Abstract: Consumers want their PCs to be safe, hassle-free, accessible everywhere, and fun. This talk presents a new system architecture where users can pick from a variety of managed virtual computers and run them on their laptops and desktops, or carry them on a portable drive or a cell phone. The talk will describe how her Collective research group started with ideas in thin-client computing, developed the notion of a livePC, formerly known as a virtual appliance, and spun out of the university to productize the research results in 2005. The software is freely available at www.moka5.com.

Short Bio: Monica Lam is a Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University. Her research passion is to make computers easier to use and to program. She has published numerous papers on compilers, operating systems, security, computer architecture, and high-performance computing, and has won various awards for her research contributions. She is the founding CEO of moka5 and a co-author of the third edition of the Dragon book.