1 TOPICS DEALING WITH MY CAREER

1.1 SUMMARY
1.2 EDUCATION
1.3 PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
1.4 PUBLICATIONS
1.5 PATENTS
1.6 OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
1.7 AWARDS AND HONORARY SOCIETIES

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1.1 SUMMARY


My employer is Apex Systems, which provides staffing to other companies.  I work as a subcontractor at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts, so I have logically but not physically returned to Cambridge.  On a Federal Aviation Agency research project, I develop interchange and integration of data from sensors (e.g., radars) and other sources, enhancing decision support. I analyze requirements and process XML on Linux.

More generally, I have worked mainly in database management since graduate school.  Within database management, I am best known for database reorganization, especially reorganization that is performed online.  Reorganization is a change in some aspect of the logical and/or physical arrangement of a database.  A few examples are restoration of clustering, reorganization of an index, redefinition (e.g., splitting) of partitions, changing a column's data type, and changing a relationship from one-to-many to many-to-many.  In traditional practice, many types of reorganization have required denying access to a database (taking the database offline) during reorganization.  Taking a database offline can be unacceptable for a highly available (24-hour) database, e.g., a database serving armed forces or Internet commerce, or for a very large database.  A solution is to reorganize online (concurrently with usage of the database, incrementally during users' activities, or interpretively).  My other work in databases has included mapping among heterogeneous data sources, database design, and user interfaces to databases.  Besides database management, I have also worked in high availability, operating systems, language systems, resource virtualization, performance modeling, firmware, graphics, and computer architecture.

Programming Languages: Java, C++, C, PL/1, REXX, assembly (IBM 390, 1130, 1800, DEC PDP-11, PDP-10, PDP-8), APL, LISP, COBOL, FORTRAN, EL1 (ECL), EAS-E, META 4 microcode, BRUIN, SNOBOL, LOGO
Other Languages: SQL, XML (including schema), HTML, LaTeX, GML, MACSYMA
Operating Systems: Linux, Unix, Windows (XP, NT, 95), z/OS (OS/390, MVS), VM (CMS), OS/2, TOPS-10
Database Software: DB2/UDB, PostgreSQL, Ingres, QBE, SQL/DS, iBATIS
Other Software: Eclipse, Jakarta Digester, Visio, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, OpenOffice Writer

1.2 EDUCATION

 
• Ph.D., Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Applied Mathematics (computer science)
• M.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Electrical Engineering (computer science)
Sc.B., Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, Applied Mathematics (computer science), magna cum laude

Also, ongoing professional development.

1.3 PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE



Software Engineer at Apex Systems, subcontracting at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, MA:
Senior Software Developer at Rocket Software, Newton, MA:
Advisory Software Engineer at IBM Silicon Valley Laboratory (formerly Santa Teresa Laboratory), San Jose, CA:
Research Staff Member at IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY:
Computer Scientist at National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD:
Staff Scientist at BGS Systems (later acquired by BMC Software), Waltham, MA:
Programmer at IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY:
Graduate student at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA:
Graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA:
Undergraduate student at Brown University, Providence, RI:

1.4 PUBLICATIONS



Most of my publications (other than those that I wrote as a Federal employee) are copyrighted. I have obtained permission from the copyright owners to post the publications that this web site contains.  Some copyright owners do not want publications posted on a web site.  I labeled these publications with “( I can send you the pdf file, which is not on this web site),” and I have not posted them; you can send me an e-mail if you want the publications.  Here are some copyright notices:
Now that I have satisfied the copyright owners, here are the publications:

G. H. Sockut and B. R. Iyer, “Online Reorganization of Databases,” Computing Surveys, ACM, 41, 3, Article 14, July 2009, 136 pages.  For the published version, I can send you the pdf file, which is not on this web site .  I have posted the manuscript that I sent to ACM for copyediting.  The published version and the manuscript differ slightly in wording and fonts.  Also, for some of the references, the manuscript goes into more detail, e.g., the exact titles of books that represent conference proceedings.  If you want to quote text or page numbers from the paper, you should use the published version.  If you don't need to quote text or page numbers, or if you don't want to send me an e-mail, you can use the manuscript.  Because the paper has many sections, and ACM Computing Surveys no longer includes tables of contents inside papers, I have created a table of contents.  After searching all previous issues of the journal, I have concluded that this is the longest paper ever published in ACM Computing Surveys.  This fact is unlikely to interest the people at Guinness World Records (What's ACM?), so I have not contacted them.

B. R. Iyer and G. H. Sockut, an IBM technical report, corresponding to patent 6,411,964 (listed later under patents), June 1998.

G. H. Sockut, T. A. Beavin, and C.-C. Chang, “A Method for On-line Reorganization of a Database,” IBM Syst. J. 36, 3, 1997, pp. 411-436; erratum in 37, 1, 1998, p. 152.

G. H. Sockut, H. P. Arzu, R. W. Matthews, and D. E. Shough, “Issues in Designing an Information Model for Application Development,” Software Engin. Notes 22, 2, ACM SIGSOFT, March 1997, pp. 25-34; errata in 22, 4, July 1997, p. 7.

G. H. Sockut and B. R. Iyer, “A Survey of Online Reorganization in IBM Products and Research,” Data Engin. 19, 2, IEEE-CS TC-DE, June 1996, pp. 4-11.

G. H. Sockut, L. M. Burns, A. Malhotra, and K.-Y. Whang, “GRAQULA:  A Graphical Query Language for Entity-Relationship or Relational Databases,” Data and Knowledge Engin. 11, 2, North-Holland, Amsterdam, Neth., Oct. 1993, pp. 171-202 ( I can send you the pdf file, which is not on this web site) ; more details in Research Report RC 16877, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, March 1991.

K.-Y. Whang, A. Malhotra, G. H. Sockut, L. M. Burns, and K.-S. Choi, “Two-Dimensional Specification of Universal Quantification in a Graphical Database Query Language,” IEEE Trans. Soft. Engin. 18, 3, March 1992, pp. 216-224.

L. M. Burns, A. Malhotra, G. H. Sockut, and K.-Y. Whang, “AERIAL:  Ad hoc Entity-Relationship Investigation And Learning.”  This paper appeared in two media:
A. Malhotra, L. M. Burns, G. H. Sockut, and K.-Y. Whang, “IRIS:  Interactive Repository Interface Services,” Research Report RC 16943, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, June 1991.

K.-Y. Whang, A. Malhotra, G. H. Sockut, and L. M. Burns, “Supporting Universal Quantification in a Two-Dimensional Database Query Language,” Proc. 6th Intl. Conf. Data Engin., IEEE-CS, Feb. 1990, pp. 68-75.

G. H. Sockut and A. Malhotra, “A Full-Screen Facility for Defining Relational and Entity-Relationship Database Schemas,” Software 5, 6, IEEE-CS, Nov. 1988, pp. 68-78.

K.-Y. Whang, A. C. Ammann, A. S. Bolmarcich, M. Hanrahan, G. T. Hochgesang, K.-T. Huang, A. Khorasani, R. Krishnamurthy, G. H. Sockut, P. Sweeney, V. E. Waddle, and M. M. Zloof, “Office-by-Example:  An Integrated Office System and Database Manager,” ACM Trans. Office Information Syst. 5, 4, Oct. 1987, pp. 393-427.

G. H. Sockut and R. Krishnamurthy, “Concurrency Control in Office-by-Example (OBE),” Proc. IEEE-CS Office Automation Symp., April 1987, pp. 164-170; abstract in SIGOIS Bulletin 8, 3, ACM, Summer 1987, pp. 19-20; more implementation details in Research Report RC 10545, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, May 1984.

G. H. Sockut, “A Framework for Logical-Level Changes Within Database Systems,” Computer 18, 5, IEEE-CS, May 1985, pp. 9-27.

G. H. Sockut, “Comparison and Mapping of the Relational and CODASYL Data Models – An Annotated Bibliography,” SIGMOD Record 11, 3, ACM, April 1981, pp. 55-68.

G. H. Sockut and R. P. Goldberg, “Database Reorganization – Principles and Practice,” Computing Surveys 11, 4, ACM, Dec. 1979, pp. 371-395.

S. Jeffery, D. W. Fife, D. R. Deutsch, and G. H. Sockut, “Architectural Considerations for Federal Database Standards,” IEEE COMPCON Spring 79 Digest of Papers, Feb. 1979, pp. 139-143.

G. H. Sockut, “A Performance Model for Computer Data-Base Reorganization Performed Concurrently With Usage,” Operations Research 26, 5, Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, Sept.-Oct. 1978, pp. 789-804.

R. P. Goldberg, H. S. Schwenk, Jr., G. H. Sockut, and J. G. Perry, Jr., “Motivation for a Configuration and Integration Management Tool,” Proc. COMPCON Fall 78, IEEE-CS, Sept. 1978, pp. 326-329.  Here is the abstract:  This paper motivates the need for a configuration and integration management tool in complex, long-life-cycle distributed systems.  These systems feature so many components (both hardware and software) with so many interconnections among them that they demand a tool oriented around a centralized data base of system information.

G. H. Sockut, “Data Base Performance Under Concurrent Reorganization and Usage,” Ph.D. thesis, Div. of Applied Sciences, Harvard U., Cambridge, MA, July 1977; Tech. Report 12-77, Center for Research in Computing Technology; presented at IEEE-CS 17th Ann. Lake Arrowhead Workshop, on data management and storage hierarchies, Sept. 1978.  Co-advisors:  P. P.-S. Chen and U. O. Gagliardi.  Virtual co-advisors:  R. P. Goldberg and J. P. Buzen.

G. H. Sockut and R. P. Goldberg, “Motivation for Data Base Reorganization Performed Concurrently With Usage,” Preprints, ACM Computer Science Conf., Jan. 1977, p. 26 (abstract); Data Base Engineering 1, 1, IEEE-CS Tech. Comm. on Data Base Engin., March 1977 (preprints, IEEE-CS Workshop on Operating and Data Base Management Syst.), pp. 18-19 (abstract, entitled “Database Reorganization Issues Related to Operating and Data Management Systems Interface”); Tech. Report 16-76, Center for Research in Computing Technology, Harvard U., Cambridge, MA, Sept. 1976.

G. H. Sockut, “Firmware/Hardware Support for Operating Systems:  Principles and Selected History,” SIGMICRO Newsletter 6, 4, ACM, Dec. 1975, pp. 17-26.

G. H. Sockut, “The New Parse Window,” ECL Working Memo, Center for Research in Computing Technology, Harvard U., Cambridge, MA, Oct. 1975.

G. H. Sockut, “A Graphics Monitor for Animation of Dynamic Processes,” M.S. thesis, Dept. of Elect. Engin., Mass. Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, Sept. 1974.  Advisor:  M. L. Dertouzos.

P. C. Anagnostopoulos, M. J. Michel, G. H. Sockut, G. M. Stabler, and A. van Dam, “Computer Architecture and Instruction Set Design,” Proc. Natl. Computer Conf. and Exposition, Vol. 42, AFIPS Press, Reston, VA, June 1973, pp. 519-527.

P. C. Anagnostopoulos and G. H. Sockut, “Meta 4A Principles of Operation,” tech. report, Center for Computer and Information Sciences, Brown U., Providence, RI, June 1972.

1.5 PATENTS



B. R. Iyer and G. H. Sockut, “Methods for In-place Online Reorganization of a Database,” U. S. Patent 6,411,964, June 2002.

C. A. Friske, G. H. Sockut, J. Z. Teng, and S. W. Turnbaugh, “Non-blocking Drain Method and Apparatus Used to Reorganize Data in a Database,” U. S. Patent 6,070,170, May 2000, also “Non-blocking Drain Method and Apparatus for Use in Processing Requests on a Resource,” U. S. Patent 6,519,613, Feb. 2003.

J. A. Ruddy, K. Shyam, G. H. Sockut, and J. A. Watts, “Application of Log Records to Data Compressed with Different Encoding Scheme,” U. S. Patent 5,897,641, Apr. 1999.

G. H. Sockut and T. A. Beavin, “Interaction Between Application of a Log and Maintenance of a Table that Maps Record Identifiers During Online Reorganization of a Database,” U. S. Patent 5,721,915, Feb. 1998, also U. S. Patent 6,026,412, Feb. 2000.

1.6 OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES



1.7 AWARDS AND HONORARY SOCIETIES



Forward to Section 2. Topics Dealing Generally with Careers.

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