Robert Dimpsey, Ph.D. (he/him/his)

Preferred name: Bob

Associate Teaching Professor Emeritus

Robert Dimpsey, Ph.D. (he/him/his)

Preferred name: Bob

Associate Teaching Professor Emeritus

Dr. Robert Dimpsey is an associate teaching professor emeritus at the University of Washington Bothell as well as a software engineer consultant. He received a Ph.D. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dimpsey has worked in many capacities developing industry leading software for IBM and as a partner for Microsoft. Products in which he has had leadership roles in designing and shipping include AIX, Java Virtual Machines, Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation, Azure ServiceBus, and Azure Commerce services. He has consulted with numerous start-ups as well as Microsoft on Cloud-based engineering and security. Dimpsey holds over 30 patents related to his expertise in operating systems, platforms, developer frameworks and tools, software development and high-scale cloud services. Previously he was also an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Austin where he taught Discrete Mathematics. Current areas of interest include computer system performance analysis, and development methodologies and architecture of high-scale cloud-based services.

Education

  • University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
    • Ph.D. – Electrical Engineering
    • M.S. – Electrical Engineering
    • B.S. – Computer Engineering

Courses

  • CSSSKL 342 Programming Issues with Object-Oriented languages
  • CSS 340 Applied Algorithmics
  • CSS 342 Data Structures, Algorithms, and Discrete Math I
  • CSS 343 Data Structures, Algorithms, and Discrete Math II
  • CSS 430 Operating Systems
  • CSS 432 Network Design
  • CSS 436 Cloud Computing
  • CSS 490 Cloud Computing
  • CSS 501 Data Structures and Object-Oriented Programming I
  • CSS 502 Data Structures and Object-Oriented Programming II
  • CSS 503 Systems Programming
  • CSS 566 Software Management

Research and Scholarship Interests

Areas of expertise and focus includes creating highly-available, large-scale Cloud Services for industry level applications; Developer frameworks, platforms and tooling; and Engineering best practices to increase reliability, scalability and security for services which power supply chains and ERP operations.

  • T. Liu, R. Dimpsey, A. Behroozi, and S. Kumaran, Performance Modeling of Business Process Integration Middleware, International Journal of Business Process Integration and Management, 1Q2004.
  • G. Hunt, R. Dimpsey, et. al., Introduction to WebSphere Interchange Server Performance, IBM Red Paper, December 2003.
  • R. Dimpsey, WebSphere Business Integration Performance, IBM Academy of Technology Best Practices Conference on Performance Engineering, June 2003.
  • H. Gunther, R. Dimpsey, Something about WebSphere, IBM Academy of Technology Best Practices Conference on Performance Engineering, June 2001.
  • R. Dimpsey, R. Arora, K. Kuiper, IBM Java Virtual Machines, e-business Application Environment Technical Conference, June 2000.
  • R. Dimpsey, R. Arora, K. Kuiper, Java Server Performance: A Case Study of Building Efficient, Scalable JVMs, IBM System’s Journal, January 2000.
  • S. Baylor, M. Devarkonda, S. Fink, E. Gluzberg, M. Kalantar, P. Muttineni, R. Arora, R. Dimpsey, S. Munroe, Java Server Benchmarks, IBM System’s Journal, January 2000.
  • R. Dimpsey, R. Arora, K. Kuiper, Java Server Performance, IBM Academy of Technology Best Practices Conference on Performance Engineering, September 1999.
  • S. Baylor, R. Dimpsey, E. Gluzberg, P. Muttineni, Current Performance Issues and Future Directions in Java e-business Middleware, IBM Academy Technology e-Business and Middleware Applications, poster session, June 1999.
  • R. Dimpsey and L. Brissette, WARP Server SMP Performance Features, IBM Personal Systems, April 1997.
  • R. Dimpsey and R. Iyer, A Measurement-Based Modeling Technique to Predict the Performance Impact of System Modifications, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, January 1995.
  • R. Dimpsey, Benchmarking the Scalability of Shared Memory Multiprocessors, Compudata, 1994.
  • B. Alexander, R. Dimpsey, and B. Olszewski, The performance of the AIX Operating System on MP, AIXPert, November 1994.
  • R. Dimpsey, SMP Scaling Results, AIXPRESS, September 1993.
  • R. Iyer and R. Dimpsey, Evaluation of parallel processors, Keynote for IEEE Region 10 International Conference on Computers, Communications, and Automaton, November 1992.
  • R. Dimpsey, Performance Evaluation and Modeling Techniques for Parallel Processors, CRHC Technical Document, UILU-ENG-92-2234, University of Illinois, September 1992.
  • R. Dimpsey and R. Iyer, Predicting the Impact of Scheduling Modifications on System Performance: Case Study, Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, January 1992.
  • R. Dimpsey and R. Iyer, Modeling and Measuring Multiprogramming and System Overheads on a Multiprocessor: Case Study, Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, August 1991.
  • R. Dimpsey and R. Iyer, Performance Prediction and Tuning on a Multiprocessor, Proc. of International Symposium on Computer Architecture, May 1991.
  • R. Dimpsey and R. Iyer, Performance Degradation due to Multiprogramming and System Overheads in Real Workloads: Case Study on a Shared Memory Multiprocessor, Proc. Int’l. Conf. on Supercomputers, June 1990.
  • R. Dimpsey and R. Iyer, Multiprogramming Performance Degradation: Case Study, Proc. Int’l. Conference on Parallel Processing, August 1989.
  • R. Dimpsey and R. Iyer, Performance Analysis of a Shared Memory Multiprocessor: Case Study, Proc. Int’l. Conference on Parallel Processing, August 1988.
  • R. Dimpsey, Performance Analysis of the Alliant FX/8 Multiprocessor using Statistical Clustering, CRHC Technical Document, UILU-ENG-88-2255, University of Illinois, June 1986.
  • IBM top Patent Award (11/03)
  • IBM Grant Awards (2/98, 3/99, 7/00, and 6/03)
  • IBM Bravo team Award (10/01)
  • IBM Informal Award for WAS Performance(9/00)
  • IBM Informal Award for Java Performance (4/00)
  • IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Award for Java Performance (2/99)
  • IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Award for Java Performance (11/98)
  • IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Award for WARP SMP (11/96)
  • IBM R3 Award – Three Year Blue Ribbon Award (6/96)
  • IBM Official Award for WARP for PowerPC (6/95)
  • IBM Informal Award for Graphics Performance Enhancements (5/95)
  • IBM Informal Award for AIX memory usage reduction (11/94)
  • Highest Honors Graduate, University of Illinois
  • James Scholar Graduate, University of Illinois
  • Outstanding EE Teaching Assistant, University of Illinois (1986, 1987)
  • Bronze Tablet Recipient, University of Illinois (top 2% of class)
  • 1986 University of Illinois Fellowship Recipient
  • Method for automatic detection of build regressions, US 8,196,115, June 2012.
  • Autonomic test case feedback using hardware assistance for data coverage, US 8,171,457, May, 2012.
  • Method and apparatus for hardware assistance for prefetching a pointer to a data structure identified by a prefetch indicator, US 8,135,915, March 2012.
  • Autonomic test case feedback using hardware assistance for code coverage, 7,926,041, April 2011.
  • Method and apparatus for determining leaks in a Java heap, US 7870170, January 2011.
  • Apparatus and method for dynamic instrumenting of code to minimize system perturbation, US 7,823,129, October 2010.
  • Method and apparatus for hardware awareness of data types, US 7,647,457, January 2010.
  • Method and apparatus for prefetching data from a data structure, US 7,620,777, November 2009.
  • Method and apparatus for prefetching data from a data structure, US 7,526,616, April 2009.
  • Method and apparatus for averaging out variations in run-to-run path data of a computer program, US 7,519,961.
  • Efficient and scalable event partitioning in business integration applications using multiple delivery queues, US 7,509,653, March 2009.
  • Method and apparatus for identifying differences in runs of a computer program due to code changes, US 7,506,330, March 2009.
  • Facilitating non-contiguous allocation of a large object within a java heap, US 7,500,080, March 2009.
  • Method for automatic detection of build regressions, US 7,496,900, February 2009.
  • Method and apparatus for autonomic test case feedback using hardware assistance for code coverage, US 7,480,899, January 2009
  • Method and system for determining memory usage of a heap, US 7,444,481, October 2008.
  • Method and apparatus for autonomic test case feedback using hardware assistance for data coverage, US 7,421,684, September 2008.
  • Method and apparatus for hardware awareness of data types, US 7,386,690, June 2008.
  • Facilitating non-contiguous allocation of a large object within a java heap, US 7,360,053, April 2008.
  • Method and apparatus for implementing assertions in hardware, US 7,328,372, February 2008.
  • Method and apparatus for providing hardware assistance for code coverage, US 7,299,319, November 2007.
  • Method and apparatus for providing hardware assistance for data access coverage on dynamically allocated data, US 7,296,130, November 2007.
  • Method and apparatus for verifying data types to be used for instructions and casting data types if needed, US 7,269,718, September 2007.
  • Method and system for obtaining memory usage information for a heap when a peak live count is updated, US 7,162,605, January 2007.
  • Apparatus and method for dynamic instrumenting of code to minimize system perturbation, US 7,114,150, September 2006.
  • System and method for monitoring software locks, US 7,051,026, May 2006.
  • System and method for compacting a computer system heap, US 7,010,555, March 2006.
  • Multiple mode object locking method and system, US 6,792,601, September 2004.
  • Method and system for low-overhead measurement of per-thread performance information in a multithreaded environment, US 6,656,654, December 2003.
  • System and method for detecting and reordering loading patterns, US 6,421,827, July 2002.

UW Bothell CSS Committee Participation

  • Faculty Search Committee, 2026
  • Undergraduate Admissions Committee, 2021 – 2024
  • Part-time lecturer Committee, 2020-2022
  • Merit Review Committee for Part-time Lecturers and Lecturers,2018
  • Infrastructure Committee, 2017-2019
  • AIX Operating Systems (multiple versions).
  • Java Virtual Machines for AIX, OS/2 (multiple versions).
  • WebSphere.
  • Warp Operating System.
  • OS/2 Operating System.
  • Windows Vista, Nov, 2006.
  • Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0, Nov, 2006.
  • Visual Studio 2008, Nov, 2007.
  • Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, Nov, 2007.
  • SQL Server 2008, Aug, 2008.
  • Visual Studio 2008 SP1, Aug, 2008.
  • Microsoft .NET 3.5 SP1, Aug, 2008.
  • Silverlight 2, Oct, 2008.
  • BizTalk Server 2009, Mar, 2009.
  • Microsoft Silverlight Version 3, June, 2009.
  • Windows 7, June 2009.
  • Windows Server 2008 R2, July, 2009.
  • Visual Studio 2010, Mar, 2010.
  • Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0, Mar, 2010.
  • Microsoft Silverlight Version 4, Apr, 2010.
  • Windows Server AppFabric, Jun, 2010.
  • Visual Studio 2010 SP1, Mar, 2011.
  • Microsoft Communication Protocol Program, May, 2011.
  • Windows Azure 2012 Release, June 2012.
  • Visual Studio 2012, Aug, 2012.
  • Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5, Aug, 2012.
  • Windows Server 2012, Aug, 2012.
  • Service Bus for Windows Server, Oct, 2012.
  • Commerce Platform, Microsoft, 2012 – 2014.
  • Supply Chain Platform, Microsoft Devices, 2017 – 2022.
  • Microsoft Partner Center, 2023 – 2023.