Network Computing Guru John Gage to Keynote COFES 2011

By DE Editors

Cyon Research has announced that John Gage, the former chief researcher and vice president of the Science Office for Sun Microsystems,  will give the main keynote address at the 2011 Congress On the Future of Engineering Software (COFES 2011) being held in Scottsdale, AZ, from April 14-17.

Among the first employees of network-centric computer infrastructure systems developer Sun Microsystems, Gage is best known for “Net Day” and for creating the tag-line “The Network is the Computer.” He left the company in 2008 to join Kleiner Perkins as a partner working on green technologies to help combat global warming. Among his current projects is a global initiative to enable all schools to connect to power and communications networks in the most energy-efficient way, and the development of an advanced control system for lighting. He is on the boards of the United Nations Digital Health Initiative, of the Markle Foundation, and of Relief International.

Sponsored by Geomagic, Gage’s keynote will trace the history of computing, from the original visions of Ivan Sutherland’s Sketchpad to “Flying into the Heart of Atoms,” from computer-aided-design to network-aided-design. He will discuss how designers can democratize the power of CAD by making design tools available to all the world’s schools and communities, emphasizing designing for energy and water-efficient objects,  systems, communities and cities.

“COFES assembles the leaders who bring the power of computing to the product design process,” says Gage. “Since Ivan Sutherland first demonstrated his Sketchpad in 1963, we have witnessed the power of computer-aided design in creating a multi-trillion dollar chip and computer industry and have seen the extension of computer-based simulation and design into every industrial field. It is now just beginning to touch new fields: fundamental materials and biological systems. More importantly, the past 50 years have demonstrated the power of CAD to change the intellectual technology of human thought, the very way we see and understand the world.”

For more information, visit the COFES site.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.