E-commerce for the 21st century

If CommerceNet realizes its vision, we might well see a new “ecology” of global Internet commerce, with buyers, sellers, and intermediaries forming extended trading communities. Launched in 1994 as a not-for-profit organization, CommerceNet (http://www.commerce.net) is dedicated to advancing electronic commerce, which is fast becoming synonymous with Internet commerce. The group's nearly 250 member companies seek solutions to technology issues, sponsor numerous industry pilots, and foster market and business development     

Spin glasses: a computational challenge for the 21st century

I discuss the computational challenges of the spin glass problem, and illustrate them with two examples from my recent work.     

Healthcare partnerships for the 21st century

Traditional business models employed over the last 30 years began breaking down during the '80s and are completely disintegrating during this decade. Traditional organizational models have led to underutilization, waste and unnecessary excess. For healthcare institutions to survive and thrive, a new management model must be implemented by employing business partnerships and alliances to optimize information, systems, products and resources.     

普适计算：人本计算

普适计算强调以人为本的计算思想，它主张计算应迎合人的习性，自主地与使用者产生互动，使用户能集中精力于所要完成的任务。在普适计算环境下，计算将融入到人们的日常生活之中，使人们能够随时随地无妨碍地获得计算和信息服务。综述了普适计算的发展历史、现状和研究热点，分析和讨论了普适计算的概念和特性，最后对目前一些具有代表性的普适计算研究项目进行了简要的介绍和分析。     

Advancing IT into the 21st century

The progress of IT in the US is the direct result of federal investments. Advances in information technology will provide the basis for much of the world's economic growth as we head into the next century (2000). During the past five years (1994-9), production in computers, semiconductors, and communications equipment quadrupled at a time when total industrial production grew by 28 percent. In the coming decades, the opportunities for innovation in IT are larger than they ever have been-and more important. If the past is any guide, the most important advances will come from unexpected directions, facilitated by advanced technical capabilities that result from fundamental research. Thus, federal investments in basic, high risk research for IT will be even more essential to ensuring the intellectual and technical underpinnings for these as yet unforeseeable developments     

Lava lamps in the 21st century

Computer displays of colorful and undulating lava-like forms will decorate living rooms of the future. These forms can already be created using mathematical simulations and hardware-assisted, isosurface computer graphics. In particular, the simulations involve twisted majority rules computed using a 3-D cellular automation lattice described in this paper.     

Mechatronics: from the 20th to 21st century

This paper presents a Year-2000 (Y2K) status report of mechatronics. The Y2K definition of mechatronics is “the synergetic integration of physical systems with information technology and complex-decision making in the design, manufacture and operation of industrial products and processes.” Mechatronics may be interpreted as the best practice for synthesis of engineering systems, and it covers a broad area and scope. Vehicle lateral control for automated highway systems, hard disk drives and media handling mechanisms for printing engines are reviewed as examples of mechatronics research. Engineering students should be exposed to mechatronics and to the culture of working in teams.     

Posix/Unix standards: foundation for 21st century growth

Posix standards represent approximately $80 billion of the $250+ billion-Unix market over the last decade; they also provide the basis for significant growth in the future. This picture of the substantial success of Posix standards (and the business impact of standards in general) differs from that presented in Micro's May/June 1998 issue. The overall Unix market boasts billions of dollars in revenues, and is projected to continue growing into the future. Major areas for this growth feature high-end systems (data warehousing, servers, and supercomputing) rather than desktop applications     

Robots in space into the 21st century

Describes the technological developments which are establishing the foundation for an exciting era of in situ exploration missions to planets, comets and asteroids with advanced robotic systems. Also outlines important concurrent terrestrial applications and spinoffs of the space robotics technology. These include high-precision robotic manipulators for microsurgical operations and dexterous arm control systems.     

Industry-university partnerships: A model for engineering education in the 21st century

An approach to Industry-University Quality Partnerships for engineering education is presented. A formal educational cycle of Preparation, Identification, and Action (PIA) has been initiated as the framework for the partnership effort. This cycle establishes multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional teams of students and faculty to work with industrial partners on quality/process improvement projects. Preparation is a three-semester hour course that covers the methods and tools of Total Quality Management (TQM), safety, teamwork, communications, and time management. Identification is a team effort by students, faculty, and industrial partners working on-site at the industrial partner's facilities, identifying quality improvement opportunities. Action is the team effort by students, faculty, and partners working both on-campus and on-site, providing detailed plans to implement and evaluate quality/process improvement opportunities. The PIA cycle was initiated in the Spring of 1993 by three Universities of the Southern University and College Coalition for Engineering Education (SUCCEED) and Milliken and Company as the industrial partner. The PIA cycle is an ongoing research effort. In this paper, we provide a review of the PIA approach to Industry-University Partnership Teams and share some of our experiences with this novel approach to engineering education.     

Ubiquitous computing: connecting Pervasive computing through Semantic Web

Ubiquitous computing refers to building a global computing environment where seamless and invisible access to computing resources is provided to the user. Pervasive computing deals with acquiring context knowledge from the environment and providing dynamic, proactive and context-aware services to the user. A Ubiquitous computing environment is created by sharing knowledge and information between Pervasive computing environments. In this paper we propose a framework that uses the potential of the Semantic Web to weave Pervasive computing environments into a Ubiquitous computing environment. We discuss how the collaboration of these Pervasive environments can create an effective Ubiquitous computing environment referred herein as the Integrated Global Pervasive Computing Framework (IGPF). We test the effectiveness of the Ubiquitous environment through a small scenario from a prototype system that we have implemented over this framework to handle medical emergency scenario.     

Automotive vehicle control challenges in the 21st century

In 1996, 52 million vehicles were produced worldwide. By 2005, many predict that over 65 million will be produced because of the strengthening economies throughout the world and the individual's desire for personal mobility. The automobiles of the 1990s are at least 10 times cleaner and twice as fuel efficient as the vehicles of the 1970s. These advancements were due in large part to distributed microprocessor-based control systems. Furthermore, the resultant vehicles are safer, more comfortable, and more maneuverable. The environmental challenges of the 21st century will require advances of the same order of magnitude. In particular, next generation vehicles will be more “electrified” and designed by total systems approaches, involving new materials, alternative fuels, and new powertrains — all enabled by modern control systems and design techniques.     

Transforming the cancer center in the 21st century.

Academic cancer centers will be hit, simultaneously, by all three of the technology tidal waves outlined above within the next five years. In preparing for this impact one should note the central role that Internet technologies will play in providing solutions in all three areas. In addition, as the volume and size of data objects increases dramatically, having an adequate networking infrastructure in place will be crucial. So what do we do now to prepare for the future? The following five steps are suggested: (1) Establish an oncology informatics group within the cancer center to provide the necessary expertise and begin the planning process. (2) Begin implementing a secure intranet based on standard Internet technologies. (3) Work with the host medical center and external agencies to determine who will pay for and implement a high-bandwidth networking infrastructure. (4) Recruit a bioinformatician who can help implement technologies to take advantage of the genomics data wave when it hits. (5) Ensure that the cancer center's EMR system can support cancer protocol data and facilitate the retrieval and delivery of the complex digital imaging data that are in our future.