From: ariel@lanai.cs.ucla.edu (Ariel Rogson)
Subject: January meetings of the LA ACM.
Reply-To: ariel@CS.UCLA.EDU
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Dept.
Distribution: la
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 92 04:48:22 GMT

               ACM -- ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTING MACHINERY
 
                 Schedule of events for January 1993.
  For further information, join LA ACM and receive DATA-LINK monthly.
       Call Edwin Quinones, Membership Chairman, (310) 212-6459.
 
                                  ***

                   Los Angeles Chapter Dinner Meeting
                       Wednesday, 6 January, 1993
  Information Technology Networks -- How to Manage and How to Sell to
                               Management
         Bruce R. Elbert, Director, Hughes Communications, Inc.

Effective networking is an important success factor in building modern
information system infrastructures.  However, before the data can be
distributed properly, the associated technologies must be identified,
evaluated, architected, and sold to management.  Client/Server
environment, networks that are inter-operable, and systems management
technologies provide a base upon which to rightsize the information
systems of the future.  And no matter how effective in terms of
performance or cost, a new technology will not be introduced unless it
can be sold to management.  These issues will be discussed and
philosophies expounded that offer some means of moving forward in this
turbulent world of organizational and informational downsizing.

Bruce Elbert is an experienced technology manager and systems engineer
in the field of IT networks.  His influential book, _Networking
Strategies for Information Technology_, is used in state-of-the-art
courses in IS management.  Mr. Elbert has been with Hughes for a total
of 18 years, having been involved with major networking projects in the
US, Asia, Latin America, and Europe.  He teaches at UCLA Extension both
in regular evening classes and short courses held at the campus.  Among
his other books are _Private Telecommunication Networks_,
_International Telecommunication Management_, and _Introduction to
Satellite Communication_.  He is currently working on a new book on
Distributed Computing, which is scheduled for publication in 1993.
 
                                  ***
 
Meetings are held at the Ramada Hotel, 6333 Bristol Parkway, Culver City
east of the intersection of Sepulveda Blvd. and Centinela Ave.  Exit the
San Diego (405) Freeway southbound at Sepulveda-Centinela or northbound
at Slauson-Sepulveda.  A social hour at 6:30 PM precedes dinner at 7:00
and the program at 8:00.  Reservations are required for dinner, not for
the program; call Jim Matheny, (310) 375-5940, before Tuesday noon.
 
                                  ***
 
     Coming Events in Special Interest Groups and Neighbor Chapters
 
                                  ***
 
        Southern California NeXTSTEP Users' Group (SCaN) Meeting
                   Thursday 14 Janaury 1993  6:30 PM
                California State University, Long Beach
        Engineering and Computer Science Building, Room ECS-210

For further information, please contact Mike Mahoney, SCaN President
and CSULB Professor at (310) 985-1550, e-mail: mahoney@csulb.edu, or
Bob Desharnais, SCaN Vice-President and CSULA Professor at (213)
343-2056, e-mail: bob@biol1next.calstatela.edu
 
                                  ***
 
                             LA ACM TACART
                Adaptable Resource Planner and Scheduler
                            Lynda True, TRW
                  Thursday, 21 January 1993 7:30 PM
         Santa Monica Public Library, Basement Conference Room
       (Corner of 6th St. and Santa Monica Blvd, in Santa Monica)

The Flexible Activity Scheduling Tool is a resource scheduler that was
originally developed to support TDRS and ATDRS scheduling.  It
currently addresses scheduling problems that have temporal constraints,
finite resource capacity constraints, task priorities, and the overall
objectives to perform as many tasks as possible.  Unlike most
scheduling systems, it does more than simple constraint-based
scheduling.  The algorithm used can be thought of as a tree-shaking
solution, in which the tasks to be scheduled are first shaken out to
see whether a conflict-free schedule can be constructed just by using
the preferences associated with the tasks.  Areas of conflict are
identified, and different styles of scheduling strategies are applied
to those areas in attempts to remove the conflicts.

This effort is based on work done by Eric Beifeld of JPL (OMP,
Plan-It), and by Mark Fox (Constraint-Directed Search: A Case Study of
Job-Shop Scheduling).  In 1993, we will add a planning capability based
on Allan Newell's SOAR.

Lynda True has a BA in Management Science from Cal State Fullerton. 
She has worked for many of the local aerospace companies in a variety
of positions, and has been involved with the development of scheduling
and planning systems for the past five years.  Ms. True has been
working as a member of the technical staff at TRW since 1990.  Other AI
projects in the past include image processing work done at Hughes
Aircraft, and various small systems done to support the Space Station
effort at Martin Marietta.

No dinner or social activities are planned.  For further information,
please contact Stephanie E. August ((310) 616-6491,
august@cs.ucla.edu).
 
                                  ***
 
                       CHANNEL ISLANDS ACM SIGAda
                   IEEE POSIX and POSIX-Ada Bindings
      Jim Lonjers, Paramax Systems Corporation, Electronic Systems
                   Tuesday, 26 January 1993, 6:30 PM
                    Paramax Cafeteria, Camarillo, CA

The POSIX standard will likely define computer programming interfaces
to the operating system for the majority of systems sold in the future.
It defines these interfaces in such a broad manner as to allow POSIX
compliant systems to be built on top of VMS and even MD-DOS.  The newly
approved Ada bindings allow Ada to take full advantage of the POSIX
standard while remaining fully within Ada and without emulation of "C"
language function calls.

Jim Lonjers, Chair of the IEEE Ada POSIX Standards Working Group will
present an overview of POSIX and details on the Ada-POSIX bindings.

For more information, please contact Charles Snyder ((805) 987-6811,
ext. 4743, csnyder@nisd.cam.unisys.com).
 
                                  ***
 
                             LA ACM SIGAda
                   IEEE POSIX and POSIX-Ada Bindings
      Jim Lonjers, Paramax Systems Corporation, Electronic Systems

For details about the talk, please see the Channel Islands SIGAda
listing.  For information about when and where the meeting will be
help, please contact Jolie Mason ((805) 987-6811, ext. 4582,
mason@nisd.cam.unisys.com).