J.L. Keedy

Short Biography of Professor Keedy

For a longer biography click here.

Professor Keedy was born and spent his childhood in Leeds, England. After leaving school he worked as a tax official in Leeds, Wakefield and Cardiff (where he was responsible inter alia for the tax assessments of the British Prime Minister).

From 1961 to 1964 he studied theology at King's College, University of London (awarded Bachelor of Divinity (Honours); Associate of King's College). After a postgraduate year (1964-65) as a World Council of Churches Scholar at the University of Mainz, West Germany, he returned to Trinity College, University of Oxford (1965), where he completed a Doctor of Philosophy in theology.

In 1968 he joined International Computers Ltd. in Kidsgrove as a maintenance programmer (System 4 J operating system). After a further period as a senior programmer and project leader (System 4 Multijob operating system), he became a Design Consultant and a member of the central design team for the new ICL 2900 Series VME operating system.

In 1974 he became a Lecturer (later Senior Lecturer) in the Department of Computer Science at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, where he established the Monads Project. During his time at Monash he completed a self-supervised PhD in computer science.

In 1982 he became a full Professor of Operating Systems at the Technical University of Darmstadt in West Germany, and the first Director of its Institute of System Architecture.

In 1985 he returned to Australia as Foundation Professor of Computer Science at the University of Newcastle, N.S.W. where he established a new Department of Computer Science and introduced the first Bachelor of Computer Science degree in an Australian university.

In 1988 he returned for family reasons to Germany, where he became full Professor of Practical Computer Science at the University of Bremen.

From 1993 to 2005 he held the position of full Professor of Computer Structures at the University of Ulm, Germany. From 1998 to 2008 he held an honorary appointment as Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University (Melbourne, Australia), and then Honorary Professor in the same Faculty. In 2002 he became a Conjoint Professor at the University of Newcastle, N.S.W. and from 2006 a Guest Professor at the University of Bremen, Germany.

He retired from the University of Ulm in 2005 and from then until 2015 he spent a half of each year in Germany and the other half in Australia. During this time he recruited German students for Monash University, helping German students to obtain advanced standing for their German lectures, allowing them to complete a degree at an Australian university in two semesters. In 2015 he returned permanently to Bremen in Germany.

While at Ulm he started two major research projects. One of these is a secure operating system project known as SPEEDOS, the other an object- and component-oriented programming language TIMOR.

Since his retirement in 2005 Prof Keedy has spent much of his time working on SPEEDOS and TIMOR. During this time he has completed a description of TIMOR, which can be downloaded from the TIMOR website (https://www.timor-programming.org/). Above all, he has also devised a straightforward way to support capabilities on a slightly modified RISC architecture, thus opening up the promise of building computer systems which are both secure and fast. He has also completed a 2-volume book describing how a SPEEDOS system could use such an environment to solve the confinement problem (i.e. the problem of ensuring that information and programs can be confined to access only by those for whom they are intended) and thus provide a much more secure operating system than currently exists. The relevant papers and books can be downloaded from the SPEEDOS website (https://www.speedos-security.org/).

Prof. Keedy is also interested in some of the problems facing modern society, and may later publish his results on this website.

For a longer biography click here.

Research Interests

  • Computer Architecture
  • Operating Systems
  • Software Engineering
  • Persistent Systems
  • Secure Systems
  • Object-oriented Language Design

Some of the research highlights in Prof. Keedy's career can be found by clicking here.

Teaching

  • Computer Architecture
  • Operating Systems
  • Software Engineering
  • Publications

The following is a selection of the most recent publications. For a longer publication list click here.

Keedy, J.L., Menger, G. and Heinlein, C. "Support for Subtyping and Code Re-use in Timor", 40th International Conference on Technology of Object-Oriented Languages and Systems (TOOLS Pacific 2002), Sydney, Australia, 2002, Conferences in Research and Practice in Information Technology, vol. 10, pp. 35-43.

Keedy, J.L., Menger, G. and Heinlein, C. "Inheriting from a Common Abstract Ancestor in Timor," Journal of Object Technology (http://www.jot.fm/) , 2002, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 81-106.

Keedy, J.L., Menger, G., Heinlein, C. and Henskens, F. "Qualifying Types Illustrated by Synchronisation Examples," Net.ObjectDays, Erfurt, Germany, 2002, pp. 334-348.

Keedy, J.L., Menger, G. and Heinlein, C. "Taking Information Hiding Seriously in an Object Oriented Context," Net.ObjectDays, Erfurt, Germany, 2003, pp. 51-65.

Keedy, J.L., Menger, G., Heinlein, C. and Henskens, F. "Qualifying Types Illustrated by Synchronisation Examples," in Objects, Components, Architectures, Services and Applications for a Networked World, International Conference NetObjectDays, NODe 2002, Erfurt, Germany , vol. LNCS 2591, M. Aksit, M. Mezini, and R. Unland, Eds.: Springer, 2003, pp. 330-344, http://link.springer.de/link/service/series/0558/papers/ 2591/ 25910330.pdf.

Keedy, J.L., Espenlaub, K., Menger, G. and Heinlein, C. "Qualifying Types with Bracket Methods in Timor," Journal of Object Technology , vol. 3, no. 1, http://www.jot.fm/issues/issue_2004_01/article1, 2004, pp. 101-121.

Keedy, J.L. and Espenlaub, K. "Security through Bracket Routines", Frühjahrstreffen der GI/ITG-Fachgruppe Betriebssysteme, March 2004, Ulm

Keedy, J.L., Heinlein, C. and G. Menger, G. "Reuse Variables: Reusing Code and State in Timor," 8th International Conference on Software Reuse, ICSR 2004, Madrid, 2004, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 3107, Springer Verlag, Berlin, pp. 205-214, http://www.springerlink.com/content/vh35l5ulhhmyk39x/?p=bac45e4a92a2433f9a6bb13aad40781b&pi=12.

Keedy, J.L., Menger, G. and Heinlein, C. "Inheriting Multiple and Repeated Parts in Timor," Journal of Object Technology, vol. 3, no. 10, http://www.jot.fm/issues/issue_2004_11/article1, pp. 99-120, 2004.

Keedy, J.L., Menger, G. and Heinlein, C. "Diamond Inheritance and Attribute Types in Timor," Journal of Object Technology, vol. 3, no. 10, http://www.jot.fm/issues/issue_2004_11/article2, pp. 121-142, 2004.

Keedy, J.L., Espenlaub, K., Menger, G., Heinlein, C. and Evered, M. "Statically Qualified Types in Timor," Journal of Object Technology, vol. 4, no. 7, http://www.jot.fm/issues/issue_2005_9/article5, 2005, pp. 115-137.

Keedy, J. L., Espenlaub, K., Menger, G. and Heinlein, C. "Call-out Bracket Methods in Timor," Journal of Object Technology, vol. 5, no. 1, http://www.jot.fm/issues/issue_2006_01/article1, pp. 51-67, 2006.

Keedy, J.L., Espenlaub, K., Heinlein, C., Menger, G., Henskens, F. and Hannaford, M. "Support for Object Oriented Transactions in Timor," Journal of Object Technology, vol. 5, no. 2, http://www.jot.fm/issues/issue_2006_03/article1, pp. 103-124, 2006.

J. L. Keedy, K. Espenlaub, C. Heinlein, and G. Menger, "Persistent Objects and Capabilities in Timor," Journal of Object Technology, vol. 6, no. 4, May-June 2007, http://www.jot.fm/issues/issue_2007_05/article3, pp. 103-123, 2007.

J. L. Keedy, K. Espenlaub, C. Heinlein, and G. Menger, "Persistent Processes, Distribution and Protection in Timor," Journal of Object Technology, vol. 6, no. 6, July-August 2007, http://www.jot.fm/issues/issue_2007_07/article2, pp. 91-108, 2007.

J. L. Keedy, K. Espenlaub, C. Heinlein, and G. Menger, "Security and Protection in Timor Programs", Journal of Object Technology, Vol. 7, No. 4, May-June 2008, http://www.jot.fm/issues/issue_2008_05/article3/ pp 123-138, 2008.

J. L. Keedy, G. Menger and C. Heinlein, "Types and Co-Types in Timor", Journal of Object Technology, vol. 8, no. 7, November-December 2009, pp. 37-58
http://www.jot.fm/issues/issue_2009_11/column4/ (reviewed guest paper)

J. L. Keedy, G. Menger and C. Heinlein, "Covariantly Adjusting Co-Types in Timor", Journal of Object Technology, Vol 9. No. 1, January-February 2010, pp 35-55
http://www.jot.fm/issues/issue_2010_01/column4/ (reviewed guest paper)

J.L. Keedy, "S-RISC - Adding Security to RISC Systems", published and downloadable on the SPEEDOS website, 2023 (https://www.speedos-security.org/)

J.L. Keedy, "Making Computers Secure - volume 1 (250 pages), published and downloadable on the SPEEDOS website, 2023 (https://www.speedos-security.org/)

J.L. Keedy, "Making Computers Secure - volume 2 (391 pages) published and downloadable on the SPEEDOS website, 2023 (https://www.speedos-security.org/)

J.L. Keedy, "TIMOR-An Object- and Component Oriented Language" (196 pages), published and downloadable on the TIMOR website, 2023 (https://www.timor-programming.org/)