IFIP:
International Federation for Information Processing

Technical
Committee
2

Working
Group
2.5

Workshop on the
The Changing Face of Mathematical Software


Washington, DC, USA, June 3-4, 2004

with IFIP WG 2.5 Business Meeting on June 1-2, 2004


The US Capitol Building. The Wasington Monument. George Washington.

Rationale

The field of mathematical software has undergone a major transformation in the past 15 years. Highly flexible commercial software systems have emerged that have enabled fairly complex mathematical computations to be done routinely. The user community is much more diverse than ever before, while the general understanding and appreciation of the difficulty of numerical computing has diminished. Researchers solving problems beyond the capabilities of the mass-market systems now demand sophisticated user interfaces, graphics, and related tools to create specialized research- oriented problem solving environments of their own. Such environments are constructed using a wide variety of computing languages. Math software interfaces must be increasingly flexible for reuse in such environments. At the high end of the computing spectrum, extremely complex multi-level computing architectures remain very challenging to exploit. For such systems, the availability of stable and robust operating systems and libraries continues to be a limiting issue. This workshop we will consider current mathematical software development efforts and their use in applications to provide a picture of how mathematical software developers are coping with these sometimes-competing forces.


Participation

Participation in the workshop is open to all with an interest in the subject of the workshop, subject only to space limitations. It is necessary that you register in advance, however (see below). Those interested in making a presentation at the workshop should contact Ron Boisvert as soon as possible.


Program

A final program with links to presentation slides is available.

The following persons have committed to giving presentations at the workshop.

Michael Donahue, NIST
Tony Drummond, Lawrence Berkeley National Labs
Wayne Enright, University of Toronto (WG 2.5)
Brian Ford, NAG, Ltd. (WG 2.5)
Ian Gladwell, Southern Methodist University (WG 2.5)
Stephen Langer, NIST
Bruce Miller, NIST
William Mitchell, NIST
Mo Mu, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (WG 2.5)
Roldan Pozo, NIST
G.W. (Pete) Stewart, University of Maryland
Abdou Youssef, George Washington University

Others who may wish to make a presentation are urged to contact the organizers (see below).


Location

The workshop will be held at the Cafritz Conference Center located in Room 307 of the Marvin Center on the campus of at The George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, DC. (The Marvin Center is located at 800 21st St. NW, between H and I St.) GWU is located in central Washington, less than one mile west of the White House (see map).


Lodging

Two options for lodging are available.

  • Dormitory Rooms provided by the George Washington University conference housing program at a rate of $70 per room per night (two people may stay in a room). Those selecting this option will pay for their lodging as part of the meeting registration. Those wishing dormatory accommodations must register by May 9, 2004. Note: After registration, please send email to boisvert@nist.gov providing the following information: (a) arrival date, (b) number of nights, and (c) names and ages of persons staying in your room. Check-in time for dorm rooms is between 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm at the Lafayette Hall Office.
  • Hotel Rooms have been set aside for workshop participants at the The George Washington University Inn. The hotel is approximately four blocks from the Marvin Center. You must contact the hotel directly to reserve one of these rooms; cite "IFIP 2.5" when reserving to obtain the workshop rate of $150 per day per room (plus 14.5% tax). These rooms will be held only until April 30, 2004.


Travel

Documentation requirements for visitors from outside the US are in transition. Visitors from some countries not previously requiring visas will soon be required to have machine-readable passports. While this rule was originally planned to take effect on October 2003, its implementation has been deferred until October 2004. For details see information provided by the US State Department.

Washington is served by three airports:

Airport Distance from GWU Web page
Dulles International Airport (IAD) 27 miles Link
Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI) 33 miles Link
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) 5 miles Link

Ground transportation options for getting from airports to downtown Washington include taxis (all airports, but expensive from Dulles and BWI), shuttle vans (Dulles and BWI), Metro (Reagan National), and rail (BWI). Details are provided on the airport web pages.


Registration

We ask attendees to register in advance so that we can plan for the meeting. Attendance will be limited to 40 persons. An online registration form is available. There will be a registration fee of $105 per attendee to defray the cost of facilities for the meeting; payment is by credit card. Those wishing dormitory accommodations must indicate this on the registration form and pay in advance; see information about housing above.


WG 2.5
Business
Meeting

The IFIP Working Group 2.5 will hold its annual business meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 1-2, 2004. (The meeting should start at about 8:30 am on Tuesday and last until noon on Wednesday.) This meeting is open to working group members, affiliates, and guests. The meeting will be held in Room 307 of the Marvin Center (see above). A tentative agenda is available.


WG 2.5
Social
Program

An excursion is being planned for the afternoon of Wednesday, June 2. Current plans include a bus ride to Annapolis (Maryland), a walking tour of historical sights, a boat ride on the Chesapeake Bay, and dinner at a local crab house (with a full-service menu). This will be open to WG 2.5 members, workshop attendees, and accompanying persons. There will be a separate fee for the excursion (currently estimated at about $120 per person) which will be payable on site by cash or check. The bus will depart from the Marvin Center promptly at 1:00 pm.

A formal program for accompanying persons has not been planned for this meeting. It is suggested that accompanying persons meet on Tuesday morning (June 1) at 8:30 am at the meeting location to get together and plan joint outings. Suggested possibilities in Washington include: Smithsonian Institution (museums and art galleries), monuments and memorials, Hollocaust Memorial Museum, Textile Museum, Washington National Cathedral, Mount Vernon.


Organization

The workshop organizers are Ron Boisvert of NIST and Abdou Youssef of the George Wasington University. Please contact them directly if you have further questions regarding the workshop.

The workshop is sponsored by


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This page's URL is http://math.nist.gov/workshops/wg25-2004/.
Page created : 26 January 2004. Last update : 16 June 2004 by RFB.