IMUG 9/18, 7PM: Chinese Sequence Code September 18, 2008

Topic: Chinese Sequence Code – An Innovative Solution for Sorting and Indexing

Speaker: David Chai, Ph.D. (retired; formerly with Bell Labs / Bellcore)

Unlike alphabet-based languages, Chinese ideographs do not have a "natural" sorting sequence. The 16-bit internal codes that are currently used in computers are essentially randomly assigned. As a consequence, one cannot sort Chinese text, such as names in a column of a spreadsheet, nor produce a sorted index of a book written in Chinese.

The Chinese Sequence Code (CSC) provides an algorithm that maps every Chinese character that is internally represented by a standard 16-bit GB code [for simplified Chinese], Big5 code [for traditional Chinese] or Unicode [an international standard for multiple languages, including simplified and traditional Chinese] into a unique alphabetic sequence using the 26 English letters and 10 Arabic numbers, based on the sound and the shape of each character. The methodology that produces such a mapping was co-invented by Dr. Sing Lin and Dr. Andrew Soong and has received a patent from both the US Patent and Trademark Office and China's State Intellectual Property Office in Beijing.

David Chai retired from Bell Labs / Bellcore after 30 years of service. He moved to the Bay Area in 2004 to be close to his children and grandchildren. Besides technical work, he volunteered in his local community of Holmdel, NJ, by serving on its Planning Board and Zoning Board. He was also elected as a Council member and served as its Mayor. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for a number of non-profit organizations in the Bay Area. He has a Bachleor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Michigan. He lives in Foster City.

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HOW TO ATTEND:

Location: Apple Computer, Apple Campus, 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino

Admission: $4; free for IMUG members

Directions:

See links to Google/Yahoo/Microsoft Maps here:
http://www.imug.org/events/

Take the Saratoga/Sunnyvale Rd. [De Anza Blvd.] exit off 280,
turn south into Cupertino, go one block and turn left onto Mariani
Avenue, then take another left into 1 Infinite Loop. An IMUG
volunteer will be at the front door to escort you in and direct you
to the correct room (usually the Singapore Room).

Please arrive by 7:10 PM, as the front door to the building is not
monitored after this time.

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