Speaker: Prof. Nitish Thakor (Johns Hopkins University)

Title: Signals and Systems, Chips and Circuits for Brain Machine Interface.

Abstract: Brain machine interface (BMI) is an exciting new frontier, attempt to link brain and is profound activity to machines, whether computers, robots or prosthetic limbs. In order to achieve this goal, we need a comprehensive solution, involving a full gamut of engineering tools and techniques: signals analysis of brain waves (from neurons and whole brain), systems analysis to develop algorithms to decode brain information and achieve closed loop control, chips and circuits to implement a full interface ranging from microelectrodes to microcircuits. My talk will review these technologies, state of the art solutions and then present a complete brain machine interface system for interfacing upper limb multi-fingered dexterous hand prosthesis to brain. Our overall goal is to achieve neural control of this dexterous hand prosthesis. I will present the challenges and opportunities for this research and also discuss other novel applications and ideas to foster further interdisciplinary research.

Speaker: Prof S. Jagannathan (University of Missouri-Rolla)

Title: Energy Efficient Protocols for Wireless Ad hoc and Sensor Networks: A Computational Intelligence Perspective

Abstract: The huge commercial success of wireless communications along with the emerging popularity of IP-based multimedia applications are the major driving forces behind the next generation (3/4/5G) evolution wherein data, voice and video are brought into wireless networks that require diverse quality of service (QoS). An adhoc network, which does not need any fixed infrastructure, has many applications including home and personal area networking, sensor networking, search and rescue missions, weather prediction, and so on.

In modern wireless networks, distributed power control (DPC) of transmitters allows interfering communications sharing the same channel to achieve the required QoS levels. Available power control protocols are efficient in combating disturbances such as path loss, and user interferences that are of small magnitude, whereas they are ineffective during fading channel conditions while consuming excessive power. Assuring QoS to wireless users requires suitable energy efficient protocols in the presence of fading channels and unknown congestion levels. In this talk, novel energy efficient protocols for distributed power control and rate adaptation will be presented using adaptive dynamic programming based computational intelligence paradigm. Computational intelligence is the study of adaptive mechanisms to enable or facilitate intelligent behavior in complex systems under changing environments. These mechanisms include paradigms that exhibit the ability to learn or adapt to new situations and therefore play a key role in the design of energy efficient protocols. Extensions to energy efficient routing and scheduling will be presented. Using these schemes, it will be demonstrated that the QoS requirements will be met when compared to available protocols. Finally, open problems in wireless ad hoc and sensor networking protocols from a computational intelligence perspective will be discussed.

Bio: S. Jagannathan received his Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from College of Engineering, Guindy at Anna University, Madras India in 1987, the Master of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada in 1989, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas in 1994. During 1986 to 1987, he was a junior engineer at Engineers India Limited, New Delhi, as a Research Associate and Instructor from 1990 to 1991, at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg Canada, and worked at Systems and Controls Research Division, in Caterpillar Inc., Peoria as a consultant during 1994 to 1998. During 1998 to 2001 he was at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and since September 2001, he is at the University of Missouri-Rolla where he is currently a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Site Director for the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center on Intelligent Maintenance Systems. He has coauthored more than 190 refereed conference and juried journal articles and several book chapters and three books entitled "Neural network control of robot manipulators and nonlinear systems", published by Taylor & Francis, London in 1999, "Discrete-time neural network control of nonlinear discrete-time systems" published by CRC Press, April 2006 and "Wireless ad hoc and sensor networks: performance, protocols and control" published by CRC Press in April 2007. His research interests include adaptive and neural network control, computer/communication/sensor networks, prognostics, and autonomous systems/robotics. Dr. Jagannathan received several gold medals, and research and teaching excellence awards. He currently holds 17 patents and many are in process. He is currently serving as the Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, IEEE Journals on Systems Engineering

Speaker: Prof. Vijay Varadan (Pennsylvania State University)

Title: Multifunctional intelligent nanosensors, organic electronics and systems for health monitoring of engineering structures and neurological disorders in human; can we get smarter?

Abstract: The term 'health monitoring' is used commonly in both medical and engineering fields. With the recent developments in nanotechnology, flexible organic electronics, wireless technology and suitable integration packaging, one could find a technology that is useful for both in medicine and engineering. Such an integration of nanosensors on flexible polymeric substrates, and required microelectronics and conformal antennas to realize programmable, robust and low cost microsensors and systems suitable for monitoring and control of neurological disorders in human and health monitoring of many engineering structures and systems including aircraft, rotor blades, wind turbine will be presented in this paper. Nanotechnology has been broadly defined as the one for not only the creation of functional materials and devices as well as systems through control of matter at the scale of 1-100 nm, but also the exploitation of novel properties and phenomena at the same scale. Growing needs in the point-of-care (POC) that is an increasing market for improving patient's quality of life, are driving the development of nanotechnologies for diagnosis and treatment of various life threatening diseases. This talk addresses the recent development of nanodiagnostic sensors and nanotherapeutic devices with functionalized carbon nanotube and/or nanowire on a flexible polymer based thin film electronics to monitor and control of the three leading diseases namely 1) neurodegenerative diseases, 2) cardiovascular diseases, and 3) diabetes and metabolic diseases. The sensors developed include implantable and biocompatible devices, light weight wearable devices in wrist-watches, hats, shoes and clothes. The nanotherapeutics devices include nanobased drug delivery system. Many of these sensors are integrated with the wireless systems for the remote physiological monitoring. The author's research team has also developed a wireless neural probe using nanowires and nanotubes for monitoring and control of Parkinson's disease. Light weight and compact EEG, EOG and EMG monitoring system in a hat developed is capable of monitoring real time epileptic patients and patients with neurological and movement disorders using the Internet and cellular network. Physicians could be able to monitor these signals in real-time using portable computers or cell phones and will give early warning signal if these signals cross a pre-determined threshold level. With the emerging wireless technology, these sensors could be read wireless by Palm Pilot, Laptop computer, cell phone, and GPS. Analogous application of health monitoring to engineering structures will also be presented.

A sensor-in-shoe demonstration will be performed at the talk and movies on selected surgery on patients for monitoring and control of neurological disorder, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, etc will be presented.

Bio:
Twenty First Century Endowed Chair in Nano- and Bio-Technologies and Medicine
Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering
Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Professor of Neurosurgery, College of Medicine
Director, Center for Nano-,Bio-and Info-Tech Sensors and Systems
Director, High Density Electronics Center (HiDEC)
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
&
Professor of Neurosurgery, College of Medicine
Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA

Speaker: Ronald Mahler (Lockheed Martin Tactical Systems)

Title: Random set information fusion: State of the art.

Abstract: The emergence of unconventional defense and security challenges has greatly increased the need for fusing and exploiting unconventional and highly disparate forms of information, ranging from radar to attributes, features, natural-language statements, and inference rules. Finite-set statistics (FISST) is the result of a decade-long effort to address such challenges. It is a seamless, systematic, and novel extension of formal Bayes modeling and the recursive Bayes filter to multitarget and non-traditional information. This seamless unification includes: (1) a unified theory of measurements; (2) unified mathematical representation of uncertainty, including randomness, imprecision, vagueness, ambiguity, contingency, etc.; (3) a unified single- and multi-target modeling methodology based on generalized likelihood functions; (4) a unification of much of expert systems theory, including fuzzy, Bayes, Dempster-Shafer, and rule-based techniques; (5) unified and optimal multitarget detection and estimation; (6) unified and optimal fusion of disparate information; and (7) a systematic multitarget calculus for devising principled new approximation strategies such as the so-called PHD and CPHD filters. FISST has attracted much international interest in a relatively short time. FISST-based research efforts are in progress in at least a dozen nations. FISST-based algorithms are being or have been investigated under more than a dozen basic and applied R&D contracts from U.S. Department of Defense agencies such as the Army Research Office (ARO), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the Navy SPAWAR Systems Center, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration (DARPA), and four different sites of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Typical applications to which FISST is being applied include passive-acoustic target identification, multitarget detection and tracking, group and cluster tracking, distributed multitarget tracking, multistatic tracking, bearing-only tracking, multi-user detection in communications networks, sensor management, management of dispersed mobile sensors, robust automatic target recognition, and scientific performance evaluation. In this presentation I briefly summarize the current state of art, practice, and application of random set information fusion techniques.

Bio: Since 1991 Dr. Mahler's research has been focused on data fusion, expert systems, multitarget tracking, sensor management, nonlinear filtering, random set theory, and conditional event algebra. Since 1994 his primary work has been based on "finite-set statistics," a mathematically rigorous random set-based extension of ordinary statistics to multitarget, multisensor problems. He has applied this theory to develop a unified, probabilistic approach to data fusion, and has transitioned this work into a number of DoD applied R&D projects. This work includes a unified expert-systems theory, and a fundamentally new paradigm for multitarget detection and tracking called the "PHD/CPHD filter." His research is being pursued by other research teams in several nations, including Australia, Britain, Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.S. The Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) has mounted a serious effort.

Since 1995 he has authored five dozen papers, two books, and one monograph in such subjects, including ten journal papers. His latest book is Statistical Multisource-Mulititarget Information Fusion, published by Artech House Publishers in March 2007. He was principal organizer, co-chair, and proceedings co-editor (Springer-Verlag 1997) for an Aug. 1996 scientific workshop on random sets, jointly sponsored by ONR, USARO, and LMTS. He has been invited to serve on technology planning workshops for AFRL/IF, BMDO/POET, SPAWAR SSC, and for the Electronics Division of the Army Research Office, and as a reviewer of the DARPA Dynamic Data Base (DDB) project.

He has been invited to speak at many conferences, universities, and DoD labs, including Harvard, Johns Hopkins, the University of Massachusetts (Amherst), the USAF Institute of Technology, SPAWAR Systems Center, the USAF Correlation and Tracking Symposium, the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, the SPIE AeroSense Conference, and the National Symposium on Sensor and Data Fusion.

In particular, he has given an invited two-day tutorial in February 2002 at the International Conference on Information, Decision, and Control (Adelaide, Australia); a half-day invited tutorial at the 2002 International Conference on Information Fusion (Annapolis); a one-hour invited tutorial at the IEEE Workshop on Multitarget Tracking (Madison WI); an invited tutorial in the Jan. 2004 IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine; and a plenary keynote presentation at the 2004 International Conference on Information Fusion (Stockholm).

Speaker: Mohan Trivedi (UCSD)

Title: Holistic Perception and Dynamic Displays for Active Safety

Abstract: The primary goal of intelligent driver support systems should be to provide effective warnings and alarms to the drivers to enhance safe driving. We will discuss multidisciplinary research activities focused on the design and evaluation of new types of Intelligent Driver Support Systems and their components. Systematic efforts to understand and characterize driver behavior and ethnography surrounding the task of driving are essential in the development of human-centric driver assistance systems. Novel instrumented vehicles are used for conducting experiments, where the rich contextual information about vehicle dynamics, surround and driver state are captured for careful, detailed ethnographic studies, as well as realistic data for developing algorithms to analyze multi sensory signals for active safety. In this presentation, we will provide a systems-oriented framework for developing multimodal sensing, inferencing algorithms and human-vehicle interfaces for safer automobiles. We will consider three main components of the system, driver, vehicle, and vehicle surround. We will discuss various issues and ideas for developing models for these main components as well as activities associated with the complex task of safe driving. The presentation will include discussion of novel sensory systems and algorithms for capturing not only the dynamic surround information of the vehicle but also the state, intent and activity patterns of drivers. We will also introduce a new type of visual display called "dynamic active display". These displays present visual information to the driver where driving view and safety-critical visual icons are presented to the driver in a manner that minimizes deviation of her gaze direction without adding to unnecessary visual clutter. These contributions indicate the basic promise the "human-centric active safety" (HCAS) systems in enhancing the safety and comfort of automobile based travel.

Bio: Mohan Manubhai Trivedi is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the founding Director of the Computer Vision and Robotics Research Laboratory at the University of California in San Diego. Trivedi has a broad range of research interests in the intelligent systems, computer vision, intelligent ("smart") environments, intelligent vehicles and transportation systems and human-machine interfaces areas. In partnership with several automobile companies, he established the Laboratory for Intelligent and Safe Automobiles ("LISA") at UCSD to pursue a multidisciplinary research agenda. Mohan served on the Executive Committee of the California Inst. for Telecommunication and Information Technologies [Cal-IT2] as the leader of the Intelligent Transportation and Telematics Layer at UCSD and he is elected Vice-Chair of the University of California System Wide UC Discovery Digital Media Program. Trivedi was the Editor-in-Chief of the Machine Vision and Applications (1996-2004) and is an Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems. He served as the Chairman of the Robotics Technical Committee of the IEEE Computer Society and Program Co-Chair of the 2006 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium. Trivedi has received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Utah State University, Pioneer Award (Technical Activities) and Meritorious Service Award from the IEEE Computer Society. Mohan serves regularly as a consultant to industry and government agencies in the USA and abroad.

Speaker: Hugh F. Durrant-Whyte (Sydney University)

Title: Maximal Information Systems

Abstract: Information provides a quantitative metric for describing the value of individual systems components in autonomous systems tasks such as tracking, mapping and navigation, search and exploration; tasks in which the objective is information gain in some form. An information model is an abstraction of system capabilities in an anonymous form which allows a priori reasoning on the system itself. By construction, information measures have properties of composability and additivity and thus provides a natural means of modelling and describing large scale systems of systems.

This talk will begin by describing how information measures arise naturally in autonomous tracking, mapping and navigation, search and exploration tasks. It is then demonstrated that the performance of individual sensors and platforms can be modelled using these information measures and that system-level performance metrics can be computed. These ideas are illustrated in a series of tasks involving mixed air and ground autonomous systems. These include flight-tests of cooperative UAVs engaged in tracking and navigation tasks, mixed UAV, ground vehicles and human operatives, engaged in mapping and picture compilation operations, and operations involving multi-platform search in constrained environments. In each, it is shown how information provides both a performance metric and design objective underpinning large-scale systems of systems operation.

Bio: Hugh Durrant-Whyte received the B.Sc. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of London, U.K., in 1983, and the M.S.E. and Ph.D. degrees, both in Systems Engineering, from the University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A., in 1985 and 1986, respectively. From 1987 to 1995, he was a Lecturer in Engineering Science, the University of Oxford, U.K. From 1995 to 2002 he was Professor of Mechatronic Engineering at University of Sydney. In 2002 he was awarded an inaugural Australian Research Council (ARC) Federation Fellowship. He also now leads the ARC Centre of Excellence in Autonomous Systems. His research work focuses on autonomous vehicle navigation and decentralised data fusion methods. His work in applications includes automation in cargo handling, mining, defence, and marine systems. He has published over 300 technical papers and has won numerous awards and prizes for his work. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Technical Sciences, a Fellow of the IEEE and an IEEE Robotics Society Distinguished Lecturer.

Speaker: Alex Zelinsky (CSIRO)

Title: Real World Problems Driving a Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Sensor Network Solutions

Abstract: Australia like many countries around the world is facing major challenges associated with the environment particularly around the sustainable use of natural resources - water and energy. Industries such as agriculture which account for a significant portion of the GDP in most developed countries must adapt to the new circumstances. However, managing farms, particularly large-scale extensive farming systems, is hindered by lack of data and increasing shortage of labour. Wireless sensor networks is a key technology for the next generation of environmental monitoring and management systems that for the farms of tomorrow.

CSIRO has developed Sensor Networks technology with high reliability. Our technology has shown two years of continuous outdoor operations in an ad-hoc network that has faced diverse weather conditions. Building such systems helped solve the problem of how to program and deploy much larger wireless sensor networks. Systems are now being deployed that do real work in agricultural applications. One example includes monitoring salinity in irrigation. The sensor network advises local sugar cane farmers of the point at which water becomes too saline to use for irrigation, thus saving water, time, money and crops. Another major area of applications for sensor networks is the monitoring and management of water resources. Knowing how much water is available is important to determine appropriate usage patterns for irrigation while maintaining environment flows. To support a broad range of monitoring tasks reliability is essential. Our sensor networks can measures environmental variables such as temperature, soil moisture, water quality, humidity and solar energy levels. Charged by miniature solar panels, these sensor nodes can exchange data to deliver it back to a central database for analysis.

We have recently deployed a large heterogeneous sensor network on a working farm to explore sensor network applications. The current deployment consists of over 40 moisture sensors that provide soil moisture profiles at varying depths, weight sensors to compute the amount of food and water consumed by animals, electronic tag readers, up to 40 sensors that can be used to track movement of cattle (consisting of GPS, compass and accelerometers), and 20 sensor/actuators that can be used to apply different stimuli (audio, vibration and mild electric shock) to the animals. The static part of the network is designed for 24/7 operation and is linked to the Internet via a dedicated high-gain radio link, also solar powered. The initial goals of the deployment are to provide a test bed for sensor network research in programmability and data handling while also being a vital tool for scientists to study animal behaviour. Our longer term aim is to create a management system that completely transforms the way farms are managed.

This talk will discuss the sensor network platforms that have developed at CSIRO and how the challenges posed by real world application problems are driving the technology solutions.

Bio: Dr Alex Zelinsky is Director of the CSIRO ICT Centre. With 250 research professionals, the Centre is responsible for developing Information and Communication Technologies that deliver the benefits of innovation to industry and position Australia to compete globally. The centre has developed a world class technology platform for sensor networks. The platform is being applied to underpin cross-disciplinary research across the CSIRO - particularly in distributed energy, health, agriculture and environment applications.

Prior to joining CSIRO in July 2004, Dr Zelinsky was Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Seeing Machines Pty Limited and a Professor at the Australian National University in the Research School of Information Sciences and Engineering. He is extensively published and is internationally recognised as a leader in the fields of Robotics and Computer Vision. Dr Zelinsky is well known for the commercialisation of his ground-breaking research into computer vision systems.

Dr Zelinsky has worked in the computer industry and has had extensive experience developing leading edge technologies for global markets. He has received numerous national and international awards for his work including:

• Australian Engineering Excellence Awards (1999, 2001)
• Australian Eureka Science Prize (2002)
• US R&D magazine Top 100 Award (2002).

In 2002-2004 Dr. Zelinsky was selected as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. In 2005 Dr Zelinsky was awarded a Clunies Ross Award for Science and Technology Innovation.

Dr Zelinsky serves as a Director on the Board of Funnelback Pty Limited and Epicorp Limited - a leading incubator of ICT technology. He is also a contributor to Australian ICT industry and government advisory boards, and a member of the AEEMA - ICT Australia Board of Management, and a member of the ICT Advisory Board to the Federal Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan.

Speaker: Prof. Sally Holbrook (UCSD)

Title: Environmental Sensor Networks on Coral Reefs: Scientific Needs and Technological Challenges

Abstract: Coral reef ecosystems are the major diversity hotspot of the ocean, containing about one fourth of all marine species despite comprising much less than one percent of the ocean bottom. However, they are highly susceptible to perturbations that range from short term, relatively localized disturbances to more chronic, widespread influences of shifts in climate. Due to their immense ecological and economic value and sensitivity to climate forcing, there is major concern that coral reefs could undergo sweeping changes in the coming decades. Scientists are seeking to identify environmental drivers that affect coral reef ecosystems and understand the biological mechanisms of change; such knowledge potentially could lead to more effective management and conservation actions. Environmental observing systems are a key component of this effort, because they can provide insight into physical, chemical and biological processes that underlie change in coral reef ecosystems. Environmental observing science is being transformed by development and deployment of new sensors and sensor networks with real time streaming data capability. A major challenge is for technology development to better meet the logistical and scientific needs of environmental scientists working in marine ecosystems. These include rapid access to and sharing of data, underwater wireless data transmission, real time data streaming, and development of new or refined smart sensors to measure critical physical, chemical and biological attributes of reef environments at a wide range of relevant spatial and temporal scales.

Bio: Sally L. Holbrook is a professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Over the past 5 years she has published more than 90 papers. She has held the following positions:

Speaker: Ian Marshall (Lancaster University, UK)

Title: Design and implementation of a heterogeneous distributed sensing system to characterise dynamic processes in upland peat

Abstract: In many parts of the UK uplands peat is the dominant soil type. The peat is subject to biological, sedimentary and hydraulic processes, all of which are both interdependent and strongly coupled with local atmospheric processes and human activity. Characterisation of the processes requires synchronous long term monitoring (years), of all the relevant observables, at fine spatial scale, over carefully chosen representative areas.

We have designed, and built preliminary implementations of, an event based system designed to characterise activity at three upland sites in the UK with varying degrees of historic human intervention. The final system will consist of several hundred sensors that collectively monitor weather, soil hydrology, soil erosion and deposition, stream water quality and quantity, and large fauna and flora. An extremely diverse range of sensors is required, which must all be low cost and robust. Communication needs are also heterogeneous, but since sites are static, can be supported by conventional existing network solutions.

Key design challenges include match to application needs, robustness, ease of deployment, ease of maintenance and data fusion from quantitative and qualitative sources. In this talk the application will be described in more detail, along with the initial solutions to the challenges raised and the preliminary results from early deployment trials. The talk will then discuss the design methodology highlighting the need for end-user involvement and the need for models designed to address end-user needs. This work is part of the EPSRC DIAS project, which is aiming to provide improved tool support for design of distributed sensing systems. The first generation of DIAS tools will be outlined, and their role in the design methodology will be described.

Speaker: Anibal Ollero (University of Seville, Spain)

Title: Integration of UAVs and Wireless Sensor Networks. The European AWARE project.

Abstract: The integration of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) offers many potentialities. The mobility of the UAVs in field applications is useful to improve the information collected by the WSN and the connectivity of the network. On the other hand, WSNs can provide information from locations that are not accessible to the UAVs.

This presentation will explore the possibilities of the integration of UAVs and WSNs with static and mobile nodes for applications such as surveillance, detection and localization of alarms, and tracking of mobile targets.

The AWARE project funded by the European Commission will be presented. The AWARE platform has been designed to offer self-deploying and self-repairing features of the network by means of autonomous helicopters. These features are very relevant in environments without pre-existing infrastructure or when this infrastructure is damaged or even completely destroyed.

Results of the first general AWARE experiments will be presented including detection and tracking functionalities by the cooperation of UAVs with on-board cameras, ground static camera nodes and the nodes of the wireless sensor network. Furthermore, techniques for the localisation of the WSN nodes by using an UAV, and preliminary node deployment experiments will be described.

Bio: Anibal Ollero received his Electrical Engineering degree (1976) and the Doctor Engineer degree (1980) with doctoral award from the University of Seville. He worked in an engineering office and was assistant professor at the University of Seville (1976-1980). Later he was full professor at the Spanish Universities of Santiago de Compostela in Vigo (Head of Department and Vice-Director of the Engineering School), Malaga (Head of two Departments and Director of the Engineering School). He has been also "stagiere" at the Laboratoire d'Automatique et d'Analyse des Systemes (LAAS-CNRS), Toulouse, France (1979), and visiting scientist (1990-1991) at the Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA. Since December 1992 he is Professor at the University of Seville where he has been Vice-Director of the Engineering School. He is currently leading a Research and Development Group with more than 30 members.

He has R&D activities mainly in robotics, control, and autonomous systems in general. In the last years he is leading European and Spanish projects on unmanned aerial and ground vehicles, coordination of multiple autonomous systems, environment perception, and distributed systems. Currently he is coordinator of the European FP6 IST Project AWARE on the integration of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and the Wireless Sensor and actuator Networks. He developed prototypes, industrial products and control/automation applications for aeronautics, space, agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, forest fire fighting, optical tracking systems, wind turbine generator control and others. He participated or leaded 91 R&D projects including 14 projects funded by the European Commission. He is the author of two books on computer control ("Premio Mundo Electronico" Spanish award) and robotics, co-author of the book "Intelligent Mobile Robot Navigation" (Springer Star), editor/co-editor of 8 books, including the recent Multiple Heterogeneous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Springer Star, 2007), and author/co-author of about 350 papers in journals, book chapters, and conference Proceedings. He is also co-author of three patents.

Professor Ollero is Vice-Chair of the Technical Board of IFAC and has been Chair of the Coordinating Committee of "Mechatronics, Robotics and Components" (02-05), Chair of the Coordinating Committee on "Manufacturing and Instrumentation" (99-02), Chair of the Technical Committee on "Components and Instruments" (93-99), and Chair of the Working Group on "Intelligent Components and Instruments" (91-93).

Professor Ollero is the recipient of 8 national and international awards.

Speaker: Bhaskar Krishnamachari (Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California)

Title: Modeling communication in wireless sensor networks

Abstract: The art of modeling lies in finding simple yet faithful abstractions of reality. I will present some empirically-validated communication models that are tractable enough to be useful in designing, simulating, and mathematically analyzing wireless sensor network protocols operating at the link, network and transport layers.

Bio: Bhaskar Krishnamachari is Philip and Cayley Early Career Chair Assistant Professor at the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California, where he heads the Autonomous Networks Research Group in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He received his B.E. from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1998, and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1999 and 2002 respectively, all in Electrical Engineering. He has co-authored more than 100 technical publications, mostly in the area of wireless networks, including papers that received best paper awards at IPSN 2004 and MSWiM 2006. He received the the U.S. National Science Foundation's CAREER award in 2004, and USC Viterbi School of Engineering's outstanding junior faculty research award in 2005. He served as the vice chair of the sensor networks and ubiquitous computing track at ICDCS 2007, and is the vice chair of the applications track for DCOSS 2008. He is an editor for the Elsevier Journal of Ad Hoc Networks, the Elsevier Journal of Pervasive and Mobile Computing, the ACM Mobile Computing and Communications Review, and the EURASIP Journal of Wireless Communications and Networking. He has authored a book titled Networking Wireless Sensors, published by Cambridge University Press.

Speaker: Professor Stuart Milner (University of Maryland, USA)

Title: Autonomous Reconfigurability and Control in Directional Free Space Optic/RF Networks

Abstract: Recent developments in very high data rate (up to Gb/s), steerable, narrow beam, directional Free Space Optical and RF wireless communications, which can be autonomously (re)configured to form self-organizing backbone networks, promises to circumvent the scalability limitations of traditional wireless networks. In addition, such networks can enable end-to-end multimedia applications to the wireless "last mile" as well sensor and surveillance networks that use high definition television for real-time event detection and follow-up, which require low latency (ms) and high bandwidth (Gb/s) transport.

This presentation focuses on advances in research and development in network topology control that have proven the concept that very high data rate, self-organizing backbones can be implemented by: 1) dynamically and autonomously (re)configuring physical links (requiring pointing, acquisition, and tracking of high capacity, steerable, narrow beam directional links); 2) providing real-time, autonomous topological reconfiguration of a wireless internet backbone (graph); and 3) controlling backbone or node mobility. Mobility control has as its purpose: 1) assuring and maintaining their; and 2) the initial (bootstrapping) and subsequent placement of nodes in order to optimize coverage for a set of hosts, sensors or application devices.

Such systems focus on assuring and maintaining a network backbone, based on autonomous principles, and they have as goals the robustness, availability, and survivability of wireless internet base stations or cellular telephony backbones. Topology management and stability can involve routing but includes the capability to physically and logically (re)organize. Finally, autonomously (re) configurable systems should provide almost instant re-establishment of connectivity and/or function with minimal overall system performance degradation.

Speaker: Mohan Kumar (The University of Texas, Arlington, USA)

Title: Seamless Middleware Services for Pervasive Computing Environments

Abstract: Pervasive Information Community Organization (PICO) is a middleware framework for facilitating efficient and seamless creation of simple framework comprises a methodology to create basic services from available resources, a service composition mechanism, a hierarchical scheme to interconnect devices, and a layered architecture for deploying services. In dynamic pervasive computing environments, it is often necessary to dynamically construct complex services using available basic services. Traditional service composition mechanisms fall short of constructing such compositions to create required services. We propose a novel scheme for service description, aggregation, seamless composition and maintenance. The scheme uses graph theoretic techniques and is capable of dynamically weaving complex services using a hierarchical mechanism for interconnecting devices. An overview of prototypes that have been built to validate the framework and evaluate its performance through experimentation will be presented. Finally, a summary of other ongoing research activities and future work will be presented.

Speaker: Andy Coon (BBN Technologies)

Title: Multistatic Active Sonar Approaches for Anti-Submarine Warfare

Abstract: The presentation provides an overview of multistatic active sonar approaches for anti-submarine warfare. The talk provides insights into the issues associated with fielding such systems. Challenges include complications from sound propagation in deep water where coverage is zonal, to propagation in shallow water where reverberation competes with the target echo. A variety of strategies exist for sensor design, waveform design, and processing techniques to achieve desired performance. The presentation highlights the importance of multiple sensors to achieve desired performance. From this context the paper describes a novel approach of using a ship's 5" gun to place high explosive rounds into the water as a means to rapidly detect and classify a submarine target. The resulting target echo is detectable using the ship's towed array and off-board sonobuoys. The organic ship capability is readily instantiated on the many Navy ships that use 5" gun mounts. The concept permits rapid creation of a geometrically diverse set of detection opportunities.

Bio: Mr. Andy Coon began working at BBN in November of 1999. At BBN, he oversees several surveillance and ASW programs for NAVSEA, ONR, DARPA, NAVAIR, and SPAWAR. He acts as the Distant Thunder Program manager as well as the manager and principal investigator for ONR's Littoral ASW Multistatics Program (LAMP). Mr. Coon received a B. S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland in 1987 and an M.S. degree in electrical engineering from the JHU GWC Whiting School of Engineering in 1992.

Mr. Coon began his career at JHU/APL where he worked for twelve years in the Submarine Technology Department with a focus on active sonar signal processing and system design. His early work focused on Extended Echo Ranging (EER) systems that specifically addressed multistatic data fusion and signal classification techniques to enhance system performance.

For BBN, he has led development of state-of-the-art pattern recognition automation for impulsive sonar and has overseen system development and fielding of ASW technology. He lead the development of a full-field ADAR capability demonstrated now in five sea tests and is supporting the development of software defined radio receivers for airborne applications. Mr. Coon is the patent holder for the Projectile Sonar Patent number 6,707,760. He has published research on separate occasions for the Journal of Underwater Acoustics as well as articles for the JHU/APL Technical Digest and Maritime Patrol Aviation.