Distinguished Lecture Series
Andrew Odlyzko
University of Minnesota
Monday, October 5, 2009
ABSTRACT:
Technology is opening up exciting new opportunities in networking, especially through the convergence of wireline and wireless communications. But technology is just one element, and, as in the past, and perhaps more than in the past, economics and regulation will have major influences on what is deployed, and how it is used. A survey of the past and present, and speculations about the future, will present some of the key constraints on technological dreams, including the many false dogmas that are hobbling progress.
BIOGRAPHY:
Andrew Odlyzko is a Professor in the School of Mathematics at the University of Minnesota. He had a long career in research and research management at Bell Labs and AT&T Labs, and then built an interdisciplinary research center and handled other positions in research administration jobs in Minnesota. He has written over 150 technical papers in computational complexity, cryptography, number theory, combinatorics, coding theory, analysis, probability theory, and related fields. In recent years he has also been working in electronic commerce, economics of data networks, and economic history, especially on diffusion of technological innovation. Among his current projects is the MINTS effort, which monitors trends in Internet traffic. More information, including papers and presentation decks, is available on his web site, http://www.dtc.umn.edu/~odlyzko/.