Activities

Current / Recent Projects

• I am working in the area of intelligent power management, where our aim is to combine the use of sensors, computational fluid dynamics models, and machine learning to devise optimal control strategies for minimizing power consumption while maintaining performance and service levels in data centers.
• I am working with IBM Tivoli on the newly released product, Maximo Asset Manager for Energy Optimization, which incorporates IBM Research-developed functionality specifically geared to monitoring energy consumption in data centers. I have previously worked with Tivoli on their Maximo Spatial Asset Management product - a product which combines the capabilities of an asset/configuration management system with a geographic information system (GIS).
• I have been working on a robot capable of mapping out an unknown data center while monitoring temperature and humidity, feeding its data into Maximo for Energy Optimization. My hat goes off to our summer intern of 2010, Chris Mansley, from Rutgers University, who played a huge role in getting the project started. This year, we have had two great new interns who have helped push the project to the next level: John Nelson from Villanova, and Kevin Deland from Duke.
• My colleagues Marion Blount, Iqbal Mohomed, our manager, Jeff Kephart, and I are working on a framework for creating intelligent building applications in the so-called Internet of Things. Our first intelligent building applications allows IBM employees to efficiently make use of booked but unutilized conference rooms. Our framework is called DAPIT for Distributed Analytics and Processing for the Internet of Things.
• I worked on the strategy portion of IBM's Jeopardy-playing program, culminating in our celebrated victory over best-ever human players, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.
• Prior to focusing my attention on intelligent power management, I managed a group of Researchers whose flagship product was an application to help Server System Administrators ("SAs") do there job more efficiently. The application, known as the Sys Admin Portal, is in relatively widespread use within Server System Operations, one of the largest parts of IBM's services business. We also worked extensively on knowledge management solutions for help centers. Generally we tried to apply machine learning, data mining techniques and a knowledge of systems management to solve services problems. Members of my old group are now working with Tivoli to incorporate some of our ideas into Tivoli products.

Recent Research & Invention Activity

• Some of my more interesting patent filings relate to the following areas:
  • robotic and geometrically-inspired methods for energy optimization
  • search
  • non-hierarchical file systems
  • policy-based printing
  • systems for making email, instant messaging, and other forms of collaboration less taxing
  • systems for just-in-time connection of people with problems to people with solutions
• Off and on, I have worked on a chess program that can think and learn about chess in the ways strong human players do, and also can discuss positions in the way human players do.

Other Activities

• Mentoring
• I have a very wonderful Research mentor in John Vergo. John is a senior manager and active researcher in human-computer interaction. In the last few years John has also become one of the key strategists and arthictects in the area of component business process modeling.
• Very recently I have begun a mentoring relationship with Distinguished Engineer Arun Hampapur. Arun has been responsible for some hugely innovative IBM projects over the course of his career. He is currently leading an effort to create an intelligent crime-fighting system.
• I have just begun mentoring a talented and very creative engineer, Matthew Sowders, from Tririga Coproration. Tririga is a recent IBM aquisition with premier products in the Smarter Buildings space.
• Lab Visitors that I have Mentored:
  • 2010: Chris Mansley (Rutgers)
  • 2011: Kevin Deland (Duke), John Nelson (Villanova), Ning Xu (City College of New York) and Sam Arsanjani (MSAE High School)
• I participated in the McGill-INRIA Workshops on Computational Geometry and Computer Graphics in Barbados in 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009.
• National Engineer's Week - I'm involved in the IBM Research program to visit local middle schools and educate students about engineers. I have used this opportunity to show off my chess program. We break the kids into groups, and each group has a chance to make small changes to the basic program. We then play the different versions of the program against each other.
• I have been a referee for the FIRST Lego League, and enjoy working with Lego Mindstorms robotics projects with my own kids.

Personal

• I am an active masters swimmer - mostly focusing on long distance open water events. In July 2010 I finshed 63rd at the US Masters National 10K Championships in Noblesville, Indiana. In 2008 I finished 33rd at the US National 25K (15.5 mile) Open Water Championships, also in Noblesville, and in 2007 I finished 41st at the US National 10K Open Water Championships in Huntington Bay, New York. In the summer of 2009 I swam across the Strait of Gibraltar, from the south of Spain to the northern tip of Morocco with my good friend and former colleague Philipp Tiedt. I am in the process of planning the next adventure for some time in 2011 or 2012. I am always looking for another swimmer or two to share in my goals, and am similarly always on the lookout for kayak support. If you are of a like-minded adventurous spirit, please contact me!
• I enjoy running at the Rockefeller Estate at Pocantico Hills.
• Although I have not played for many years, I was once an active chess master. I achieved a U.S. Chess Federation rating of 2282 and a FIDE (Federation Internationale des Echecs) rating of 2235. Here is an old game I played against computer chess authority and international master Michael Valvo. Here is a chess problem I composed a couple of years back. I sometimes teach chess to kids at my local North Salem library, using the chess program I have developed at IBM Research.