The School of Computational Engineering & Science presents a free public lecture:

The Future of Computers

William Pulleyblank, Ph.D.
Vice President, Center for Business Optimization,
IBM Global Business Services.

Thursday, October 18, 2007
7:30 p.m.
McMaster University, Information Technology Building (ITB), Room 137

Lecture poster


Imagine if every two years we could buy a car that went twice as fast, used half the gas, and cost half the price. Can't imagine it?

Consider this: over the last sixty years, computers have evolved at that rate every 18-24 months they're twice as fast, have double the storage, and are half the cost. Today's computers are capable of trillions of operations a second, and supercomputers, like those developed by IBM's Blue Gene program, tackle a vast array of complex problems.

These advances can help us understand how a drug works, develop a solar panel that is ten times more efficient, calculate how nuclear stockpiles degrade, or model the function of the human brain. We can harness the astonishing power of computers to improve our daily lives, but there are significant challenges ahead.

McMaster's inaugural Visiting Innovation Professor, IBM Vice President Bill Pulleyblank, has enjoyed a career spanning nearly two-thirds of the modern computing age. He led the interdisciplinary Blue Gene project that resulted in the development of the Blue Gene/L, the most powerful supercomputer in the world, and now he is leading IBM's efforts to help universities, industry, and government utilize the power of supercomputers in planning and operations.

This free public lecture will provide the audience with a ringside seat to Dr. Pulleyblank's reflections on the progress of the computer industry, the problems and potential solutions it faces, and what the future holds.