Coexistence, Collaboration, and Coordination Paradigms in the Presence of Mobility

Catalin Roman ( Washington University in Saint Louis )

Mobile computing is a broad field of study made possible by advances in wireless technology, device miniaturization, and innovative packaging of computing, sensing, and communication resources. This talk is intended as a personal intellectual journey spanning a decade of research activities, which have been shaped by the concern with rapid development of applications designed to operate in the fluid and dynamic settings that characterize mobile and sensor networks. The presence of mobility often leads to fundamental changes in our assumptions about the computing and communication environment and about its relation to the physical world and the user community. This, in turn, can foster a radical reassessment of one's perspective on software system design and deployment. Several paradigm shifts made manifest by considerations having to do with physical and logical mobility will be examined and illustrated by research involving formal models, algorithms, middleware, and protocols. Special emphasis will be placed on problems that entail collaboration and coordination in the mobile setting.