James Tien-Cheng Yeh

Cooperative Multiobjective Decision Support for the Paper Industry

We built and deployed a decision-support system for scheduling paper manufacturing and distribution, an extremely complex task with multiple stages of production and strong interaction between stages. In contrast to earlier approaches, our system considers multiple scheduling objectives and multiple stages of production and distribution simultaneously using multiple evaluation criteria. Our system functions as an intelligent assistant to the schedulers and generates multiple good scheduling alternatives using a portfolio of algorithms and direct human-expert input. The successful deployment of our system at several paper mills in North America has resulted insignificant savings, greater customer satisfaction, and improved business processes.

Surface cleaning by electrostatic removal of particles

Contamination of product surfaces by particles during microelectronics manufacturing can lead to significant losses of product yield and reliability. In many cases, cleaning by an effective dry process would be preferable to cleaning by an equally effective wet process. A new dry process for cleaning is described. The product surface to be cleaned is grounded or placed on a grounded surface. An insulating film, approximately 20 μm thick, is placed on the contaminated product surface. A counterelectrode is placed on the film, with enough direct current voltage, typically kilovolts, to create fields of approximately 1 MV/cm. When the film is removed from the contaminated product surface, particles as small as 1 μm are removed with the film. Particles deposited dry are substantially easier to remove than particles deposited wet and allowed to dry. Also very difficult to remove are particles that melt and then solidify on a surface. Various insulating films have shown successful particle removal, but all film...

Characterization of In-Based Eutectic Alloys Used in Josephson Packaging

InBiSn and InSn eutectic alloy solders used for Josephson packaging were characterized for the basic understanding of their behavior. Both physical structures and mechanical properties of these solders were studied under various conditions which partly simulate the processing and environmental exposure of these materials. Their interaction with the interface material (Pd/Au) was also probed in an attempt to understand the failure mechanism and to assess the package reliability.

From Web Services to Virtual Services - The Architecture and Patterns for 3D Services

The evolution of the web triggered XML and web services which pave the way for world-wide information integration and service integration. Web 2.0 concepts and technologies further enriched community based web services. Now with debut of virtual world, there come the opportunities of new types of services with which services providers and services consumers could interact in immersive services environments. Virtual services or 3D services provide new service opportunities that existing web services cannot provide. In this paper, we compare the interaction patterns for web services and virtual services. We propose an architecture for virtual services and list its implications for new business models.

The Many Colors and Shapes of Cloud

While many enterprises and business entities are deploying and exploiting Cloud Computing, the academic institutes and researchers are also busy trying to wrestle this beast and put a leash on this possible paradigm changing computing model. Many have argued that Cloud Computing is nothing more than a name change of Utility Computing. Others have argued that Cloud Computing is a revolutionary change of the computing architecture. So it has been difficult to put a boundary of what is in Cloud Computing, and what is not. I assert that it is equally difficult to find a group of people who would agree on even the definition of Cloud Computing. In actuality, may be all that arguments are not necessary, as Clouds have many shapes and colors. In this presentation, the speaker will attempt to illustrate that the shape and the color of the cloud depend very much on the business goals one intends to achieve. It will be a very rich territory for both the businesses to take the advantage of the benefits of Cloud Computing and the academia to integrate the technology research and business research.

Science and technology challenges toward business on demand

Summary form only given. Facing fierce competition and ever more demanding customers, businesses including government entities need to transform to ones which are more responsive, more real time, and more dynamic. Business transformation not only is a challenging task to business owners, but also provides fertile opportunities for new sciences and technologies to play key enabling roles. The presentation examines the driving forces of such business transformation and the corresponding challenges posed on technologies and sciences. These challenges range all the way from top level business analytics for how to restructure businesses, to bridging business initiatives to execution and deployment, to dynamic utilization of information and resources, and all the way down to dynamic composition of solutions. The speaker also attempts to show examples of how such challenges may be met