February 18, 2000
Since the latter half of the nineteenth century, telecommunications services and infrastructures have been driven by voice applications implemented over circuit based technologies. The revolution in data communications, along with equivalent revolutions in technology, have changed not only the forces driving the industry, but also the infrastructure solutions being implemented to meet these customer needs. Furthermore, we have witnessed an increased importance in information management as an integral part of these solutions. This talk will discuss architectural work done to address these issues, and use this work as part of a more general discussion on the architecture development process for complex systems and the role of information management in systems solutions.
Dr. Richard T. Roca became the seventh director of the Applied Physics Laboratory - JHU on January 1, 2000. Prior to that, he was at AT&T Laboratories where he took on a variety of responsibilities and held a number of senior executive positions including Vice President, Internet Protocol Service Planning and Development; Chief Technical Officer for AT&T Solutions; Vice President for the Federal Systems business unit; Director for Strategic Planning; Executive Director of Government Information Systems and Executive Director of RD&E for data services division. Dr. Roca is a native of Pennsylvania, a graduate of Lehigh University, and earned his M.S. & Sc.D. degrees from MIT. In 1977, he was awarded a Congressional Fellowship to work on the National Energy Act. He is a fellow of ASME and a past Vice President of its Board of Engineering Education. Dr. Roca is a former member of ABET, chairman of the Council of Advisors to the Lehigh University School of Engineering, a member of Monmouth University's Science, Technology and Engineering Advisory Board, and a trustee of the National Technological University. He and his wife live in Columbia, MD.