Aaron David Block

Department of Computer Science University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill CB 3175, Sitterson Hall Chapel Hill, NC 27599

Email: block@cs.unc.edu Homepage: http://www.cs.unc.edu/~block Office Phone: (919) 962-1923 Cellular Phone: (919) 452-0942

Research & Career Interests	Multiprocessor/multicore systems, program management, real-time systems, parallel and distributed algorithms, operating systems, teaching, and medical informatics.
Education	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	Ph.D. in Computer Science, August 2008
	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	M.S. in Computer Science, May 2005
	Haverford College	B.S. in Math & Computer Science, May 2002
Graduate School Research	Adaptive Multiprocessor Systems. Developing and analyzing mechanisms for allowing multiprocessor scheduling algorithms for real-time systems to adapt to workload changes. These mechanisms include (but are not limited to): redistributing spare computational capacity in a relatively fair manner; changing the processor share of running tasks with minimal overhead; and using feedback-control loops to adjust system parameters. Currently, these adaptive techniques are being integrated into both the Whisper human motion tracking system and the VEC video-correction system in order to improve their responsiveness to external stimuli.
Fellowships	UNC Computer Science Alumni Fellow, 2007. National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, 2004-2007.
Work Experience	Program Manager---Microsoft. August 2008—Current. Supervisor: Doug Neumann.
	Research Internship—IBM’s Almaden Research Center. Summer 2006. Worked with Interoperable Health Information Infrastructure to develop the Regional Health Information Organizations Directory Service, which is an extension of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) designed to provide a directory of medical applications. Also helped to develop the basics of translating between different medical terminologies. Supervisor: James Kaufman.
	Research Assistant to James H. Anderson in Real-Time Systems. Summer 2002 – Present. Responsibilities include developing original research, presenting this research at international conferences, and assisting in the preparation of various documents, e.g., proposals. Supervisor: James H. Anderson.
	Internship—Microsoft Corporation. Summer 2001. Software design engineer in test. Worked with RTC.NET to develop the packet capture and pump testing application that recorded packets transmitted over the Internet from one RTC.NET application to another and could replay them to construct testing scenarios. Also partook in standard testing duties. Supervisor: Leonidas Rigas.
	Internship—Microsoft Corporation. Summer 2000. Software engineer in test. Worked with NetMeeting to develop a whiteboard testing application that allowed a developer to construct specific testing scenarios using simple scripting tools. Also participated in standard testing duties. Supervisor: Roger Harrison.
Teaching Experience	Instructor—Computer Science 524: Programming Language Concepts. Spring 2007. High-level programming concepts and their realization in specific languages. Topics include data types, scope, control structures, procedural abstraction, classes, concurrent, and run-time implementation. Course webpage at http://www.cs.unc.edu/~block/comp524.
Journal Publications	A. Block, J. Anderson, and U. Devi, “Task Reweighting under Global Scheduling on Multiprocessors,” Real-Time Systems, special issue on the best of Euromicro 2006, Volume 39, Number 1-3, pp.123-167, August 2008
	A. Block, J. Anderson, and G. Bishop, “Fine-Grained Task Reweighting on Multiprocessors,” Journal of Embedded Computing, special issue on multiprocessor real-time scheduling, to appear.
Conference & Workshop Publications	A. Block, B. Brandenburg, J. Anderson, and S. Quint, “Feedback-Controlled Adaptive Multiprocessor Real-Time Systems,” Proceedings of the 20^th Euromicro Conference on Real-Time Systems, Prague, Czech Republic, pp. 23-33, July 2008.
	B. Brandenburg, J. Calandrino, A. Block, H. Leontyev, and J. Anderson, “Real-Time Synchronization on Multiprocessors: To Block or Not to Block to Spin or Not to Spin?” Proceedings of the 14^th IEEE Real-Time and Embedded Technology and Application Symposium, St. Louis, Missouri, pp. 342-353, August 2008.
B. Brandenburg, A. Block, J. Calandrino, U. Devi, H. Leontyev, and J. Anderson, "LITMUS^RT: A Status Report," Proceedings of the 9^th Real-Time Linux Workshop, Linz, Austria, pp. 107-123, November 2007.
A. Block, H. Leontyev, B. Brandenburg, and J. Anderson, “A Flexible Real-Time Locking Protocol for Multiprocessors,” Proceedings of the 13^th IEEE International Conference on Embedded and Real-Time Computing Systems and Applications, Daegu, Korea, pp. 47-57, August 2007.
R. Hamm, S. Knoop, P. Schwarz, A. Block, and W. Davis, “Harmonizing Clinical Terminologies: Driving Interoperability in Healthcare,” Proceedings of the 12^th World Congress on Health (Medical) Informatics, Brisbane, Australia, pp. 660-663, August 2007.
J. Calandrino, H. Leontyev, A. Block, U. Devi, and J. Anderson, “LITMUS^RT: A Testbed for Empirically Comparing Real-Time Multiprocessor Schedulers,” Proceedings of the 27^th IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium, pp. 111-123, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, December 2006.
A. Block and J. Anderson, “Accuracy versus Migration Overhead in Real-Time Multiprocessor Reweighting Algorithms,” Proceedings of the 12^th International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Systems, Minneapolis, Minnesota, pp. 355-364, July 2006.
	A. Block, J. Anderson, and U. Devi, “Task Reweighting under Global Scheduling on Multiprocessors,” Proceedings of the 18^th Euromicro Conference on Real-Time Systems, Dresden, Germany, pp. 128-139, July 2006.
	A. Block, J. Anderson, and G. Bishop, “Fine-Grained Task Reweighting on Multiprocessors,” Proceedings of the 11^th IEEE Conference on Embedded and Real-Time Computing Systems and Applications, Hong Kong, pp. 429-435, August 2005.
	A. Block and J. Anderson, “Task Reweighting Multiprocessors: Efficiency versus Accuracy,” Proceedings of 13^th International Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Real-time Systems, Denver, Colorado, April 2005. (On CD ROM)
	J. Anderson, A. Block, and A. Srinivasan, “Quick-release Fair Scheduling,” Proceedings of the 24^th IEEE Real-time Systems Symposium, Cancun, Mexico, pp. 130-141, December 2003.
Talks	“Adaptive Multiprocessor Real-Time Systems (defense),” University Of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, August 2008.
	“Feedback-Controlled Adaptive Multiprocessor Real-Time Systems,” Proceedings of the 20^th Euromicro Conference on Real-Time Systems, August 2008.
	“Adaptive Multiprocessor Real-Time Systems and Multimedia Applications,” Haverford College, December 2007.
	“Adaptive Multiprocessor/Multicore Real-Time Systems and Multimedia Applications,” IBM Almaden Research Center, August 2006.
“Accuracy versus Migration Overhead in Real-Time Multiprocessor Reweighting Algorithms,” The 12^th International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Systems, July 2006.
	“Task Reweighting under Global Scheduling on Multiprocessors,” The 18^th Euromicro Conference on Real-Time Systems, July 2006.
	“Fine-Grained Task Reweighting on Multiprocessors”, The 11^th IEEE Conference on Embedded and Real-Time Computing Systems and Applications, August 2005.
	“Task Reweighting Multiprocessors: Efficiency versus Accuracy”, International Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Real-time Systems, April 2005.
Honors and Awards	Graduated with honors in computer science from Haverford College.
	Awarded the 2001 Mechling Fencing Award from Haverford College.
	Awarded Varsity Letter in Fencing form Haverford College.
Leadership Activities	UNC-CH Graduate and Student Fellowship Senator (Fall 2004-Spring 2005) representing the Computer Science Department.
	Chairman of the Appropriations Committee for UNC-CH Graduate and Student Fellowship (Fall 2004-Spring 2005).
	Organized Systems Tea at UNC-CH (Spring 2005), in which a weekly guest speaker gives a presentation to the local faculty and students.
	Organized Real-Time Lunch at UNC-CH (Summer 2002-Spring 2004), in which members of UNC-CH’s Real-Time Systems group give presentation to faculty and students.
Academic Activities	Reviewed submissions for: Euromicro Journal of Systems Architecture (JSA), IEEE Transactions on Computers.
References	References available upon request.