Computer Science Seminar Series - Spring 2008
Open dates: 3/28, 4/11
Date
Speaker
Title
Institution
Location
2/15/08
Dr. Eric Braude
Cumulative Subgoal Fulfillment in Software Development
Boston University
DION 101 2/22/08
B.G.Balagangadhar
Manycasting in Optical Networks
UMass Dartmouth DION 101 2/29/07
Bhumit Patel
Thesis Defense: The study of Initial Commitment Decision Problem and Crisis Management in Multi-Agent Virtual Organizations
UMass Dartmouth DION 101
4/4/08
Ramprasad Balasubramanian
A Cooperative Salvo for Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
UMass Dartmouth DION 101 4/18/08
Boleslaw Mikolajczak
Correctness of Inter-organizational Loosely Coupled Workflows
UMass Dartmouth DION 101 4/25/08 Ugur Cetintemel Data-Stream Processing and Storage for Scientific and
Intelligence Applications
Brown University DION 101 5/2/08
CIS Senior project / MS project presentations
UMass Dartmouth
DION 101 5/9/08
CIS Senior project / MS project presentations UMass Dartmouth
DION 101
2/15/08
Title: Cumulative Subgoal Fulfillment in Software Development
Abstract
This paper introduces a new approach to programming that facilitates the construction and verification of applications. Called "Cumulative Subgoal Fulfillment" (CSF), it implements procedures by fulfilling and accumulating a sufficient set of subgoals. Each code block fulfilling a subgoal must keep invariant all subgoals already fulfilled. Using well-known programming problems, the paper demonstrates that CSF is new and that its simple form facilitates both the creation and checking of code.
Speaker Bio
Eric Braude has a Ph. D. from Columbia University in mathematics and Master's in Computer Science from the University of Miami. He taught at CUNY and Penn State, followed by twelve years in government and industry as a software engineer, scientist, and manager. He has been an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Boston University's Metropolitan College since 1990, holding the chairmanship for five years and an acting associate deanship for one. His papers deal with simulation, compilers, program correctness, and set theory. Eric has written or edited five books, including "Software Engineering" and "Software Design."
2/22/08
Master Thesis Presentation: Automatic Agent Generation and Coordination in Multi-Agent systems
Abstract
An open multi-agent system is a dynamic system in which agents can join or leave an agent society at will and also take or release roles at runtime. Traditional ways of developing multi-agent systems assume a fixed number of agents in a multi-agent system and use role modeling for system analysis to determine the number of agents, which is unsuitable for developing open multi-agent systems. In our case, role models are only used at conceptual level with no realizations in the implementation system. Role organization and role space are specified as containers of conceptual roles and role instances, respectively. Agents are defined as members of an agent society and they can take or release role instances from a role space dynamically. We present an automatic agent generation process using the Java Agent Framework and define coordination rules between agents. We describe the design of agents and agent’s motivations within such framework. We introduce a practical approach for modeling agent’s motivation and specifying agent’s goals, where a role-agent mapping mechanism is developed based on this design. Dynamic task allocation is achieved through the creation of role instances and the mapping from role instances to agents. We also introduce the RTÆMS language based on the extension of TÆMS to model the plan tree for each goal. This representation enables the reuse of general planning/scheduling and collaboration/cooperation mechanisms developed in multi-agent system research community. We have developed an automatic agent generation interface, defined coordination rules and also implemented a simple demo system in health care domain.
Computer Science Seminar Series - Fall 2007
Date
Speaker
Title
Institution
Location
10/12/07
Dr. Michael Kilian
The Next Generation of Content Repositories
EMC Corporation
DION 101 10/19/07
Prof. Meinolf Sellmann
Combinatorial optimization and constraint programming
Brown University
DION 101
10/30/07
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Dr. Pawel Siwak
On iterons of automata
Institute of Technology, Poznan, Poland
DION 311
11/02/07
Dr. Chris Jones
iRobot Corporation R&D Overview
iRobot Corporation DION 101 11/16/07
Prof. Iren Valova
Olafctory bulb neurotransmitter studies and simulations
UMassD
DION 101
11/30/07
Graduate Students - Research Projects UMassD DION 101
12/07/07
1. Rahul Vishen - Vision Based Docking System for Autonomous Mobile Robots
2. Sravan K. Patti - Implementing Ontology-Based Dynamic Service Discovery in JavaSpaces
UMassD
DION 101 12/14/07
1. Chris Bates, Title: Rule-Based Specification of Flexible Bidding Strategies in Agent-Based Online Auctions
2. Ankit Goel, Title: Evaluation of a Bayesian Network with Multi-State Nodes for Shill Verification in Online Auction
3. Danielle Stack - Building Tutorial Agent With Knowledge Base for UVLDS
UMassD DION 101
10/12/07
Title: The Next Generation of Content Repositories
Abstract
The world is changing. Arguably our lives, both personally and professionally, are invaded and surrounded by more digital data than ever before. Whether you look at the entertainment sector, the communications sector, the healthcare or finance sector, encompassing digital information is directing our behaviors. Our digital information is increasingly more valuable as physical counterparts are fading in favor of online fixed content. And the devices that generate that digital information are not limited to the traditional devices of yesterday. Today, information may be captured and retrieved at diverse locations; by convergent technologies. The converged cell phone/PDA/MP3-4 player will become a common information access device. And just as technologies converge, so do the information management models of the consumer and enterprise world as well. We are at the cusp of an age where a person will be completely connected to the information that enterprises generate on the individual's behalf. For example, the digital information contained in an MRI will be effortlessly transferable to any specialist based on permission of the patient.
This talk explores the implications of this convergence - one that demands new categories of content repositories that guarantee content authenticity, leverage metadata to classify data enabling its preservation in a self-describing way and support standardization so that this information can migrate between storage devices from different vendors, across different technologies.
Speaker Bio
Michael Kilian is the CTO for the Centera division at EMC. He is responsible for product strategy including customer requirements gathering and feature design. Michael's team regularly works on everything from product architecture to projects like the creation of cell phone that automatically downloads photos to a Centera.
Previous to his current role, Michael reported to EMC's Chief Technology Officer as a Senior Technologist analyzing technology and markets of the storage industry at large. Michael built the strategy that led to the acquisition of FilePool, the company that has written the software that forms the core of the Centera platform.
Michael joined EMC in the spring of 1997. Before EMC, Michael developed object oriented programming tools and an object-oriented database for Kendall Square Research's massively parallel computer. Michael also worked at Digital Equipment Corporation's Eastern Research Lab from 1985 to 1992.
Michael Kilian holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University in Computer Science with a thesis on object-oriented programming methodologies for massively parallel computers. Centera uniquely blends object-oriented approaches to storage using a highly parallel platform.
10/19/07
Title: Deterministic Inference in Constraint Programming
Abstract
Based on the constraint programming paradigm, we illustrate the algorithmic challenges when designing filtering methods for two constraints of high practical relevance.
The first is the context-free grammar constraint that requires that an assignment of values to an ordered set of variables must form a word in a given context-free language. For this constraint, we devise an efficient, complete filtering algorithm that has the same asymptotic complexity as the Cocke-Younger-Kasami algorithm for parsing context-free languages.
The second constraint that we present in this talk is the Knapsack constraint, for which complete filtering is intractable. By reverting to a relaxed notion of consistency, we develop an efficient incremental filtering algorithm that runs in expected sub-linear time for several interesting input distributions. After a theoretical study, we introduce heuristic enhancements and demonstrate the new algorithm's performance experimentally.
Joint work with Irit Katriel, Eli Upfal, and Pascal Van Hentenryck.
Speaker Bio
Meinolf Sellmann serves as Assistant Professor at Brown University since 2004. He received his Diploma of Computer Science in 1997 from Paderborn University (Germany). After a year at Lucent Technology Bell Labs he returned to his alma mater in Paderborn in 1998 from where he received his PhD in 2002. Before coming to Brown, he spent sixteen months as Postdoctoral Associate at Cornell University.
While an important aim for Professor Sellmann is to provide actual software systems that can tackle real-world applications efficiently, the abstraction and generalization of originally problem-tailored approaches to standard solution methods that facilitate algorithm design and algorithm engineering for constraint satisfaction and constrained optimization is a key part of his work. Main methodological contributions of his research are the development of Symmetry Breaking by Dominance Detection, Structural Symmetry Breaking, Streamlined Constraint Reasoning, CP-based Column Generation, CP-based Lagrangian Relaxation, and the introduction of associated theoretical notions like Relaxed Consistency and Approximated Consistency.
10/30/07
Title: On Iterons of Automata
Abstract
Iterons of automata are periodic coherent propagating structures-patterns of symbols- that emerge in cellular nets of automata. In a sense, they are like fractal objects; they owe their existence to iterated automata maps (IAMs) performed over a given string of symbols.
The iterons comprise of particles and filtrons. The particles, or signals, are well known in classical cellular automata (CAs) where iterated parallel processing of strings occurs. They spread and carry local results, synchronize various events, combine information, transform data, and carry out many other actions necessary to perform a computation or to complete a global pattern formation process in extended dynamical systems.
The filtrons form another class of coherent objects supported by IAMs. They emerge in iterated serial string processing which is a sort of recursive filtering (IIR filtering). In many aspects the filtrons are like solitons known from nonlinear physics; e.g. they pass through one another, demonstrate elastic collisions, undergo fusion, fission and annihilation, and form breathers as well as other complex entities.
We start by showing some images of solitons which are fundamental phenomena in nonlinear physics. However, the aim of the talk is to present a unified automaton approach to discrete coherent structures. We give basic definitions of these entities and present the automata which are equivalent to some known processing mechanisms (eg. box-ball systems) capable of supporting coherent soliton-like objects.
The examples of various phenomena of interacting particles and filtrons, like multifiltron collisions, trapped bouncing filtrons, cool filtrons, repelling filtrons, annihilation, fusion, fission, and spontaneous decay or quasi-filtrons are presented also, using the images of space-time diagrams of filtrons.
Potential applications of the theory of iterons are mentioned also; they cover, among others, simulating nonlinear physics phenomena, solitonic computations, complex systems behavior analysis and synthesis, and solitary waves prediction.
The outline of the iterons of automata can be found in:
P. Siwak. Iterons of automata. In Collision-Based Computing. A. Adamatzky (ed.), Springer-Verlag, London. 2002, pp. 299-354.
11/2/07
Title: iRobot Corporation R&D Overview
Abstract
iRobot provides robots that enable people to complete complex tasks in a better way. We have developed technology incorporating advanced concepts in navigation, mobility, manipulation and artificial intelligence to build industry-leading robots. The iRobot Roomba floor vacuuming robot and Scooba floor washing robot perform time-consuming domestic chores, and the iRobot PackBot tactical military robots perform battlefield reconnaissance and bomb disposal. In addition, we are developing the Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle reconnaissance robot for the U.S. Army’s transformational Future Combat Systems program and, in conjunction with Deere & Company, the R-Gator unmanned ground vehicle. We also have an active Research Group whose mission is to provide the innovation that drives the company’s products forward. Robotic research has always been the foundation of iRobot, with each advance driving the next one forward. From the insectoid Ghengis to the crablike Ariel, from the battle-proven PackBot to the heavy-duty Warrior, from the networked robots of the Swarm to the many generations of Roomba, each iRobot offering is the result of vision, teamwork, and world-class research. This talk will provide an overview of these and other of iRobot’s past and present research and development programs as well as the foundational skills and technologies that enabled them and will drive the next-generation of robotic systems.
Speaker Bio
Dr. Chris Jones is the Research Program Manager at iRobot Corporation. iRobot delivers innovative robots that are making a difference in people’s lives. From cleaning floors to disarming explosives, iRobot constantly strives to find better ways to tackle dull, dirty and dangerous missions -- with better results. The multi-disciniplary Research Group Dr. Jones leads is engaged in conceptual and developmental robotics research in the areas of mobile robot autonomy, collaborative unmanned systems, human-robot interaction and interfaces, and innovative unmanned systems design concepts. Prior to joining iRobot in 2005, he was involved in robotics research and development at the Center for Robotics and Embedded Systems at the University of Southern California, the Artificial Intelligence Lab at the University of Zurich, the Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center at Sandia National Laboratories, and the Robotics Research Lab at Texas A&M University. Dr. Jones received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California and his B.S. in Computer Engineering from Texas A&M University.
11/16/07
Title: Olafctory bulb neurotransmitter studies and simulations
Abstract
The sense of smell, called olfaction, involves the detection and perception of different odors. For both humans and animals, it is one of the important means by which they communicate with the environment. This odor-detecting system is called olfactory bulb. Its functionality is based on neurons, primarily mitral and granule cells, and communication among them. This process is very complex and involves different types of neurotransmitters. The basic function of neurotransmitters is the realization of communication processes between neurons. Additionally, they are responsible for the efficient and accurate processing of the information, as well as for the generation of cellular changes, which corresponds to the memory functionality. We provide the description of different neurotransmitters and their dynamics. The main focus of our work is to analyze the neurotransmitter effects based on the computational simulations corresponding to the biological environment in the olfactory bulb.
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