•   When: Friday, November 17, 2023 from 02:00 AM to 03:00 AM
•   Speakers: Stephanie Forrest, Arizona State University
•   Location: Nguyen Engineering Bldg, Conference Room 4201
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Abstract:

Software today is an evolving adaptive system. Although we

think of computer programs as the products of intelligent design, they

also evolve inadvertently through the actions of many individual

programmers, often leading to unanticipated consequences. Similarly,

economic and political incentives produce arms races between

competitors and adversaries, which in turn have shaped the cyber

landscape.  Because software is subject to constraints similar to

those faced by evolving biological systems, we have much to gain by

viewing computing through the lens of biology.  The talk will

highlight research applying the mechanisms of evolution quite directly

to software, including repairing bugs, closing vulnerabilities, and

optimizing GPU codes.  The results have implications for how we think

more generally about engineering complex systems that are subject to

evolutionary pressures and engineering constraints.

Bio:

Stephanie Forrest is Professor of Computer Science at Arizona State

University, where she directs the Biodesign Center for Biocomputation,

Security and Society.  Her interdisciplinary research focuses on the

intersection of biology and computation, including cybersecurity,

software engineering, evolutionary computation, and biological modeling.

Prior to joining ASU in 2017, she was a Distinguished Professor at the

University of New Mexico and served for 5 years as Dept. Chair. She is

a member of the Santa Fe Institute External Faculty, where she has

also served as co-Chair of its Science Board and Interim VP for

Academic Affairs.  She spent 2013-2014 at the U.S. Dept. of State as a

Senior Science Advisor for cyberpolicy.  She was educated at St.

John's College  (B.A.) and the University of Michigan (M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science).

Some of her awards include: The 2023 IEEE Computational Intelligence

Pioneer Award; The 2020 Test of Time Award from the IEEE Security and

Privacy Symposium; The 2019 Most Influential Paper Award from the

International Conference on Software Engineering, the Santa Fe

Institute Stanislaw Ulam Memorial Lectures, the ACM/AAAI Allen Newell

Award , and the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award.  She is a

Fellow of the IEEE and a member of the Computing Research Association Board of Directors.