Tutorials

Video Networking: Trends and Challenges

Christos Grecos School of Computing University of the West of Scotland United Kingdom Email: Christos.Grecos_AT_uws.ac.uk

Qi Wang School of Computing University of the West of Scotland United Kingdom Email: Qi.Wang_AT_uws.ac.uk

 

Abstract
The tutorial will be on the broad area of networked video and consist of two parts, the first part covering video compression standards in general networking context, and the second part dealing with specific application scenarios.
In the first part, Prof Grecos will talk about the advantages of using standard compliant video compressors for storage and bandwidth reduction. This part of the tutorial will cover the process of video capturing and compression of live video feeds and will also discuss the trade-offs involved in terms of bit-rates, quality, complexity, network environments etc.. The video coding standards to be examined include the H26X family of standards, the distributed video coding paradigm and the emerging H265 standard. The H26X family of standards to be examined include the Advanced Video Coding Standard (H264 AVC), the Scalable Video Coding Standard (H264 SVC) and the multi-view video coding standard (H264 MVC). In the second part, Dr Qi Wang will talk about selected application scenarios of video over various networks including video streaming for multihomed mobile networks, video streaming over multi-hop wireless mesh networks (WMNs), and video transmission in sensor networks. This part will present technical challenges, research opportunities, and promising solutions in these emerging and developing areas.

Short Biographies

Prof Christos Grecos is a Professor in Visual Communications Standards, and Head of School of Computing, the University of the West of Scotland (UWS), United Kingdom (UK). He leads the Audio-Visual Communications and Networks Research Group (AVCN) with UWS, and his research interests include image/video compression standards, image/video processing and analysis, image/video networking and computer vision. He has published numerous research papers in top-tier international publications including a number of IEEE transactions on these topics. He is on the editorial board or served as guest editor for numerous international journals, and he has been invited to give talks in various international conferences. He was the Principal Investigator for several national or international projects funded by UK EPSRC or EU. He received his PhD degree in Image/Video Coding Algorithms from the University of Glamorgan, UK.

Dr Qi Wang is a Lecturer in Computer Networking with UWS, UK. His research interests include Internet Protocol networks and applications (video etc.), mobility management, multihoming support, energy-efficient wireless sensor networks, routing in wireless mesh networks, heterogeneous networks, and cross-layer design. Recently, he has been involved in the EU FP6 MULTINET project on intelligent wireless networking and the UK EPSRC DIAS project on sensor networks. He received his PhD in Wireless Networking from the University of Plymouth, UK.

Engineering Context-Aware Mobile Applications: Insights from two Perspectives

Markus Aleksy ABB AG Corporate Research Center Germany Germany Email: markus.aleksy_AT_de.abb.com

 

Abstract
The development of mobile applications, especially that provide context-sensitive features is a rather complex and difficult task. 'Smart' and 'context-aware' systems are great for endusers, if they are non-intrusive and have user-friendly interfaces, but they are hard to design, maintain and integrate. Additionally, the coverage of such applications requires the utilization of appropriate data transport, efficient resource management, as well as input- and output techniques to consider the limitations of mobile devices.
In this tutorial, a set of techniques and design patterns will be presented that helps to face these challenges. The presented techniques cover various topics, especially context and resource/data management techniques as well as the design of context-sensitive user interfaces. Furthermore, the results of several case studies carried out in the domain of industrial field service will be presented to provide feedback which of the presented techniques could be successfully applied and which challenges have still to be faced.

Short Biography

Markus Aleksy received the Management Information Systems Degree in 1998, and the Doctorate Degree in 2002 from the University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany, and the Doctorate Degree in Information Science in 2007 from Tokyo Denki University, Tokyo, Japan. He lectured in University of Mannheim, Germany and Queen’s University, Canada. Markus is the author or coauthor of more than 80 research papers published in international journals and conference proceedings. He was / is involved in the organization of several conferences as member of the steering committee, general (co-)chair, program (co-)chair, workshop (co-)chair etc as well as was / is a member of various program committees. His current research focuses on distributed systems, mobile computing, and life cycle science.

Grid data management: Challenges and Opportunities

Maria Indrawan Faculty Information Technology Monash University, Australia Email: maria.indrawan_AT_infotech.monash.edu.au

Abstract
Grid computing provides opportunities for scientists to make breakthrough discoveries through new ways to conduct experiments that were not possible in the past. The growing availability of grid infrastructure to the wider scientific community has increased the amount of data produced by these experiments. Yet, without proper management for storing, retrieving and disseminating the results, potential benefits of grid computing may not be fully realized.

This tutorial provides an overview of the current state of the art in data management for grid computing. The topics presented include reviews of the existing research on data storage and retrieval, provenance, and data quality for grid computing. The tutorial will be beneficial for researchers in data management who want to understand data management issues in e-science and the potential in applying their current knowledge of data management to these specific issues.

Short Biography

Maria Indrawan received her PhD from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Her areas of interests and expertise include data management in e-science, data mining, information retrieval and pervasive computing. She has authored numerous articles in these topic areas and has served on a number of program committees of international conferences. Last year, she spent her sabbatical at the San Diego Supercomputer Centre (SDSC) and California Institute of Telecommunication and Information Technology (CALIT2) in the USA, working with scientists from such varied fields as computer science, biochemistry and physics. Through exposure to a number of e-science projects at those institutions, she developed a greater interest in data management for e-science. This tutorial is her view of the current state of data management in e-science gained through interactions with leading scientists in the field.

Organizing Services for a Changing Environment

Frank Dignum Department of Information and Computing Sciences Utrecht University The Netherlands Email: dignum_AT_cs.uu.nl
Julian Padget Department of Computer Science University of Bath United Kingdom Email: jap_AT_cs.bath.ac.uk
Wamberto Vasconcelos Department of Computing Science University of Aberdeen United Kingdom Email: w.w.vasconcelos_AT_abdn.ac.uk

Abstract
Service-oriented computing is the "new wave" emerging from the growing up of web services and its adoption of elements of semantic web technology. More sophistication, in response to business requirements, does of course not make it easier to use or to control.
In particular business processes demand resilience and (real-time) adaptation in the face of changing business requirements, incorporation of alternative services and finding suitable substitutes when those needed are not available. The EU-funded ALIVE project is prototyping ideas, driven by commercial and industrial uses cases, that utilize research in organizational modelling, software agents, model-driven engineering, artificial intelligence, semantic web and web services to construct tools and demonstrators to address these needs. This tutorial will focus on a use case from the ALIVE project (in one of the domains of crisis management, communications, or information services), discuss the requirements that arise from it and then explore it from the three perspectives that characterize the ALIVE approach: organizations, coordination and services, all illustrated by the innovative tools that have been developed during the project.

More information about the ALIVE project can be downloaded from http://www.ist-alive.eu and a public release of the ALIVE tools, integrated into the Eclipse IDE will be available from mid October via the above website.

Short Biographies

Frank Dignum received a PhD. from the Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands in 1989. After receiving his Ph.D. he set up the computing science department of the university of Swaziland. From 1993 until 2000 he worked at the Eindhoven University of Technology and started working on agents and electronic commerce. Since 2000, he is associate professor at Utrecht University in the area of agent technology. He has published more than 200 papers and several books. He was PC member and PC chair of many workshops and conference around the world. He has also organized several workshops and in 2005 was the local chair of the biggest agents conference in the world: AAMAS. He has been keynote and invited speaker at conferences in countries as diverse as Australia, Indonesia, Mexico, China and the USA. He has also given many tutorials and seminars at international summer schools. He has been technical coordinator of several EU projects and member of the EU network of excellence on agent technology. His main research foci are social aspects of agents (such as normative behavior), agents and services, agents for games and agent-based social simulation.

Julian Padget received a PhD. from the University of Bath, United Kingdom in 1984. Until the mid 1990s his research focus was programming language design and implementation, with a particular interest in Lisp, distributed systems and parallel architectures, including working at Ilog. S.A. and INRIA in Paris and IBM's T.J.Watson Research Center. Research interests turned to agents around 1995 with the design and implementation of electronic institutions, in conjunction with IIIA in Barcelona He has published over 100 papers and several books. He has also organized several workshops and conferences and is a founding member of the COIN steering committee that runs workshops annually on coordination, organization, institutions and norms. He has participated in several EU projects and both EU and international networks of excellence. Current research interests are rooted in the formalization of the norms that characterize institutional frameworks and are being explored in the context of service-oriented architectures, engineering design, sensor networks, autonomic systems, energy management and policy evaluation, with a particular interest in organizational problems that cross the physical/virtual divide.

Wamberto Vasconcelos obtained his PhD from the University of Edinburgh, for his work on logic program understanding, synthesis and transformation. He worked in Brazil and Switzerland before settling in the UK -- after having worked at Edinburgh University, he took up a post at the University of Aberdeen, where he is currently a Senior Lecturer. Dr. Vasconcelos's research interests lie within software engineering and logics, aiming to equip software engineers with logic-inspired techniques and tools to support the lifecycle of software artefacts. He is currently involved in research on large-scale service-oriented systems and knowledge-intensive information provision systems.