Session 8: Complex Systems Science for Urban Mega-Systems
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James D. Baker, Director of the Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC), USC
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Jim Baker was appointed director of the Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC) at the University of Southern California, in 2007 after serving on its advisory board. Prior to joining IMSC, Baker was the founding President of Fuji Xerox’s Palo Alto Laboratory (FXPAL). He became CEO in 1997 and then Chairman and CEO in 2005. During this period, FXPAL became a leading center of multimedia research with achievements in video capture, storage and retrieval, authoring, and surveillance.
He was also the Director in charge of the three information and computing sciences research laboratories at Lock-heed Martin. While at Honeywell, he started the first software research activity at their Corporate Research Center – which eventually led to the formation of the Corporate Computer Sciences Center.
Jim Baker’s early industrial experiences were in the field of Operations Research; their common theme was provid-ing solutions to complex problems. At Honeywell, he invented the first algorithm to refocus the naturally blurred images of a nuclear medicine system. Honeywell developed a special computer to implement this process and he received the H.W. Sweatt Award for outstanding achievement in research and engineering. At the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, he was an expert in probability modeling for war games. His achievements include a new model for predicting the miss distance of objects aimed at a target; and a new model for computing the probability of detecting an object in a clutter background. At General Dynamics in Fort Worth, he contributed to a number of projects including the simulated build-up of a lunar base, an aerial monitoring system to map radio activity in a nuclear accident, and the application of game theory to the problem of arms control.
Jim Baker was educated in mathematics and he received his PhD from Iowa State University. He is an invited speaker on the topics of research, innovation and technology transfer in software and system sciences.
