Add to EJ Playlist  Google Tech Talk May 17, 2013 (more info below) Presented by Vladimir Bulatov. ABSTRACT We discuss technical challenges of creation of 3D printable models and what Shapeways team is doing to help developers and regular users to create unique and customizable 3D pieces. In particular we will pay attention to use of AbBab3D - open source software for 3D voxel based modeling library developed by Shapeways. About the Speaker: Vladimir Bulatov, PhD. Prior of joining Shapeways in 2012 as 3D graphics research scientist Vladimir has been doing academic research in theoretical physics at St. Petersburg University and Imperial College and developing software for non visual access to scientific information at ViewPlus Technologies. He also runs his own business of making mathematically inspired sculptures and jewelry.

Add to EJ Playlist  Google Tech Talk May 31, 2013 (more info below) ABSTRACT With the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth, it is critical that we increase the capacity of optical networks. Coherent systems are now able to compensate for linear impairments such as CD and PMD. However, fiber nonlinearity limits the maximum power that systems can operate at; higher optical signal-to-noise ratios (OSNR) cannot be achieved by increasing the power. The capacity of optical links can be significantly increased by fiber nonlinearity compensation. The majority of recent nonlinearity compensation research has focused on using digital techniques such as backpropagation (BP). The computational power required for BP has so far prohibited it from being implemented using real-time digital signal processing (DSP). Alternatively, optical techniques can also be used to improve the nonlinearity-li mited performance of optical systems. For example optical phase conjugation (OPC) can be performed near the mid-point of the link so the fiber nonlinearity products generated in the second half of the link mitigate the fiber nonlinearity products generated in the first half. There have also been end-link optical techniques proposed. Optical techniques have the advantage of being more scalable to multi-wavelengt h systems but require modifications to the external plant. In this presentation, an overview of both digital and optical nonlinearity compensation will be presented. The advantages and limitations of each method will be discussed for the different optical network topologies, including point-to-point links, mesh optical networks and future super-channel applications. SPEAKER INFO Liang Bangyuan Du was born in Shenyang, China in 1985. He received the B.Eng. (with first class Hons.) and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and computer systems engineering from Monash University, Melbourne, Vic., Australia, in 2007 and 2012, respectively. His research interests include fiber nonlinearity mitigation in long-haul systems, advanced modulation formats and multi-carrier transmission, including orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). He is currently working at Monash University as a Research Fellow. Dr. Du received Corning Outstanding Student Paper Award and the Optical Fiber Communication Conference in 2011 for his work on cross-phase modulation compensation. In 2012, he was awarded the Best Student Paper Award in the Transmission Systems subcommittee at the OptoElectronics and communications conference for work involving mid-span spectral inversion for optical OFDM. He has authored or co-authored over 50 journal and conference papers, including four postdeadlines.

Add to EJ Playlist  Google Tech Talk May 28, 2013 (more info below) ABSTRACT John O'Duinn, Director of Release Engineering at Mozilla kicked off ICSE 2013 with his keynote - Release Engineering as a Force Multiplier. The build and release process used to be a pain point at Mozilla, but now makes the company and community more productive as a whole. John will describe details on how the team added support for concurrent development, rethought continuous integration and increased capacity by moving to a hybrid-cloud build infrastructure. These changes improved several aspects of the business, including switching to a rapid release model and reducing turnaround time on a release from weeks to hours. As a result, Mozilla improved its abilities against much bigger and better funded competitors in the marketplace while also allowing them to enter new markets and help ensure its long-term success. John O'Duinn is the Director of Release Engineering at the Mozilla Corporation. This Google tech talk was hosted by Boris Debic.

Add to EJ Playlist  Google Tech Talk May 10, 2013 (more info below) Presented by Wayne M. Getz, Richard M. Salter, Nick Sippl-Swezey ABSTRACT Current graphically-dri ven coding platforms for building computational models are either confined to a restricted selection of in-house elements or have a flat structure that facilitates the formulation of either dynamical systems models or individual-base d, event-oriented (agent) models, but not both. NOVA is a hierarchically structured, modularized platform with a graphics-based IDE. Nova models are constructed using graphical components that are subsequently captured and converted to a JavaScript extension called NovaScript that seamlessly merges dynamic-system and agent based modeling paradigms. It is simple enough to be used in the K-12 classroom to meet the Next Generation Science Standards in computational thinking, as described in A Framework for K-12 Science Education. It is also powerful enough to build full scale computational models for research in the environmental and human sciences fields. Nova features include: • Modularity and open-ended scalability with hierarchical levels that can be independently run, tested,evaluate d and intertwined. Such levels may be reused in multiple models. • Wrapping of any code required for model implementation into Nova code chips, which are portable and reusable components of the IDE. • Platform extension through the use of plugins. • Proliferation and movement of agents over real landscapes • Interfacing the platform with other platforms to take advantage of existing tool boxes (e.g. geographic information systems, R statistical packages). Since models can be depicted as a graphical set of wiring diagrams at each hierarchical level of the formulation, recyclable modules and code chips can be easily snapped in and out of the model, allowing the platform to facilitate the development of communities of applied computational scientists that have rudimentary coding skills, and enabling them to communicate the structure of very complex models, build upon common experiences, assemble very large models rapidly and accurately with considerable confidence in their voracity to address the most challenging societal problems of today: poverty, disease, global change.

Add to EJ Playlist  Google Tech Talk March 19, 2013 (more info below) Presented by Stephen Devries, M.D. ABSTRACT New scientific advances have revealed the remarkable potency of simple strategies for optimizing our health. This talk will highlight surprising, yet highly practical nutritional and mind/body interventions that can make an enormous difference in maintaining wellness. When further steps are needed, a path to balanced medicine will be discussed-combi ning the best of both natural approaches and conventional medicine. Speaker Info: Stephen Devries, M.D is a preventive cardiologist and Executive Director of the Gaples Institute for Integrative Cardiology, a nonprofit organization that promotes natural approaches to heart health. He is also an Associate Professor at Northwestern University. Dr. Devries has had unique training, including a Fellowship in Integrative Medicine with Dr. Andrew Weil at the University of Arizona. He previously wrote the weekly Chicago Sun-Times column, "Heart Beat"and authored the Time/Warner book, "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Cholesterol." Dr. Devries has been voted by his peers many years over as one of the "Best Doctors in America" and lectures internationally on integrative approaches to prevention of heart disease.

Add to EJ Playlist  Google Tech Talk March 15, 2013 (more info below) Presented by Joseph Kim, President, Genesis International College. ABSTRACT Japan has some of the oldest and most respected universities in the world. However, higher education in Japan is only for the privileged and is inaccessible to the majority of high school graduates. Genesis International College of Osaka, Japan (www.genesiscol lege.jp) is a non-profit startup English-languag e college scheduled to launch in 2015 that is aimed at the working class poor of Japan. After giving an overview of Japan's economy and educational system, Joseph Kim will discuss innovation/disr uption in higher education and how Genesis College hopes to reach the 15+ million people in the working class poor in Japan through a globalized English-languag e curriculum. About the Speaker: Joseph Kim is the founding president of Genesis International College. He brings to Genesis College a unique blend of leadership in academics, non-profit organizations, and church ministry. Previously, he was the Executive Vice-President of CBI Japan in Nagoya, Japan. He has taught philosophy and business ethics for Hope International University, Arizona State University, and the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has also taught public speaking and organizational strategy at キリスト聖書神学校 in Nagoya. Although his academic research is primarily in philosophy, the majority of his writing is now focused on leadership, organizational strategy, and effective communication. He is the author of Reformed Epistemology and the Problem of Religious Diversity, a book at the intersection of epistemology and the philosophy of religion. He is currently working on his newest book, Personal Strategy: a Competitive Life, a book which is focused on the personal strategic choices a young person faces when deciding upon their future. He has been a keynote speaker or seminar leader, mostly on the topic of leadership, for more than 30 international organizations such as Nagoya University of Foreign Studies (Japan), Handong Global University (South Korea), Torch Trinity Graduate School (South Korea), EMA Nairobi (Kenya), Midwest University, Asia Center (Thailand), Gracepoint Hsinchu (Taiwan), Covenant Seminary (USA), and JAMA Leadership Conferences (USA). He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School (GMP) and Arizona State University where he received his Ph.D. in Philosophy.

Add to EJ Playlist  Google Tech Talk April 30, 2013 (more info below) Presented by: Gully Burns ABSTRACT Not all information is created equal. Accurate, innovative scientific knowledge generally has an enormous impact on humanity. It is the source of our ability to make predictions about our environment. It is the source of new technology (with all its attendent consequences, both positive and negative). It is also a continuous source of wonder and fascination. In general, the value and power of scientific knowledge is not reflected in the scale and structure of the information infrastructure used to house, store and share this knowledge. Many scientists use spreadsheets as the most sophisticated data management tool and only publish their data as PDF files in the literature. In this high-level talk, we describe a powerful, new knowledge engineering framework for describing scientific observations within a broader strategic model of the scientific process. We describe general open-source tools for scientists to model and manage their data in an attempt to accelerate discovery. Using examples focussed on the high-value challenge problem: finding a cure for Parkinson's Disease, we present a high-level strategic approach that is both in-keeping with Google's vision and values and could also provide a viable new research that would benefit from Google's massively scalable technology. Ultimately, we present an informatics research initiative for the 21st century: 'Building a Breakthrough Machine". Speaker Info Gully Burns develops pragmatic biomedical knowledge engineering systems for scientists that (a) provide directly useful functionality in their everyday use and (b) is based on innovative, cutting edge computer science that subtlely transforms our ability to use knowledge. He was originally trained as a physicist at Imperial College in London before switching to do a Ph.D. in neuroscience at Oxford. He came to work at USC in 1997, developing the 'NeuroScholar' project in Larry Swanson's lab before joining the Information Sciences Institute in 2006. He is now works as project leader in ISI's Information Integration Group, as well as a Research Assistant Professor of neurobiology at USC's College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. He maintains a personal blog called 'Ars-Veritatis, the art of truth', and is very interested in seeing how his research in developing systems for scientists could translate to helping and supporting understanding and our use of knowledge in everyday life.

Add to EJ Playlist  How Google Impacts Global Education: Introducing the Google API usages within the computer adaptive formative assessment (more info below) Google Tech Talk April 30, 2013 Presented by Jaehwa Choi ABSTRACT The purpose of this presentation is introducing the Google APIs applications within the Computer Adaptive Formative AssessmentTM (CAFATM; Choi, Kim, & Yoon, 2012). CAFATM is a technology-base d educational assessment and learning system focused on a formative assessment process. This system provides individually tailored diagnostics, feedback, and learning progress information to students, educators, parents, policy makers, and members of the community. This web-based formative assessment system integrates 1) various educational practices (e.g., standards-based curriculum, classroom instruction, and accountability system), 2) learning and cognitive theoretical frameworks (e.g., Cognitive Knowledge Maps), and 3) advanced psychometric models (e.g., Item Response Theory Models, Computer Adaptive Assessments, Diagnostic Assessment Models, Formative Assessment Models, Auto Item Generation Modules, and Multi-level Longitudinal Assessment Models). This presentation illustrates how the Google APIs (e.g., Android, Google Translation, Google Search, YouTube, Google Chart, and Google Image, etc.) have been utilized for various components inside of the CAFA TM system. A math learning application of the CAFA TM system, http://eMathTes t.com which provides free computer adaptive math worksheets to K-12 students, will also be introduced to demonstrate the broad and practical impacts of the Google APIs to the global math education. Speaker Info: Jaehwa Choi is Associate Professor of educational research methods in the Department of Educational Leadership at The George Washington University. His research interests include structural equation modeling, latent growth models, Markov chain Monte Carlo estimation methods for latent variable models, and formative assessment system applications. He is the chief inventor of Computer Adaptive Formative AssessmentTM (CAFATM; www.eMathTest.c om/CAFA) that is the core engine of a web based mathematics learning system, www.eMathTest.c om.

Add to EJ Playlist  Google Tech Talk April 12, 2013 (more info below) Presented by Randy McIntosh ABSTRACT The Virtual Brain (TVB, thevirtualbrain .org) is an international project that uses real neuroimaging data to construct a simulation of the human brain. Anatomical data setup the conduit for communication between different brain regions. The dynamics for each region are generated from a library of nonlinear models, and produce large-scale activity patterns that can be compared directly to empirical functional data, such EEG/MEG or functional MRI. The talk will present the core of the platform and its applications to understanding the structure-funct ion interplay that forms the basis of cognitive architectures. TVB's use of real data is also at the heart of a larger social neuroscience initiative, wherein small groups of people interact with TVB through wireless EEG headsets, modifying an immersive audiovisual environment that mimics a dream -- My Virtual Dream. The goal is to make use of individual brain signals to augment the group experience through TVB. The two avenues of development for TVB will inform neurally-inspir ed computing architectures and the evolution of interactive devices that can use a person's physiology to redesign their experience. Speaker Info: Randy McIntosh, PhD. Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Director, Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Centre

Add to EJ Playlist  http://g.co/gta c2013 Slides: http://goo.gl/8 qqHA Claudio Criscione, Google Cross site scripting, or XSS, is the modern-day equivalent of the middle-ages black plague in the web application world: it's widespread, it's bad and there are little or no technical ways to detect it until it's too late. DOM XSS is a particularly nasty variant of those, as it requires a real browser or equivalent to be detected: a difficult problem with little automated solution available. We needed powerful, self-driving tools to identify DOM XSS early in the development lifecycle, usable by engineers outside of the security team: all we wanted was a product which could scan our huge, fast moving, highly complex and arcane corpus of applications... and of course, we found none. So we built our own: a web application scanner targeting DOM XSS designed on top of standard Google technologies. It runs in App Engine and leverages the powerful Chrome browser and some hundreds of CPUs as a security scanning platform. It is also a nice citizen of the testing arsenal at Google: it lives inside our testing infrastructure, instead of being the instrument of the security team. In this talk we outline our novel approach, the challenges we faced in scaling our system to Google size and the ideas behind our detection and crawling models on JavaScript intensive applications.

Add to EJ Playlist  http://g.co/gta c2013 Slides: http://goo.gl/F PVd8 Kostya Serebryany, Google AddressSanitize r (ASan) is a tool that finds buffer overflows (in stack, heap and globals) and use-after-free bugs in C/C++ programs. ThreadSanitizer (TSan) finds data races in C/C++ and Go programs. MemorySanitizer (MSan) is a work-in-progres s tool that finds uses of uninitialized memory (C++). These tools are based on compiler instrumentation (LLVM and GCC), which makes them very fast (e.g. ASan incurs just 2x slowdown). We will share our experience in huge scale testing using these tools.

Add to EJ Playlist  http://g.co/gta c2013 Slides: http://goo.gl/p PQ1u Katerina Goseva-Popstoja nova, West Virginia University Software product lines exhibit high degree of commonality among the systems in the product line and a well specified number of possible variations. Based on data extracted from two case studies - a medium size industrial product line and a large, evolving open source product line - we explored empirically if the systematic reuse improves the quality and supports successful prediction of potential future faults from previously experienced faults, source code metrics, and change metrics. Our research results confirmed, in a software product line setting, the findings of others that faults are more highly correlated to change metrics than to static code metrics. The quality assessment results showed that although older packages (including commonalities) continually changed, they retained low fault densities. Furthermore, the open source product line improved in quality as it evolved through releases. The prediction based on generalized linear regression models accurately ranked the packages according to their post-release faults using the models built on the previous release. The results also revealed that post-release fault predictions benefit from additional product line information.

Add to EJ Playlist  http://g.co/gta c2013 Slides: http://goo.gl/q 9dGd Celal Ziftci, University of California, San Diego Vivek Ramavajjala, Google Continuous build is one of the key infrastructures in Google. When a build fails, it is vital to pinpoint the culprit changelist (CL)/changelist s quickly, so that it can be fixed to get the build back to green. Culprit detection solutions exist for small and medium sized builds, but not for large integration builds. Our culprit finder targets finding the culprit CL for large builds automatically, in a very short time-frame with high success. Based on production usage on multiple projects in the last 9 months, culprit finder provides very promising results. Come see our talk to see how we implemented the culprit finder, how successful it is in production and what it feels and looks like.

Add to EJ Playlist  http://g.co/gta c2013 Slides: http://goo.gl/U G3BN Yvette Nameth & Brendan Dhein, Google Continuous testing is generally about running unit tests and integration tests. But when the data that your server processes is actually the biggest cause of change, how do you ensure that consumers of the data still find it useable and that nothing crashes under the rate of change or a bad change? We'll discuss techniques for continuous data testing with examples from Google Maps.

Add to EJ Playlist  http://g.co/gta c2013 Slides: http://goo.gl/5 QHVY Demo code: https://gist.gi thub.com/klepik ov/5457750 Michael Klepikov, Google In web performance testing, we know pretty well how to analyze a page load. We need to move beyond a page load though: modern apps are highly interactive, and operations tend not to reload the entire page, but rather update it. Different people, myself included, have integrated WebDriver into web performance test harnesses, which helps, but still keeps performance tests separate from the rest of the UI test suite. I propose to build performance testing features right into WebDriver itself, leveraging its recently added Logging API. This makes it possible to collect performance metrics while running regular functional tests, allowing for a much more seamless integration of performance tests into the overall development and test flow. It is also much less disruptive to the custom build/test toolchains that almost every large organization creates. I will demonstrate this with the new-generation ChromeDriver (WebDriver for the Chromium browser).

Add to EJ Playlist  http://g.co/gta c2013 Slides: http://goo.gl/i eunS Valera Zakharov , Google Developing a reliable Android test should be as quick and easy as pulling a shot of espresso. Unfortunately, with existing tools, it may feel more like making a double-shot-car amel-sauce-upsi de-down-single- whip-half-decaf -latte - confusing and rarely consistent. Espresso is a new Android test framework that lets you write concise, beautiful, and reliable UI tests quickly. The core API is small, predictable, and easy to learn - yet it is also open for customization. Espresso tests state their expectations, interactions, and assertions clearly without distracting boilerplate, custom infrastructure, or messy implementation details getting in the way. Tests run optimally fast - leave your waits, syncs, sleeps, and polls behind and let the framework gracefully manipulate and assert on your UI when it is at rest. Start enjoying writing and executing UI tests - try a shot of Espresso.

Add to EJ Playlist  http://g.co/gta c2013 Slides: http://goo.gl/x WZKt Eduardo Bravo, Google Testing native apps in a meaningful, stable and scalable way is a challenge. The G+ have developed efficient solutions to tackle these problems by providing the right infrastructure for each of the complex test scenarios that mobile presents. Our current test infrastructure provides the right tools to both iOS and Android apps to give our development team the confidence that new changes won't break existing clients.

Add to EJ Playlist  http://g.co/gta c2013 Slides: http://goo.gl/I uvKF Jonathan Lipps, Sauce Labs Appium is is a Node.js server that automates native and hybrid mobile applications (both iOS and Android). Appium's philosophy dictates that apps should not be modified in order to be automated, and that you should be able to write your test code in any language or framework. The result is a Selenium WebDriver server that speaks mobile like a native. Appium runs on real devices and emulators and is completely open source, making it a wonderfully friendly way to get started with mobile test automation. In this talk I will outline the principles that inform Appium's design, talk about Appium in the space of other mobile automation frameworks, and introduce the architecture that makes the magic happen. Finally, I'll dig into the code for a simple test of a brand-new mobile app, and demonstrate Appium running this test on iPhone and Android.

Add to EJ Playlist  http://g.co/gta c2013 Slides: http://goo.gl/k pJCL Guang Zhu (朱光) and Adam Momtaz, Google As Android gains popularity in the mobile world, application developers and OEM vendors are exploring ways to perform end-to-end UI driven testing of applications or entire platform. With a brief review of existing UI Automation solutions on Android, this talk introduces the recently released Android UI Automator framework, and continues to give an inside look of the framework, typical use cases and workflows.

Add to EJ Playlist  http://g.co/gta c2013 Slides: http://goo.gl/R ltPp Thomas Knych, Stefan Ramsauer, & Valera Zakharov, Google Are you ready to take the red pill? Mobile has changed the way humans interact with computers. This is great, but as engineers we're faced with an ever growing matrix of environments our code runs on. The days of considering only a handful of browsers and screen resolutions are not coming back. How can engineers cope with the Matrix? We'll cover how Google is fighting this testing problem on workstations, in the cloud and in your head... "I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it."

Add to EJ Playlist  http://g.co/gta c2013 Slides: http://goo.gl/E 1v14 Mark Trostler, Google Testable JavaScript is a process. Whether starting with a blank slate or an already implemented application (or somewhere in-between) being able to test your JavaScript code simply, cleanly, and effectively is a necessary feature. Code that cannot be tested will be rewritten. While JavaScript is unique due to the myriad of environments within which it runs, there are several tried and true 'testable' methodologies from other languages which also hold true for JavaScript. And of course there remain the unique challenges that JavaScript developers must face while writing and testing their code. What patterns make code testable? Which anti-patterns hinder testing? What metrics and common sense guideposts can be used to measure the testability of our code? Once the process of creating testable code has started now what? Join me to break down the process of writing testable JavaScript. We will investigate ideas, patterns, and methodologies that greatly increase the testability, and hence the maintainability , correctness, and longevity of your code. Whether you write client- or server-side JavaScript mastering this process will greatly enhance the quality of your code.

Add to EJ Playlist  http://g.co/gta c2013 Slides: http://goo.gl/2 78b4 Simon Stewart, Facebook Facebook is one of the most popular Android applications there is. In this talk, you'll find what Facebook does to ensure that each release is as good as it can be. We'll cover everything from how we manage our code, through our approaches to testing and all the way out to dogfooding.

Add to EJ Playlist  http://g.co/gta c2013 Slides: http://goo.gl/w b3nm Tao Xie, North Carolina State University This talk presents Pex4Fun (http://www.pex forfun.com/), which leverages automated test generation to underpin automatic grading in an online programming system that can scale to hundreds of thousands of users. It provides a programming-ori ented gaming experience outside of the classroom, training users to learn various programming and software engineering skills, including testing skills such as writing parameterized unit tests. Pex4Fun makes a significant contribution to the known problem of assignment grading, as well as providing a fun learning experience based on interactive gaming. Pex4Fun has been gaining high popularity in the community: since it was released to the public in June 2010, the number of clicks of the "Ask Pex!" button (indicating the attempts made by users to solve games at Pex4Fun) has reached over one million as of early 2013.

Add to EJ Playlist  http://g.co/gta c2013 Slides: http://goo.gl/8 epF0 Minal Mishra, Netflix The boom of mobile and tablet computing has inundated the software industry with application development platforms. Developing consumer applications on computing platforms have their own magical experience for the end users. Consumer facing software companies always attempt to put their best foot forward when they develop an application for these platforms. However, the biggest challenge in application development only begins after companies roll out the first version of the application. Consumers and the software companies want the latest features and functionalities out of development as soon as possible with the highest quality. This leads to constant code churn in every layer of the stack. We, UI automation engineers, build a variety of detection systems to catch application issues sooner than later. In this talk I will share some of our challenges and successes behind one such detection system, that helped find problems outside the application layer but still adversely impacted the user experience.

Add to EJ Playlist  http://g.co/gta c2013 Slides: http://goo.gl/s F7Fm Patrik Höglund, Google Yes, it is possible to automatically test complex, subjective measurements such as video quality! This talk will show how we constructed a continuous, automated end-to-end test of a WebRTC video call. We'll take a look at the toolchain at a high level and what challenges we ran into while constructing it. This is perfect if you want inspiration for how to take your media testing to the next level.

Add to EJ Playlist  http://g.co/gta c2013 Slides: http://goo.gl/6 rA9q Ken Kania, Google From its start as a Windows-only browser, Chrome has expanded to Mac, Linux, ChromeOS, and...

Add to EJ Playlist  http://g.co/gta c2013 Vojta Jina, Google Introduction to Karma - test runner that makes testing JavaScript applications in real browsers frictionless and enjo...

Add to EJ Playlist  http://g.co/gta c2013 Slides: http://goo.gl/7 6Ggf Ari Shamash, Google You built an app. You launched it. You figured you'd get it out there, build up some vol...

Add to EJ Playlist  http://g.co/gta c2013 David Röthlisberger, YouView We'll build a video-capturing image recognition system in 3 minutes, using GStreamer's command-line tools a...

Add to EJ Playlist  http://g.co/gta c2013 Slides: http://goo.gl/9 VY2b James Waldrop, Twitter James will be discussing the tools, process, and philosophy that goes into performanc...