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A scientific study of the problems of digital engineering for space flight systems,
with a view to their practical solution.

2003 MAPLD International Conference

Evaluations

Detailed Comments

• Conference 2002

• Conference 2003

• General Comments

Summary of the Conference and surveys

Attendees: 245

Will you return:

Yes: 46
No 1

There were 11 applications for the Conference Technical Committee

Did the Conference meet your expectations on a scale from 1 to 5?

1: 0
2: 0
3: 3
4: 14
5: 14

The food and beverages were, on a scale from 1 to 5?

1: 0
2: 2
3: 5
4: 12
5: 11

Do you want, on a scale from 1 to 5, papers or a Session on:

Military and Aerospace General Purpose Processors

1: 1
2: 0
3: 13
4: 7
5: 8

Logic Design and Analysis

1: 1
2: 0
3: 7
4: 12
5: 9

Case Studies, Lessons Learned, and "War Stories"

1: 1
2: 0
3: 6
4: 13
5: 10

Conference - 2002

• Not enough water.  No milk.  No espresso (it's Starbuck's!  Come on!)
• Some thing went wrong with communication within APL.  Many colleagues did not know the conference was being held.  Make sure last year's attendees get the email notification for the next conference!
• Great coffee this year.
• Pizza party: please add something else for people who may not be able to eat such foods.
• Super program - quality of talks.  Shuttle (Challenger) talk was excellent (very moving).
• Food was very good - coffee was weak.
• Vegetarian food would be appreciated.
• Fruits were frozen too long.  There are flies on top of food table.
• The invited speakers were excellent!
• Live music - that's class!
• Breakfast a little light.  I don't drink coffee.  Fruit juice is good but too sweet to drink long.  How about at least some water and cereal milk?  Lunch & dinner - great.
• The lunches (except two) were generally poor and the Starbucks coffee just did not cut it.  But that doesn't really matter because the communications are great!
• No water available at breakfast.
• But, some days they had ice tea, which I really like, but then later on they didn't have it, and we were down to cokes, which I really don't drink. I thought there was going to be an espresso stand, but I'd be happy with those Starbucks bottles of coffee and cans of espresso.
• No soda in the mornings for breakfast for those of us that get their caffeine from Coke or Pepsi.
• It was a great conference, you did a great job.
• First of all let me congratulate you for this great and interesting conference! I fully enjoyed it and try to come back if possible.
• Your conference was excellent!!!
• Thanks for what I saw of MAPLD - great work, great speakers, great program.
• This was an excellent conference (location, arrangements, technical program).
• The most interesting parts were: reconfigurable computing, evolvable computing, and software developments.  More mundane topics were also important, though; static FPGA, environmental issues, lessons learned.
• CEO John East was interesting; this was a feature that should be tried again.
• - Getting better every year; - Good tutorial; - Good Panel selection; - Good food
• The conference this year was excellent, it is growing and is gaining more and more strength and popularity!
• Very good conference.
• I want the recipe for the coconut cookies that were for dessert on Wednesday lunch time. They were the best.
• Thanks for again hosting a great conference. You and the people at Johns Hopkins make this not only a technically stimulating but also extremely pleasant conference.
• Congrats on a great conference
• I enjoyed the conference very much and plan to attend next year.  (One note: I like the idea of adding a little "space history" into the conference - it
  is both valuable and interesting).
• I didn't really care either for or about the food (it was edible and there was plenty of caffeine available, so I was reasonably content).
• The technical content of the conference far exceeded my expectations. The space disaster talks were fascinating, I met many useful contacts, and learned a
  lot about the current state of research on FPGAs for space straight from the horses' mouths.
• Please, no more fluff CEO talks
• Some posters seemed better than some presentations; last day talks seemed somewhat higher quality
• Have a credit card machine at the check-in desk during registration.
• The quality of the papers and presentations was a bit spotty. I found the papers on the third day to be consistently better. Presentations describing just what people plan to do (and not results of past work) seemed especially weak to me. (I realize this can't always be avoided.) I also liked hearing from the various invited speakers.
• Thanks for the good work organizing everything.
• MAPLD was great this year!

Conference - 2003

Please suggest topics for the next conference, both presentations and panel discussions.

• An overview of which devices have flown.  What missions.  What mitigation techniques used.  What problems encountered.
• Software.  Special design tools.
• Should we standardize hardware development processes, like the software industry?
• Topics: hardened designs and test results.
• More radiation.
• End users use of FPGA-based systems to solve engineering applications - we'd love to submit a NASA paper in this area.
• VHDL codes and libraries.
• Fault mitigation techniques.
• General radiation related reliability assurance methodologies and methods; SEU mitigation.  Tutorial.  [We had two invited talks on this, 1998, 1999, which are available on the www.  Also, this year there was a seminar on this, just prior to the Conference.  We'll have to advertise the seminars better.  One thing we've been kicking around for a while is making an index of all the MAPLD Conference material.  So far no time, as I'm not sitting around bored nor do I have money to hire someone.  Anyone have ideas?]
• How about a reasonable wish list of needs of the community?
• Energy optimization.
• High level tools for synthesis.
• TID, SEU, SEL and reliability - what else (maybe NSEU sensitivity of commercial ground apps.  0.09 µm may have real problems with this at V_DD = 1.0V.
• Verification/assurance of PLD
• More concentration on the devices used and the actual radiation results of the latest devices.  Also how devices are tested for radiation hardness.
• Discussion on packaging of parts and shielding for long duration missions.
• Discussion on the selection of high speed rad-hard DACs
• Discussion on "Why is reviewing a digital engineer's design so hard?"
• Author Curtis Peeples has written a number of books on aerospace history including one on Corona. I just read the book, it was fairly comprehensive.  --A possible source for historical perspective.
• Suggestions for topics for next year's conference: Application-specific (as opposed to generic MIL 1019.5) radiation testing of Xilinx FPGAs.
• love to hear about actual standards/methodology for pld design, and tools to support

General Comments

• Bags were great; can't wait to see what you do for next year.  Music and dinner was great.  Nobody announced the RC chat session (lunch Wed.).  [Actually it was announced at conference opening, it was in the Proceedings, it was in the schedule. ]   [JJ joke deleted.  -- Ed.]  Seriously; have some antihistamines, maybe for sale.  I was totally unprepared.
• Tell the vendors that I have an ample supply of pens.  Please bring other toys.
• Rich, The conference was great.  The coffee was great.  One suggestion - larger coffee cups in the morning.
• I would like to see a lot more along the lines of how to design for space.  Things to do and not do, etc.
• The slide shows rarely matches the published paper slides.  That is very frustrating.  [We will be stricter with the authors to get their final versions in on time for printing next year.  There was only a handful that had significant revisions and a pocketful with minor revisions.  But we will do better.]
• I missed a talk because no one announced that it was to be held in a classroom not the auditorium.  [Actually it was announced at conference opening, it was in the Proceedings, it was in the schedule.  But two people missed it so this will be revisited and we'll make sure to get the word out better.]
• Use a bell or P.A. to announce beginning of sessions, not yelling.  [We have found that Ann is more effective than the PA but will revisit this.  Perhaps this person will volunteer to carry the cow bell next year.]
• Nice mix of technical info, history (space) and chance for interchange of info among talented attendees.  [That is the point of this conference].  Great job Richard.
• Maps that show details of the area. [We will be buying maps in bulk for local driving, to restaurants, hotels, attractions, etc., and mailing them out to attendees prior to their trip.  Feedback from guests indicated our directions were good to get to and from the airport and the Conference Center]
• Have bottled water to drink.
• Keep the trivia contest!
• Well done - thanks!
• Great invited talks.  More is better.
• Ask John East to talk again?
• Lighting is too bright at the back end of auditorium during presentation (alto too noisy from outside hallway conversations).
• Great job, keep it up!
• This was an excellent conference (location, arrangements, technical program).  The most interesting parts were: reconfigurable computing, evolvable computing, and software developments.  More mundane topics were also important, though; static FPGA, environmental issues, lessons learned.  CEO John East was interesting; this was a feature that should be tried again.
• Keep up the good work!
• Larger black names on badges, please.
• Cell phones should be either left outside of the Conference room or the ringer should be turned off.  The presenters have all worked hard doing their research, they all worked hard preparing their presentation, and many have traveled long distances, in some cases clear across the world, on the anniversary of 9/11, and they deserve their 20 minutes to present their work. Announcements were made at the beginning of the Conference and periodically throughout the week.  Having a cell phone on and playing music when it rings, during a talk, is just rude.  -- rk
• By the way, this years conference was excellent, especially the lecture about the Challenger disaster.
• An excellent conference
• Congratulations on a very well-run program.
• Next year, please print the names on the badges in LARGER FONT in BLACK INK. The red was very hard to read and the writing was too small.
• Congratulations on organizing and executing a great conference!
  

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Last Revised: October 04, 2002
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