Bruda.CA

Stefan D. Bruda, PhD

I am Associate Professor of Computer Science with Bishop's University. That's in Sherbrooke, Quebec (the Lennoxville borrough). You can get hold of me in a number of ways (incidentally speaking, I consider HTML email and propriatery attachments harmful). There are many ways I am keeping myself busy, some of them described (or suggested) below.

Research

My research work started with formal languages and complexity theory. This work gained a flavor of parallel and then real-time systems during my PhD work with the School of Computing at Queen's University (within the Parallel Computation Group and under the supervision of Selim G. Akl).

Since finishing my PhD, I remained in the area of real-time computations with particular emphasis on parallel and distributed systems. The main drive is now formal methods and conformance testing, but I am also involved in complexity-theoretic approaches and to some degree in systems.

In all, my research interests are in the area of formal software engineering, with emphasis on real-time systems. I am also interested in parallel computation, complexity theory, and formal languages.

I try to maintain electronic versions for all my publications. My Erdös number is 4 (Stefan D. Bruda—Selim G. Akl—Nicola Santoro—Shmuel Zaks—Paul Erdös). I might be old fashioned, but I still believe that a strong theoretical foundation is a prerequisite to understand, create, and improve computer technology.

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Teaching

This term (Winter 2012) I am teaching CSC 414/CSC 514: Computer Networks/Computer Networks and Distributed Algorithms

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Other

• I am a big fan of XEmacs (in fact, I do almost everything from within XEmacs, including reading email). When I have a chance, I also do a bit of Emacs programming, though it is probably more accurate to name it Emacs hacking. Here are some random hacks that might be of interest to other people than myself. (you might be interested in the major mode for multimedia library management, I personally find it better than any other similar application I could lay my hands on). A bit more consistent contributions include:
  • emacs-pilot syncs Emacs stuff (BBDB, diary, memo transfer) with a Palm OS device.
  • emacs-prolog is a major mode for Prolog programming under Emacs and offers to my knowledge the best Prolog IDE out there, especially when used from within XEmacs.
• Java gotchas
• Selfish code and more selfish code
• I am an amateur (but passionate) photorgapher. I will update my photography album really soon now(tm)
• I listen to music a lot (mostly jazz, blues, and classical). I enjoy reading. I am a big fan of Umberto Ecco. I like Jacques Prévert (bilingual; English translations), Lewis Carroll, Larry Niven, Philip K. Dick. To be honest, this is just a lazy glimpse into all of it, as it only contains links that I found awhile ago. I will try to update this blurb at some point, but please do not hold your breath. Representative poetry on-line (from University of Toronto English Library)

Coda

Definition of Love.

      First paint a cage
      with an open door
      then paint
      something pretty
      something simple
      something beautiful
      something useful
      for the bird
      then place the canvas against a tree
      in a garden
      in a wood
      or in a forest
      hide behind the tree
      without speaking
      without moving...
      Sometimes the bird comes quickly
      but he can just as well spend long years
      before deciding
      Don't get discouraged
      wait
      wait years if necessary
      the swiftness or slowness of the coming
      of the bird having no rapport
      with the success of the picture
      When the bird comes
      if he comes
      observe the most profound silence
      wait till the bird enters the cage
      and when he has entered
      gently close the door with a brush
      then
      paint out all the bars one by one
      taking care not to touch any of the feathers of the bird
      Then paint the portrait of the tree
      choosing the most beautiful of its branches
      for the bird
      paint also the green foliage and the wind's freshness
      the dust of the sun
      and the noise of insects in the summer heat
      and then wait for the bird to decide to sing
      If the bird doesn't sing
      it's a bad sign
      a sign that the painting is bad
      but if he sings it's a good sign
      a sign that you can sign
      so then so gently you pull out
      one of the feathers of the bird
      and you write yours name in a corner of the picture

                     — Jaques Prevert, To Paint the Portrait of a Bird
                        (English translation by Lawrence Ferlinghetti)
    

Hallelujah