John T. Robinson Email and Phone Number

An interesting problem is one where it is not known in advance how (or even if) the problem can be solved (as opposed to engineering problems, although engineering problems often turn out to be interesting for various reasons) - I love working on interesting problems.Previously I have worked on problems related to the design, analysis, testing, and verification of novel computer software and hardware systems. I have a broad background in these fields, with over thirty years experience in areas including database and operating systems, parallel and distributed algorithms and systems, storage hierarchies and systems, buffer and cache management, data visualization, performance analysis, compression technology, and hardware design verification.Some of my more well-known past work (e.g. see http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q="john+t+robinson") includes:- Optimistic methods for concurrency control;- K-D-B-trees (the first generalization of B-trees to the multi-dimensional case);- Frequency based replacement (FBR - the starting point for a number of subsequent improvements to LRU buffer management);- Analysis of limitations of concurrency; and- Concurrency control methods for high contention environments. A major contribution within IBM was work on the design and analysis of parallel compression and compressed memory systems (basis for the MXT products). IBM awards include an Outstanding Innovation Award and two Research Division Awards. My most recent IBM invention achievement awards were for the 10th and 11th plateaus (2004 and 2006). I have had two IBM top-5% and one top-30% rated patent awards, and was an IBM Master Inventor from 1999-2002. Currently I have 33 entries in the DBLP Bibliography Server and 29 entries in my ACM author profile page. I am an inventor or co-inventor for 34 patents, and have published over 30 papers in journals and conference proceedings.Contact: jrobinson at acm dot orgSpecialties: Design and analysis of algorithms; parallel and distributed systems; performance analysis (queueing theory, analytic models, simulation); database systems (concurrency control and recovery, index structures, visualization, image-based retrieval); hardware and software data compression; processor cache design; storage systems; hardware design verification.