Ubiquitous Computing at a Crossroads: Art, Science, Politics and Design 

January 6th and 7th 2009
Huxley Building, Imperial College London

The Space and Motion of Large Informatic Systems

Robin Milner, University of Cambridge

Presentation slides

The talk will be about a rigorous model proposed to underlie the programming, simulation and analysis of ubiquitous systems.

I shall start by emphasising the importance of coherence between different models of informatic systems. Our models must relate clearly to each other, whether they are informal or rigorous, intended for experts or users, logical or dynamic. A more abstract model explains a less abstract one; this is the vertical relationship between models. Different models, of different aspects of a system, can be also be combined horizontally. These two relationships define what may be called a tower of models.

The main technical part of the talk will be about a rigorous dynamic model called Bigraphs, which I propose as a platform for ubiquitous systems, just as the von Neumann model is a platform for sequential deterministic programming. I shall summarise its maths in a way that should be accessible to non-theorists. I shall apply to an instrumented built environment, to subsuming well-known process calculi, and to simple biological phenomena.