She explained in a panel on privacy that her company works with companies to ensure that their policies and practices are standard and meet whatever promise they make with the consumer. "It's not easy," Fran said, "because privacy, unlike security doesn't have a 'bad guy'. The important elements are transparency and accountability." The cycle of delivering trust in privacy to internet consumers to allow for more interaction and sharing is important - without it, companies are unable to collect and use data sets.

Harriet Pearson, IBM's chief privacy officer, also shared some views on thought leadership from a large corporation perspective. "Companies like Facebook are experimenting in public and seeing where the norms might be," she explained. "One approach by some of the new entrants in the Silicon Valley is to push the envelope, then retract; push, then retract. Alternately, organizations set norms from the outset, or enlist the help of organizations like trustE. Policy making has not accelerated that much. It puts a premium on those who can function in environments of uncertainty and have the confidence to strive forward."

Next steps

Many of the comments shared throughout the day confirmed positive impressions of IBM's data analytics capabilities and the proximal and technical opportunities to impact the local "hotbed" of massive data streams. Others appreciated the opportunity to hear how other companies make use of technologies and models to analyze complicated situations. Al Leung, vice president and partner for acquisitions & logistics at IBM, expressed the advantages of bringing his clients to this forum to learn new techniques and explore some of IBM's offerings in a more personalized format. The conversation of massive scale analytics at IBM Research will continue locally and from a company-wide perspective, focusing on developing plans to expand collaboration efforts.

Soundbites from the event:

IBM's cognitive computing chips make waves

2011-08-23T13:42:00.001-07:00

Last week, IBM unveiled the first ever cognitive computing chips - designed to learn without set programming, the chips emulate the brain's ability for perception, action, reaction and sensation, and have demonstrated the ability to recognize handwritten numbers and provide its best answer for what it "sees" on the screen. The chips have also learned how to play the game Pong, in which it "watches" the ball, predicts the trajectory, and moves the paddle to block the ball with amazing accuracy.

You can read all about the SyNAPSE project at ibm.com/synapse and catch up on the 10 ten things to know about the SyNAPSE project on the IBM Research news blog. Selected press clips follow, as well as a video highlight reel.

New York Times: I.B.M. Announces Brainy Computer Chip
Associated Press: IBM Pursues Chips That Behave Like Brains
The Wall Street Journal: IBM Announces Move Toward ‘Cognitive’ Computing
Bloomberg Businessweek: IBM Chip ‘Senses’ Events to React Like Brain
AFP: IBM unveils computer chips that mimic human brain
NBC: IBM's New Chips Act Like Your Brain
BBC: IBM produces first 'brain chips'
CNET: IBM says new chip mimics the human brain
GigaOm: For our sensor heavy future, IBM cooks up a new silicon brain
MIT Tech Review: IBM's New Chips Compute More Like We Do
Gizmodo: IBM's Processors Will Think Like Brains
Engadget: IBM's cognitive computing chip functions like a human brain, heralds our demise
Venturebeat: IBM produces first working chips modeled on the human brain

"Fascinating? No doubt. It's initiatives like these that demonstrate just how different IBM is from Hewlett-Packard and other peers, especially now that CEO Leo Apotheker is cutting consumer-facing operations to focus on big-ticket sales. Reverse-engineering brainpower would have to seem like a frivolous enterprise."

- Motley Fool

IBM CEO visits IBM Research - Almaden

2011-08-09T14:40:00.000-07:00

Researchers at Almaden were thrilled to attend a townhall event with IBM Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano on Thursday, August 4. In his first speaking engagement (to employees) at Almaden, he gave an overview of IBM's first half, and the audience of over 350 enjoyed his casual and personable presentation style, complete with a few friendly jokes.

Following the townhall, Mr. Palmisano presented a Centennial Lecture at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. Analyst Rob Enderle, in an article about the event, said:

"I attended a truly brilliant speech last night. It is now one of those that I’ll likely take with me to the grave...[IBM CEO Sam Palmisano] spoke about what it takes to make it through 100 years and I’ll remember both what he said and, more importantly, what he did, which is give IBMers hope."

(Read the rest of Rob's article here: What IBM and Sam Palmisano Could Teach Apple, Microsoft and President Obama on itbusinessedge.com)

Addtional coverage:

Harvard Business Review
IBM at 100: How to Outlast Depression, War, and Competition

EE Times
IBM CEO: How to live to be 100

eWeek
IBM CEO Palmisano Reflects on Company's 100 Years

Forbes
IBM's Palmisano: How You Get To Be a 100 Year-Old Company

Watch Mr. Palmisano's lecture at the Computer History Museum: What Changes and What Endures below:

Intern Spotlight: Summertime at Almaden

2011-08-03T13:01:00.000-07:00

The days are longer, the temperature is higher and the Thursday BBQ days in the cafeteria have commenced; IBM Research - Almaden is bustling with a fresh vibrance that can only mean one thing - it's summertime!

With most of the interns being from out of state and even out of the country, a few casual discussions over free afternoon popcorn and tea warranted some interesting perspectives on the lab. When asked what their favorite part about the lab was so far, almost everybody mentioned the location, the weather, the people and the wildlife. University of Denver student DiDi Wei saw cows on her first day and "thought it was really neat." Shripad Nadgowda from Napur, India added that his favorite part is the research that he's involved in during his time here; he chose IBM for his summer internship because "IBM is the biggest technology hub. IBM technologies are very well studied in the academia. I wanted to join IBM to get chance to learn these technologies from people who invented them."

The interns come from a wide variety of scientific and mathematical backgrounds: chemistry, applied mathematics, systems, ubiquitous computing, epidemiological modeling, and robotics and intelligent systems to name a few. So why IBM?

The words legendary, resume-builder, fun and famous came into play. University of Washington MBA candidate, Naureen Manekia replied, "Who wouldn't want to work for such a world famous company in beautiful California? As a Human Resources Intern, I was interested in learning best HR practices from a global, high performance organization and this internship provided me with this valuable opportunity. I will be able to more effectively build my network and expand my experiences with IBM this summer. I'm looking forward to the fun and challenges IBM has to offer!"

Jorge Guerra, a Caracas, Venezuela native, expressed that "as a PhD student, IBM Almaden offers an excellent opportunity to experience research from an industry perspective, which complements the academic training I get from school. Also, I found that IBM has a very diverse group of researchers from different backgrounds and this greatly helps enrich discussions and debate on product ideas."

The internship experience in general is designed to enrich and add value to University studies, future job searches, and life lessons. IBM proves its success - Douglas Willcocks from London lamented that this is "an excellent opportunity to gain experience at a world class research lab." Sureyya Tarkan also agreed on the notion that IBM is a world-class facility and wanted to know what it was like to work in a "large research group."

All in all, their experience at IBM is beneficial in that future employers will recognize that they've contributed to a professional environment and will be prepared to take on challenging tasks. Kim Weaver mentioned that she "always thought that professors should have some experience in industry to better relate to their students, most of whom desire industry and not academic jobs. This was a good opportunity to work with some great, well-respected people."

Finally, there were some discussions on the benefits and perks of being an IBMer, even if it is for a few short months out of the year. Some of the interns are taking advantage of Great America Theme Park tickets at a discount of $20 off regular ticket price; others are enjoying free public transportation all summer long, thanks to IBM's free eco-passes. Discounted movie tickets are popular, as are the on-site dry cleaning service and on-site car wash. Almaden's full service library also got kudos, due to their excellent assistance in providing books ordered specially from other IBM sites.

While Almaden's full-time residents are doing their part in making the lab a comfortable home-away-from-home for the interns, there's definitely mutual benefits - learning, networking, and having fun all come into play during this season, for all parties involved.

Summer Intern Showcase

The wide range of business applications and discoveries developed by the interns this year were largely ideas stemming from existing research projects or those that were yet to be executed by Almaden’s research teams. With the help, enthusiasm and refined expertise of this year’s interns, many of those ideas and projects were realized in just three short months, while others gained significant momentum toward fulfillment.

Many of the interns worked on projects that were vastly different from their current course of study at their universities. Shripad Nadgoda from Stony Brook University took on a GPFS project in the storage area that didn’t align with his coursework, but changed his frame of mind to a new type of research, which he indicated "will be helpful later because I’ve been able to explore a different area and start from scratch." Yang Ye of Colombia University echoed those sentiments stating, "It was nice to learn how to solve real problems in the industry. It was hard at first, but then your mind switches, and you take off in the right direction."

Others, however, were recruited based on their expertise in certain areas. Sunyoung Kim from Carnegie Mellon University authored/co-authored several published papers around air quality research. IBM Human Computer Interaction researcher Tom Zimmerman read her paper and recruited her to join the team of Almaden computer scientists working on an iPhone app that monitors water quality. In this mutually beneficial scenario, Sunyoung was able to build on her current research focus, and IBMers were able to tap into her knowledge about application development for mobile environmental monitoring.

Interns in the Extreme Blue Program at IBM Research - Almaden shared some thoughts on camera:

Services Innovation Lab strengthens Research

2011-08-02T18:18:00.000-07:00

This post originally appeared on the IBM Research news blog on July 28.

Today, IBM announced an initiative designed to link state-of-the-art IBM Research projects directly to the largest part of the company - services.

The Services Innovation Lab (SIL), led by researchers with development and client experience in virtually every field of science and technology, will bring together researchers and services professionals to generate ideas, solve problems, capture opportunities and create new innovations that will transform services. You can learn more about the SIL here.

IBM Research - Almaden senior manager for services research, Stefan Nusser, has been named Almaden Lead for the SIL. Below, he provides some additional thoughts on the motivations, goals and ideal outcomes.

Stefan's team, composed of researchers with varying expertise - nanotechnology, computational biology, user interaction, computer science, data mining, security and compliance, mathematics, business optimization and more - includes Sandeep Gopisetty, IBM Research Distinguished Engineer, who already has a portfolio of projects in place for the launch of the SIL:

Backup and recovery tools to help with the majority of critical situations in the customer environment.
Provide insights into a customer environment to check the heal and performance, reducing critical situations as well as helping to manage the customer environment more simply.
Addressing the management of firmware and patches for hardware.
Intelligent performance aware automation for complex storage tasks.
Unified policy-based ILM for enterprise storage.

GPFS breaks file scanning record by 37x

2011-07-22T03:24:00.000-07:00

Editor's note: Guest author Richard Freitas is a computer scientist in storage class memory at IBM Research - Almaden.

In our increasingly instrumented, interconnected and intelligent world, individuals and companies are struggling to deal with the explosive growth of data. According to a recent study there will be 1800 exabytes (EB) of digital data in 2011, up from 220 EB in 2007. Such growth places the data user under tremendous pressure to turn data into actionable insights quickly, while straining the world’s IT infrastructure to its limits. This forces the data user to manage the explosive growth of data and storage using tools designed for easier times.

Existing storage management solutions find it difficult to provide timely storage backup, migration to appropriate performance tiers, replication and distribution. In many cases, users go without the kind of daily backup that industry experts would expect of a large data store. As new applications emerge in industries from financial services to healthcare, traditional systems will be unable to process data on this scale, leaving users exposed to critical data loss.

Anticipating these storage challenges decades ago, Almaden researchers created GPFS, a highly scalable, clustered parallel file system. Already deployed in enterprise environments with one billion files to perform essential tasks such as file backup and data archiving, this technology’s unique approach overcomes the key challenge in managing unprecedented large file systems with the combination of multi-system parallelization and fast access to file system metadata stored on a solid-state storage appliance.

GPFS advanced algorithms make possible the full use of all processor cores on all of these machines in all phases of the task (data read, sorting, and rules evaluation). GPFS exploits the excellent random performance and high data transfer rates of the 6.5 TB solid-state metadata storage. The solid-state appliances sustainably perform hundreds of millions of IO operations, while GPFS continuously identifies, selects and sorts the right set of files from the 10 billion-file file system. Performing this selection in 43 minutes was achieved by using GPFS running on a cluster of ten 8-core systems and four Violin Memory solid-state memory arrays. This is 37 times the rate that was achieved in 2007 on a file system containing 1 Billion files.

You can read more about this IBM Research breakthrough here.

Community: Help through horses for autism

2011-07-17T13:54:00.000-07:00

When Carolyn Wallace, IBM Research - Almaden Client Relationship Manager learned about IBM's Centennial Day of Service, she was quickly motivated to rally around a particular cause that affects her personally: autism. Carolyn's 10-year old grandson, Max, has autism, and in the spirit of IBM's 100th year, she decided to gather the efforts of her colleagues and friends in the area to donate their time to Gilroy's DreamPower Horsemanship Camp.

The DreamPower Horsemanship Camp offers a number of therapeutic services to individuals affected by physical and mental disabilities, ranging from equine facilitated psychotherapy, groups for cancer patients and confident rider clinics to couples communication workshops and therapeutic horsemanship lessons for children, teens and adults.

"Max struggles with speech and has been in speech therapy for several years," Carolyn said. "I don't know if it's my imagination or wishful thinking, but I believe his speech is much clearer when he is riding."

Founded by Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Martha McNiel, the program was developed with a specific mission in mind: Building lives filled with dreams, and the power to make dreams come true. Martha is a NARHA Registered Therapeutic Riding Instructor and a Certified Equine Interaction Professional in Mental Health. Along with her staff, she hosts groups at the camp ranging from juvenile delinquents to individuals with cerebral palsy - all with the intent to provide emotional and physical healing for their clients.

With an IBM cash grant of $5,000 used to support the week-long DreamPower Horsemanship Camp for Children on the Autism Spectrum, IBMers and DreamPower staff worked together to create 15 hours worth of horse riding, grooming, arts and crafts and science projects for the children to participate in. Ranging in age from 4 - 13, 16 camp participants from San Jose and Morgan Hill learned about things like horse safety and care, horseriding commands and coordination activities, and also played interactive games like giant Jenga. On the last day of camp, the group got to decorate a mini horse with paint and glitter.

"We have had Max in therapeutic horseback training since November of 2010," Carolyn said. "He is very enthusiastic about his riding classes on Monday evening - he gets ready and stands by the door when it gets close to time to depart for class."

In order to qualify for the grant, which was proposed as part of IBM's Centennial service commitment, the program had to incorporate a science and technology component. By enlisting the help of Schmahl Science - in essence, a science lab on wheels - the kids had an opportunity to explore science, math and engineering through projects tailored specifically to their needs.

Mayor Steve Tate, City of Morgan Hill, coincidentally a 38-year IBMer, supports the philanthropic efforts of IBM, and is proud to have the affiliation attached to his resume: "they're community builders. And that's what we're all about here in Morgan Hill," he said.

In fact, IBMers in the Silicon Valley have donated time directly to the South County in a number of different ways. Community teams have partnered with Solorsano Middle School in Gilroy to put on Lego Robotics Workshops and to invite students to IBM's Annual Technology Camps. Around 25 IBMers volunteer for Rebekah's Children's Services by cleaning up, painting, organizing or planting at various locations. Overall, IBM has donated $182,494 in cash and equipment to the City of Morgan Hill and $10,208 to the City of Gilroy since 2006.

IBM is committed to serving local communities - in fact, IBMers volunteer more than any other company in the world. Since 2003, more than 11 million hours of service has been recorded. In the Silicon Valley alone, IBMers are committed to donating 32,000 hours of service in 2011.

Read about IBM's involvement in the DreamPower Horsemanship Camp in the Morgan Hill Times.

Photo captions, top to bottom:

A camp participant straps on her helmet with the help of a volunteer in anticipation of a therapeutic ride through the arena.

IBM Fellow, CTO and VP, Technical Strategy and Senior Location Executive for the Silicon Valley, Jai Menon, visits the camp to support the nearly 100 IBM volunteers and to express his praise for a program dedicated to an extremely relevant cause.

Middle school girls jump start passion for math and science

2011-06-27T11:17:00.000-07:00

Last week, 28 girls gathered at IBM Research - Almaden, some having no idea how interested they were in math and science until they built a PC, had fun with liquid nitrogen, and checked out a homemade robot by local high schoolers that can play soccer. IBM rockstar volunteer, Rick DiPietro, was able to win over a handful more with his "cool chemistry" session where they extracted the DNA from a strawberry. The homemade slime they created was too cool to forget about, and seeing a cotton ball explode was also something many of the girls talked about after the event.

"I learned a whole new side of me that I never knew I had," exclaimed 8th grader Lauren Miller as she tested circuit boards and made her LED light shine. Her fellow camp friend Alice Chu was also surprised at "how fun science can be."

Led by IBM Outreach Program Manager, Bob Martinez, and Corporate Citizenship and Community Affairs Manager Jennifer Hernandez, 42 IBMers volunteered their time throughout the week to help the girls navigate through several science projects. While at Almaden, the group also got to learn about the A/V field with leader Alex DeLuca, how to give an effective business presentation, and a tour of the site which included visits to the computer rooms, telepresence videoconferencing rooms, and the lobby's latest addition, the OmniGlobe. In the middle of the week, the girls were treated to a field trip to San Francisco's California Academy of Science, where the living roof and the 4 story rainforest were favorite exhibits.

Bob Martinez, who has been running this program with the help of his core team for the past 6 years, credits his IBM colleagues for the time they spend volunteering, not only during camp, but throughout the year. Because of the active engagement in youth outreach by IBM employees in the Silicon Valley, Bob and team have developed partnerships with several schools in the area - most with a high concentration of minority students. Additional programs such as Traducelo Ahora and MentorPlace, help give young kids exposure to math and science, which according to experts, is crucial in helping develop the next generation of high-tech professionals.

"The kids get exposure to science and technology during the camp, but they also learn other things that help them prepare for their future," says Martinez. "Creating their project presentations using a manuscript versus conversational method, different teambuilding exercises, and being able to talk intelligently about what they've learned are all things they can take away from this camp and help them excel no matter what career they choose. But when you see the spark in their eye, that's when you know we've done what we set out to do."

A look inside the girl's technology camp from last year:

Picture Captions (Top to Bottom):

The girls participate in cool chemistry with liquid nitrogen.

A MedEvac helicopter, which landed right on-site, gave the girls a chance to learn about air ambulance services, go inside the helicopter, and experience the medical, technical and communication devices used in transport.

A popular project with the girls is soldering wires together to create their own individual LED light box.

The 6-foot OmniGlobe in the building's lobby shows girls the different areas of technology that computer scientists are working on, like 3-D visualization.

Creeks, a Cessna Cardinal, a Time Capsule and Cake: Almaden Celebrates 100

2011-06-20T10:58:00.000-07:00

On the last day of IBM's 99th year, hundreds of thousands IBMers around the world volunteered their time and talent in support of smarter planet initiatives. Recognizing the importance of water as a resource in the city of San Jose, researchers at Almaden have been working over the past year on a number of different water-related projects: improved membrane filtration techniques for safer drinking water, solar powered water desalination and most recently, an iPhone app called Creek Watch that allows every day passers-by to report crucial information about local creeks and streams to water authorities. Fueled by the notion of crowdsourcing, anyone with a smart phone can now be a "citizen scientist" and help improve local waterways without having a background in biology.

With water in mind, almost 50 IBMers from the research lab at Almaden set out to their designated zones on June 15th, equipped with their Creek Watch smart phone applications in hand as well as water monitoring kits provided by the city. The kits allowed volunteers to monitor temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity, while Creek Watch allows users to report the flow rate, water level and trash presence into a central database. Collecting data at over 31 streams in San Jose, IBMers were able to provide the city's staff with valuable information to protect natural resources, and become stewards of their watersheds.

A news clip from CBS explains why it's important that IBM dedicates its volunteer efforts to this important resource in San Jose:

Having such a dedicated focus on water, the Almaden lab extended its services by offering the city social media analysis for community outreach messages, business models to understand the effect that our natural waterways have on other systems in the city, and data warehousing solutions to efficiently store and aggregate the data collected. Volunteer Renu Tewari said, "We really wanted to make an impact. Instead of going out individually to complete our service hours, we focused all of our efforts on water, and we hope that we make a difference." (Morgan Hill Times)

Photos collected from volunteers can be viewed in an online album here.

The following day - June 16th - in recognition of IBM's official 100th birthday, IBM Research - Almaden gathered for a commemorative lab photo, taken from a small Cessna plane thousands of feet above - looking down to see "IBM 100th" spelled out by over 500 IBMers donning their IBM globe logo t-shirts and celebratory "Silver Centennial" medallions. Here's another one of the crew waving.

Over 60 IBMers continued the fun by being present for the official groundbreaking ceremony for Almaden's 25 year time capsule, set to be buried near the lobby's flagpole, and not opened until 2036. Several employees contributed artifacts and items to the time capsule including: Blue Gene/L compute card, Gaussian 92 tape and manual, IBM 3420 magnetic tape drive, STM gold writing, Li-Air battery test cell, Tivoli Storage Manager timeline, cognitive computing chips, Almaden Views brochures and magazines, press clippings, lab photos and more. IBM Research - Almaden vice president and lab director Josephine Cheng took the first 'dig' and passed the shovel along to a few other researchers.

The lab was treated to a musical performance by Alex De Luca and Kevin Roche, performing an original piece to the tune of "In the year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)" by Zager and Evans - in their rendition cleverly named "In the year Almaden 25," the duo took us through 25 years of innovation at Almaden, complete with lasers, glow in the dark costumes, fog machines, live guitar and vocals.

Four volunteer contestants were then invited down to the stage to participate in an IBM Centennial Trivia Game Show. After 4 rounds of questions and a final question, in which they waged their decided number of points to capture the big win, George Rhoten came out on top. The fun continued outside of the auditorium, where all IBMers, still clad in their black IBM logo shirts, gathered for cake and spirits for the rest of the afternoon.

Now begins IBM Century 2.0! Thanks to all who participated and contributed to these events.

Check out Alex and Kevin performing "In the year Almaden 25" on YouTube:

Here's a fun video dedicated to IBM's 100 years and Almaden's 25:

Photo captions (top to bottom):

IBM Research - Almaden manager Sandeep Gopisetty uses his Creek Watch iPhone app to snap a picture of Los Alamitos Creek
Over 500 IBMers from Almaden spelled out "IBM 100th" for an aerial photo
IBM Research - Almaden vice president and lab director Josephine Cheng kicks off the time capsule burial ceremony
IBMers taking part in the groundbreaking ceremony for the "Almaden 25 year time capsule" to be opened in 2036
Alex de Luca and Kevin Roche providing live musical entertainment to commemorate Almaden's 25th anniversary
Four IBMers playing the IBM Centennial Trivia Game Show

Additional photos featuring the June 16th activities at IBM Research - Almaden can be found online here.

IBM100 Celebration of Service: IBMers take to the streets to improve waterways in San Jose

2011-06-14T14:55:00.000-07:00

To mark IBM's Centennial, hundreds of thousands of IBMers worldwide will participate in a Celebration of Service Day, slated for June 15 - the last day of IBM's 99th year. In San Jose, teams from IBM Research - Almaden are contributing volunteer hours to the city's watershed protection agency by going out to creeks and streams all over the region and reporting on water conditions. Back at the lab, research teams are applying their knowledge and expertise to help the agency glean better insights from their data, through the creation of a new database as well as leveraging a smarter cities model developed here at IBM Research - Almaden to better understand how water affects other city services.

Using the Creek Watch iPhone application developed by computer scientists at Almaden and water monitoring kits provided by the City of San Jose Water Board, at least 100 IBMers will take to the streets to snap pictures of waterways to upload to a central database and submit information about water flow, trash and water levels. Meanwhile, teams of IBMers from the services research, storage and computer science areas at Almaden will contribute data analysis solutions and business models that the city can use to easily aggregate useful information and apply programs where they are needed the most.

IBMers at Almaden will contribute in the following ways:

Android-version of Creek Watch application

To broaden the number of volunteers that can use the application to contribute data about their local water shed, an Android version of Creek Watch will be available to IBMers on June 15 (an official version will be perfected for the Android market later this year). A software group out of IBM Korea is helping develop this for a similar project in their region, while also using the day as a means to teach kids about environmental protection.

Transformational Data Warehouse

The City of San Jose water authorities have been struggling with how to manage all the creek status data collected by individual storm water programs. The data comes in in many different formats -- even in paper. They need to convert the data into a standardized form and consolidate into a regional warehouse database, which would then be reported to the Water Board. IBM Research - Almaden's computer science team will build a pilot solution for the city.

Social Media Analytics

Leverage IBM social media research in analyzing the general public's view on water-related topics
Suggest effective ways of using social media to maximize the impact of community outreach
Use DeepQA technologies to develop interactive, engaging knowledge system

Business Model Analytics

Leverage IBM business modeling and analytics research in analyzing and improving the multi-stakeholder Sanitary System Overflow processes

Identify gaps in existing key performance indicators and develop new metrics to measure hard-to-measure things (e.g. amount of trash dumped in the creek)

Analyze and explore existing data for trends, relationships, abnormalities, and more

Good Old-Fashioned Volunteering

Teams will be disbursed to locations where the water board has little or no data to collect water samples, clean up trash and collect data using Creek Watch.

From IBM's beginning, it's founder Thomas Watson believed that business had a societal responsibility, expanding upon the belief that the sole purpose of a corporation was to serve the interests of its shareholders. Now nearly 100 years later, the world will receive millions of hours of service from IBMers.

Photo Captions:

Top: IBM Research - Almaden lab director and vice president Josephine Cheng collecting water samples from Fisher Creek for the Centennial Celebration of Service
Middle: IBM Distinguished Engineer Jane Xu with IBM Research computer scientist in public health research, Stefan Edlund
Bottom: Stefan Edlund, Josephine Cheng and Jane Xu at Coyote Creek collecting water samples for the City of San Jose on IBM's Day of Service

IBM's Centennial and Almaden's 25th Anniversary Celebration

2011-06-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

IBM senior vice president and director of research, John Kelly poses with IBM Research - Almaden vice president and lab director Josephine Cheng, and former lab directors, IBM Fellows, Distinguished Engineers and Academy of Technology members to celebrate IBM's Centennial and Almaden's 25th Anniversary.

With nearly 100 years under its belt, IBM's vision for the future has given scientists here at Almaden and around the world the freedom to work on long-term exploratory research to push the boundaries of science and technology, along with the responsibility to help make IBM succeed today. During Almaden's 25th Anniversary and IBM's Centennial celebration at the research lab in San Jose, California, an audience of over 300 current and former IBMers reflected on some of the discoveries that put IBM's San Jose Research division on the map, and learned about the projects of today that will change the way the world works.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed: "IBM was in San Jose and the Silicon Valley before there even was a Silicon Valley."

The celebratory event, held on Friday, June 3rd, featured esteemed speakers from inside and outside of IBM. San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed shared opening remarks to kick off the program, beaming with pride over IBM's 70+ years of technological achievements in San Jose that ultimately led to the creation of the Silicon Valley. Beyond the hard disk drives and relational database inventions, Mayor Reed pointed out IBM's role as one of the top 10 largest employers in the city - and commended IBM for allowing the creation of jobs to the communities and revenues to the city. "There is no better corporate citizen than IBM," Mayor Reed said. "IBMers contribute to the community far beyond their job, helping in many other ways."

IBM Historian Emerson Pugh: Building the Information Age at the first IBM San Jose Laboratory

Beginning with a description of IBM's post World War II Efforts - like using punched card equipment to maintain personnel records for the armed forces, predict weather conditions over the English Channel, break enemy codes, calculate trajectories of artillery shells and analyze airframe designs - Emerson captivated the audience with a historical journey through IBM's early days in San Jose. He included some interesting anecdotal references; for example, during the war, the word 'computer' referred to men and women that spent their days doing calculations (computing) with pens and paper and books. The audience found it amusing that back in those days, Thomas J. Watson Sr. felt that to call an IBM product a computer would suggest that it could replace people and their work, resulting in bad publicity.

When the first IBM site was built in San Jose at 99 Notre Dame, Reynold B. Johnson was selected to manage the laboratory and doubled his staff of 30 employees to 60 over the course of a year. Over time, Johnson developed a lab concept that the number one priority of each engineer was to help other engineers in the laboratory. The second priority was to work on one’s own assignment. Johnson’s policy has been given credit by many engineers for the laboratory’s rapid technical progress.

The one project that captured the minds of the entire lab population was the invention and development of the world's first magnetic hard disk drive. At over 3 tons with 5 total MB of storage, the first delivery to a customer was in June 1956, with an estimated purchase price of about $160,000.

IBM Senior Vice President of Marketing & Communications, Jon Iwata: "It is a pleasure to be back home."

A graduate of San Jose State University, with his first IBM job being in the communications department at Almaden in 1984, Jon Iwata is very proud of his roots in San Jose and proud of his roots in this part of the company. Jon reflected on the contributions of IBM Research - Almaden that are represented across the world in IBM's 100 Icons of Progress.

"To think about IBM at 100, what is the significance of this company after a century?," Jon asked. "It isn't an easy question to answer. There aren't too many technology companies that have been around for 25 or 50 years, let alone a century."

"It's easier to measure the contributions of an oil company or a car company or a bank, but for IBM, there isn't one thing. We think there are 3 different perspectives or lenses to use to look at IBM's history."

To understand what the contributions of our company are, IBM reflects on those areas: pioneering the science of information, making the world work better and inventing the modern corporation. Taking the audience through 100 years of iconic milestones that represent each of these areas, Jon pointed out Almaden's significance in marking progress in the scientific and technical fields not just in the Silicon Valley but around the world.

IBM Senior Vice President and Director of Research, John Kelly III: "IBM believes that Research is fundamental to the success of our company, past, present and future."

The grand finale of Almaden's Centennial program featured the Senior Vice President and Director of Research, John Kelly. He posed a challenge: What will be the next RAMAC or the next microdrive; the next great discovery in San Jose that will change the world and lay the groundwork for the next 100 years of innovation?

Improvements in the performance of technology, John said, are due to continuous improvement mixed with disruptive innovation - which occurs through changes in computing paradigms and breakthroughs that overcome previous technological and physical barriers. Dr. Kelly believes the four disruptive technologies that will take us into the future - led by IBM Research on a global scale - are learning systems, big/fast data, exascale systems and nanotechnology.

"Discontinuities allow the industry to build. I believe that many companies are good at either continual improvement or disruptive innovation but few, if any, companies are good at both," John stated. "You must be good at both or you become one of the thousands of companies in our industry that have died." IBM Research in the Silicon Valley has sustained, with the Almaden lab celebrating its 25th year, while many companies in that span of time started and ended.

"We are the only company that's made it through industry phases like mechanics, electro-mechanics, vacuum tube technology, discrete transistor, integrated circuitry and nanotechnology," he said. "We are now transitioning from the integrated circuit to the nanoworld. Citing examples such as the recent MRSA treatment breakthrough and cognitive computing advances, Dr. Kelly expressed his gratitude and pride for the work Almaden is doing that will shape IBM's next 100 years.

Almaden Open House

During an open house event in the afternoon, IBMers brought their children, parents, spouses and friends through different lab tours, demonstrations and project presentations to learn all about what IBMers at Almaden are doing today. There was also a historical artifact display, which included a full section of the newspaper announcing IBM's new San Jose laboratory. At that time, a one-story home in the Willow Glen neighborhood was being offered at $14,500. A team even mocked up a 1980's office for people to check out, equipped with a Selectra/Wheelwriter Typewriter, technical notebooks from researchers in the 1980's, dot matrix printouts, floppy disks, a NOVUS calculater, a vintage PS2 monitor and computer, Rolm phone, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game, a Motorola cell phone from the 1980's and much more.

Research teams showed the younger crowd a cool way to make music with punched card "musical notes" and also created ice cream using liquid nitrogen, with samples for everyone. IBM Fellow John Cohn, shared his experience as a Discovery Channel reality television star, as a member of "The Colony" cast - a group of selected industry experts, challenged to live life under post-apocalypse conditions - only given a few trinkets and tools, from which the team assembled gas powered vehicles, solar panels, water filters and a means to prepare food.

An overall entertaining day for IBMers, IBM alumni and retirees, and friends and family, IBM's Centennial celebration and Almaden's 25th Anniversary was a truly historical event that will be remembered for years to come. You can view more pictures from the event here. Also, you can download a historical timeline highlighting IBM Research accomplishments in San Jose here.

Palo Alto High School students learn 'you can do anything' at IBM Research - Almaden

2011-05-26T10:46:00.000-07:00

Karen Camacho, a junior at Palo Alto's Gunn High School, may not have known that during her trip to IBM Research - Almaden she would learn how the next generation of batteries is going to be made, discover the secrets behind Watson, and take a trip into Second Life with a Portuguese-speaking researcher. But she, along with 26 of her classmates, were lucky enough to do just that during a visit supported by Gunn's College Pathways Program.

Monica Espinoza, Guidance Counselor and Program Coordinator at Gunn High School was instrumental in developing the College Pathways Program stemming from the district's goal to implement a district-school-community partnership designed to help increase the number of underrepresented students who are college-ready upon high school graduation. The program, which focuses on the students as well as the parents, affords students the chance to understand opportunities and responsibilities inherent in a college education, learn the pathways to college, and prepare for the college admissions process.

One of Monica's students in the program, Abel Abraha, wanted to see what it was like at companies also. Seeing colleges was interesting, but it still represented to the students the next phase of education; what would happen next? What would they do with their college degrees? What is the real working world like?

So Monica, with invaluable strategic and operational support from outstanding community volunteers from Gunn High School and Palo Alto, implemented the Silicon Valley Company Field Trip into the College Pathways Program to encourage students to develop a vision of themselves beyond the immediate future. In participating in these field trips, the students would experience first-class professional environments and gain awareness of education and professional paths leading to diverse careers in various industries. During the Silicon Valley Company Field Trip's inaugural year, the students visited a Bay Area biotechnology company and IBM Research - Almaden.

"Making a difference that matters in students' lives is a community responsibility," said Michelle Sung, IBM business operations manager and main organizer for the Gunn High School visit. "We hope that we're able to open these students' minds and help expand their visions beyond the classrooms, by showcasing a word-class research lab, and cool technologies with societal impact. If we can make a positive impact on one student's life, we can say that we've succeeded."

During the visit to Almaden, the students visited with and heard from a dedicated group of IBMers from all different backgrounds - from researchers and public relations professionals to scientists, chemists and lawyers - all of whom effectively conveyed to the students that there is something for everyone in technical companies such as IBM. Several of them advised the students to try different things and find what clicks, reminding them that though they might not know what the future holds yet, "just be the best you can - now, and in college - keep your grades up, be passionate, and you'll figure it out."

One presentation showed the students how the Deep QA System Watson works and how a machine was designed to beat the world's best Jeopardy! champions. When the students had a chance to play a mock game of Jeopardy! against Watson, they got a kick out of the category "Who's Your Daddy?" - but more importantly, learned that technologies such as this will have a huge impact on their lives in the future.

Throughout the additional presentations and lab tours, the students had a chance to see all types of people of different backgrounds and ages, which enabled the students to establish connections, and help them to realize they could be in these positions someday. Following a roundtable discussion at lunch with various IBMers, the students walked away motivated by what they heard. "We could connect very well with the speakers. It really inspired me to know that you could come out from any background and actually achieve something great," Karen said. "I really liked the advice that the speakers gave."

Lizbeth Aldaco echoed Karen's sentiments. "I liked that we could connect, and that they had struggles in their life and they still made it through," Lizbeth said. "Everybody has struggles, but they still made it here and they're making a difference."

"I think this opened my eyes up to different opportunities. It opened up more doors. I want to do something different now," said Wil Loveless. His classmate Soulemayne Sarr enjoyed hearing about each of the panelists' backgrounds and education. "They weren't just talking about jobs," he said. "It might sound corny, but they said 'you can do anything.' And that's what really stuck with me."

IBM Emeritus Jean Paul Jacob, a volunteer for the event with a great track record of participating in student events said, "Diversity, like interdisciplinarity, feeds innovation. What we saw with this group of high schoolers was a process which is working well and I felt that all of us at Almaden were catalystic agents, accelerating, motivating and facilitating the development of these students." He continued, "That is why I welcomed the invitation to keynote and, at the same time, from the students questions and remarks, learn that next generations have lots to offer, faster than previous ones."

Volunteer Alvaro Padilla also emphasized the importance of motivation as a factor in impacting these students' lives. "I think that motivation is a challenge for any student, but especially for those who lack the support or resources that are deemed as necessary to pursue - and eventually attain - a college degree," he said.

"I agreed to participate in this event because I think that it is important to inform all students, including those who have been historically under-represented in our undergraduate institutions, about the importance of an education, and how it leads to an enriched life - I know this from personal experience."

By engaging the students in these learning experiences, Gunn High School's leadership - and Monica - hope to inspire and prepare students, reminding them that high school is the beginning of an exciting journey; there are endless possibilities; and there are opportunities to impact the world in transformative ways. It turned out that visiting IBM Research - Almaden helped the students see a true representation of that.

"I hope that the messages they heard from each of the speakers resonated loud and clear -- college opens doors, education is invaluable, stay in school, study hard, then you can be anything you want to be," Michelle said.

More photos can be viewed here.

SJSU Outstanding Thesis Award Winner: "I knew in my heart that education was going to change my life"

2011-05-24T08:08:00.000-07:00

When Hector Nuno moved from Mexico to the United States in 1991, he was 15 years old and didn't speak a word of English. He grew up in a home where work was the priority and education wasn't part of the equation.

And now, 20 years later, through commitment, perseverance and the dedicated mentorship of researchers from IBM, Hector Nuno is graduating with a Master's degree in Chemical Engineering as one of the top four students in the whole university. During the San Jose State commencement ceremony later this month, President David Kassing will honor him for earning the 2011 Outstanding Thesis Award in recognition of the exceptional quality of his research.

As a sophomore at Mt. Pleasant High School in San Jose, having just arrived to a new country, Hector was unsure of what he wanted to be when he grew up. "Unfortunately, education was not a priority in my house," Hector said. "Even in high school, the teachers had low expectations for Latino students and didn't motivate me to go to college." His decision to attend Evergreen Valley Community College came from encouragement from his friends. "I played soccer and my friends thought I might be able to play in college. I enrolled, and did well, got good grades," he says."The teachers there motivated me."

Hector then transferred to San Jose State University and majored in biochemistry. Realizing that the mathematical concepts were easy, he became interested in engineering. "I was doing better in my math and physics classes than in my science courses," he said. "So I decided to get my Master's degree in chemical engineering."

San Jose State runs a university relations program with IBM Research - Almaden, in which San Jose State advisors and faculty seek out students that would be well suited for research programs. Dr. Melanie McNeil of San Jose State's Engineering Department reached out to Hector and informed him of the opportunity to learn more about the industry and to apply his skills in real-world projects. After meeting with IBM researcher Joseph Sly, and learning of all the different projects he was running at Almaden, Hector agreed to join IBM Research - Almaden through the university program and start working on one of the projects.

"We go through a competitive process of interviewing and reviewing resumes," Joseph said. "We are really looking for passion. This was the case with Hector. He was passionate, but, as in many cases, he didn't yet have the scientific direction."

And during the time that Hector worked at IBM Research, he figured it out. Many times, working seven days a week, and long hours, Hector sacrificed much of his personal life to focus on his research projects and develop his thesis. "Hector showed up on some days with reports, and a lot of times, I was like 'how did you do this'?" Joseph recalls. "Hector would reply, 'I skipped game night, or I took part of my family Sunday out.' He was just that kind of guy."

But the experience wasn't always just about the work. "I have a lot of great memories," Hector said. "I remember all the good times I had with the other SJSU students in the lab, and all the jokes and the laughs." Hector goes on, "I remember Victor Lee (IBM Research mentor) in the lab; it was amazing how he could transform the lab hood into a colorful assembly of chemical reactions. He would use fire, ice and colorful solutions to synthesize star polymers."

"Some of the best memories were working with Joseph. We would go over our weekly results and he would modify the presentations in a way that seemed to be a combination of work and art."

Hector also got a kick out of interactions with the team's manager, Bob Miller. "During weekly group meetings, Bob would catch the smallest mistakes in graphs and images, and nobody could see them but him," he said. "It was funny and most important it was very insightful."

Joseph Sly recalls Hector presenting his work at a national conference. "His whole family came in and sat in the back," he says. "They might not have known all of the scientific terms he was explaining, but he was speaking to a large room full of older men, mostly white, who were all taking notes on his work. It was really neat to see and you could tell they were proud."

When Hector is honored at San Jose State's commencement ceremony on May 28 in front of 25,000 people for his outstanding thesis, he hopes to make an impression on his family, especially the younger children, and for the entire Latino community, each of which inspired him to go to college. "I knew the numbers of Latino students reaching college was very low," he said. "I figured that if I could graduate from college, then Latino students could see in me a role model. That way they could follow my footsteps and believe it is possible to reach their goals."

Hector plans to work in the industry for a few years, and excel into a management level position. Eventually, he would like to teach at a high school and motivate students to pursue higher education. "The experience I had in high school made me think about all the students that are going through the same thing," says Hector. "I'm hoping that I can have the tools to motivate the students and find the means to persuade them to go to college." Hector is currently a mentor and volunteer for the California Community Partners for Youth organization.

"You know, coming to a foreign country as a kid and not speaking a word of English, I was totally lost," Hector said. "However, I knew in my heart that education was going to change my life."

In the video below, Joseph Sly shared some background on the program and some sentiments about Hector, including a message he recalls Hector telling the kids in his family: "You can do it because Hector did it."

Author's note:

The San Jose State University partnership with IBM Research - Almaden has been a very successful program, so far bringing on three students for full-time research positions. Jacquana Diep, Teddie Magbitang and Melia Tjio have all taken jobs with IBM Research - Almaden after completing their internship programs as San Jose State students.

Just last month, another San Jose State student intern at IBM Research - Almaden, Jay Yamanaga, won the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering Award for Outstanding Graduate Student. And on May 4th, he was awarded the Davidson College of Engineering Award for Graduate Student Performance. Each year, only one student is acknowledged by these awards. Jay Yamanaga’s outstanding achievement is an excellent example and successful demonstration of the joint program between San Jose State University and IBM.

For Hector's thesis, “Functionalized Silica Nanostructures for Biosensing Application,” he studied the physical and chemical processes of star polymers in order to create a silica shell encasing that makes further testing of biomedical applications possible.

IBM100: Communications Impressions from San Jose Research in 1983 to the Almaden Research Center in 1992

2011-05-23T07:40:00.000-07:00

In the summer of 1983, I came to San Jose Research with a fresh Ph.D. and 7 years of experience on Corporate Communications staffs in Armonk, the most recent of which had been working with the press. I was excited by the prospect of being able to advance the interests of the lab and to let the world know of the lab's achievements. It was an exhilarating time, and we were thrilled to be supporting such outstanding scientific and technological work. The lab was most receptive to new communications projects and products, and lab directors Don Rosenheim, Frank Mayadas and Juri Matisoo each lent their full support.

We were off and running! In addition to the traditional employee communications products and services, such as bulletin board notices, the Speak Up! program, the Charitable Contributions Campaign materials, etc., we moved with the special support of Joe Galletto, then manager of Administration and Technical Services, to further expand communications offerings. A 26-page color brochure, a first for the San Jose Research Lab, was published, a predecessor to what would come later at Almaden. Jon Iwata, Judy Gan, and later, Mike Ross, joined the communications team, to be followed by a number of other communications professionals over time. We worked closely with graphic designer Jean Chen of Administrative Services to develop additional supporting materials for the opening of the Almaden Research Center in May 1986. Top flight science and technology innovations found voice in press releases, audio news releases, video news releases, press conferences, press inquiries, media visits, post cards, calendars, articles about Almaden in the Research Division magazine, and an all new 26-page full-color brochure celebrated the Almaden opening.

Following that opening, the award-winning employee quarterly Almaden Views, featuring stunning photography, content, and design, and edited by Jon Iwata, was introduced. It found an appreciative audience. Two years later, an all-new and expanded 32-page color brochure featuring the lab's science, technology and the work of its support staffs joined the family of Almaden publications. Our efforts drew recognition from numerous industry organizations external to IBM, and our communications products and publications were recognized by more than 30 awards. We were thrilled to fill the awards cabinet along Main Street at Almaden with recognition plaques, mementos, and prizes! All this while we were relishing the opportunity to bring the word about Almaden's stunning scientific and technical achievements to the outside world.

Reminiscences from San Jose Research and Almaden in the 80s are rich indeed!

Kay Keeshen
Communications and Community Relations Manager, 1983-1992

IBM100: Memories of Benoit Mandelbrot, by Michael Frame

2011-05-17T07:16:00.000-07:00

An early cosmology placed the earth on the backs of four elephants,  all standing on a turtle. The question, "On what did the turtle  stand?" always was answered, "It's turtles all the way down." Calculus  and all of 19th century analysis worked because the functions studied  are more closely approximated by their tangent lines the more closely we  look. When we zoom in, the curves appear simpler. By the start of the  20th century, mathematicians knew some examples where this was false,  but these were regarded as monsters. Benoit Mandelbrot recognized the  mathematics of these monsters described much of nature, and expanded  this idea into fractal geometry. Very often, nature does not get simpler  under magnification; Benoit gave us a way to quantify the fact that  it's complicated all the way down.  

Benoit's geometric intuition was remarkable. Although he never learned  to program computers, he understood their workings well enough to keep  busy several programmers at IBM and at Yale. Studying the graphical  output led him to remarkable discoveries: the Mandelbrot set, of course,  but also multifractals, dimension as a measure of roughness, distributions  of signal errors, realistic models of financial data, and on and on. Much  of this work was done at IBM, which provided Benoit with then uncommon  computing resources, and the freedom to follow his imagination. Almost  all areas of contemporary science and art bear the imprint of Benoit's vision.   I worked with Benoit for 20 years. Although I'll never understand why  he brought me into his world, being there did give me a close view of  how he thought. Because he believed that history is more about stories  than large themes, and also because others have written about these  large themes, I'll tell a few stories about working with Benoit. Any  conclusions are yours to draw.  

The first collaboration Benoit suggested involved binary fractal trees:  each branch splits into two, at a fixed angle from the previous branch,  and scaled by a constant factor. Benoit was interested in trees for  which the left and right branches just touched. He showed me some  fairly complicated formulas relating the angle and scaling factor, and  asked if I could find a derivation. Several days of messy algebra  gave the result. Benoit understood my approach almost immediately, but  when I asked how he got the formulas, he said he could "see the geometry. " This was fascinating, and more than a little unsettling.  

Our next project involved the distributions of gaps in fractals. This  collaboration convinced each of us we wanted to continue working with the  other. Benoit described the problem, and how he thought the answer would  look. I went to work on the calculations, harder this time, but got  the answer and found it was the opposite of what Benoit had expected.  In all our interactions, Benoit had been very kind, gentle almost. Yet  I'd heard stories of a terrible arrogance, so I was nervous showing him  the results. Again Benoit got the point very quickly, grinned broadly,  and said, "Marvelous! This problem is more interesting than I'd expected. " I saw he was a scientist, interested in what's correct, not in validating  any preconceptions. I could work with such a person. Years later Benoit  told me (couched in a story about Diogenes and his lamp - Benoit's  conversations were filled with footnotes to footnotes to footnotes, hmmm,  a habit I seem to have picked up from him) that he decided he could work  with me because I was willing to disagree with him and explain my  reasoning. At this point, we were comfortable working together. This  comfort persisted right up to the end.  

We worked on many other projects together, though mostly related to  teaching fractals. I am not a talented programmer, so most scientific  investigations were carried out with others. I remember Henry Kaufman  working with Benoit on statistics of very large DLA clusters, pushing  the limits of the IBM computers he was using. Often by seeing something  unexpected in the graphs, Benoit suggested parts of the algorithm he and  Henry should revisit. Again, pretty scary, at least to me.   Benoit supported all my teaching efforts at Yale. He and I got an NSF  grant to run summer teacher training workshops. In this we were  helped by Nial Neger, a retired high school math teacher recruited by  Benoit for this purpose.

Benoit and I coedited a book on fractals and  education, wrote a paper on negative dimensions, started another paper  on that topic, started a book, Fractal Gems, for the Mathematical  Association of America, started a book on multifractals. Then Benoit  got distracted by working on his memoirs, and then he died. This was  completely numbing. I'm a cancer patient, too, and he was supposed to  outlive me. Mandelbrot in a world without Frame makes much more sense  than Frame in a world without Mandelbrot.  

The projects we began won't be finished. I have no idea how to continue  them without his guidance. I am helping Aliette Mandelbrot, Benoit's  widow, and his assistant Merry Morse finish Benoit's memoirs, but beyond  that, I don't know.  

The most fun I had with Benoit happened when one of us, usually him,  got an idea for a new direction to explore. Then I saw his mind working  at full speed, at least as full speed as could be managed with the  requirement of speech. We were playing. The same image keeps coming  back to my mind. We were little kids, running through an open field  under a blue sky, curious about every single thing we saw, anxious to  share each surprise with the other. That never again will I answer the  phone and hear, "Hello, Michael. This is Benoit. I was wondering ... " is soul-crushingly sad. A treasured friend is gone. The architect of  a scientific revolution has departed.

  Still, sorrow is tempered by my memories of twenty years of these  explorations together. Working at IBM nourished the imagination of  this remarkable man. For that, I am profoundly grateful.

Michael Frame is a Yale University professor, who worked alongside Benoit Mandelbrot for over 20 years.

Almaden's 2011 Master Inventors

2011-05-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

Each year, IBM selects a new field of Master Inventors as one way of recognizing IBMers who have mastered the patent process, provided broad mentoring, added value to IBM's portfolio, and demonstrated sustained innovation leadership and service. Once selected, a Master Inventor is expected to apply his or her mastery of patent knowledge by actively serving as a:

*leader in the invention community
*mentor to a broad community of inventors
*resource to Intellectual Property Legal office

This year, IBM Research has named forty-one Master Inventors from its global community of researchers, including five from IBM Research - Almaden. Bin He, Research Scientist in Computer Science, Guy Lohman, Mgr., Disruptive Information Management Architectures also in Almaden's Computer Science Department and Ho-Cheol Kim, Research Scientist, Materials Science, shared some thoughts about their motivations, their inspirations, and their hopes to encourage others to invent.

Why do you think other IBMers should pursue their inventions to fruition? How do you hope to inspire them?

GL: Having visited the Smithsonian Museum as a kid, I saw all these miniature prototypes submitted by inventors. I made it one of my personal goals to someday have a patent. Little did I realize then that working at IBM would make it relatively easy to have many of them! Getting patents seems to me like a natural extension of research, much as papers in the refereed literature and products. It's a way of letting the world know what you have done, part of your resume, and also benefits the company.

BH: I believe for every difficulty we encounter in the project and development, there is an opportunity for inventions. It is critical to observe those difficulties and think deeper.

HCK: As you never know which one turns out good (well....like a box of chocolates). Keep thinking.

What's been one of the most memorable moments of your IBM career?

GL: Probably being elected to the IBM Academy of Technology, a very great honor and opportunity to join the top 300 technologists in IBM. Also, receiving a Corporate Award for my invention and development of the SQL query optimizer for DB2 on Linux, UNIX, and Windows. Both earned me a trip to CTRE, which were great treats for my wife, as well as myself.

BH: I am very excited when my research effort and projects are eventually taken by IBM service and product divisions.

HCK: Being a master inventor!

What are some unexpected or interesting jobs you've had outside of IBM?

GL: Right out of high school, before my freshman year in college, I landed a job in the mailroom of Service Bureau Corp., then a subsidiary of IBM, in downtown San Jose. Shortly afterwards, they asked me if I'd like to operate computers on the graveyard shift (zzzzz!), and I said, "Of course!" I started feeding punched cards to an IBM 1620, but the next summer graduated to the new IBM 360s. We ran large batch jobs that were testing the S/360 operating system to support a "massive" workload of 40 (!!) concurrent terminals, using one 360/40 to simulate 40 users -- wow! We could tell when things got in an infinite loop by watching the pattern of blinking lights on the console, then would walk through the loop by pushing a "single-instruction step" button and writing down the instruction address shown in the lights. I learned a LOT!

Before coming to IBM, I worked for 5+ years at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena during the years of the Voyager spacecraft's fly-bys of the outer planets, and shortly after the Viking spacecraft landed on Mars. I was working on lowering the costs of photovoltaics (without much success), but it was so exciting to witness first-hand the development of spacecraft and the amazing science that Voyager enabled. I still remember the electric atmosphere at JPL the day that an image analyst discovered volcanoes on Io, the innermost of the Galilean moons of Jupiter. One respected astrophysicist told me that that discovery would force science to "rewrite the textbooks about the solar system"!

BH: When I was in Peking University, I was a columnist for several famous computer magazines in China. In graduate school, I once took a detective role - I used my knowledge in computer science to help my friend to find a bad guy who tries to ruin my friend's fame with online identity fraud. Now, I am a volunteer for SOAR foundation, a nonprofit organization to provide scholarships to those impoverished children in rural areas across China.

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? What or who drove you to where you are now?

GL: I knew I wanted to be a scientist, and dreamed of being an astronaut, so getting that job at JPL in a way fulfilled my childhood dream of working for NASA. My father was my inspiration, as he was an electrical engineer at a small start-up called "IBM." He constantly challenged me and encouraged my curiosity about how things ticked and my love for the structure and elegance of mathematics.

BH: When I was a kid, I was crazy about writing all kinds of strange but fun computer programs. After I joined graduate school, I realized that research is more interesting and influential, and that is why I joined IBM Research.

HCK: I wanted to be a scientist. Curiosity was the driving force.

What are some of your hobbies?

GL: I love photography, skiing, bicycling, home improvement, and gardening. I belong to a wine co-op that buys grapes on the open market and does all the rest to make red wine (white wine needs more specialized cooling equipment), which we store in the basement of our chief winemaker's business on The Alameda .

BH: I enjoy reading books and articles, writing blogs and poems.

HCK: Hiking, Reading, Bird Watching (with my daughter), Golf

Jeff Kreulen, Senior Manager, Services Science was also awarded a Corporate Technical Achievement Award for his work on the Business Insights Workbench (Outstanding). Renu Tewari, Manager, Distributed Storage Systems, received recognition for Scientific Advances in the Field of Content Distribution Networks. Corporate awards were presented during an all-hands meeting at IBM Research - Almaden on Tuesday, May 3.

Today, IBM also announced its eight new Fellows - the highest technical award given in the company for breakthrough technical achievements. Watson's chief scientist, Dave Ferrucci, was one of them.

Almaden researcher named United Way Star of the Day

2011-05-02T09:34:00.000-07:00

IBM Research Distinguished Engineer and Senior Manager, Advanced Storage Subsystems, KK Rao was recently named "United Way Star of the Day" for his volunteer work with the Earn it! Keep it! Save it! program. The Star of the Day program recognizes the Silicon Valley's most dedicated volunteers.

North San Jose IBM Site Executive and Director, STG Services, Ed Ng, also earned the honor in April. Ed serves on United Way's Board as its Secretary and is an active member of its Campaign Cabinet.

Last year, the Earn it! Keep it! Save it! program also afforded IBM the United Way Corporate Volunteer Award for its efforts to promote a culture of volunteerism to its employees.

IBM is a major supporter of United Way Silicon Valley's "Earn it! Keep it! Save it!" program, which connects workers with low-incomes to free tax preparation services. The program helps these workers secure tax credits that significantly boost their incomes. This year, IBM made a $113,000 in-kind donation of PCs and laptops to support the more than 25 tax preparation locations.

Many IBM employees spend nearly three months volunteering for the program, helping local people with their tax returns. Preliminary results from the IRS show that $5.7 million was refunded to local families and individuals, thanks to services provided at these free tax preparation sites.

IBM's corporate responsibility strategy combines busniess and societal value for IBM and its key stakeholders: clients, shareholders, employees, and communities. The company has been a longtime supporter of United Way Silicon Valley.

Governor Brown, Watson visit IBM Research - Almaden

2011-04-25T15:19:00.001-07:00

In his first appearance in the Silicon Valley, California State Governor Jerry Brown visited IBM Research – Almaden for the 8^th Annual Business Climate Summit, a special event held by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. Kicked off with a keynote by Jon Iwata, IBM senior vice president of Marketing and Communications, the event gathered government dignitaries, CEOs and several C-Suite executives from Silicon Valley businesses and corporations to address ways to strengthen the state’s economy, budget and business climate.

In attendance and speaking on a panel about local challenges and regional solutions were San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Oakland Mayor Jean Quan – leaders of the three largest cities in the Silicon Valley. Joining them for the discussion were Andy Ball, CEO, Webcor Builders and Jay Glasscock, President, BD Biosciences.

In the discussion, Mayor Lee said regional cooperation and collaboration are required for the entire valley to succeed. “Our approach to regionalism is alike – we have to do everything better to build our future, which is a global economy. We are now competing against London and Sydney – we’ve got to be on the edge,” said Mayor Lee. Added Mayor Reed, “CEOs, please give us the chance to keep your businesses in the Silicon Valley.”

Jon Iwata provided an outlook on the future of IT while highlighting 100 years of innovation at IBM. “Beginning with clocks, scales and cheese slicers, invention is a part of our history,” Iwata explained. “But there is a difference between introducing obviously superior technology and the additional work of building the trust and confidence of policyholders and stakeholders; we have to take them from the past to the future.”

Jon said IBM's vision of the future is rooted in the swarms of data that we are surrounded with today. “We need analytical tools to make sense of data. We are seeing what’s happening in our companies, in our markets, in our supply chains, our cities and our grids – analytics is the first step to optimization.”

Watson visits California

Watson’s first-ever trip to the west coast made a big splash at the event. In its first demonstration in California, packaged into a brilliant interactive touch screen display, Watson received one-on-one attention from the Governor, the Mayors and several event participants.

IBM Distinguished Engineer Steve Welch and Master Inventor Dan Gruhl demonstrated Watson's capabilities and offered up individual matches to onlookers. The DeepQA system, recognized for its ability to rapidly analyze the meaning and context of human language unlike any computer before it, is now being developed to apply those capabilities in the healthcare industry. In addition, Watson was recently ranked #9 in TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential things in the world. “Technologies like Watson are essential in the area of big data,” Jon said. “It’s the convergence of technological innovation and decision making.”

Governor Brown remarks

In the final panel, “Strengthening California’s Economy, Budget & Business Climate,” moderator Barbara Marshman of the San Jose Mercury News immediately addressed Governor Brown the state budget. When asked how the 300 Silicon Valley executives in this room help develop a stronger economy, Governor Brown replied, “That’s very elusive. How do you do that? I wouldn’t task you with that, I can take care of that.” He continued by saying, “When you talk about California, you have venture capital, innovation, great universities. Finding ways to collaborate is very positive.”

Next to Governor Brown on stage were Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, SunPower CEO Tom Werner and Applied Materials CEO Mike Splinter, who all agreed about the need for K-12 education to prepare children to be gainfully employed in a global economy. Governor Brown commented, “Education is about the presence of teachers and students – that is a relationship. At the end of the day we have to ensure that the kids are inspired. Teachers have to model a certain way of being that we want our students to learn from.”

The Silicon Valley Leadership Group, founded in 1978 by David Packard of Hewlett-Packard, represents more than 340 of Silicon Valley's most respected employers on issues, programs and campaigns that affect the economic health and quality of life in Silicon Valley, including energy, transportation, education, housing, health care, tax policies, economic vitality and the environment. Leadership Group members collectively provide nearly one of every three private sector jobs in Silicon Valley. For more information, visit svlg.org

During the event, the SVLG released the CEO Business Climate Survey, which was completed by 175 CEO’s; and Silicon Valley Bank’s Startup Outlook, which was completed by 375 executives from private startup and high growth, U.S.-based technology and life science companies.

Pictures of the event can be viewed here. (Credit: John Day)

Photo captions top to bottom:

Over 250 CEOs and government officials gathered at IBM Research - Almaden for the 8th Annual CEO Business Climate Summit, hosted by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.

Silicon Valley Leadership Group President Carl Guardino with Jon Iwata, IBM senior vice president, marketing and communications.

CA Governor Jerry Brown talking with IBM Silicon Valley Senior Location Executive Jai Menon during a Watson demonstration.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sundberg with CA Governor Jerry Brown on a panel titled "Strengthening California's Economy, Budget and Business Climate."

Spring Egg Hunt at Almaden

2011-04-24T17:39:00.000-07:00

The annual spring egg hunt at Almaden, with Violet - our favorite bunny - was a hit with IBMers and their little ones. The tradition, which was set in motion 8 years ago by Wendy Fedde, is always a big hit! Kids of all ages visit the lab for arts and crafts, snacks, goodies, pictures with Violet and the highly-anticipated egg hunt.

The rest of the pictures from the 2011 Spring Egg Hunt at Almaden can be viewed here.

IBM Fellow Patricia Selinger welcomed to American Academy of Arts & Sciences

2011-04-19T10:22:00.000-07:00

The following is an excerpt from the Academy of Art & Science member announcement press release dated Tuesday, April 19, 2011, 1:00 p.m. ET:

Some of the world's most accomplished leaders from academia, business, public affairs, the humanities, and the arts have been elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Among those elected this year is: Dr. Patricia Griffiths Selinger, Retired Vice President; IBM Fellow; Area Strategist, Information and Interaction, IBM Almaden Research Center.

A list of the new Academy members announced today is located at: http://www.amacad.org/news/alphalist2011.pdf.

The 212 new members join one of the nation's most prestigious honorary societies and a leading center for independent policy research. Members contribute to Academy studies of science and technology policy, global security, social policy and American institutions, the humanities, and education.

"It is a privilege to honor these men and women for their extraordinary individual accomplishments," said Leslie Berlowitz, Academy President and William T. Golden Chair. "The knowledge and expertise of our members give the Academy a unique capacity - and responsibility - to provide practical policy solutions to the pressing challenges of the day. We look forward to engaging our new members in this work."

Among the 2011 class of scholars, scientists, writers, artists, civic, corporate, and philanthropic leaders are winners of the Nobel, Pulitzer, and Pritzker Prizes; the Turing Award; MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships; and Kennedy Center Honors, Grammy, Golden Globe, and Academy awards.

Below, Pat shares some of her career accomplishments and what she envisions for the future.

Earth Week 2011: Almaden Green Team

2011-04-18T10:56:00.000-07:00

“To provide a safe and healthful workplace.” Established over 50 years ago as part of IBM’s Corporate Policy, this value is instilled by IBMers worldwide, led by the efforts of environmental engineers who help provide employees an environmentally friendly workplace. At Almaden, our leading expert in leading a green work life is Michelle Mesler. In the following guest blog post, Michelle walks us through the efforts of Almaden's "Green Team."

In August 2008, Almaden’s Green Team was formed as a way for employees to influence and improve the workplace environment. The following mission was established: “We are a volunteer community of energy and environmental advocates striving to create and lead grass-roots efforts to reduce our carbon footprint at work.” Throughout the year the team works on various projects of interest including: energy and water conservation, recycling improvements, greening of the cafeteria, Earth Week events, educational outreach and community service.

One of the team’s initiatives, the Print Smarter Campaign, resulted in a reduction of paper consumption at Almaden by 10.8% in 2010 over 2009, saving 3 trees/month and 16.3% in 2009, saving 4.6 trees/month. Other accomplishments include replacing 8 chemicals used by Almaden's janitorial service contractor with environmentally-friendly green-certified chemicals, reducing the amount of styrofoam used in the cafeteria, and securing a green shuttle service contract for the site that uses a new 22-passenger clean air van fueled by propane.

Each year, the Green Team volunteers plan a variety of activities for employees to engage in , like talks, walks, gardening and trail maintenance. Last year on April 16, approximately 136 people including external visitors from the Audobon Society joined guest speaker Steve Simmons for a talk titled “One Person Can Make a Difference: Impact of Building Thousands of Nest Boxes and Banding Thousands of Birds.” A “Sustainable Landscape” talk was hosted by guest speaker Master Gardener, Deva Luna, who discussed how to plant and maintain a sustainable landscape at home including using native plants, edible plants and reusing gray water. 55 employees participated in a relaxing and informational walk around the building, learning about different ways to be green and collecting cards on a quest to obtain the best poker hand. A Day of Caring off-site at Full Circle Farm brought together 13 volunteers who planted basil, tomatoes and squash in the greenhouse. A second Day of Caring with the Volunteer Management Unit for the City of San Jose provided volunteers the opportunity to clean up a 1.2 mile segment of Calero Creek Trail at the entrance of IBM Research - Almaden.

In addition to the outreach activities that the Green Team implements on-site for the employee population, the team also strives to educate the community on ways they can reduce their impact on the natural environment. For example, during Earth Week last year, six IBMers visited ten classrooms at a local elementary school to present the “Help Kids Go Green" On Demand Community Solution Educational Activity. During the hour-long visit, the volunteers taught children how to go green by reducing, reusing and recycling. A short hands-on project for the students focused on recycling and green power, and they also go to play a "green" themed Jeopardy game.

With every project and idea implemented, Almaden’s Green Team volunteers look for ways that employees can reduce their carbon footprint at work and in their community throughout the year. We all play a role in conserving our natural resources. Together we can build a smarter planet!

To learn more about IBM’s Corporate Environmental Affairs Policy, Global Environmental Management System, volunteer initiatives or to read the annual Environmental Report, click here.

Michelle is an Environmental Engineer with the Real Estate and Site Operations (RESO) Organization. She assures compliance with various environmental regulations and oversees the environmental management system at IBM Almaden Research and Silicon Valley Lab. She strives to provide continual improvement to IBM's environmental and chemical programs and led the initiative to obtain Green Business Certification for IBM Almaden in 2005. In 2008, Michelle created a Green Team for Almaden, a volunteer community of energy and environmental advocates striving to create and lead grass-roots efforts to reduce their carbon footprint at work.

Michelle holds Bachelor degrees in Biology and Environmental Science, as well as, a Masters degree in Environmental Science Management. Prior to joining IBM, Michelle implemented environmental, health and safety programs and systems for NiSource Inc., a public utility holding company.

Farewell, commute woes

2011-04-12T21:01:00.000-07:00

IBM's Smarter Transportation portfolio covers myriad solutions, ranging from baggage management at airports to customer loyalty analytics. That said, we all know from experience that most travel and transport systems have tremendous room for improvement. Commutes can be a daily source of frustration for many, and with more and more cars on the roads, figuring out the best way to get to and from work each day can be quite the science. And in fact, we're learning it is a science indeed.

That's why IBM Research is collaborating with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) at UC Berkeley. Combining street sensor data from Caltrans with the road smarts of ITS, IBM predictive analytics can play a key part in delivering traffic information to everyday commuters. IBM's Traffic Prediction Tool delivers commuters traffic information about their specific routes 30 - 40 minutes before they even get into their cars. You can learn all about it in this video, featuring lead IBM researcher on the project, John Day.

Predictive analytics machine at your fingertips

IBM's predictive analytics technologies used in the Smarter Traveler tool have historically been used by big data companies such as VISA for real-time fraud monitoring and transaction alerts; the Memphis Police Department even engages similarly to predict crime. With Smarter Traveler, anyone with a mobile phone can take advantage of these advanced analytics to help relieve their commute frustrations.

IBM Press Kit

World Health Day: Improving healthcare data quality

2011-04-08T10:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the World Health Organization launched World Health Day 2011. This year's campaign focuses on "Antimicrobial resistance and its global spread," which coincidentally ties in with the recent announcement out of IBM Research - Almaden on nanoparticles designed to treat antibiotic-resistant bacteria. But researchers at Almaden have been working on healthcare extensively in areas ranging from data management and analytics to services. IBM Distinguished Engineer and Healthcare Informatics expert Steve Welch explains the motivations of IBM Research to improve healthcare from an information management perspective.

As healthcare data is undergoing substantial growth worldwide, a significant portion of healthcare information remains an untapped resource, primarily due to the fact that it is unstructured in nature. This information is comprised of text, imaging, video and is spread across disparate heterogeneous systems. At IBM Research - Almaden, we are in the pursuit of improving data quality to support clinicians and clinical researchers alike. This includes uncovering and linking all of the available unstructured and semi-structured medical evidence to provide coherent, consistent, and standardized patient clinical data for upstream analytics envisioned by modern health standards but not yet realized in real world systems.

Our goal is to exploit our extensive experience in Information Management and Big Data analysis to improve healthcare data quality with smart domain tooling and data integration platforms that enable secondary use analytics such as disease progression, predictive outcomes, adverse drug events, and comparative effectiveness of treatment regimes.

IBM100: Impressions from San Jose Research 1956 – 1984

2011-04-05T10:03:00.000-07:00

A tin roofed former cannery building housed IBM’s Research Lab on Julian Street, downtown San Jose in 1956 when I first came to work: An oven in the summer and leaking here and there during the rainy season.

Based on the success of the just announced 5MB RAMAC, we were going to build a photo memory, with a million times the RAMAC capacity! The concept and proposed implementation had little merit, but we were young, enthusiastic and a bit naïve. Today, it is difficult to realize that in 1956, most graduating engineering and science majors had no idea of what a computer was let alone the function of storage. The “system” competence, which made the RAMAC such a game changing success, had moved to the Development Lab. And it would take some time for the research organization to fully understand its role in IBM.

But then, there was serendipity. The first organic chemists came to SJ Research to address the problems posed by the photo memory project. These same chemists subsequently advanced photolithography which contributed to IBM’s leadership in integrated circuit technology. And along with physical chemists and physicists, they made major contributions to magnetic recording technology. They helped transform “paint” poured from a paper cup onto a spinning disc into the thin film technology, which is the basis for today’s storage media.

I have looked back and wondered what made San Jose Research such a success. It seems that hiring the most promising graduates from the best universities must be the answer. One of my responsibilities at IBM was the “Post-Doc Program.” This program brought promising young scientists and engineers to the lab from many countries where IBM had a major presence. To the lab, this was a welcome augmentation of junior staff; to the post docs an opportunity to work in a leading research lab with some of the best in their respective field. The most significant thing the foreign post docs took with them was the notion that there is another way of doing things -- the essence of creativity.

Maybe another contributor to the labs accomplishment was the less heralded role of outstanding management. Project R, the basis for Relational Database technology, would not have come about without the leadership of Leonard Liu, who succeeded in bringing together the efforts of an exceptionally talented group of individuals and recognized a window of opportunity.

I also recall the time when the entire storage products line was threatened by unexplained disk crashes. Every relevant resource in research and development company-wide was enlisted to address this problem. Major organizations and governments worldwide had stored their vital information on disk-based storage products. It is one thing to encounter a problem, another not to understand its cause.

The solution to the problem was not one arrived at by reverse engineering. Heinrich Hunziger, a physical chemist in the San Jose Research Lab had spent his time at IBM perfecting an analytical method of detecting and analyzing microscopic quantities of organic matter on surfaces - nothing to do with magnetic recording technology. When he learned of the disk crash problem he felt his technique might help shed some light. He was able to identify an unsuspected organic material which had contaminated the surface, speculate upon and confirm its source, as well as provide the basis for a system preventing this impurity from reaching disk surfaces. Basic research comes to the aid of the current product line!

Upon retiring in 1984, all that I had learned in IBM Research in the course of 28 years helped me to establish ICSI, the International Computer Science Institute, at UC Berkeley, still going strong. Much of that experience found it’s way into a book published by Springer in 1990, Managing Creativity in Science and Hi-Tech and into a Second Edition to appear end of 2011.

The most important lessons from my IBM Research experience is that what matters most to creative people drawn to an industrial research lab is not basic vs. applied research, independent or team effort, but to realize their full potential in doing something that is relevant, hence appreciated and rewarded.

Contribution by Ronald Kay, SJ Research 1956 – 1984 with detour to Ad Tech in San Jose and Kingston, 1965-1967 and MIT, 1967-1968.

MRSA the super bug

2011-04-04T05:32:00.000-07:00

A patient undergoes knee replacement surgery and is released from the hospital. Over time, a skin infection develops on the operated knee. The usual suspect is a bacterial infection called Methicillin-resistant Staphycoloccus aureus, or MRSA, which is so defiant against antiobiotics, that the only way to remove the bacteria is to reverse the knee replacement, bringing the patient back to square one.

There are a multitude of scenarios that we see in which people contract MRSA, and in densely populated cities like the San Francisco Bay Area, full on outbreaks occur (San Francisco ranked 3rd in the United States for most instances of MRSA in 2005).

We wanted to study MRSA for its prevalence but also because of its scientific characteristics. MRSA, called a "super bug," is very resistant to antibiotics and is also gram-positive, meaning there is a single cell membrane vs. dual in gram-negative bacteria. For us, that makes it easier to develop polymers that would penetrate the cell walls and destroy from the inside out. In our paper published yesterday in Nature Chemistry, we explain just how we did it.

Another important component of this breakthrough is that the nanostructures that we developed are electrically charged to be physically attracted to infected cells only - leaving the healthy cells alone. While work like this has been done by our peers, the key differentiating factor is that we have developed the first biodegradable agent. You can read more about it here.

In the science and technology group at IBM Research – Almaden, we’ve spent decades working on nanotechnology techniques that have improved semiconductors for electronic device storage, high-performance computing, solar technology and more. In applying some of the intellectual property learned from these areas, we've moved into entirely new business markets and are now partnering in new ways.

Photo captions:

Top, right: Lead IBM researcher James Hedrick in the lab at IBM Research - Almaden
Bottom, center: The antimicrobial agents developed by IBM Research and the Institute for Bioengineering and Nanomedicine attack the infected cells while protecting healthy red blood cells.

Content provided with contributions from Bob Miller, Manager, Advanced Organic Materials, IBM Research - Almaden.

Wall Street Journal:Big Blue's Tiny Bug Zapper
KQED Radio

IBMers visit San Jose high school

2011-03-22T11:59:00.000-07:00

On March 14, 2011, 75 IBM engineers and scientists from San Jose and Silicon Valley went “back to school” and spent a day at Overfelt High School in San Jose to discuss the value of math and science and the importance a future career in engineering. This Celebration of Service event to give back to the community was a follow-on to a successful Black Technology Family event, held in October 2010 and sponsored by the Silicon Valley Black Employee Network. Impressed with IBM’s commitment to education and the student’s interest in technology, Overfelt High School Principal Vito Chiala asked IBM to return to the school to present to a broader student audience its message of the potential of technology to positively impact education and careers.

Throughout the day, IBMers talked to students about math, science, Deep QA system Watson, which just won the heralded Jeopardy! match, the value of a college education, and what it was like to be an engineer. At lunchtime, Laura Clayton McDonnell, Vice President, Public Sector West IMT, joined a group of 70 high achieving students enrolled in AP Calculus and AP U.S. History, to reinforce the message of making the right choice to continue their education and the habits that are necessary for success at school and work. With over 600 students in 15 classes hearing the message about education, thanks goes out to Lynn Guest, Energy Coordinator for San Jose and Silicon Valley Lab, for organizing the successful event and for all of the IBMers who gave their time to inspire our youth to go to college and pursue a career in math and science.

Rank aggregation research expert recognized by IEEE

2011-03-04T17:54:00.001-08:00

The IEEE Computer Society has awarded its 2011 Technical Achievement Award to Ronald Fagin, Manager, Foundations of Computer Science at IBM Research - Almaden, "for pioneering contributions to the theory of rank and score aggregation."

What is "rank aggregation"?

Assume a set of "voters" and a set of "candidates." Each voter provides a list of the candidates, in order of preference. Rank aggregation is the problem of determining a consensus ordering (1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place, etc.), or sometimes simply 1st place. In case each voter provides not only an ordered list of his preferences for the candidates, but a numerical score for each candidate, then this problem is called "score aggregation". Again, the goal is to obtain a consensus ordering of the candidates.

  Rank aggregation and score aggregation have many applications in numerous fields, including databases, economics, and information retrieval (where a search engine such as Google aims to provide the user with a “top k list,” say, the top 10 matches). As an example of rank aggregation, a potential home-buyer might have one ranking of a set of houses based on location, another ranking based on price, another ranking based on quality of construction, and so on. We can think of each of the houses as a candidate, and each criterion (such as location, price, and quality of construction) as a voter. Thus, there is one voter who focuses only on location, another voter who focuses only on price, and so on. In this case, rank aggregation would obtain an overall ranking of the houses that takes into account all of the criteria.  

In a solely authored 1996 paper, Fagin introduced a new model for score aggregation, where there is a fixed scoring function, such as the median or the mean, and where the consensus ranking of the candidates is in order of their overall score, based on the scoring function; the goal is to obtain the top k winners. If the score of every candidate by every voter were known, it would in principle be straightforward to determine the top k winners by a simple computation. The challenge, as Fagin presented it, is to determine the top k winners while minimizing the number of database accesses. Fagin defined an algorithm (widely called "Fagin's Algorithm"), which he showed was optimal in a certain precise sense, and which greatly influenced future research on score aggregation.

  In 2001, Fagin, with Amnon Lotem and Moni Naor, defined a new algorithm (the "Threshold Algorithm") for score aggregation, which he showed was optimal in an even stronger sense: not just in the worst case or the average case, but in every case! This paper won two important awards. First, it won the Best Paper Award at the prestigious ACM Symposium on Principles of Database Systems (a.k.a. PODS, which is the premier database theory conference), and has now been widely implemented. Second, this paper very recently won the PODS "Test-of Time" Award, for the paper from the 2001 PODS conference that is now judged, 10 years later, to have had the most impact.
 
Fagin has also explored other aspects of rank aggregation. For example, a 2003 paper by Fagin (with Ravi Kumar and D. Sivakumar) shows how to define a distance between top k lists, such as the distance between rankings by two different search engines, and is widely used in information retrieval settings.

Ronald Fagin is a member of the IBM Academy of Technology. He has won an IBM Corporate Award, eight IBM Outstanding Innovation Awards, an IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Award, and two IBM key patent awards. He has published over 100 papers, and has co-authored a book on "Reasoning about Knowledge." He has served on more than 30 conference program committees, including serving as Program Committee Chair of four different conferences.   He received his B.A. in mathematics from Dartmouth College, and his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley.

Accomplishments include:

Winner of the 2004 ACM SIGMOD Edgar F. Codd Innovations Award, a lifetime achievement award in databases, for "fundamental contributions to database theory"
IEEE Fellow for "contributions to finite-model theory and to relational database theory"
ACM Fellow for "creating the field of finite model theory and for fundamental research in relational database theory and in reasoning about knowledge"
AAAS Fellow for "fundamental contributions to computational complexity theory, database theory, and the theory of multi-agent systems"
Named Docteur Honoris Causa by the University of Paris
Named "Highly Cited Researcher" by the Institute for Scientific Information
Recipient of Best Paper awards at the 1985 International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, the 2001 ACM Symposium on Principles of Database Systems, and the 2010 International Conference on Database Theory

About IEEE: With nearly 85,000 members, the IEEE Computer Society is the world's leading organization of computing professionals. Founded in 1946, it is the largest of IEEE's 38 societies. The Computer Society is dedicated to advancing the theory and application of computing and information technology.

The IEEE Computer Society Technical Achievement Award is given for outstanding and innovative contributions to the fields of computer and information science and engineering or computer technology, usually within the past 10, and not more than 15, years. Contributions must have significantly promoted technical progress in the field. The award will be presented at an awards dinner on May 25 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Almaden mathematician named AAAS Fellow

2011-02-19T16:39:00.000-08:00

IBM researcher Phokion Kolaitis was recently elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancements of Science (AAAS) - an esteemed honor in which the organization's council elects those whose "efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished." Dr. Kolaitis, recognized for his "distinguished contributions to logic in computer science and to the principles of database systems", always had a knack for math and logic. I spent some time with him to talk about this accomplishment, fueled mostly by, as he puts, "The drive for knowledge. I always had this curiosity and passion for advancing the frontier of knowledge."  

And passion was a common theme in the discussion of Phokion's academic and career achievements. By high school, the Greece native had already decided he wanted to pursue mathematics. Once he entered University of Athens as an undergraduate, he felt science was what interested him, but that mathematics was the underlying basis for all things scientific. As he excelled in the university, he found himself focusing on the foundations of mathematics and, in particular, on mathematical logic. After completing his Ph.D. in Mathematics from UCLA, his interests evolved to applications of logic to computer science with particular emphasis on the connections between logic and databases. He became a professor of computer science at UC Santa Cruz and later on spent four years at Almaden as a research staff member and senior manager of the department of computer science principles and methodologies, also known as the "theory group."  

"One of the reasons I wanted to come to IBM from academia was because I wanted to work on the foundations of information integration," explained Phokion, "in an area called schema mappings and data exchange." This area of study focuses on trying to develop methods and tools for restructuring data organized under one format into data organized into another. "It's a very old but recurrent problem in databases. With other colleagues at Almaden, we developed a framework for studying this problem that, in turn, facilitated the development of tools to ease the challenges." This work was recognized by IBM Research as an outstanding accomplishment, while at the same time some of the papers published on this topic have received hundreds of citations.
  
Outside of his career, Phokion has an uncommon hobby: collecting fountain pens. His collection features about 250 pens, mostly vintage pens from the United States, Germany, and the UK, but also modern pens from France, Italy, and Japan. His favorite and most precious pen is his father's - a Parker '51 with a rare broad nib.  Phokion keeps a close relationship with his children, both of whom are pursuing medical careers - his daughter Irini is currently a first-year pediatric resident at the Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago after earning her MD at Georgetown University and his son Nicholas is a third year medical student at UC San Diego. Phokion is a fan of classical music and enjoys Greek poetry, citing his favorite poet as George Seferis, the winner of the Nobel 1963 Nobel Prize for Literature. Seferis captivated Phokion - as he says "Seferis' speech at the Nobel Banquet encapsulates my own feelings about the Greek language, poetry and the human condition."

Phokion will be presented the AAAS Fellow award during a recognition dinner in Washington, D.C. on February 19, 2011.

Great minds gather at Berkeley's Watson viewing event

2011-02-18T09:52:00.000-08:00

The following post was written by guest contributor Steve Demello, CITRIS' Healthcare Director at UC Berkeley.

Some 300 enthusiastic students, faculty and researchers came together at Sutardja Dai Hall, the headquarters of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) at the University of California Berkeley, to watch and discuss the final episode of the Jeopardy! Challenge featuring IBM’s Watson platform. The event, distributed throughout the building and on the Internet with streaming video, included presentations and commentary about the event itself, Watson, and the future it portends for Natural Language Processing (NLP).

The event began with a welcome from Professor Paul Wright, Director of CITRIS, who underscored the importance of the Challenge and applauded IBM for its achievement. Jean Paul Jacob, CITRIS Senior Advisor and a career IBM executive, entertained the audience with a “pregame” presentation on the structure of the Jeopardy! game, the evolution and structure of Watson, and a summary of the first two days of competition.

Dr. Jacob was joined onstage by two distinguished commentators – Professor Shankar Sastry, Dean of the UC Berkeley College of Engineering, and Dr. Horst Simon, Deputy Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory – on a set mimicking the game show itself, including Berkeley’s own version of Watson, dubbed “Chaplin”. Drs. Sastry and Simon commented before, at breaks during, and after the broadcast about the game, the technology, and future implications. They were joined in discussion by an engaged audience that included Professor David Patterson of the UC Berkeley Computer Science department and Michael Stewart, a former Jeopardy! champion.

The event concluded with reflections from Drs. Sastry and Simon, and discussion with the audience. Both commentators agreed that Watson represents a significant step forward in leveraging NLP, and that the capabilities demonstrated on Jeopardy! will be applied to a variety of areas, such as customer service. Both praised the “human ingenuity” at the heart of the technology, and Dr. Simon urged the group to consider this as an evolutionary step in a process that began in the 1940’s and 1950’s with early breakthroughs in computation. The commentators and audience both expressed their hope that IBM will share as much as possible with the broader research community, so that it can learn from what has been accomplished and to drive this exciting area of research forward.

Perhaps Professor Sastry best summed up the evening when he said that, as a technologist, “this was more exciting than the Super Bowl … with better ads.”

Man vs Machine? Almaden friends and family gather for Watson's championship showdown

2011-02-17T12:36:00.000-08:00

Watson wins!!!

Watson had the whole world engaged during its 3-day match against Jeopardy's best two contestants, Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings. The Almaden lab was host to over 200 IBMers and their friends and families on the night of the finale, and witnessed Watson battle its way to the winning spot, earning $1 million dollars for charity!

Here are some clips of the buzz before the game:

Silicon Valley IBMers bring expertise to Sri Lanka

2011-01-28T09:56:00.000-08:00

IBM’s Corporate Service Corps program gives IBMers the opportunity to work on community-driven and economic development projects in strategic emerging countries for a month. CSC participants apply their professional skills to collaborate with clients and deliver value on large initiatives, such as strategic planning and educational access. Two Silicon Valley IBMers recently returned from their overseas assignment, and shared their story with us.

Maria Román and Jennie Cobb were part of the first two teams engaged on CSC assignments in Sri Lanka. Maria, one of nine IBMers who made up Sri Lanka Team 1, participated on a project to execute an environmental analysis of the University of Moratuwa Department of Computer Science & Engineering (CSE), an institution struggling to obtain regional and international recognition. Jennie was part of the ten-person Sri Lanka Team 2, and she participated in a high-level study of the government’s infrastructure needs through the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA).

What was IBM’s role on your projects?
MR: The CSE Department needed help in developing a five-year strategic plan aligned with the University’s 25-year vision. With the limited time we had in Colombo, we had to refine the statement of work to conduct a comprehensive as-is state (SWOT) assessment and a comparison of the department against five other highly-ranked Asian and international computer science departments. CSE will use the results of this analysis, which includes recommendations for strategies and actions the department can take, to create their five-year strategic plan. An important tie-in is that there are a lot of CSE graduates who fill key roles in technology and government. Helping to improve the CSE Department definitely has a concrete impact on how the talent pool is developed for the technology industry as a whole.

JC: In Sri Lanka, there is no consolidated government data center, capable of meeting today’s enterprise requirements. Government agencies must independently support and maintain their own small IT infrastructure needs, which is expensive and limits their ability to share information throughout the government. Our mission was to propose implementation strategies for a private government cloud able to support the government re-engineering initiatives. Our other challenge was to recommend sustainable funding options. The majority of the funding for the government’s IT initiatives comes from World Bank, which does not invest in multi-year infrastructure projects such as this.

What was the result of your work?
MR: After interviews, research and analysis, we identified and recommended 10 key focus areas for the CSE Department to consider pursuing over the next five years as part of the detailed strategic plan that they will develop. We identified actions in areas such as building their research capability, defining a recruitment and retention strategy, conducting a detailed review of their post-graduate programs and creating a marketing plan for the department.

JC: After consulting with key government stakeholders, we formulated and delivered a set of recommendations for their initial cloud computing environment. We identified processes and tools to mitigate their security concerns. We presented a business case for a Green data center and the benefits of using virtual desktops to reduce the total cost of ownership for their government workstations. Most importantly, we recommended a strategy for sustainable funding using a public private partnership. The other exciting outcome of our CSC experience is that it helped identify IBM as a strong services provider.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced?
MR: When you get your statement of work before you go in-country, you get overwhelmed by the scope. The initial scope was so big, there was so much that needed to be done, and you can’t really start working until you get there. The challenge was to establish rapport with the client very quickly, then collaborate and refine the scope to what would provide the biggest impact while we were there. Also, since we were the first team, there was a lot of focus on us and our projects. We were very aware of the expectations – and so another challenge was managing and meeting those expectations at the same time.

JC: The most challenging part was delivering on a large scope of work, while at the same time, becoming more knowledgeable on cloud. It was somewhat intimidating at first to know that our project impacted an entire country, but once we refined the scope of work and created a project plan, we realized it was manageable.

What did you hope to gain from this experience?
MR: Prior to leaving for Colombo, I jotted down some goals for myself for this experience. I wanted to successfully represent IBM as an ambassador, exceed our clients’ expectations, experience Sri Lanka fully and discover something new about myself while being out of my comfort zone and working on a project in an emerging market. Plus, I wanted to make a personal connection with at least one of my teammates.

JC: It was extremely important for me to be able to apply my IT and business skills on a project that could have a positive impact on society – in this case, on the citizens of Sri Lanka. I’ve also drawn a lot of motivation from being a mentor within IBM – if I could help impact one person in IBM and have an exponential impact on his organization, what would result from my work for an entire country? Personally, I also wanted to experience Sri Lanka and adapt to the culture to the fullest extent.

Did you do that?
MR: Apart from the fact that we felt we exceeded our clients’ expectations, I feel that I really made a personal connection with not just one, but all eight of my team members. We were each other’s family while we were there. I also found that I could thrive, even out of my comfort zone – that I could be self-confident even in an ambiguous situation like this. Ultimately, the experience strengthened my desire to pursue more non-profit opportunities. I have this dream to set up a non-profit in my native country, the Philippines, and this experience helped me to better appreciate my east-west duality.

JC: I realized that we all have the ability to make a positive societal impact. It was so exciting for me to put the skills I use on my day-to-day job into a situation where I could see tangible benefits. This experience gave me the opportunity to provide a strategy for the Government of Sri Lanka’s data center, and ultimately, something that would improve the lives of its citizens. It really is an incredible opportunity and an amazing program for a company to have.

JC: I experienced Sri Lanka to the fullest extent possible! I found Sri Lanka full of warm people, smiling faces, unbelievable energy, rich colors, incredible sights and history, delicious food and most importantly, amazing optimism. “Potential” is a word that resonates in my mind about nearly every experience I had in Sri Lanka.

MR: I’ve been at IBM for almost 15 years. This experience is really something that makes me more proud to be an IBMer. The whole experience was much like my 4½ -hour bus ride from Dambulla back to Colombo – unpredictable, crazy, zigzagging, crowded, hot…in an old, decaying bus…but if you kept your eyes open, you’d see the beautiful countryside and be blessed by the honest smile of the Buddhist monk sitting beside you.

Maria Roman is an Organizational Change Consultant and Growth Play Learning Lead in Cloud Computing and Jennie Cobb is a Certified IT Specialist. Read a blog post from Jennie here.

Picture captions, top to bottom:

The Galle Face Green in Colombo is alive with energy from vendors, school girls, kite flyers and other visitors each day at dusk.

IBM CSC Sri Lanka Team 1 at the IBM Dinner Event, Taj Samudra Hotel in Colombo
First row, L-R: Anja Elsagir, Orla Duffy, Riddhi Sengupta, Silvia Di Girolamo, Maria Román
Second row, L-R: Felipe Piccirilo, Stefan Chrobot, Martin Mikulas, Chad Cracknell

A shopping excursion at an open market in Kandy yields a lesson in bargaining and an introduction to unfamiliar delicious tropical fruits. (Jennie Cobb, right)

IBM CSC Sri Lanka Team 1's attempt at Light Art, Galle Face Green, Colombo

Community: IBMer helps students achieve big dreams through MESA

2011-01-18T18:08:00.000-08:00

As a 7 year old, IBM researcher Andy Kellock loved math; he always found it easy and imagined growing up to be a jet fighter pilot. Hanging on to that dream through high school, he aspired to attend the Air Force Academy.

“Broken-hearted after not being selected, I was advised to go to college and get a BS in math or physics, and then re-apply for the Air Force,” laments Kellock. “I did, but by then my tastes had changed; the Vietnam War had just ended and I didn’t want to join anymore.”

Instead, Kellock, the top physics undergraduate in his college class, received a government scholarship to grad school and eventually earned his Ph.D. in physics from LaTrobe University in Melbourne, Australia.

Now, the IBM physicist of 24 years has another accolade to add to his list – Kellock is chairman of the Industry Advisory Board for MESA (Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement), a California-based program that seeks to prepare and motivate educationally disadvantaged students to pursue successfully college-preparatory coursework, promote careers in math & science, and develop their pre-professional & leadership skills.

And the success rate locally has been astounding. According to Kellock, 80% of students in the MESA program attend a 4-year college. The percentage of non-MESA students that go on to a 4-year? 16.

“The students in MESA are typically economically challenged and many times, the first in the family to go to college,” said Kellock. “If they're lucky enough to be in the program since elementary school, it's not even a question that they're going to go to college.”

Joining the MESA family over 20 years ago, Kellock meant only to help out a colleague, IBMer Nabil Saade, by volunteering for MESA Day – an event held each year at San Jose State, on a Saturday, that provides students a competitive platform to exhibit a math or science based project. Designed to help students develop a mastery of academic skills over time, expose them to college campuses and laboratories and to build self-esteem and confidence, MESA Day turned out to be the hook for Kellock – he ended up taking over the MESA Day Bridge Competition and has been supporting it ever since.

“MESA is like a family. What I’ve seen over the years is students go through the program, then go on to college, and they almost always come back to volunteer,” said Kellock. “The kids feel that once they’re in the program, they’re protected and there are people looking out for them. It’s hard to let go! The enthusiasm of the kids is very infectious.”

With the grassroots efforts and passion for the program that Kellock has put forth over the years, IBM has become a regular supporter of MESA, by providing monetary donations, an active volunteer base, judges for various competitions and a location for MESA Industry Day.

Each year, on Industry Day, Kellock brings a group of MESA students in to IBM Research – Almaden to show them things like moving atoms, how colored water is filtered into clear drinking water and even a few other surprising things that caught the attention of the students – like automatic doors. “Things that are trivial to us just blow them away,” said Kellock. “Their schools are sometimes so shabby. It’s exciting just to see the inside of these big buildings alone.”

As chairman of the Industry Advisory Board, Kellock plans to keep instilling the value of this program to Silicon Valley corporations to obtain partnership funding and donations. According to him, volunteers are easy to find, but serious money is not – a few thousand dollars a year is hardly enough to keep the programs alive, and with the state education budget cuts, MESA is going hard to school districts and principals, hoping that they allocate another year’s worth of funding to the program.

As tough as it is, the MESA family and associates truly believe in the goodness of the program – and they have the numbers to prove their success. The San Jose State-based program supported 16 schools and over 1,000 students in the South Bay. Kellock expects the program to grow to 19 schools and 1,300 students next year.

“Volunteerism is great. It makes for a happier employee and it’s been a very rewarding experience. My heart goes out to the teachers, especially in this educational and financial climate. We’re very luck to have them – they’re helping build our future workforce. If I can help them build that, then I feel I’ve done a good thing.”

Update: 12/8/11
OscarPorterMESA

More about MESA:

Image captions:

Top right: Andrew in his lab at IBM Research - Almaden, holding a commemorative plaque from the Mayor of San Jose, honoring his contributions to the community.

Bottom left: Students in the San Jose-based MESA program thank Kellock for coaching them through one of many technology fairs, supported by individuals like Kellock, and corporations like IBM.

More on SJSU MESA Schools Program: http://www.mesasjsu.org
MESA: http://www.ucop.edu/mesa/

Patent giants

2011-01-10T13:49:00.000-08:00

Earlier this month, and for the 18th year in a row, IBM took the corporate crown for the most U.S. patents received in a year - 5,896 - soaring over the number two spot by over 1,000. This milestone also marks the first time a company ever received more than 5,000 patents in a single year.

IBM's inventiveness stems from the company's long-term commitment to development and bold, exploratory research. And because IBM researchers have the ability to do so, they're often in charge of their own inventive destiny; discovering a problem, seeking a solution for it, and having the freedom, expertise and company-wide teamwork to invent a technology that the United States Patent and Trademark Office deems worthy of a patent. In order to be granted a patent, one's invention has to "promote industrial and technological progress in the United States and strengthen the national economy."

In order to sustain the inventive community in IBM, those with exceptional impact of invention through licensing, inclusion in product, and percentage of patents with a measurable impact are named Master Inventors. The title is fairly rare, and aids to distinguish such individuals within IBM as successful innovators, and as resources which can be engaged to guide and foster innovation.

Almaden is home to 22 Master Inventors, and has averaged two per year since the program began. A few of them commented on IBM's recent patent leadership announcement:

One of IBM's core values is innovation that matters for our company and for the world. Patents and IP revenue are measures of innovation. The fact that we have led the world for 18 years in a row implies that IBMers are living up to the values that define the company and everything we do. For 2010, with more than 5,800 patents and more patents issued than Microsoft, HP, Oracle, EMC and Google combined, we can say that IBM creates an environment that strongly encourages innovation in the company. As scientists and engineers we love to work on hard problems. Very often when we come up with a solution to a hard problem, it results in an invention. Subsequently, when the invention is incorporated into products, we can take pride in the fact that we have made a difference to our customers in addition to having contributed to the business of the company.

-KK Rao, IBM Distinguished Engineer, Master Inventor, Senior Manager, Advanced Storage Subsystems

If there were one word that could summarize what IBM research is all about, it's "innovation." The innovative culture at IBM Research is evident not only from its patenting and publication records, but also in its impact to the world through projects or products such as Blue Gene, the Watson system competing on Jeopardy! in a couple of weeks, and the relational database. In my past ten years with IBM Research, I've enjoyed having tremendous freedom and encouragement to innovate in multiple fields including storage, information management, analytics and services research. IBM's patent culture has served as a strong support foundation for researchers like me to invent and differentiate. I believe IBM's 18 years of patent leadership is truly symbolic of the bigger aspiration and higher value that the IBM company has: creating innovation that matters to the world. I am proud to be part of this bigger mission.

-Ying Chen, IBM Master Inventor, Research Staff Member

Community: IBM donates gifts to 61,000 Bay Area children

2011-01-04T11:45:00.000-08:00

Silicon Valley IBMers donated 82 virtual gifts totaling over $2,100
540 gifts were donated - 150 from IBM Research - Almaden
61 IBM employees volunteered at the Family Giving Tree warehouse, wrapping and sorting gifts

In total, over 61,000 children received gifts!

The future is now: Your next meeting with IBM researchers at Almaden

2010-12-16T12:18:00.000-08:00

Thanks to a beautifully designed, state-of-the-art telepresence room, recently built at IBM Research - Almaden, you will soon be able to meet face-to-face and in real time with researchers and other IBMers. Construction is nearing the final stages and crews are hard at work to complete the most modern collaborative space in the building. We'll literally see you soon!

Congratulations to IBM's newest ACM Fellows

2010-12-08T18:52:00.000-08:00

Each year, around 40 world leaders in science and technology are part of an elite group that are selected to be named ACM Fellows. The distinction of ACM Fellow comes to those achieving accomplishments that are driving the innovations necessary to sustain competitiveness in the digital age. ACM Fellows are born out of the world's leading universities, corporations and research labs. The ACM Fellows serve as distinguished colleagues to whom the ACM and its members look for guidance and leadership as the world of information technology evolves.

IBM has held steady in ACM Fellow appointments and this year is no exception. Of the 41 ACM Fellows named for 2010, two IBM researchers achieved this distinction: David Ungar and Shumin Zhai.

David Ungar, selected for his contributions to the design and implementation of object-oriented programming languages, reports in to the Programming Models and Tools Research group at IBM Research - T.J. Watson in NY. David is credited for work on "Tuning Fork," a performance analysis and visualization tool and "Renaissance" - in pursuit of a breakthrough in productivity and performance for massively parallel, tightly-coupled systems such as manycore CPUs. Adding to his list of achievements, David led a group that invented technology that made Java practical and co-designed a programming language that demonstrated how to simplify object-orientation while increasing expressive power. Think JavaScript; it was at the very least the inspiration for the person who designed it.

Having come a long way from repairing stereos and TVs and maintaining and analog computer, David is an expert recognized by peers far beyond IBM.

Shumin Zhai, an IBM Research - Almaden dynamo, was honored for his contributions to human-computer interface research and innovation. Side note: Zhai was a university professor at age 23.

Zhai explains, "I grew up during China's culture revolution, so no one had a job in today's sense. In 1977 - at age 16 - I was among the one percent lucky national university entrance examinees, the first such group after the 10 year culture revolution, to enter universities." He goes on, "By the time I finished my master's degree and started teaching, I was still not much older than the university students I taught. So when I walked into my first lecture I was visibly startled by the students who all customarily raised then burst into laughter. But by the end of the semester, they elected me "the best lecturer" among a teaching staff of well over 100."

Now, as an IBMer, Zhai has several accolades under his belt. We have Zhai to thank for helping invent the ScrollPoint mouse and other input devices of IBM PCs and Thinkpads. He pioneered the touch screen gesture keyboard input method (smartphone, anybody?) with the ShapeWriter project. He's now advancing that research by discovering and refining models and empirical laws of user action on computer screens which quantitatively predict users' performance in pointing, crossing, steering, and stroke gesturing.

Ungar and Zhai join a list of several accomplished IBMers named ACM Fellow over the last 15+ years.

Spotted: IBM artifacts at the Computer History Museum "Revolution" Exhibit

2010-11-29T12:02:00.000-08:00

Guests gather at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, where over 1,000 devices representing 2,000 years of computing will be unveiled mid-January as part of the new "Revolution" exhibit. The preview event gave insiders a sneak peek at the "boulevard of computing history" including everything from an ancient abacus and slide rule to the first Pong arcade game. IBM technologies are abundantly represented in the 25,000 sq. ft. exhibit.

You can learn more about "Revolution" here: http://www.computerhistory.org/exhibits/revolution/

No 3-D glasses required

2010-11-19T16:05:00.000-08:00

Gone are the days where information is static and unmoving. When we want information, we want it dynamic, colorful and contributed by real people, up to the minute. We are constantly collecting and analyzing data sent over the internet by millions of people every second of the day. The world's innovators realize a need to harness and visualize data so that it tells a compelling story, and well... captures our attention.

At IBM Research - Almaden, we thought there'd be no better way to do just that than to buy a 10-foot globe, drop it into our lobby and put all of our Research information on it for everyone to see.

The OmniGlobe is a digital spherical display, 60 inches in diameter, sitting in the front lobby, currently displaying accurate depictions of the Earth and planets in space in high quality, interactive animations. Using a touch screen podium, viewers can select images or sequences, which include climate, NASA sea currents, population density, marine impact, the earth 300 million years ago, sea ice & snow, and more.

And the OmniGlobe has an exciting future ahead - a team of IBM researchers at Almaden is working to display dynamic, real-time data (not just canned, static demos) of IBM Research related projects. This will require a complete re-writing of the software that comes with the globe. IBM researcher Matt Davis has been working on this for several months, while teammates, including Julia Grace and Barbara Jones, are also leading efforts on transforming the globe, one of these better known as "Cerulean" - a smarter shade of blue. Julia explains, "Certainly not every dataset is geospatial and can be shown on a globe; so for projects that might benefit from a spherical display, our team will build a framework that will allow Almaden researchers from all the functions to easily put their data on the globe, including high quality, interactive, dynamic animations and visualizations."

The research team will also take on the challenge of redesigning the touch screen interface - not only in terms of how it looks, but answering a few vital questions: What will the user experience be like? How will techies and non-techies alike to be able to walk up to the globe, immediately understand what it is showing, and be able to interact with it?

Learn more about IBM's interest in 3-D data visualization from Julia Grace, presenting at Web 2.0 NY 2010:

Spotted: Big Sur Half Marathon

2010-11-15T11:06:00.000-08:00

IBM Research math science staff member, Jim Hafner, Big Sur Half Marathon finisher, in mid-70 degree weather in Monterey, CA on Sunday, November 14. Jim jammed through 13.1 miles in an amazing time of 1:55:49. Great job!

Meet Andreas Heinrich, 'everyday physicist'

2010-11-10T14:40:00.000-08:00

Check out this cool profile article the Morgan Hill Times did on Almaden researcher Andreas Heinrich. Did you think the physicist behind some of nanotechnology's greatest breakthroughs got turned down for a job twice and has wine-making parties at home with friends? Find out more about Heinrich's affinity for skiing and "The Big Bang Theory" as well as what his kids think about science.

Morgan Hill Times: Just your everyday physicist

Also, check out the scientific breakthrough Andreas and his team achieved earlier this year:

Spotted: Sunny stroll at Almaden

2010-11-09T11:19:00.000-08:00

Lunch time walkers at Almaden take in a beautiful November day.

Behind the scenes with UCLA's 2010 Alumna of the Year

2010-11-08T15:36:00.000-08:00

On Friday, November 5th, IBM Fellow and Vice President Josephine Cheng was honored as UCLA's 2010 Alumna of the Year by the Dean of Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, Dr. Vijay Dhir. You can read about Josephine's technical accomplishments that led her to this prestigious award on the IBM Research news blog.

Here, however, we share an exclusive interview with the honorary IBMer and lifelong Bruin.

How old were you when you decided you wanted to pursue math and science as a career?
My junior year in college, about 20 years old

Who influenced you to do so?
I fell in love with my first programming class. The computer science professors and my classmates were influential to my decision.

What's one of your favorite movies?
Star Wars

What's your favorite vacation spot?
Egypt

What does "building a smarter planet" mean to you?
"Building a Smarter Planet" reflects the world that we are living in (instrumented, interconnected and intelligent), and how our work is making a difference in creating a better life in the Smarter Planet.

What do you love about working at IBM?
I love to work with all the smart and friendly IBMers!

Community: IBM's Corporate Philanthropy Award from the SV/SJ Business Journal

2010-11-05T14:26:00.000-07:00

The following is a guest blog post from Silicon Valley IBMer Michelle McIntyre, Media and Blogger Relations.

I was one of a handful of lucky IBMers who attended the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal annual corporate philanthropy awards on November 4 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The journal ranks the organizations by cash contributions to Silicon Valley organizations in the most recent fiscal year.

According to the journal, giving rose in the Silicon Valley 3 percent in 2009. This bucks the trend. Nationally, giving to charity went down 3.6 percent.

Great news:

IBM rose in the Silicon Valley philanthropic giving ranks this year to 15, up from 18 the previous year. IBM and its employees gave $766,822 to Silicon Valley charities and a whopping $185 million company wide in 2009. IBMers in the Silicon Valley gave a generous 32,264 hours of their time during this same period.

Senior Location Executive and VP of WebSphere Foundation Development, Richard Baird, accepted the award on behalf of Big Blue. After receiving the award Baird commented, "Making a better local community makes a better global community."

Forty-five non-profits including United Way, Giving Tree, Junior Achievement, several science and math organizations, Second Harvest Food bank, Innvision, teacher intern organization IISME, and the 49ers Foundation exhibited at the volunteer match showcase that was open before and after the ceremony.

Leaders of several organizations including United Way, Giving Tree and IISME told me that they appreciate the help of IBM employees and have an excellent relationship with our company.

Also Congratulations Tom Zimmerman for receiving a Community Impact award from the same business journal for his work with Cupertino schools, San Jose State and Hispanic University where he helped them win a $900,000 grant. The full list of award recipients is in the Nov. 6 issue of the business journal.

Congratulations to all who gave so generously last year, making us all proud to be West Coast IBMers.

Pictured above

Top (L to R): Michelle McIntyre, Blogger, Media Relations, Jennifer Hernandez, Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs, Alexa MacDonald, Manager, Human Resources, Ed Ng, Director, STG Product Development Executive Customer Advocate, Laura Clayton-McDonnell, Vice President, Public Sector, West IMT

Bottom (L to R): Joanna Garrido Guerrero, IBM Software Group, Information Management, Ursula Richter, Tivoli Storage Manager Client Development, Richard Baird, Vice President, WebSphere Foundation Development, Silicon Valley Site Location Executive, Ann Hosein, Integration CFO, Storwize, Storage Division

The science behind social media

2010-11-04T11:27:00.000-07:00

Experts from academia, industry and IBM discuss ways to "harness the buzz of the crowd"

The organizers behind Almadens' NPUC conference this year have an approach to computing that differs from the traditional research being done at the lab; rather than focusing on atom spin times and exploring nanoscale storage possibilities, Michelle Zhou, Eser Kandogan, Jalal Mahmud and their team at Almaden are studying artificial intelligence, online gaming, pervasive computing, and this year, data visualization, social networks and crowdsourcing.

During the 18th annual New Paradigms in Using Computers conference, experts from academia and industry, including Jan Bosch, VP of Innovation at Intuit, Ed Chi, principle scientist, PARC, subject matter experts from Stanford University, USC and UC Berkeley, and the founders of K9 Ventures and CrowdFlower, gathered to discuss everything from the business of crowdsourcing to effective microblogging analysis. In between the 10 speaker sessions spread throughout the day, demos and interactive displays lined the hallway, including Nokia Internet Pulse, which visualizes current discussion around a particular topic on Twitter. Jofish Kaye of Nokia Research Center described how the visualization defines positive words such as "love," and colors them. A view of the tool in action shows a map of all positive and negative words as well as the frequency; and, a tweet of his own at the end of the day summarized his visit to Almaden: "I like IBM Almeden [sic]. There's lots of old guys with beards around who look like they invented the spacebar or something. #npuc."

More demos focused on making work smarter and harnessing massive amounts of data on the web included Jan Pieper’s “Work Profiles,” a system designed to make enterprise collaboration easier and more effective by bridging personal email to shared collaborative tools and shared social tools. Laura Granka of Google presented an election forecasting model with online search traffic designed to help make sense of significant deviations between national and state search volume. A “SocialTelescope,” IBM’s Creek Watch iPhone app and automation via global crowdsourcing were also showcased during the poster session. Another IBM Research – Almaden project featured at the event focused on finding family and friends following the Haiti Earthquake in January 2010.

An animated Jure Leskovec of Stanford University kicked off the speaker sessions with "The Information of Networks" followed by Yan Liu's (USC) "Effective Microblogging Analysis with Less Supervision." A panel featuring experts on crowdsourcing followed. Sid Viswanathan, a panelist who just received his B.S. from Carnegie Mellon University in 2006 already earned the title of co-founder of CardMunch, a mobile business card transcription service that solves the business card problem by leveraging the power of crowd labor. His insights, along with those of James Everingham, founder and CTO of Pixazza, opened up a nice forum for crowdsourcing discussions along the panel and with the audience.

Heard at NPUC 2010

(via Twitter): "I like IBM Almeden [sic]. There's lots of old guys with beards around who look like they invented the spacebar or something. #npuc."
"Yeah, this place is the real deal. This is where they moved atoms and stuff like that."

"some really interesting talks at #NPUC , especially enjoyed Jure's presentation on the mutations of phrases http://bit.ly/tnQwA"

"Hearing @edchi at #npuc got me to use #MrTaggy to research angiogram - it uses iodide, may be allergic. Called dr, extra prep ordered. #fb"

Meet IBMer George Rhoten, seismograph tinkerer

2010-11-03T12:19:00.000-07:00

For IBMer George Rhoten, programming was an easy A in high school. By that time, he’d already taken home the grand prize at the Santa Clara County Science Fair for his first seismograph and had aspirations to make hover cars, “like the kind you see in Star Wars.” After taking a Pascal programming class in high school and deciding computer programming was in fact what he wanted to work on, Rhoten joined Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and left with a BS in computer science and a minor in theater.

Rhoten has been at IBM for 10 years now and is currently a Tivoli software engineer; however, his salary “helps fund his non-IBM projects for therapeutic tinkering.” Today, those include a homemade seismograph, a sensor used to control the tilt of a 3D object (his kitchen oven), and… making display cases. “I was severely disappointed by the quality and shape of the display cases that were out there,” Rhoten said. “The first one I made was to display my rock collection. The last one was for my wife’s Star Wars action figures.”

Rhoten’s first seismograph consisted of cardboard, wood, paper clips, rubber bands, washers, pencil, paper, tape, glue and a few other things found around the house. It recorded the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989. “That eventually turned into a science fair project, which won me $150, first place at the Santa Clara County Science Fair, and grand prize in my division (middle school at the time),” laments Rhoten. “Considering that I only had to pay $1 for the soft pencil for the seismograph, I thought it was a pretty good return on investment.”

Up next for Rhoten is a more sensitive seismometer with less noise, elimination of misreads of the sensor, and maybe more analysis tools including conversion to USGS format, automatic tweets to the world, and completely automated result publishing. He also plans to release the source code at some point.

Rhoten finds it hard to explain the complexity of his IBM job, simply described as “working with records keeping software for businesses.” Previously at IBM, he worked on International Components for Unicode – software that is part of the iPhone OS, Android, AIX, DB2, bank software, and lots of other non-Microsoft software. His take on IBM’s Smarter Planet campaign? “Big solutions for big business and big government in a big world.”

“It’s perfectly reasonable to let your mind wander to solve your problems. Just don’t let it wander while operating heavy machinery."

Sidenote: Rhoten's favorite joke

What did the Greek cat say when it entered a bar? μ μ μ
(The Greek letter μ is pronounced mu)

You can read more about George’s seismometer here: http://www.centralnexus.com/seismograph/

Josephine Cheng: "We do a lot for society and I'm proud of it"

2010-11-02T11:06:00.000-07:00

Josephine Cheng, IBM Fellow & Vice President, IBM Research - Almaden, visited Prague earlier this year. During her one day visit organized by Jan Kleindienst, Head of the Prague Research Lab, Josephine met with selected clients, academicians and authorities in the field of medicine and medical research.

One of the main goals of her visit was to identify opportunities how the Almaden, known among other accomplishments for its medical research, and Prague research team focused on voice recognition, conversational NLU technologies, and advanced user interfaces could work more closely together in the future.

Despite her busy schedule, Josephine found time to meet with reporters from Ekonom, Czech leading business weekly, and talked to them about the IBM’s research and a life of an “IT scientist." Below is a selection of Q&A from the article.

How important is the Czech research centre in the context of the worldwide IBM research?
It is very important. I would say it is one of the most important ones in the respective field, voice recognition technologies.

Could you describe your research activities in Prague?
We focus on the research in the field of human-machine dialogue modeling. But it is not easy to teach computers to understand and especially to engage in a natural conversation, even today after more than 50 years of research. The local group has contributed by cooperating on a number of patents.

What outcomes do you have?
For example those, who drive Honda or Toyota higher class models, have direct experience with voice control developed in the Prague lab. We also work on programs for language teaching or using computers for automatic real-time interpreting from one language into another.

You hold 28 patents, mainly related to software. What is your opinion of patents? Could it be they decelerate the development, when used by large companies against competition?
They are helpful, they protect us. It is not true that they decelerate the progress. IBM has donated hundreds of patents to the open-source community. We also support small companies to cross-licensing. And I have never heard of IBM using software patents as a weapon against competitors.

Scientists are said to be weirdos, the same goes for IT people. Does it mean that IT researchers are double weird?
This is the first time I have heard it, I think we are very much like anybody else. We do a lot for the society and I am proud of it. We – researchers - transform the world every day and we have contributed to developing things everybody uses. I have worked on databases and now they are used everywhere: in all companies, banks, airlines, but also hotels and restaurants. Ten years ago, I helped to develop first mobile applications and now I can see a lot of progress. Many things that we have invented make people’s lives easier and that is what I love about IT.

Back to scientists: does your research centre have exercise rooms, relax sofas and other unusual instruments?
Almaden is a quite an unusual place, surrounded by hills and trees. We have a gym, but many people just exercise outside, go cycling or taking part at Almaden Olympic Games organized every year. We have regular camping nights for employees and their families in the nearby forests. Wider public can benefit from educational programs on science and technology. We aim to promote science and bring it closer to people’s attention.

Is the promotion of science helpful?
I think so. Besides these camps, we also organize engineers´ weeks, when our employees visit schools, give lectures on research and development and motivate students. It is necessary, because many students, especially in poor regions have no idea what researchers do. They believe that scientists are there to repair a TV set or a car. They do not have a clue, who a software engineer is. Therefore we try to educate them, raise the awareness of elementary things. After this educational week program, some of them may focus on development. Some children even send me letters describing what they have learnt. I really believe such programs are beneficial.

Spotted: Silicon Valley Marathon

2010-11-01T14:09:00.001-07:00

Here's IBM Research Senior Contracts Professional Steven (Russ) Williams, just after crossing the finish line at the Silicon Valley Marathon on October 31 - still smiling after speeding through 26.2 miles in just 3 hours and 36 minutes. Go Russ!

Halloween Haunts at Almaden

2010-10-31T11:56:00.000-07:00

Every year, the event team at Almaden hosts a spectacularly spooky haunted house. Employees bring their kids, usually decked out in costumes, who listen to a short story in the "library" before checking out the rest of the rooms in the house - as they wind through the maze, they see everything from a headless horseman to a zombie baby. As the tour ends, they 'walk the plank' on a haunted pirate ship... with, of course, a real live pirate. Yo-ho!