Michael J. Ferguson
Professor Emeritus, INRS-Télécommunications
Université de Québec, Canada
Lugar: Auditorio DCC, Blanco Encalada 2120, Tercer piso
Horario: Miércoles 9 de abril de 2003, 12:00-13:30
Abstract
We are witnessing the creation of a new telecommunication infrastructure. This seminar will attempt to put this “revolution” into perspective by discussing some of the reasons for it in the perspective of a history of telecommunication networks. The problems and the evolution, over a 100 years of the telephone network has some lessons that have been largely forgotten. Although the enthusiastic acceptance of the current Internet has been the major impetus for this revolution, its pending universality has revealed the basic flaws of its design and why it will be re-engineered to become the basis of this new infrastructure. We will discuss its history and the current attempts to enable the Internet to carry real time traffic. Finally, I will sketch a strategic vision to arrive at the architecture of a new infrastructure.
Biography
Michael J. Ferguson obtained his B.A.Sc. from the University of Toronto, his M.S. from California Institute of Technology, and his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1962, 1963, and 1966 respectively. In 1966 he joined Philco-Ford Space and Re-entry Systems doing research in space applications of error correcting codes. In 1968 he joined the faculty of electrical engineering at McGill University where he taught and did research in coding and multiple access systems. From 1974-1976, while on leave from McGill, he was a Research Associate at the University of Hawaii, and project manager for the ALOHA system.
This was followed by 18 months as a Research Scholar at the IIASA, the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria doing research in computer communication networks. In 1978 he joined Bell-Northern Research in Montreal as manager of the Systems Analysis department where he did research in advanced conferencing systems. In August 1983, he became a full time Professor at INRS-Telecommunications then became the “Chaire Cyrille Duquet” in “Telecommunication Software”. In 2001, he retired and was appointed Professor Emeritus at INRS. His first six months of “retirement”, July/Dec 2001, was as an Erskine Fellow in the Dept. of Computer Science at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Professor Ferguson’s current research interests are focussed on the application of formal models to communication software and protocols.