Distinguished Lecture Series 2008-2009: M. Brian Blake

Service-Oriented Computing: Emerging Approaches for Web-Based Software Engineering
M. Brian Blake, Georgetown University

Abstract

Emerging technologies facilitate an environment where web-based software or web services have well-defined, open interfaces and are discoverable across the Internet. Service-oriented computing is an emerging approach to software engineering that suggests that new specialized business processes can be created, on-demand, simply by integrating the services provided by others. One might suggest that this is a virtual playground for software engineering researchers who focus on web-based software. However, in the real world, software developers tend to create applications that do not conform to consistent developmental practices even if they do use universal interface representations (e.g. the eXtensible Markup Language). Our research utilizes semantic approaches, enhanced syntactical methods, and contextual information to automate the integration of software services that are developed randomly from a wide array of diverse sources. In a sense, we attempt to tame web services from the wild. This talk discusses our lines of research and subsequent contributions in the areas of service discovery, composition, and evaluation. The talk will introduce the emerging concept of service mashup.

Biography:

M. Brian Blake is currently an Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Computer Science at Georgetown University. Starting July 2009, Dr. Blake will be Full Professor of Computer Science and Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives in the College of Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Blake conducts applied research in the development of automated approaches for the sharing of information and capabilities across organizational boundaries, sometimes referred to as enterprise integration. With respect to this area of interest, his investigations cover the spectrum of software engineering: design, specification, proof of correctness, implementation/experimentation, performance evaluation, and application. He has published over 85 journal articles and refereed conference papers in the areas of service-oriented computing, intelligent agents and workflow, enterprise systems integration, component-based software engineering, distributed data management, and software engineering education. Over the past 8 years, his research lab has been awarded over $5.5 million in sponsored research from the National Science Foundation, DARPA, Federal Aviation Administration, the MITRE Corporation, Air Force Research Lab, SAIC, and the National Institute of Health. Dr. Blake received a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and PhD in Information and Software Engineering from George Mason University. More information about Dr. Blake can be found at http://www.cs.georgetown.edu/~blakeb/