IP: TechFEST 99 in Allentown

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

TechFEST 99' Honors Global Telecommunication Pioneer


Contact:
July 10, 1999
Contact:        Keith Roberts-Sampson, TechFEST Organizer
                   Lindsay Kay, TechFEST
                Tel: (610)-432-4337
                  http://www.tekfest.com

Allentown, PA  - July 10, 1999 -  – TechFEST `99 is a three-day celebration of 
technology held from July 15-17 in downtown Allentown.  Along with roundtable 
discussions, exhibits, and presentations by world-class information technology 
specialists, several awards will be given out during the event.  Recipients for one such 
award, entitled Innovative Award for Developing the Digital Nervous System, who is 
also TechFEST '99  festival's inaugural speaker, is the globally recognized 
telecommunication expert, David Farber of the University of Pennsylvania..The speech 
will be delivered at the festival's inaugural breakfast at Allentown's Hilton Hotel, 
between 7:30 am to 9:00 pm.  Admission is FREE OF CHARGE.

Appointed by Vice President Gore to be on the US Presidential Advisory 
Committee of Information Technology, by Congressman Curt Weldon, Chairman of the 
House Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Military Research and Development 
to chair the H.U.B.S. advisory council, a critical witness in the landmark Microsoft 
antitrust case and named recently by the prestigious journal Network World as the most 
powerful 25,  DAVID J. FARBER is the Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of 
Telecommunication Systems at the University of Pennsylvania holding appointments in 
the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering departments. He was responsible for 
the design of the DCS system, one of the first operational message based fully distributed 
systems and is one of the authors of the SNOBOL programming language. He was one of 
the principals in the creation and implementation of CSNet, NSFNet, BITNET II, and 
CREN. He was instrumental in the creation of the NSF/DARPA funded Gigabit Network 
Testbed Initiative and served as the Chairman of the Gigabit Testbed Coordinating 
Committee. His background includes positions at the Bell Labs, the Rand Corp, Xerox 
Data Systems, UC Irvine and the University of Delaware. In addition, he is a Fellow of 
the IEEE and serves on the Board of Directors of both the Electronic Frontier Foundation 
and the Internet Society. He was a 10 year alumni of the Computer Science and 
Telecommunications Board (CSTB) of the US National Research Council. He is is a 
Fellow of the Japan Glocom Institute and of the Cyberlaw Institute. He is the Founder 
and Editor of the influential network newspaper Interesting People with a readership of 
over 20,000. He serves on many industrial Advisory Boards including AT&T, COM21, 
Covad, Intertrust , Metricom and Torrent. He also holds an honorary Doctor of Science  from
and is a member of the Board of Trustees of Stevens Institute of Technology of Hoboken, 
New Jersey.

Unquestionably, David Farber's lifetime significant pioneering work  in 
telecommunications and his vision of electronic communication, will have impact the 
world in the 21st century.  It is therefore fitting that as the 1999 is drawing to a close, 
David Farber will deliver his speech in this technology extravaganza.




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