OBJECT-ORIENTED COMPUTING IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES

OBJECT-ORIENTED COMPUTING IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES

[Georg Tuparev]

Second announcement

"OBJECT-ORIENTED COMPUTING IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES"

A Multi-disciplinary Conference on the Next Generation of Scientific Computing  
Environments

to be held at the
European Molecular Biology Laboratory
Heidelberg, Germany
				
on
					
22-25 November, 1994
				
				
Purpose:

To bring together scientists from many different fields involved or interested  
in Object-Oriented Computing.


Motivation:

Most of the scientific computing being done all over the world today uses the  
classic resources made available during the heyday of mainframe computers and  
the introduction of relatively simple graphical user interfaces (X11).   
However, the amount of data being processed has exploded over the past decade,  
straining the capabilities of standard methods and program packages.  The  
natural scientist can no longer flexibly analyze the available data because  
only specialized solutions to particular problems are available - she/he spends  
much of her/his time worrying about how to get to a particular goal rather than  
what it means to have attained it.

The new generations of object-oriented (OO) computer languages and systems  
promise to free the users from much of this archaic computational burden but  
are being developed mainly with commercial applications in mind.  Now that the  
vendors of OO technology are beginning to cooperate (e.g.  OpenStep*, CORBA)  
and/or are offering the same systems on many hardware platforms (e.g.  NEXSTEP*  
on Intel PC's and Sun and HP workstations), the time has come to focus on what  
OUR needs are and how they might be implemented in the near future on available  
systems.  An exchange of information with the academic and commercial  
developers of OO systems needed.  Because theoretical discussions and academic  
exercises are unlikely to bear fruits on timescales of interest to the active  
researcher, this conference has as its underlying goal the discussion and  
formulation of concrete measures which might enable us to begin using the  
fruits of OO software-technology soon.

Finally, this conference is intended to provide a forum in which current OOP  
projects - both scientific and commercial -- can be displayed, discussed, and  
compared in the hopes that we might all profit from the experience of others.

*) "NEXTSTEP" and "OpenStep" are registered trademarks of NeXT Inc. 

Conference Format:

In order to promote discussion, each day will start with a few invited talks  
(45min) and a very small number of contributed talks (15min), followed by panel  
discussions.  The afternoons will be filled with time for working groups,  
seminars, poster sessions, demonstrations, and a vendor fair.


Invited Talks (preliminary):

Astrophysics
- Allen Farris: "Analyzing and Managing Astrophysical Data - Problems  and  
Opportunities from an Object-Oriented Perspective" (Space Telescope Science  
Institute,Baltimore, MD)

High Energy Physics
- Paul Kunz:  (SLAC,Stanford, CA)

Molecular Biology
-TBA M.Nilges (EMBL)	

Geology
- TBA, D. Coyle (Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik, Heidelberg)

Ecology
-TBA, University of London

Object-Oriented Programming and Systems
- Simson L. Garfinkel: "The OpenStep Programming Environment"
- Peter. Lipps: "OpenStep and Portable Distributed Objects - Transparent  
distributed object-oriented programming in an open heterogeneous environment."  
NeXT GmbH, Germany
- Wolfgang Drespling: "CORBA: A step towards totally wired applications", Sun  
Microsystems
- F. Hessman: The SciTools project, Universitaet Goettingen

OODB
- TBA

Contributed talks (preliminary)
- Jacques Lemordant "Object-Oriented Visual Programming Systems for Scientific  
Visualization" (ARTEMIS-IMAG, Grenoble, France)
- Konrad Polthier "An Object-Oriented Approach for Mathematical Visualization"  
(Technische Universitaet Berlin, Germany)
- Michael Sharf "Using Design Patterns in Object-Oriented Software  
Engineering", (EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany)
- Martin Schoeckle "An Object Oriented Environment for Modelling and Simulation  
of Large Continuous Systems" (IKE, Universitaet Stuttgart, Germany)
- Joost Backus "Efficient construction of software for data acquisition using  
object oriented NeXTSTEP development tools" (Mushroom Experimental Station, The  
Netherlands)
- Guerino B. Mazzola "The Architecture of the RUBATO Performance Workstation on  
NEXTSTEP" (Institut f r Informatik, MultiMedia Lab. Univ. Z rich, Swiss)

Panel Discussions (preliminary):

- Object-oriented databases (OODB)
- File, data, and object formats and ODD
- Mathematical abstractions
- Visual metaphors in a scientific object environment
- Using objects in a heterogeneous world


Suggested Topics and Working Groups:

- The benefits of OO technologies for science and education
- Visualization of complex objects and mathematical abstractions
- OODB and interactive information systems (e.g. WAIS, WWW)
- Current object-oriented computing environments (e.g. NEXTSTEP, OpenStep,  
SmallTalk-80, ET++)
- OO & parallel computing
- Computer-mediated collaborative environments
 A 3-day case-ctudy croject
	
	
Demonstrations (preliminary):

- The SciTools Project (EMBL & World)
- Data visualization using HOPI (ARTEMIS-IMAG, Grenoble)
- AIPS++ (National Radio Astronomy Observatory, USA)
- GeneQuiz (Michael Scharf, EMBL, Heidelberg)
- NEXTSTEP on Intel, HP, and Sun hardware (NeXT Germany, SunSoft, HP)
- SRSWWW (Thure Etzold, EMBL, Heidelberg)
- SequenceSpace (Michael Scharf, EMBL, Heidelberg)
- Enterprize Object Framework (NeXT)

Sponsors (preliminary):

- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany (Host)

- Hewlett-Packard GmbH, Germany
- NeXT GmbH, Germany
- Sun GmbH, Germany

	
Contact Addresses:

Local:
	
	OO-Conference@embl-heidelberg.de
	
	Georg Tuparev (Tuparev@embl-heidelberg.de, NeXTMail)
	Michael Nilges (Nilges@embl-heidelberg.de, NeXTMail)
	Dinu Gherman (Gherman@embl-heidelberg.de, NeXTMail)
	European Molecular Biology Laboratory
	Meyerhofstr.1, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
	Phone: +49-6221-387528, Fax: +49-6221-387517

Other:

	Frederic V. Hessman (hessman@uni-sw.gwdg.de)
	Universitaets-Sternwarte
	Geismarlandstr. 11, D-37083 Goettingen, Germany
	Phone: +49-551-395052, Fax: +49-551-395043

	Jacques Lemordant (Jacques.Lemordant@imag.fr)
	ARTEMIS-IMAG, BP 53, F-38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
	Phone: +33-76514498, Fax: +33-76638423
	

Deadlines:

	Oct.  15, 1994 - registration (via WWW or e-mail if possible)
	Oct.  20, 1994 - registration fee payment (see below)
	Oct.  30, 1994 - receipt of abstracts
	Dec.  31, 1994 - receipt of papers  for the preceedings (ASCII, RTF,  
LaTeX, 	Framemaker)
	
Fees:
	DM 130,- students; (identification will be required at registration!)
	DM 230,- academic
	Those for commercial vendors are to be negotiated on a personal basis.  
In case 	you are interested to give a presentation of a commercial  
product, please call 	+49 - 6221 - 387528.

These fees are necessary in order to cover printing costs (abstracts, the  
program of the conference, and one copy of the proceedings per participant),  
coffee during the breaks, the travel expenses of invited speakers, and the  
conference dinner.  Payment should be made via Bank transfer to "Conference:  
Object Oriented Programming in the Natural Sciences" on the following account  
(BLZ = "Bankleitzahl", the Bank's ID number; "Konto" = Account number):
	
		Landeszentralbank Heidelberg
		Poststr. 11
		D-69117 Heidelberg
		BLZ   672 00 000
		Konto 672 02 400

Sorry: we don't have the time or the personpower to handle credit cards!


Hotel and other Information:

EMBL is located halfway up the Koenigstuhl "mountain" (525m) above the part of  
Heidelberg called "Rohrbach" (a map of Heidelberg showing the location of EMBL  
and a few hotels will be available soon via WWW and anonymous ftp  
(ftp.embl-heidelberg.de) in the file:
	
	/pub/sci-tools/OO-conference-94/HeidelbergMap.gif.gz
		
Most of the hotels are located in and around the old part of the city but EMBL  
can be easily reached via taxi (about DM 14,-), city bus number 21 (DM 3,-  
one-way), and a special EMBL shuttle will be  running. We will send out more  
details about getting to EMBL in October to all registered participants.  The  
WWW server will be available in mid August.
	
Given the fact that Heidelberg is a major tourist attraction (castle, old  
bridge, university, and the Neckar Valley), one should make hotel reservations  
as soon as possible. For reservation (and other technical) information,  
contact:

		Nelly van der Jagt
		European Molecular Biology Laboratory
		Meyerhofstrasse 1
		D-69117 Heidelberg
		Germany
		Phone: +49 - 6221 - 387361
		Fax:   +49 - 6221 - 387517
		E-mail: Jagt@EMBL-Heidelberg.de (no NeXT mail please!)

Heidelberg can be easily reached via train (ICE express train to and from  
nearby Mannheim) or via bus from Frankfurt International Airport (Lufthansa  
runs a bus service for anyone interested which leaves from the area just  
outside of the baggage-claim exit).
	

WWW Conference server:

We hope to have a WWW Conference registration server running after August 20,  
in which case you won't have to fill out the following:
	

Registration Form:

Please send the following form via e-mail to:

		OO-Conference@embl-heidelberg.de.
	
Those of you without access to internet can send or FAX it to EMBL (see the FAX  
number and address above).
	
There will be very few contributed talks, so indicate if you would object to  
presenting a poster instead.

We will try to have enough Workstations for those wishing to organize  
non-commercial demonstrations.  Commercial vendors should try to organize their  
own hardware.
	
________________________ cut here_______________________________

Name:
Affiliation:
Address:
FAX:
E-Mail:
Student? (Y/N):
Commercial Vendor? (Y/N):
Field (e.g. Biology, OODB):

Poster? (Y/N):
Title of Poster:

Contributed Talk? (Y/N):
Title of Contributed Talk:
Talk -> Poster OK? (Y/N):

I am mostly interested in the following topics:
I would like to participate in a panel discussion on:
I would like to participate in a seminar on:
I would like to participate in a working group on:

Participation in the 3-day case study? (Y/N):
I suggest the case-study topic:

Non-Commercial demonstration? (Y/N):
I will need the following equipment for my demonstration:
I will need the following amount of space for my demonstration:

Vendor fair? (Y/N):
I will need the following equipment for my stand:
I will need the following amount of space for my stand: