Norman H. Cohen

I am a member of the IBM Research team working on event-based applications and the middleware that supports them. My current research focuses on programming models and infrastructure for event-based applications. Since joining IBM Research in 1987, I have worked on formal specifications, optimizing compilers, mobile computing, and context-based computing. I have contributed to:

• the CxS Contextual Aggregator middleware
• the iQueue system for composition of pervasive data
• the WebSphere Everyplace Access Intelligent Notification Service product
• the Mobile Data Synchronization Service
• the data synchronization API of the Mobile Network Computing Reference Specification
• the Gold Rush prototype middleware for mobile transactional access to a data base using Java objects
• the eNetwork Web Express product for mobile web browsing (described in Chapter 8 of the Redbook Mobile Computing: The eNetwork Wireless Solution)
• an experimental optimizing compiler for a Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) architecture
• determining the appropriate definition of C data types for a 64-bit architecture and adapting a C compiler to accommodate various definitions as a user option
• the porting of an operating system to the PowerPC processor
• the TOBEY optimizing compiler back end
• Software Engineering and Design Language (SEDL), an executable specification and design language based on Ada

During the 1980s and 1990s, I was involved with the Ada programming language. I participated in the project that culminated in the revised Ada 95 standard and the ISO working group responsible for maintaining the standard. In 1999 I received a Distinguished Service Award from the ACM Special Interest Group on Ada. I wrote the textbook Ada as a Second Language.

Prior to joining IBM, I worked for SofTech, Inc., from 1983 to 1987 and the research group of Sperry Univac from 1979 to 1983. My work in those positions included programming-language design, formal verification, and software-engineering training.

I received my B.A. in mathematics and computer science from Cornell University in 1975, my M.A. in applied mathematics and computer science from Harvard University in 1977, and my Ph.D. in applied mathematics and computer science from Harvard University in 1980.