Dr. Behrooz Parhami of UCSB

ABSTRACT

E. M. Forester's prophetic sci-fi/fantasy short story "The Machine Stops," published in 1909, was instrumental in guiding me toward research in fault-tolerant computing, an area that I pursued for both my MS and PhD theses; I am still at it 55 years later! In the first part of this talk, I will introduce "The Machine Stops" in the context of Forester's other writings, elaborating on its relevance to fault-tolerant computing and the current AI craze. In the second part, I will present a series of key ideas, beginning with Moore's & Shannon's pioneering work on building reliable circuits from crummy relays and von Neumann's brain-inspired replication & voting, to show the range of methods used to ensure the reliable operation of computer systems through various forms of hardware redundancy, fault/malfunction detection, software-based monitoring, adjudication methods, and checkpointing.

Biography:

Brief bio—Behrooz Parhami (PhD, UCLA 1973) is Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and former Associate Dean for Academic Personnel, College of Engineering, at University of California, Santa Barbara, where he teaches and does research in computer arithmetic, parallel processing, and dependable computing. A Life Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of IET and British Computer Society, and recipient of several other awards (including a most-cited paper award from J. Parallel & Distributed Computing), he has written six textbooks and more than 300 peer-reviewed technical papers. Professionally, he is an IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Visitor, serves on journal editorial boards and conference program committees, is passionate about puzzles, outreach efforts, & gender equity, and is active in technical consulting. He will retire in 2026 after 53 years in academia.

Address:Goleta, California, United States