Alumni
VITA
Kim Keeton
(BS-CompE/EPP 1991)
Wow
_ how time has flown since I graduated in 1991. I moved
to California for graduate school at the University of
California at Berkeley, where I earned an MS and Ph.D.
in computer science. I worked on a number of computer
systems-related problems, including video server design,
network performance analysis, and network protocol design,
before settling on my dissertation topic of computer architecture
support for database applications.
I
studied the processor and memory system performance of
online transaction processing (think airline reservation
system) and decision support (think end-of-month sales
reports) database workloads on Informix's shared memory
database. Today's processors are designed more for scientific
and technical workloads than for commercial workloads
like databases, so I uncovered many inefficiencies and
proposed ways to address them.
Also,
given the large number of disks in typical database systems,
as well as the trend towards including more processing
and memory on disk drives, I examined whether databases
could take advantage of the parallelism and increased
capabilities to improve their efficiency. The conclusion
was that smarter disks can provide advantages for these
workloads; the biggest challenge is more business-oriented
_ convincing disk manufacturers to expose the disks' resources
to applications and convincing database developers to
restructure their code to take advantage of the new hardware.
The work I did for my dissertation was very interdisciplinary,
so I found myself using many of the skills I developed
through my EPP project courses.
Since
graduating in 1999, I've been working with the Storage
Systems Program at Hewlett-Packard Labs in Palo Alto,
CA. Our group is working on the important problem of how
to make enterprise-scale storage systems easier to manage.
The key challenges that system administrators face are
the huge size and complexity of storage systems (as
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many as thousands
of disks in hundreds of disk arrays), the question of finding
the right configuration for the target workload, and the
task of evolving the system over time to respond to changes
in the workload and disk status. To address these challenges,
we've developed a suite of tools that automate these tasks,
providing better configuration decisions for the storage
system, and tracking and automatically responding to workload
changes. We collaborate often with the Parallel Data Lab
in Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science, so I've
had several opportunities to return to campus.
Life
isn't all work, though. This past year, I married Gene Hern,
who's a physician at the local trauma center. We both enjoy
singing, and participate in a 50-voice community chorus
in Berkeley, where we get to sing a variety of musical styles,
from classical to jazz to rock. By publishing my research
at various conferences, we've had the opportunity to travel
to fun places, both in the US and in Europe.
Second EPP
Washington Study Tour
Eight
EPP Ph.D. students spent an invigorating two days with EPP
research faculty member Alex Farrell and Washing-ton, DC
Office Director Alexandra Carr in the second Washington,
DC Study Tour. Students met with individuals as diverse
as former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich
and NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris. The tour also
included meetings with staff from the US Global Climate
Research Program, the office of Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR),
the US AID Leland Africa (Internet) Initiative, the Pew
Global Climate Change Program, the NSF, and the FCC. Former
Presidential Science Advisor and Director of OSTP Jack Gibbons
participated in a noontime discussion of his work on science
in the US Department of State.
Beyond
making contacts with individuals in technology and policy,
the meetings provided exposure to the "sausage-making"
nature of real-world policy making, and gave the EPP students
a personal look at the varied and often unpredictable career
paths followed by DC insiders. |
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| EPP Project Courses
Project Courses are interdisciplinary
problem-solving projects in which students work as
leaders or members of project teams. Problem areas
are abstracted from local, state, and national situations
and involve the interaction of technology and public
policy, with different projects being chosen each
semester. Oral and written presentations concerning
the results of project studies are prepared.
Fall 1999
The project "Noise Pollution
on the CMU Campus" performed measurements of
sound levels and surveyed campus community's perceptions
of noise. Sound levels weren't found to pose a serious
risk to hearing, but in some cases were high enough
to disrupt sleep and study. Recommendations included
designating a "quiet" computer cluster and
stricter enforcement of existing quiet hours. Faculty
members included Baruch Fischhoff (SDS/EPP) and Ed
Rubin (EPP/MechE). Managers were EPP doctoral students
Patrick Gurian, Jun Long and Neil Strachan.
"Weapons of Mass Destruction:
The potential threat of biological and chemical weapons
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Allegheny County and surrounding areas" explored
how quantitative analysis can be used to shed light
on policy issues and help direct policy choices to
spur activities leading to appropriate preparedness
and education on BC weapon attacks. Faculty members
were V.S. Arunachalam (EPP/MSE/Robotics), Paul Fischbeck
(SDS/EPP) and Henry Piehler (MSE/EPP). EPP doctoral
students John Shultz and Sonia Yeh were the managers.
Spring 2000
The project "Safety and
the Light Truck Craze: Who Wins? Who Loses? Who Cares?"
analyzed the effect of the changing US vehicle fleet
on the health and financial risks to both LTV and
passenger car occupants. It included a study of the
effects of specific vehicle and driver characteristics
on fatalities and severe injuries. And a comparison
of the public perception of safety in a LTV vs. a
passenger car to what accident injury and fatality
statistics tell us about factors that influence vehicle
safety. Finally, the influence of legislation and
marketing on public perception was studied.
Faculty were David Keith
(EPP), Fran McMichael (CEE/EPP) and Allen Robinson
(MechE/EPP). Managers were EPP doctoral students Renyou
Wang, Henry Willis and Felicia Wu. |
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