Concurrent programming with locks is hard. Concurrent programming without locks can be really hard. Concurrent programming with relaxed memory ordering and predictable latency is said to be only for wizards. This talk focuses on a decade long quest to discover algorithms which provide very high throughput while keeping latency low and predictable. Additionally, these algorithms and data structures need to provide real-time telemetry on how a system is performing via non-blocking operations.

We will cover some fundamental theory of concurrency and then compare various approaches to the same problem so that we can measure the impact on latency. We'll also show how some of these algorithm implementations get more interesting given the new features in Java 8.

This talk is aimed at programmers interested in advanced concurrency who want to develop algorithms with predictable response times at all levels of throughput which push our modern CPUs to the limit.

What are the characteristics of a good software engineer? It's a topic many people would argue endlessly about. This is not surprising given we are effectively living in the era of software alchemy.

Some of the best programmers draw on strong scientific and engineering background and combine this with craft like coding skills in a virtuous feedback cycle. In this talk we explore the individual practices and techniques that can help bring out the engineer in you.