Symposia

The International Conference on Intelligent Sensors, Sensor Networks and Information Processing 2007 (ISSNIP 2007) will incorporate the following symposiums as part of its technical program:

Symposium on Middleware for Sensor Networks (MiSS'07)

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

Sensor networks enable us to observe and interact with physical phenomena in real time and allow users to monitor the environment and take appropriate actions. Such pervasive instrumentation will be of great value in a range of applications- security, telemedicine, transportation, crisis management etc. Sensor networks readily extend to monitoring interactions among hardware and software entities in ubiquitous computing environments. The sensor nodes and their network are expected to provide sensory services to applications/users continually and autonomously for long periods. Middleware services are expected to facilitate seamless adaptation of sensor systems to meet application requirements. Middleware services can be deployed to enhance the usability of sensors and extend their life time. Such services utilize available computing and communicating resources and provide a consistent and uniform view of available resources and distributed services to sensors and applications.

MiSS'07 will provide a forum for scientists and engineers in academia and industry to exchange and discuss their experiences, new ideas, and research results about the role of middleware in sensor systems. Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to:

• Information fusion in sensor systems.
• Knowledge discovery and decision making mechanisms.
• Resource allocation and scheduling.
• Middleware support for making sensor systems available and accessible.
• Service creation, composition and maintenance.
• Energy conservation.
• Distributed algorithms.
• Synchronization and coordination.
• Sensor selection, placement and localization.
• Parallel and distributed processing in sensor systems.

Symposium on Autonomous Configurability and Control in Dynamic Wireless Networks

Chair: Stuart Milner (University of Maryland, USA) and Sylvie Perreau (University of South Australia)

This symposium explores ways that dynamic network systems can self-organize by changing their fundamental structure, through hardware and software techniques, and in response to degradation and/or the absence or loss of functionality or connectivity. Recent advances in network topology control and management suggest that this can be achieved by: 1) dynamically and autonomously (re)configuring physical links (requiring pointing, acquisition, and tracking of high capacity 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 connectivity; 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 resemble robust, long term 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.

Symposium on Machine Learning and Applications

Chair: Siddhi Kulkarni (University of Ballarat, Australia) and Brijesh Verma (Central Queensland University, Australia)

The symposium will focus on machine learning techniques and their applications. The aim of this symposium is to bring together researchers who are working in the areas of machine learning and applying machine learning techniques to solve real world problems.

The symposium will seek original and unpublished research work on all aspects of machine learning algorithms and their applications, including, but not limited to:

• Neural Networks.
• Evolutionary Algorithms.
• Fuzzy Logic.
• Support Vector Machines.
• Statistical Learning Algorithms.
• Hybrid Learning Algorithms.
• Data Mining Algorithms.
• Applications of Machine Learning Techniques.

Symposium on Environmental Sensor Networks

Chair: Stuart Kininmonth (Australian Institute of Marine Science)

Collecting information about the environment is crucial to the effective implementation of management and research strategies. Information is required rapidly and at a spatial resolution suitable to address the local issues. Advances in sensor technology have enabled the real-time high-frequency measurements of fundamental environmental parameters in 3 dimensions. However implementing and designing technology to suit a range of environments has been challenging and instructive. This session will focus on the application of sensor networks deployed in the environment.

Symposium on Sensor Fusion, Intelligent Sensors and Applications

Chair: Danil Prokhorov (Toyota, USA) and Thomas Hanselmann (University of Melbourne, Australia)

The aim of this symposium is to bring new ideas and innovative branches from different traditional fields like Computer Vision, Statistics, Machine Learning, Signal Processing, Control, Tracking, etc. together to inspire new smart sensors and applications with sensor networks. There will be distinguished speakers from different fields and special sessions are planned to highlight intrinsic problems and solutions from theoretical viewpoints as well as practical implementations.

Symposium on Bio-signal Processing and Networked Sensors in Healthcare

Chair: Rezaul Begg (Victoria University, Australia) and Dinesh Kant Kumar (RMIT University, Australia)

Symposium on Sensor Networks

Chair: Paul Havinga (University of Twente, The Netherlands) and Tim Wark (CSIRO, Australia)

The vision of wireless sensor networks has over the last 10 years inspired research into computing systems and applications that become pervasively embedded in our everyday environments, and that bring the unique flexibility of digital technology to the activities around which our lives evolve. Caused by rapid progress in technology, this early research tended to focus on experimental prototypes of infrastructures, devices, and applications. As the field is progressing, the most important research challenge is to move beyond prototypes toward sustainable systems for use in applications ranging from environmental monitoring, security, and ambient intelligence.

Symposium on Information Processing in Sensor Networks

Chair: Salim Bouzerdoum (University of Wollongong, Australia)

This symposium will concentrate on Machine Intelligence methods such as Adaptive Learning and Neural Networks, Support Vector Machines, Genetic algorithms, Hybrid intelligent systems, Multi-agent systems such as reinforcement learning, Intelligent control with possible applications to sensor technology. Other topics of interest include hardware implementations, new coding and compression techniques, new online monitoring and data collection methods.

Workshop on Optimization in Sensor Networks

Chair: Adil Bagirov (Ballarat University) and Daniel T.H. Lai (The University of Melbourne)

This one day workshop will be held in conjunction with the ISSNIP 2007 conference (3-6 December 2007) and aims to bring together Australian and international researchers to discuss recent optimization problems in sensor networks that require further attention and scrutiny. It is hoped that this event will bridge the gap between engineers and mathematicians in the field, encourage collaboration efforts among researchers and students, foster better international research ties and generate more awareness of the problem diversity in this field. The workshop will cover optimization problems in the following sensor network areas (but not limited to):

• Localization in sensor networks.
• Energy efficiency schemes in wireless sensor networks.
• Optimal sensor placement for tracking.
• Scheduling for optimal sensor coverage.

Symposium on Sensor Network Security

Chair: Neeli Prasad (Aalborg University), Marimuthu Palaniswami (The University of Melbourne), Yee Wei Law (The University of Melbourne)

Security is a major concern for most sensor network applications. The area has seen an explosive growth over the last few years, as a result of researchers taking the initiative to address the issue alongside other fundamental problems. However, the hardware and energy constraint of sensor motes remain a severe challenge to implementers of security. The purpose of this symposium is to bring together researchers and practitioners of the field with the goals of promoting discussion and collaboration.

Symposium on Computational Intelligence for Sensor Networks

Chair: G. K. Venayagamoorthy (University of Missouri-Rolla, USA)

Sensor networks are a sensing, computing and communication infrastructure that employs devices/instruments, to observe and respond to phenomena in the natural environment, and in our physical and cyber world. The sensors themselves can range from small passive microsensors (e.g., "smart dust") to larger scale, controllable weather-sensing platforms. Sensor networks offer a collection of engineering challenges, ranging from software to hardware.

The First International Symposium on RFID Technology

Chair: Kate Smith-Miles (Deakin University, Australia), Robin Doss (Deakin University, Australia)

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology enables the non-contact, automatic and unique identification of objects and people using radio waves. As the need for auto identification (auto-ID) systems becomes increasingly common place in many economic sectors, potential RFID applications include homeland security (RFID enabled passports), e-business (RFID enabled credit cards), e-cash (RFID enabled bank notes) and automated supply chain management. It is estimated that the RFID market in the United States alone, including systems and services will be worth US$3 billion in 2010 increasing to around US$26.9 billion by 2015. However, there are significant research challenges that still need to be addressed before the widespread adoption of RFID technology.