Speaker: Dr. Alex Gluhak (University of Surrey)

Title: SENSEI framework architecture and the key design solutions

Bio: Dr. Alex Gluhak is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Centre for Communication Systems Research (CCSR) at the University of Surrey, UK where he is currently coordinating sensor network related research activities. He completed a Dipl.-Ing.(FH) degree from the University of Applied Sciences in Offenburg, Germany in 2002 and a PhD degree at the University of Surrey in 2006. After his PhD graduation he has held research positions with CSSR and later the Ericsson Ireland Research Centre. He was involved in the UK Virtual Centre of Excellence on Mobile and Personal Communications and contributed actively to several large European research projects, such as e-SENSE and SENSEI. His research interests are mobile multicast delivery, next generation network architectures, service-oriented sensor networks and scalable context information infrastructures for next generation networks. He has authored various papers in refereed international conferences and journals. He was a visiting researcher at the University of California Irvine, US, in 2002 and at the National Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Japan in 2005.

Speaker: Dr. Srdjan Krco (Ericsson Ireland Research Centre)

Title: SENSEI framework architecture and the key design solutions

Speaker: Wouter van Kleunen (Ambient Systems)

Title: Reliable Data Collection in Wireless sensor networks Design of a low-overhead energy-efficient streaming reliable transport protocol

Bio: Wouter van Kleunen received his MSc. Of Computer Science from the University of Twente (Netherlands) in 2007. His thesis was on the design of reliable data collection in wireless sensor networks. From 2007 till present he works for the company Ambient Systems in Enschede, which builds wireless sensor network based products and technologies. Wouter works for the Research and Development department, and is in charge of the design and implementation of reliable networking protocols.

Speaker: Prof. Guanrong (Ron) Chen (Centre for Chaos and Complex Networks, City University of Hong Kong)

Title: A Graph-Theory Approach to Network Synchronizability Analysis

Abstract: In this talk, we discuss how graph theory may be applied to the analysis of complex network synchronization and synchronizability.

First, we observe that in the study of network synchronizability, network structural parameters (for example, average path-length, degree distribution, and betweenness centrality) have been the main concern in the past. We show by simple examples of regular symmetrical networks that these parameters may not be good to use - two networks with exactly the same such structural parameters can have very different synchronizabilities.

Then, we notice that another common perceptive is that a network with more edges should be easier to sync. However, we give several examples to show that generally adding new edges to a network can either increase or decrease the network synchronizability. Nevertheless, we will also show that for networks with disconnected complementary graphs, adding edges never decreases their synchronizabilities.

The most well-known result about the synchronizability of a general complex network is that it relies on two major factors - the Laplacian eigenvalues and the synchronized regions. In this regard, we show that for any positive integer n, one can always find a network with n disconnected synchronized regions, where bounded and unbounded synchronized regions may coexist. Since a network with unbounded synchronized regions is easier to apply and analyze, we furthermore show how to design a simple rank-1 inner-linking matrix to control the network synchronized regions to become unbounded. This suggests an effective way for designing a simple feedback controller to enhance the synchronizability of a given complex network.

Bio: Professor Chen received the MS degree in Computer Science from Sun Yat-sen University, China in 1981 and the PhD degree in Applied Mathematics from Texas A&M University, USA in 1987, with Post-Doctorate research experience in nonlinear dynamics and controls thereafter. He currently is a Chair Professor and the founding director of the Centre for Chaos and Complex Networks at the City University of Hong Kong, prior to which he was a tenured Professor at the University of Houston, USA.

Professor Chen is an IEEE Fellow (since January 1997). He is currently serving as the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine (since 2008), Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Circuit Theory and Applications (since 2008) and the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, Part II (2004-05) and Part I (2006-07), among others, and is Honorary Professor at different ranks of twenty some universities worldwide.

Speaker: Dr Michael Brünig (CSIRO)

Title: Challenges for real world sensor networks

Abstract: Wireless sensor networks for environmental sensing offer policy makers and scientists the opportunity to measure and record information about the natural environment at a spatial and temporal scale that has never previously been possible. Not only do they lead to much greater understanding of the current status of a monitored environment, they also may provide completely new insight into the underlying processes by allowing for data-driven scientific discoveries. The talk will present a number of real world sensor network deployments at large geographic scales and will highlight the challenges of achieving long lifetimes in the field.

Bio: Dr Michael Brünig is the Research Director of CSIRO's cross-divisional Transformational Capability Platform in Sensors and Sensor Networks, one of only four large scale strategic research platforms in CSIRO. In this capacity, Dr Brünig brings together more than 40 researchers from diverse science areas to address challenges of national priority. Dr Brünig has worked in R&D in academia, industry, and governmental agencies since 1996 and in high tech areas in Europe, the USA, and Australia. He obtained his Ph.D. from RWTH Aachen University, his research interests have been in the areas of image and video processing, human computer interaction, automation and robotics, and sensor networks. Dr Brünig is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland. He's a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a senior member of the IEEE.

Title: ISSNIP PhD/ECR Forum Panel - Successful Research Collaboration in a Competitive World

Abstract: Collaborative research involves people/organisations working together to achieve a particular research outcome. This helps converge different ideas and expertise from different disciplines to yield a synergetic research output. Nowadays, collaboration plays an important role not only in winning competitive grants but addressing critical interdisciplinary challenges. Initiating collaboration between researchers, research organisations and industry, evolving and sustaining such links can be challenging, especially for early career researchers. The ISSNIP PhD/ECR forum features a panel session consisting of leading international researchers, who will share their experience on initiating, sustaining and managing such collaboration from the unique perspectives of the different disciplines.

Prof Mohan Kumar (University of Texas at Arlington): Since Spring 2001, Kumar has been with CSE@UTA. He is also an adjunct professor at the Curtin University of Technology, Perth Australia. His current research interests are in pervasive computing, opportunistic networks and computing, wireless networks and mobility, mobile agents and distributed computing. He initiated pervasive computing research activities at CSE@UTA in 2001 and directs the Pervasive and Invisible Computing (PICO) lab. He is the lead PI in two recently funded NSF awards: Collaborative virtual observation in dynamic, heterogeneous environments; and Distributed Opportunistic Computing. He is a Co-PI in a recently funded project by the AFRL on Middleware for Dynamic Distributed Repositories and the NSF funded ARCADIA project. He was the lead PI in the NSF funded PICO project on the development of middleware services for pervasive computing. Current research work includes the application of pervasive computing into such areas as telemedicine, manufacturing and security. He has published over 150 refereed articles in journals and conference proceedings. He co-founded the IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing (PerCom) and the Elsevier's Pervasive and Mobile Computing Journal. He served as the Program Chair, PerCom 2003 and the General Chair, PerCom 2005, and he is currently the Chair of the PerCom Steering Committee. Mohan is a senior member of the IEEE. He received the Vice-Chancellor's Excellence Award in 1999.

Prof Subhash Challa (The University of Melbourne): Prof. Subhash Challa received PhD from Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia in 1999. Part of his PhD was completed at Harvard Robotics Lab, Harvard University, Boston, USA. Prof. Challa is a senior prinicipal reseacher at National Information and Communication Technology Australia (NICTA) where he leads a major ICT for Life sciences projects. Between 2003-2007, he was the Proessor of Computer Systems at UTS, Sydney and led the Networked Sensor Technologies Lab (NeST). He was a Tan-Chun-Tau Fellow at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 2002-2003 and also senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne where he led a number of tracking and data fusion projects in collaboration with DSTO, DARPA, BAE, Raytheon, Tenix Defense, Thales, RTA, NSW Police and others. He has been the plenary, tutorial and invited speaker at various information fusion and sensor network conferences worldwide, including IDC 2007 (Adelaide, Australia), Sensors Expo 2006 (Chicago, USA), ISSNIP conferences ( 2005, 2004) and Fusion Conferences (2003, 2005, 2006). He is co-authoring of reference text "Fundamentals of Object Tracking," to be published by Cambridge University Press, UK. He is also the associate editor of the Journal of Advances in Information fusion. He has published about 70 papers in various International journals and conferences.

Prof Paul Havinga (The University of Twente): Prof. Paul Havinga is with the Pervasive Systems group in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Twente, the Netherlands. His research has resulted in over 180 scientific publications in journals and conferences. He made a broad range of contributions to the research of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), including but not limited to operating system architectures, middleware, medium access control, routing, service discovery, data aggregation, cross-layer optimization, localization, security and various applications of WSNs.He serves as a program committee chair, member, and reviewer for many conferences and workshops. He is regularly invited for keynote presentations on his work. He regularly serves as an independent expert to review and evaluate international research projects for the EU, US and other governments.

Associate Professor Richard Baker (Murdoch Childrens Research Institute): Richard is a biomechanical engineer who for the last eight years has led the clinical gait analysis service at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. Over the same period he has maintained an active research profile at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute. Between 2005 and 2008 he was Director of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funded Centre of Clinical Research Excellence in Clinical Gait Analysis and Gait Rehabilitation. In 2008 he won a Practitioner Fellowship from the NHMRC to support a personal research programme over five years. Richard has over 50 peer reviewed papers and has won over $5million in research funding from a variety of sources. He is Associate Editor for Gait and Posture. He is regularly invited to make presentations at international meetings and was invited to give the Jurg Bauman Keynote Address to the first ever joint meeting of the European Society for Movement Analysis in Children and the GCMAS in Amsterdam in 2006.

Dr. Jorge Pereira (Principal Scientific Officer, European Commission):