Speaker: Dr. S. S. Iyengar (Louisiana State University)

Title: Algorithmic and Graph Problems in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract: This is an overview of the progress made in the recent past in the application of graph algorithms and various similar techniques to solve interesting and unique problems of wireless sensor networks such as scheduling, topology control, data structure for data aggregation, routing etc. In the course of solving such problems, we tend to treat the deployed network as different kinds of graphs such as Unit Disc Graph, Planar Graph, Doubling-Dimension Graph, Arbitrary Graphs etc with appropriate distance metric associated with them. Many solutions call for reducing a complex, unruly graph type to some form that is more conducive to our desired characteristics and solution. In doing so, we notice some undesirable properties such as longer stretch, larger node degree, greater total edge weight, larger diameters etc. We explore many of these, see how they are applied, what issues lie beyond them.

Bio: Prof. S.S. Iyengar is the Chairman and Roy Paul Daniels Chaired Professor of Computer Science at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, and is also the Chaired Professor at various institutions around the world. His publications include 6 textbooks, 5 edited books and over 380 research papers. His research interests include high-performance algorithms, data structures, sensor fusion, data mining, and intelligent systems. He is a world class expert in computational aspects of Distributed Sensor Networks.

He is a Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of ACM, Fellow of AAAS and Fellow of SDPS. He is a recipient of IEEE awards, best paper awards, the Distinguished Alumnus award of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and other awards. He has served as the editor of several IEEE journals and is the founding editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks.

His research has been funded by National Science Foundation (NSF), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Multi-University Research Initiative (MURI Program), Office of Naval Research (ONR), Department of Energy/OakRidge National Laboratory (DOE/ORNL), Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), US Army Research Office (URO) and various state agencies and companies. He has served on US National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health Panels to review proposals in various aspects of computational science and has been involved as and external evaluator (ABET-accreditation) for several computer science and Engineering departments.

Dr. Iyengar had 40 doctoral students under his supervision and the legacy of these students can be seen in prestigious Laboratories (JPL, Oak Ridge National Lab, Los Alamos National Lab, Naval Research Lab) and universities round the world. He has been the program Chairman of various international conferences.

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

Title: Flocking Control of Mobile Agents on Complex Networks

Abstract: This presentation offers a brief overview of some recent progress in sensor-based control of multi-agent systems, with some discussions on related topics such as flocking modeling, swarming dynamics, and control algorithms. Background and motivation will be introduced, and main ideas and key techniques will be discussed. As a specific example for illustration, the so-called small-world networking structure is introduced to a flock of mobile agents, so as to facilitate their internal communications thereby achieving effective global synchronization. To that end, a couple of successful simulation examples will be demonstrated.

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: Prof. David Karoly (The University of Melbourne, Australia)

Title: Climate change science and solutions: The role of sensor networks for monitoring and mitigation

Abstract: Climate change will be the focus of attention this week in Copenhagen. A brief review will be presented of the science of climate change, the scale of the problem, and the emission reductions that are needed to minimise dangerous climate change. Modern sensor networks play an important role in monitoring changes in the climate system and in providing early warning of impacts of climate change. They are also important in helping to combat climate change through monitoring energy use and monitoring emissions from burning fossil fuels, from agriculture and land clearing and other sources of greenhouse gases.

Bio: Professor David Karoly is an ARC Federation Fellow and Professor of Meteorology at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

He is an internationally-recognised expert in climate change and climate variability, including greenhouse climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion and interannual climate variations due to El Niño-Southern Oscillation.

He was heavily involved in preparation of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released in 2007, in several different roles. Professor Karoly was Chair of the Premier of Victoria's Climate Change Reference Group during 2008 and 2009, and is a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and the Australian Academy of Sciences' National Committee on Earth System Science.

Professor Karoly joined the School of Earth Sciences in May 2007 as a Federation Fellow funded by the Australian government. From 2003, he held the Williams Chair in the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. During 2001-2002, he was Professor of Meteorology and Head of the School of Mathematical Sciences at Monash University. From August 1995, he was Director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Southern Hemisphere Meteorology at Monash University until it closed in June 2000.

Speaker: Prof. John Langford (The University of Melbourne, Australia)

Title: Smart Water supply chains in irrigation networks

Bio: Professor John Langford, Director of Uniwater, a joint initiative of Monash University and the University of Melbourne, is a leader in urban and rural water management reform.

Professor Langford chose water as a career field because, he says, it is one where it is possible to make a strategic contribution. Internationally recognised for his expertise in water resource and catchment management and urban and irrigation water supply and research management, he plays a prominent role in the wider water debate, including speaking at major internationally sponsored forums.

Professor Langford chaired the Boards of the highly successful Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Catchment Hydrology (in which the University was a core partner) and the CRC for Freshwater Ecology for more than a decade, and also the Advisory Board of Sydney University's Special Research Centre on the Environmental Impact of Coastal Cities during its nine-year life. Currently he is chair of the Murray Darling Freshwater Research Centre.

From 1994 to 2003 he was inaugural Executive Director of the Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA), the peak body of the Australian urban water industry, and was Managing Director of the Rural Water Corporation, Victoria's state-wide irrigation and rural water authority, from 1989 to 1994.

In 2004 the inaugural Engineers Australia listing of Australia's 100 most influential engineers included Professor Langford.

A Melbourne graduate (BEAgr 1967, PhDEng 1972) he is a Churchill Fellow, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and a recipient of the Peter Hughes Award for his contribution to the Australian water industry, the 2003 Centenary Medal and the Order of Australia (2005).

Speaker: Prof. Mohan Kumar (Computer Science & Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington, USA)

Title: Opportunistic Sensing Opportunities and Applications

Abstract: Opportunistic networks have evolved from mobile ad hoc networking and the delayed tolerant networking paradigms and have quickly gained popularity in research and industry. In opportunistic networking, when pairs of devices come within each others' communication range, opportunistically, short-lived links (or opportunistic links) are created. Opportunistic computing exploits opportunistic links created by pair-wise contacts, to share information content, resources and services, leading to a wide variety of applications. In this talk we investigate research challenges and issues in exploiting opportunistic sensing opportunities and their applications. Further more, the impact of social computing and networking paradigms for such problems as synchronization and trust will be investigated.

Bio: 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.

Speaker: Prof Paul Havinga (Faculty of EWI, The University of Twente, The Netherlands)

Title: Distributed wireless sensor networks beyond the hype.

Abstract: Rapid advances in technology have enabled a new generation of tiny, inexpensive, networked sensors. These massively distributed sensor networks communicate with one another and summarize the immense amounts of low-level information to produce data representative of the overall environment. This enormous potential triggered many to start working in this domain.

Abstract: The past ten years of wireless sensor network research have resulted in advancements in many areas. Commercial takeoff however is still progressing slower than the hype predicted. This talk will highlight some of the reasons and the challenges as we are advancing this technology from academic prototypes to broad commercial usage. Finally, some directions for future research in sensing systems are addressed.

Bio: Paul J.M. Havinga is professor in the Computer Science department at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, and CTO of Ambient Systems B.V., in Enschede, the Netherlands. His research interests are in the area of large-scale, heterogeneous wireless systems, sensor networks, energy-efficient architectures and protocols, ubiquitous computing, and wireless communication networks. Research questions cover architectures, protocols, programming paradigms, algorithms, and applications. This research has resulted in over 200 scientific publications in journals and conferences. He has a significant experience as project manager in several international research projects on wireless sensor networks and ubiquitous computing. In 2001 he initiated the first European project on wireless sensor networks (2001 - 2004). In 2004 he founded the company Ambient Systems B.V., partly based on the results of that project. In May 2007 he received the "ICT Innovation Award" for the successful transfer of knowledge from university to industrial use. In June 2007 he received the "van den Kroonenberg award" for being a successful innovative entrepreneur.

Speaker: Prof Anthony Burkitt (The University of Melbourne, Australia)

Title: The Bionic Eye - the quest to build a retinal implant for the blind

Abstract: The success of the cochlear implant in providing hearing to the deaf has recently led to the application of this technology to provide sight to the blind. Electrical stimulation of the retina has been demonstrated to generate visual percepts, but much remains to be done to transform this into a fully functioning visual prosthesis. This talk will outline the challenges faced in building a retinal implant, as well as the approaches to their solution being pursued by researchers in Australia.

Bio: Director of Bionic Vision Australia, head of the Neuro-Engineering group in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Melbourne and Assistant Director of the Bionic Ear Institute.

Prof. Burkitt's research is in the area of neuro-engineering and he has worked in cochlear implant speech processing and computational auditory neuroscience for over a decade. This work has involved the investigation of various mechanisms of information processing specialised to the auditory system and associated with speech perception. He has published papers on physiological neural processing mechanisms associated with speech that involve specialized networks within the auditory brainstem. This research has been instrumental in his development of new cochlear implant speech processing strategies that have been patented and currently undergoing pilot clinical trials. His recent research interests have involved extending these concepts from the auditory system to the visual system in order to develop visual stimulation paradigms for retinal implants.

Prof. Burkitt's research in neural modelling of biological systems has had an impact upon the development and understanding of neural models of information processing, i.e., how information is encoded, transmitted and decoded within neural systems. In addition, he has carried out work on understanding the neural basis of epileptic seizures and methods for detecting and predicting seizures. He is currently also involved in research to use electrical stimulation for seizure abatement in epilepsy.