Conference focuses on IT security, DevOps and distributed systems
Research center hosts NASA, King and visualization hackathon
On October 14, KTH’s doors open up to a three-day conference hosted by some of the sharpest developers from NASA, Spotify, SAAB and game maker, King.
The first of its kind and arranged by the CASTOR research center at KTH, the conference has a three-part focus. One topic to be addressed is DevOps, which is about reducing the distance and complexity between the two phases of software development and software sharp IT operations. But also IT security and large-scale distributed IT systems will be examined by experts and participants.
“Large software can include thousands of developers, where each one improves their part. Making software easier to use, faster and more secure and stable,” says Benoit Baudry, one of the organizers and professor in the Department Of Software and Computer Systems at KTH. “The big challenge is to automate the introduction of these changes and at the same time ensure that the software is always 100 percent bug free and can be distributed to millions of users.”
When it comes to IT security, the challenge lies in the boundary between security and openness. The population needs access to various community services such as health care and education, but at the same time, access to different types of information offers opportunities for the malicious to both cheat, steal data and in other ways.
In parallel with the conference, a hackathon called Continuous Integration Art Hackathon will be arranged. It’s about visualizing software, and making it accessible in a new way.
“Today, software is everywhere around us. Nevertheless, most people are completely unaware of this because code is completely invisible and intangible. This strikes a wedge, creating a huge gap between the fact that software is a super-important part of society and those who decide and use it,” Baudry says.
The hackathon represents a way to culturally make software visible, to build a bridge between code and the people who influence it, or are affected by it.
A group of experts will speak at the conference including Dimitra Giannakopoulou of NASA, who works with space rocket control systems; Polhems Award winner Daniel Stenberg who is the man behind cURL, used in thousands of software – and thus by billions of users; and Sahar Asadi who is working on what artificial intelligence can do for game development at King.
Peter Ardell