Samuel D. Conte (1917-2002) founded the Department of Computer Science at Purdue University in 1962. His vision and active involvement nationally and internationally played a vital role in defining the discipline of computer science worldwide. 

Each year, the Department of Computer Science faculty identify computer scientists who are recognized as leaders in the field and whose ideas and research command the attention of the students and faculty.  A select group of individuals are then invited to be a part of the annual Samuel D. Conte Distinguished Lecture Series on Computer Science.

In 1993, the Samuel D. Conte Endowment was established to honor Professor Emeritus Conte and his devotion to excellence in teaching and research in computer science. The Samuel D. Conte Lecture Series, sponsored by the endowment, serves as a permanent testimonial of his contributions to the Department of Computer Science, Purdue University, and the computing field.

Dean Remzi Arpaci Dusseau

Tuesday, October 20, 2026
3:00 pm
DSAI 1069

Title

Agents, Agents Everywhere (But Still You Have To Think)

Abstract

Agents are changing everything we do. In this talk, I’ll outline (broadly) some key areas where we should focus in the broad area of software, and how agents are changing many things we are doing (but not everything). I’ll then discuss some specific work we’ve been doing in file systems for agents, namely our recent work on “YoloFS”. I’ll describe our study of hundreds of real-world incidents involving agent misuse of the filesystem, including data corruption, deletion, and leakage. I’ll then present YoloFS, an agent-native filesystem that makes agent actions visible, reversible, and controllable through three mechanisms: staging, snapshots, and progressive permissions. More broadly, I’ll argue that AI agents create an opportunity to rethink a decades-old systems interface — and that future operating systems should be designed not just for human users and applications, but for agents as well.

Bio

Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau is the Founding Dean of the College of Computing & Artificial Intelligence at UW-Madison, where he also serves as the Grace Wahba Professor of Computer Sciences. He has served on the CS faculty since January, 2000. Remzi co-leads a computer systems research group with Professor Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau. Together, they have graduated 37 Ph.D. students and won numerous best-paper and test-of-time awards; many of their innovations are used by commercial systems, and their group is considered one of the leading storage-systems groups in the world. Remzi has received the ACM-SIGOPS Weiser award for "outstanding leadership, innovation, and impact in storage and computer systems research", was named an ACM Fellow for "contributions to storage and computer systems", and was named a Fellow of the AAAS for "distinguished contributions to computer systems research and development of computing systems with concomitant devotion to computing education for everyone". He also was recognized as a distinguished alumnus of the UC Berkeley EECS department for "outstanding innovation in the fields of storage and operating systems and leadership in education and outreach.” Remzi is also a dedicated teacher. He has won the SACM Professor-of-the-Year award seven times, the Rosner "Excellent Educator" award, and the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award. He and Andrea's operating systems book, "Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces" (www.ostep.org)is downloaded millions of times yearly and used at numerous institutions worldwide; despite being freely available online, it has been the top-selling book on Amazon in operating system theory for many years.