Cooper, Robert B. (Florida Atlantic University)

Contact Information

Topics:

Queueing Theory: Thinking About Waiting
Queues are waiting lines. They are ubiquitous in everyday life, and therefore might seem to be unworthy of serious thought. But they are important in the design and analysis of computer systems, telecommunications networks, and other systems that handle random demands for service. This inherent randomness produces behavior that is interesting and often surprising.. (Elementary)

Telecommunications Traffic Theory and Engineering
Telecommunications networks, carrying voice and data traffic, embody a critically important and fast growing technology. Queueing theory is used to provide information about trade-offs between the cost of a network and the quality of service it provides. (Elementary or Intermediate)

Topics in Queueing Theory
This talk will cover current research or any other topic agreed on in advance by the speaker and the host. (Intermediate or Advanced)

Background:

• B.S. Science - Stevens Institute of Technology
• M.S. Systems Engineering and Operations Research - University of Pennsylvania
• Ph.D. Electrical Engineering - University of Pennsylvania.

Professor Cooper was at Bell Labs in the 1960s and at Georgia Tech in the 1970s, and has been at Florida Atlantic University since 1978, where he is Professor of Computer Science and Engineering. Throughout his career his research interest has been probability and queueing theory, motivated largely by applications in teletraffic and computer engineering. His research has been published in refereed journals, and he is the author of a textbook and several expository papers. As a teacher and lecturer, his primary objective is to convey how mathematical analysis and common-sense intuition interact in probability and queueing theory, especially when their predictions are counterintuitive. For more information, visit his website at www.cse.fau.edu/~bob/.