Prof. Ram and I By Shashi Shekhar (not Sushi Shekhar!) May 6 th, 2006

Good teachers describe, better teachers explain, and the best teachers inspire!

Graduate School- Berkeley (‘85-89) Four years of inspiration –From Summer 1986 IEEE Computer special issue (by Prof. Wah) –To Dec – Graduation! Advice on comparing job offers 1988 – Ph.D. Oral Exam. –Feedback: Thesis opens a new research area –Education on structure of scientific revolutions! –Inspired me to explore new areas

Spatial Data Mining - Example Nest locations Distance to open water Vegetation durabilityWater depth

Implication of Auto-correlation Computational Challenge: Computing determinant of a very large matrix in the Maximum Likelihood Function:

Graduate School- Berkeley (‘85-89) A new family in a new land Great traditions to teach value of human relationships –Garduation parties, post project-review lunches –La Vals, Anchor Steam beer and pizza Inspiration and encouragement to excel –Earn respect of scholars by addressing their questions –Not be afraid of starting a new area –Choose problems, which are important to society, even if not easy to solve!

Evacuation Route Planning - Motivation No coordination among local plans means Traffic congestions on all highways e.g. 60 mile congestion in Texas (2005) Great confusions and chaos "We packed up Morgan City residents to evacuate in the a.m. on the day that Andrew hit coastal Louisiana, but in early afternoon the majority came back home. The traffic was so bad that they couldn't get through Lafayette." Mayor Tim Mott, Morgan City, Louisiana ( ) Florida, Lousiana (Andrew, 1992) ( ( National Weather Services) ( FEMA.gov) I-45 out of Houston Houston (Rita, 2005)

A Real Scenario Nuclear Power Plants in Minnesota Twin Cities

Monticello Emergency Planning Zone Monticello EPZ Subarea Population 2 4,675 5N 3,994 5E 9,645 5S 6,749 5W 2,236 10N E 1,785 10SE 1,390 10S 4,616 10SW 3,408 10W 2,354 10NW 707 Total41,950 Estimate EPZ evacuation time: Summer/Winter (good weather): 3 hours, 30 minutes Winter (adverse weather): 5 hours, 40 minutes Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ) is a 10-mile radius around the plant divided into sub areas. Data source: Minnesota DPS & DHS Web site:

A Real World Testcase Source cities Destination Monticello Power Plant Routes used only by old plan Routes used only by result plan of capacity constrained routing Routes used by both plans Congestion is likely in old plan near evacuation destination due to capacity constraints. Our plan has richer routes near destination to reduce congestion and total evacuation time. Twin Cities Experiment Result Total evacuation time: - Existing Plan: 268 min. - New Plan: 162 min.

Professional Service and Recognitions – Editor, IEEE Trans. On KDE –Prof. Ram inspired us as the founding EIC 2002 – Book – “Spatial Databases: A Tour”, Prentice Hall –Survey paper in 1999 IEEE TKDE spl. issue honoring Prof. Ram 2003 – EIC – Geoinformatica Journal (Springer) –Lesson about major rivers have contributing rivers 2003 – IEEE Fellow –Encouragement, guidance and recommendation 2004 – Mapping Science Committee, –National Research Council (National Academy of Science)

C. S. Faculty, U of Minnesota (1989- …) Recommendation, Guidance –Dec – Joined as an Asst. Prof. –1995 – Tenure, Associate Prof. – Professor –2005 – Distinguished University Professor Fall 2005 –Director, Army High Performance Computing Research Center –Encourage involvement in Minnesota Supercomputing research

Army High Performance Computing Center Nanoscience & Engineering Computational Electromagnetics Enabling Technology And Computational Algorithms Chemical Biological Defense Projectile Target Interaction Leading HPC Research to support Army’s science and tech. goals u Computational methods = Third leg of modern science (w/ theory and experiments) u Bring to life theoretical models of phenomena too complex, costly, hazardous, vast or small for experiments

Prof. Ram, Thank you for the Inspiration, Guidance and Kindness over last two decades! Happy 80 th Birthday!