February 2008 Meeting

Topic:

Memory Allocation: Either Love It or Hate It. (Or Just Think It's OK.)

Speaker:

Andrei Alexandrescu

When:

Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Presentation @ 7:00pm

Where:

Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, Washington 98052
Building 41 (Building 41 is at the corner of NE 31st and 156th Ave NE)
[ Map | Microsoft Campus Map ]

Description:

Memory allocation is a problem so wicked, many people think it's either solved or unsolvable. This talk goes through the gory details of memory allocation; what the classic designs are; how special handcrafted allocators may improve (or degrade) the bottom line performance of your application; how to write a policy-based allocator with a modular design that beats a monolithic handcrafted one; and how the advent of manycores influences allocator designs. Ninety leak-free minutes.

About the Speaker:

Andrei Alexandrescu has achieved the rare feat of becoming an authority in both industry and research circles. He almost single-handedly revolutionized and reinvented C++ programming with his seminal book "Modern C++ Design." Andrei's other publications include the award-winning "C++ Coding Standards" book (as a coauthor), four peer-reviewed academic papers, and dozens of articles in top trade journals, either under the byline of his Generic<Programming>  column, or as a featured author.

After having worked in fields as varied as banking, databases, and Internet applications, Andrei is focusing on graph-based statistical modeling for natural language processing (NLP), field rife with huge data sets, computationally-intensive algorithms, and massively parallel execution. His vast expertise, presence, and humor make Andrei a sought-after speaker at technical conferences.

Andrei holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from University "Politehnica" Bucharest and an MS in Computer Science from University of Washington, where he is also a graduating PhD in Summer 2008. (N.B. He will soon be looking for a job.) His web site is http://erdani.org/.