LAMPSON PRESENTS SCS DISTINGUISHED LECTURE...Butler Lampson, Architect at Microsoft Research and Adjunct Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, MIT, examines "Computer Security in the Real World" on Thursday, November 13 at 4:00 pm in Wean 7500. Distinguished donuts at 3:45 pm.

ACM PROGRAMMING CONTEST...This past weekend, Carnegie Mellon participated in the East Central Regional competition of the ACM International Programming Contest at the University of Notre Dame. Notes Mark Stehlik, "this is one of the most competitive regionals as there are... typically 75 teams vying for 2-3 slots to advance to the international finals." The team of Yih-Chun Hu (grad), Sean Cier (senior), and Dan Rosenberry (sophomore) were one of 6 teams, out of 87 competitors, that correctly solve all 7 problems. Unfortunately, their total points (the sum of the times to solve those problems) placed them in 5th place overall, one place away from advancing to the International Finals! Our other team of Brian Singer (grad), Steven Sprang (senior), and Larry Greenfield (soph) correctly solved 5 of the 7 problems and finished 11th. A great showing by all 6 team members! A round of applause to all...

IN DEFENSE...
**BARRY BRUMITT looks at "A Mission Planning System for Multiple Mobile Robots in Unknown, Unstructured, and Changing Environments" at his robotics defense on Friday, November 14 at 10:00 am in FRC 100. His committee includes: Tony Stentz (Chair), Red Whittaker, Michael Erdmann, and Raja Chatila (LAAS-CNRS, France).

SOUP AND SUBSTANCE...Peter Lee will explore "Race Car Dynamics" at the next Soup and Substance program on Wednesday, November 12 at 12:30 pm in the Peter/McKenna Room, University Center. These programs afford members of the campus community the opportunity to hear lecturers discuss topic of "personal" interest. Student Affairs provides the soup, the speaker provides the substance!

SCS INVITED TALKS...
Dave Touretzky recently participated in a debate with John Frohnmayer, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, on "The Internet and the First Amendment". The debate, part of the Behrend Speaker Series, was held at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. Although both speakers opposed the Communications Decency Act, Touretzky argued that constraints on speech are common in our society, and that the Internet, by challenging those constraints, would produce pressure for new ones.

WE'LL BE WATCHING YOU...VSAM, the Video Surveillance and Monitoring Workshop, will be held November 12-13 on campus. The VSAM project is "developing automated video understanding technology for use in future urban and battlefield surveillance applications, where human visual monitoring is too costly, too dangerous, or otherwise impractical." New image understanding technologies will "enable a single human operator to monitor activities over a large, complex area using a distributed network of video sensors", with applications as varied as building and parking lot security to monitoring and restricted access areas in warehouses and airports. The 2-day workshop, hosted by the Robotics Institute, includes technical presentations and live demonstrations. For information, contact carolyn@cs.cmu.edu.

EMIGRATION CONTINUES...Satya helps you with "Jobs: Marketing Yourself" at the next Emigration Seminar on Friday, November 14 at 1:00-3:00 pm, Wean 5409.

HOT OFF THE PRESS..."Learning to Learn", Sebatian Thrun and Lorien Pratt, editors, has just been released by Kluwer Academic Publishers. "Learning to Learn provides a survey of some of the most exciting new research approaches, written by leading researchers in the field. Its objective is to investigate the utility and feasibility of computer programs that can learn how to learn, both from a practical and a theoretical point of view." Organized into 4 parts, the book includes contributions by our own Sebastian Thrun, Rich Caruana, and Joseph O'Sullivan. Check www.cs.cmu.edu/~thrun/papers/thrun.book3.html for more details.

CAREER PROGRAMS...
**HEWLETT-PACKARD will host a two-part information program on Tuesday evening, November 11. Bill Jones, HP's Microprocessor Technology Lab, will discuss "Microprocessor Design at Hewlett-Packard" at 5:30 pm in Wean 5409. His presentation will be followed by an HP Information Session (for all levels of students) at 6:30 pm, also in Wean 5409. Pizza and beverages will be served.
**NORMAN SONDHEIMER, Manager, Information Technology Laboratory, General Electric Corporate Research and Development (GE CRD) will discuss "Information Technology and Growth Strategies at the World's Most Valuable Company" at noon on Wednesday, November 12 in Wean 4625. Pizza provided! Dr. Sondheimer is also available for appointments on November 12/13 with interested PhD candidates. Contact copetas@cs to schedule a meeting time.
**CHRYSLER INFORMATION SYSTEMS will host an information session (and pizza) at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, November 11 in Wean 7500. For additional information on these programs, see the SCS Career Center, off the SCS Home Page.

SLEEPING BAGGERS...arrive this coming weekend, November 15-17. They will experience "campus life" and have opportunities to partake in information sessions and classes while on campus Sunday and Monday. Watch for them :-)

TURKEY ALERT...The University's Thanksgiving Day Observance is scheduled for Thursday and Friday, November 27-28. All university offices will be closed. Classes and normal business hours will resume Monday, December 1.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4
**AI SEMINAR: Raymond Mooney, University of Texas at Austin, "Relational Learning for Natural Language Parsing and Information Extraction", 3:30 pm, Wean 5409.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5
**HCI SEMINAR: Marc Brown, Ariba Technologies, "Interactive Cartoons of Computer Programs", 3:30 pm, Wean 5409.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6
**SDI SEMINAR: Yui-wah Lee, "Operation-based Update Propagation in a Mobile File System", Noon, Wean 8220.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7

**ROBOTICS SEMINAR: Raja Chatila, LAAS-CNRS, National Center for Scientific Research, Toulouse, "Autonomous Long Range Navigation for Planetary Rovers", 4:00 pm, Adamson Wing.
**THEORY SEMINAR: Michael Bender, Harvard, "The Power of a Pebble: Exploring and Mapping DIrected Graphs", 3:30 pm, Wean 7220.
**COMPUTER SYSTEMS SEMINAR: Paul Stolorz, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mellon Institute, 3rd Floor Conference Room, 4:00 pm.

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