Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Computer Society – Western Puerto Rico Section

and

Hewlett Packard Puerto Rico
 
Invite you to the following seminar:

Imaging the Antikythera Mechanism

Date: Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Place: WebEx event
Time:  6:15 PM — 8:15 PM
Fee: Free of charge

Resources:
Tom Maltzbender

Abstract:

In 1900, a party of sponge divers chanced on the wreck of a Roman merchant vessel between Crete and mainland Greece. It was found to contain numerous ancient Greek treasures, among them a mysterious lump of clay that split open to reveal ‘mathematical gears’ as it dried out. Constructed in 150 B.C.E., this object is now known as the Antikythera Mechanism and is arguably the most important technological artifact from all of ancient history.

In 2005 Tom Maltzbender from HP Labs. travelled to the National Archeological Museum in Athens to apply HP’s Reflectance Imaging methods to the mechanism in the hopes of revealing ancient writing on the device. This simple technique involves photographing the object under varying lighting conditions, but from a fixed perspective. From these images, per-pixel estimates of surface normals can be made, which can be used to relight the object with improved reflectance characteristics.

Tom was successful. This led to an understanding that the device was a mechanical, astronomical computer capable of predicting solar and lunar eclipses along with other celestial events. This talk will overview both the imaging methods as well as what they reveal about the Antikythera Mechanism.
 
Bio:
Tom is a senior research scientist at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories and his research interest lies at the intersection of computer graphics, signal processing and computer vision. He has developed methods of Fourier volume rendering, polynomial texture mapping, reflectance imagingand opacity-weighted volume re-sampling. His work on the Antikythera Mechanism was recently described in both Scientific American and The Economist.

Registration:
Registration not available yet.

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Western Puerto Rico Section

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Computer Society – Western Puerto Rico Section

 and

Hewlett Packard Technology Center
Hewlett Packard Puerto Rico
 
Invite you to the following seminar:

Agile Software Development

Date: Thursday, April 19, 2012
Place: Hewlett Packard, Aguadilla, PR
Time:  6:30 PM — 8:00 PM
Fee: Free of charge

Resources:
William Navas

Abstract:
The concept of agile software development has gained significant momentum in the last 10 years and is currently replacing the classical waterfall model used in the past.  This presentation focuses on Scrum which is one of the most popular agile trends.  Here we describe the artifacts used, ceremonies, metrics, and results using projects that I have participated in.  We also dive into one of the most detested, and seemingly useless developer activities, that is  ‘Estimates’.  We introduce Story points as a system for quantifying relative effort and then use empirical data from the team’s actual performance to forecast project completion.
 
Agenda:
• Introduction
• SCRUM
• Story Points

Registration:
For registration, please click here