Multimodal mobile interaction – making the most of our users’ capabilities

Abstract
Mobile user interfaces are heavily based on small screens and keyboards. These can be hard to operate when on the move which limits the applications and services we can use. This talk will look at the possibility of moving away from these kinds of interactions to ones more suited to mobile devices and their dynamic contexts of use where users need to be able to look where they are going, carry shopping bags and hold on to children at the same time as using their phones. Multimodal (gestural, audio and haptic) interactions provide us new ways to use our devices that can be eyes and hands free, and allow users to interact in a ‘head up’ way. These new interactions will facilitate new services, applications and devices that fit better into our daily lives and allow us to do a whole host of new things.

I will discuss some of the work we are doing on input using gestures done with fingers, wrist and head, along with work on output using 3D sound and haptic displays in applications such as for mobile devices such as text entry and navigation. I will also discuss some of the issues of social acceptability of these new interfaces; we have to be careful that the new ways we want people to use devices are socially appropriate and don’t make us feel embarrassed or awkward.

Bio
Stephen Brewster is Professor of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) in the School of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow. He leads the Multimodal Interaction Group, which has a world leading reputation in designing novel user interfaces, particularly for mobile and touchscreen devices. His focus is on multimodal interaction, using multiple sensory modalities (particularly hearing, touch and gesture) to create richer interactions between human and computer.

School of Computing Science & Digital Media, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:10 – 15:10.

Cyber-security and the Safety of National Critical Infrastructures

Abstract
In this talk, I will explain the differences that arise when cyber-attacks threaten safety-related critical infrastructures. In most networked systems, it is possible to isolate components and applications when malware is detected. In contrast, it is often very difficult to shut-down or isolate safety-related applications without endangering lives. I will illustrate the tensions that this creates for applications across the aviation and power distribution industries. If time allows, the talk will summarise a range of different attack techniques that have been used on existing infrastructures. I will conclude by identifying a range of future threats that could have knock-on effects across many different safety-related industries.

Bio
Chris Johnson is Professor of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the EC SESAR programme and has held fellowships from NASA and the US Air Force. He is assisting the UK Department of Transport in the risk assessment of cyberattacks on national infrastructures. In 2012, he helped the European Network and Information Security Agency develop a system for incident reporting across the telecommunications industries. In 2013, this has been extended to develop techniques for reporting security incidents involving Cloud infrastructures for EC member states.

School of Computing Science & Digital Media, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room A4, 14:10 – 15:10.

Evolving QWERTY

Abstract
The QWERTY keyboard is a fossilised design. It was introduced in 1873 as a way of stopping the hammers on early typewriters from jamming. Although this is clearly no longer a problem, the QWERTY keyboard is still used as the standard layout on virtually all computers, tablets and smartphones. The lack of optimality in this design becomes even more pronounced on modern touchscreen devices, where finger travel and autocorrect accuracy become important. We propose to evolve the layout of the QWERTY keyboard so that (a) text entry on touchscreen devices is faster and more accurate and (b) the evolved keyboard is as similar as it can be to QWERTY, to maintain a high degree of familiarity for QWERTY users. We use a simple multi-objective local search procedure to optimise our keyboards for familiarity, speed and accuracy.

Bio
John Levine is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Strathclyde. He leads the Strathclyde AI and Games research group and has interests in AI Planning, Optimisation, Evolutionary Computation and Machine Learning.

Research Article CHI 2012
Multidimensional Pareto Optimization of Touchscreen Keyboards for Speed, Familiarity and Improved Spell Checking ( download pdf ).

School of Computing Science & Digital Media, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room A23, 14:10 – 15:10.

Affective Feedback – towards ending frustrating online interactions and making secure interactions more usable

Abstract
Affective Feedback has been found to have a positive effect on human-computer interactions. Often this is through use of an emotional avatar, presented in the literature as agents that can demonstrate to a certain degree social and emotional intelligence. It has also been argued that humans tend to apply similar social rules to interactions with computers as they do to interactions with other humans. Research presented in this talk considers human computer interaction when a human is in a frustrated state and also that when demonstrating insecure online behaviour and how affective interaction generated by an emotional avatar may help the situation.

Bio
Dr Jackie Archibald is a lecturer at University of Abertay Dundee. Her teaching covers HCI, Usability, Web Design and Professional Practise. Jackie’s research interests lie in the areas of Usability, Affective Computing and Security and is currently supervising three PhD students working in different aspects of these said areas.

School of Computing Science & Digital Media, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:10 – 15:10.

The 3D Web and Open Learning: Applications and Challenges

Abstract
The educational potential of 3D multi-user virtual worlds for creating innovative learning environments is evidenced by a growing number of case studies, publications, workshops and conferences on the topic; and most importantly, the popularity of virtual worlds with students, school pupils and the public at large. Open source virtual world software is now being regarded as the vanguard of the 3D Web. The existing 2D Web has enabled major advances in many aspects of online learning such as anytime/anywhere access, downloadable learning objects, online shared learning environments, a global reach and, as MOOCs have recently demonstrated a very significant scalability of courses which use a small number of well understood types of online learning resources. To realize the potential of immersive education and make the 3D Web as easy to access and use as the 2D Web, there are several challenges to overcome. These include suitable tools for content creation, programmability, support for the management of immersive environments in educational scenarios, initial download times on arrival, erratic accessibility due to firewalls, integration with the 2D Web, and the complexity of certain user interfaces. Scalability also remains a major challenge. Whereas in the case of MOOCs it is feasible to set up web sites that cope with tens of thousands of users downloading learning materials, the highly interactive, multi-user nature of virtual worlds is far more demanding and supporting even a hundred users in the same region at the same time is considered an achievement.

The talk will initially illustrate the use of this prototype 3D Web in the domains of STEM education and Cultural Heritage. It will then discuss appropriate service models for different scenarios including personal use, exhibition use and global deployment. With comparison to the 2D Web it can be shown how the quality of experience for online users relates to the network quality of service, the number of concurrent users and the capabilities of the servers and clients.

School of Computing Science & Digital Media, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:10 – 15:10.

Smart University – The University as a Platform

Abstract
The Smart University is the vision of the university as a platform that delivers foundational context data to drive the analysis and improvement of the teaching & learning environment. Low-cost motion detection and other sensors coupled with low-cost credit-card sized computers such as the Raspberry Pi open up opportunities to equip rooms with sensors. As the Raspberry Pi is a full-fledged computing device not only can one acquire data, but also process it in context. In this talk I want to present this vision and some first results.

You can learn more about the Smart University here: http://smartuniversity.uwl.ac.uk

Bio
Thomas Roth-Berghofer is Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of West London. He is Head of Research and Research Training of the School of Computing and Technology where he leads the Centre for Intelligent Computing. He is working in the fields of case-based reasoning, the semantic web, explanation, and context. His main research interests are in trustworthy and (self) explaining knowledge-based systems. You can find out more about him here: http://thomas.roth-berghofer.de

School of Computing Science & Digital Media, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 12:45 – 13:45.

Inference Anchoring Theory – Theoretical Problems, Linguistic Applications and Software Implementations

Abstract
Argument technology aims to deliver practical tools that facilitate good quality argument and debate. One of the challenges facing the field is how to understand the mechanisms that are at work in connecting the cut-and-thrust of debate on the one hand with structures of reasoning on the other. Bluntly, if we have a simple dialogue in which a proponent’s claim is challenged by an opponent and then supported by the proponent, our intuition is that it in some way creates a somewhat logical structure in which the support stands in an inferential relationship with the claim. Until now, however, we have not had the tools to understand how the linguistic activity establishes the logical structure. What once may have been an exercise in the philosophy of language is now urgently required by the advent of the Argument Web. In this talk, an overview of Inference Anchoring Theory demonstrates how the problem can be solved from a philosophical point of view; analysing unrestricted online text shows how it can applied in linguistic practice; and software demonstrations explore what now becomes possible from a technological perspective.

School of Computing Science & Digital Media, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:10 – 15:10.

Mechatronics, More Questions than Answers

Abstract
Mechtronoics as a concept is now over 40 years old and the question is raised as to how its status and thinking reflects the changes that have taken place over that period. In particular, can the approach to engineering design that mechatronics represents still be use to support system developments such as those represented by developments such as the Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems. The presentation looks at the developments that have taken place over the 40 years of mechatronics and tries to place them into a current content through the mechanism of a series of questions.

Bio
David Bradley has been involved with mechatronics and engineering design since the mid-1980s when he was a co-founder of what is now the Mechatronics Forum. His research interest over this time have generally been concerned with the application of mechatronic principles to applications ranging from physiotherapy to power station operation. He is currently a professorial consultant at the University of Abertay Dundee and a consultant to a research programme on lower limb prostheses at Leeds University.

School of Computing Science & Digital Media, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:10 – 15:10.

Musings at the Crossroads of Digital Libraries, Information Retrieval, and Scientometrics

Digital documents support and shape people’s daily activities. Regarding Computer Science, such documents are the cornerstone of two areas of research: Digital Libraries and Information Retrieval. In this presentation, we discuss the research questions that we addressed in these areas, such as:

* Digital Libraries:
- How to transpose paper-based annotations into digital documents?
- How to measure the social validity of a statement according to the argumentative discussion it sparked off?
- How to harness a quiescent capital present in any organization: its documents?

* Information Retrieval
- Is document tie-breaking affecting the evaluation of Information Retrieval systems?
- How to retrieve documents matching keywords and spatiotemporal constraints?
- Do operators in search queries (e.g., ‘+’, ‘^’) improve the effectiveness of search results?

Each question gives us the opportunity to recall background knowledge, such as how to evaluate the effectiveness of a search engine?

Finally, we discuss some of our works related to Scientometrics, which may be defined as the study of science with scientific methods. We applied techniques of Information Retrieval to documents extracted from scientific Digital Libraries. We plan to introduce our findings to the following questions:
- How to recommend researchers according to their research topics and social clues?
- What is the landscape of research in Information Systems from the perspective of gatekeepers?
- What if submission date influenced the acceptance of conference papers?

Through this journey at the crossroads of Digital Libraries, Information Retrieval, and Scientometrics, we wish to pass on our enthusiasm for these subjects to academics and students alike.

Guillaume Cabanac is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Toulouse, France. His published research spans the areas of Digital Libraries, Information Retrieval, and Scientometrics. He also likes teaching Databases and Programming. Cabanac received a grant from the Erasmus Staff Mobility programme for visiting RGU in February 2011. He enjoyed giving a lecture in Dr Wiratunga’s Database course (CM3017) about how to recommend TV series by applying Information Retrieval and Database technologies (Slides: http://bit.ly/series-o-rama2012). As he was missing the Scottish atmosphere, he is back in March 2012 for teaching, as well as for exchanging about research.

Lecture Slides from the seminar now available.

http://www.irit.fr/~Guillaume.Cabanac

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 13:15 – 14:15.

Project preview: Environment for Construction of Parallel Skeletons,
Higher-Order Theorem Proving and Complexity Analysis

Parallel skeletons are higher-order programming specifications for parallel or distributed computations introduced by M. Cole in the 90′s. According to skeletal parallellism, the programmer has to specify parallel control and data flow independently from the concrete implementation of their algorithm, which helps greatly to reduce the complexity of the distributed programming task.

Together with my colleagues from St Andrews, Porto and Orleans, we noticed that there have been no complete attempts to reason about specifications of skeletons, for example, to be able to certify automatically that a skeleton corresponds to a functionally correct refactoring of a sequential program into a parallel one. Therefore we decided to explore this possibility and devise a programming and reasoning environment that would be used by skeleton programmers to explore the meaning of their programs and reduce the number of bugs.

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:15 – 15:15.

Mission maybe possible: improving the programming model for wireless
sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks aren’t like other platforms. Programming them effectively requires that we re-think the many of the abstractions we’re used to: computationally neutral networks, functionality specified at the end-points, and a common set of abstractions. In this talk we try to tear-down the ways we think about sensor network programming, and to re-build them in a way that better reflects the challenges we face in
building complex scientific sensor systems.

Simon Dob­son is Pro­fessor of Com­puter Sci­ence in the School of Com­puter Sci­ence at the Uni­ver­sity of St Andrews. His research interests centre around the design, ana­lysis and con­struc­tion of highly adapt­ive, highly sen­sor­ised com­put­ing sys­tems. Simon pre­vi­ously worked at the UK STFC’s Ruther­ford Appleton Labor­at­ory; at Trin­ity Col­lege Dub­lin and UCD Dublin in Ire­land; and was also the founder and CEO of a research-led Dublin-based start-up com­pany. He holds a BSc from the Uni­ver­sity of New­castle upon Tyne and DPhil from the Uni­ver­sity of York, both in computer sci­ence, is a Chartered Fel­low of the Brit­ish Com­puter Society, a Chartered Engin­eer and Senior Mem­ber of the IEEE and ACM.

http://www.simondobson.org

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:15 – 15:15.

Reasoned Modelling: Towards Decision Support for System Designers

Formal modelling and reasoning are closely related activities. In particular, modelling decisions are typically informed by the analysis of failed proofs. While such analysis is not intellectually challenging from the perspective of mathematical reasoning, it does represent a major barrier to the uptake of formal design methods by mainstream software engineers – whose intuitions lie in modelling and not proof. This problem is exacerbated by the huge
number of proof obligations that arise during industrial scale developments. Overcoming this barrier would increase the accessibility and productivity of formal design methods, and ultimately the dependability and security of software intensive systems. My talk will describe a programme of research called reasoned modelling which aims to reduce this barrier. In essence we are focused on the development of techniques that abstract away from the complexities of low-level proof obligations, in particular proof-failures, and provide designers with high-level modelling guidance. Our approach is based upon a classification of common modelling patterns. Combined with automatic proof-failure analysis, we use these patterns to automatically generate modelling guidance. Complementing this top-down process, we are experimenting with bottom-up AI theory formation techniques. Specifically, we are exploring how the HR automated theory formation system can be used to increase the flexibility of our modelling patterns. I will report on progress within the context of Event-B, a refinement based modelling formalism. Our longer-term vision for reasoned modelling will also be outlined. This talk is based upon joint work with Gudmund Grov, Maria Teresa Llano and Alison Pease.

Professor Andrew Ireland BSc PhD CEng FBCS CITP

Andrew Ireland is a Professor of Computer Science within the School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences at Heriot-Watt University. He studiedat the University of Stirling where he graduated with a First Class Hons degree in Computing Science and then went on to gain his PhD sponsored by a Carnegie Scholarship. Moving to the University of Edinburgh, he took up the post of teaching assistant within the then Department of Artificial Intelligence, before joining the Mathematical Reasoning Group as Research Associate –during this period he worked on techniques for automating the search for formal proofs, in particular proof by mathematical induction.

In 1995 he became a lecturer in Computer Science at Heriot-Watt University, and was promoted to Professor in 2010. He is a founder member of the Dependable Systems Group at Heriot-Watt, and has maintained close collaborative links with the Mathematical Reasoning Group. He has substantial research experience in the areas of automated reasoning and automated software engineering on which he has published widely. He has played a central role in the development of a technique called proof planning – which uses high-level patterns of reasoningin order to automate the search for mathematical proofs. He also has a strong track-record in terms of applied research in the area of software verification. Most recently he has been collaborating with BAE Systems on reasoned modelling – a formal approach to system development which extends proof planning to incorporate design knowledge — and forms the basis for his IDEAS Research Seminar. Other industrial collaborators include Altran Praxis, QinetiQ and Lemma 1. He has held numerous EPSRC grants, and is currently the PI on a Platform Grant that supports a collaborative programme of research entitled “The Integration and Interaction of Multiple
Mathematical Reasoning Processes”, which spans three sites – Heriot-Watt, Edinburgh and Imperial College.

He has wide ranging experience in organising workshops and conferences, and currently is a member of the steering committees for two internationally leading conferences, i.e. Verified Software: Theories, Tools and Experiments (VSTTE) and the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering. Most recently, he Chaired VSTTE 2010 at Heriot-Watt. He is also a member of IFIP Working Group 1.9/2.14 (Verified Software) and Co-Chairs the international Microsoft Verified Software Milestone Award Committee. More locally, he has co-ordinated the Scottish Theorem Proving seminar series since 2005 – a forum that brings together automated reasoning researchers from around Scotland, with the aim of supporting young researchers.

Online

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:15 – 15:15.

Azure Cloud Computing

Using computers in the cloud can make lots of sense. Rather than buying and maintaining your own machines, why not exploit the acres of internet accessible servers on offer today? For some application their code and data might live in the cloud, where somebody else manages and maintains the systems they use. Alternatively, applications that run inside an organization on premise applications might store data in the cloud or rely on other cloud infrastructure services. Applications that run on desktops and mobile devices can use services in the cloud to synchronize information across many systems or in other ways. Whether application run in the cloud, uses services provided by the cloud, or both, some kind of application platform is required. Microsoft Azure platform is a group of cloud technologies, each providing a specific set of services. In this talk we’ll explorer Microsoft’s Azure service platform in specific regards to teaching learning and research.

Lee Stott is an Academic Evangelist within the Developer and Platform Evangelism ‘DPE’ Group for Microsoft UK.

In his role. Lee is responsible for engaging and helping UK Academia understand how Microsoft technologies and services can help complement existing strategies within teaching, learning and research. Lee has over 10 years of experience within the UK HE educational sector and is a Chartered IT Professional member of the BCS.

Lee is currently responsible for Microsoft Curriculum adoption http://www.microsoft.com/faculty and Microsoft DreamSpark http://www.dreamspark.com DreamSpark provides professional-level developer and design tools to students and educators at no charge. Further information on Microsoft UK Academic resources are available at http://www.microsoft.com/uk/faculty.

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room A23, 15:00 – 16:00.

The Real Effects of Password Policies

Users are often considered the weakest link in the security chain because of their poor security behaviour. One area with a vast amount of evidence related to poor behaviour is that of password management.

We have a pretty good idea of the extent to which this behaviour impacts on the individual user’s personal security. Unfortunately, we don’t know what the impact of this kind of behaviour by a number of organisational employees is, on a larger scale, nor do we know how best to intervene so as to improve the general security of an organisation as a whole. Current wisdom mandates the use of policies to curb insecure behaviours but it is clear that this approach has limited effectiveness. Unfortunately, no one really understands how the individual directives contained in the policies impact on the security of the eco-system. Sometimes directives have unexpected side-effects which are not easily anticipated.

It would be very difficult to answer this question in a real-life environment. I will describe a simulation engine which models an organisation with employee agents using a number of systems over an extended period. The simulation is tailorable, allowing tweaking of particular system-wide settings in order to implement policy dictats so as to determine their potential impact on the security of the organisation’s systems.

This tool supports security specialists developing policies within their organisations by quantifying the longitudinal impacts of particular rules.

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:15 – 15:15.

Additional information available in local news papers and online at
Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce
SICSA Latest News

Self-Organization of Neural Systems – An Evolutionary and Developmental Perspective

Understanding self-organization of biological nervous systems is key to understanding cognition. This talk presents our recent research efforts on understanding neural self-organization from the evolutionary and developmental point of view. A computational model is built up for co-evolving the development of the neural system and body plan of an animat based on primitive organisms such as hydra and flatworm. The neural and morphological development is simulated with a multi-cellular system governed by a gene regulatory network. Our results suggest that energy efficiency might be the most important constraint in neural self-organization. In addition, a close coupling between the evolution of the neural system and body plan is revealed.

A framework for modelling activity-dependent neural plasticity is briefly discussed in the second part of the talk, where the BCM plasticity rule is regulated by a gene regulatory network. The gene regulated BCM rule is adopted for training spiking neural networks. We demonstrate how activity-dependent neural plasticity can improve the network’s ability for spatiotemporal pattern recognition.

Yaochu Jin is a Professor of Computational Intelligence, Department of Computing, University of Surrey, UK, where heads the Nature Inspired Computing and Engineering (NICE) Group. Before joining Surrey, he was a Principal Scientist and Group Leader with the Honda Research Institute Europe in Germany. His research interests include computational approaches to a systems-level understanding of evolution, learning and development in biology, and bio-inspired methods for solving complex engineering problems. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers.

Prof. Jin has delivered 14 invited keynote speeches on morphogenetic robotics, developmental neural systems, modeling, analysis and synthesis of gene regulatory networks, evolutionary aerodynamic design optimization and multi-objective learning at international conferences. He is a Fellow of British Computer Society and Senior Member of IEEE.

Online

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:15 – 15:15.

On transformation methods and the induced parallel properties for the temporal domain

Many engineering and applied science problems are described by time dependent nonlinear partial differential equations. Numerical methods of handling transient problems are usually based on temporal integration methods such as Euler’s method, Runge-Kutta methods, multi-step methods, amongst many others. In relation to the nature of a given problem which may or may not require fine solution details at intermediate time steps, one usually has to choose a fine or a coarse time stepping. In the case of fine details are required the traditional method is to use temporal integration methods with fine time steps. These temporal integration methods are very difficult to parallelise because of their intrinsic sequential properties. In the case where fine details are not required it is still not possible to use a very large time step in an implicit scheme. There are restrictions imposed on the temporal step size usually due to stability criteria of an explicit scheme or the truncation errors of an implicit scheme in approximating the temporal derivatives. Computing time of such numerical methods inevitably becomes significant. There are also many problems which require solution details not at each time step of the time-marching scheme, but only at a few crucial steps and the steady state. Therefore effort in finding fine details of the solutions using many intermediate time steps is considered being wasted. Such effort becomes significant in the case of nonlinear problems where a linearisation process, which amounts to an inner iterative loop within the time-marching scheme, is required. It would be a significant save in computing time when the linearisation process and the time-marching scheme can both be done in parallel. The main objective of the present work is to remove the time stepping and to combine it with parallel/distributed computers.

To investigate the parallelisation of the temporal domain, this talk begins with a concise overview of classical temporal integration methods, including time-stepping restrictions of an explicit scheme, truncation errors in an implicit scheme, and other advantages and disadvantages of using a time marching scheme, and a brief discussion is given of several attempts by various researchers in parallelising temporal integration methods. Second, the use of transformation methods and their relations to possibly induce parallel properties to certain intrinsic sequential problems are examined. These transformation methods include the Boltzmann transformations, general stretch transformations, Fourier transformation, and Laplace transformation. Several examples related to these transformations are discussed, including diffusion-convection and image processing problems. Finally, discussions and conclusions are presented.

References
G.J. Moridis and D.L. Reddell. The Laplace transform finite difference method for simulation of flow through porous media. Water Resources Research, 27, 1873 – 1884, 1991.
C.-H. Lai, A. K. Parrott, S. Rout. A distributed algorithm for European options with nonlinear volatility. Computers and Mathematics with Applications, 49, 885 – 894, 2005.
C.-H. Lai. On transformation methods and the induced parallel properties for the temporal domain. In Substructuring Techniques and Domain Decomposition Methods, ed F. Magoules, 45 – 70, Saxe-Coburg Publications, 2010.
 
Prof. Lai completed a BSc in Mathematics with Engineering at Queen Mary, University of London, with a 1st class honours in 1981 and a PhD in the area of aerodynamics and numerical partial differential equations at the same institution in 1985. He stayed at Queen Mary as a research fellow, working in the area of parallel finite element techniques, until 1989 before joining University of Greenwich in August 1989 as a lecturer. His main research interests include numerical partial differential equations, distributed and parallel algorithms, inverse problems, image processing, computational biology, and computational aeroacoustics. He is currently a professor of numerical mathematics at the Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Greenwich. He also holds three visiting professorships are Buckingham University, Jiangnan University, China, and Fuzhou University, China.

Online

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:15 – 15:15.

Influences on Agile Practice Tailoring in Enterprise Software Development

Distributed agile development projects have become a reality in large enterprises using offshore development models. Agile practices are tailored to fit in with the organisational contexts of large enterprises. A case study involving nineteen practitioners from seven international companies was conducted. The practitioners representing a range of roles, included programme directors, each responsible for several projects, and team members based in Bangalore, India, and London, UK. The findings show that Scrum roles and practices were used to improve product quality and team productivity. The short increments, scrum master role and self organising team were found to be empowering and improve morale. However, agile practices from the XP tradition were not so widely adopted. Test driven development did not integrate well within enterprises where independent quality assurance teams were mandated and constituted as independent departments. Collective code ownership and coding standards were being used in geographically distributed software development teams prior to agile practice adoption.

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:15 – 15:15.

Lessons Learned from a Preliminary Study of an Exergame for
children

With evermore children in the Western world adopting a sedentary
lifestyle, there is an increased emphasis towards physical activity
interventions. Thanks to progressions in ubiquitous technologies,
exergames, games that facilitate and encourage exercise, have emerged as
a potential means to motivate children to exercise in a context they
find both familiar and enjoyable. While early research has shown the
potential of the genre, few games have been designed specifically with
children in mind, accommodating their unique demands. In our work, we
aim to close this gap by investigating how children react to, and make
use of an exergame designed specifically with them in mind. The aim is
to understand how different demographics of children (gender, gaming
background, exercise background, etc) react to a location-aware
exergame, in order to in the future build more accurate adaptive
exergames, suitable for the specific requirements of children users. In
this talk we present the first step towards this, the results of a
preliminary study on our location-aware exergame – iFitQuest. Our
results show early insight into how different users react to our game,
and provide lessons on how to approach the design task.

Dr Judy Robertson is a senior lecturer in Computer Science at
Heriot-Watt University. She has thirteen years experience in designing
software with and for children, particularly in the domain of game based
learning. For more information see: http://judyrobertson.typepad.com

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:15 – 15:15.

Introducing Intervention Targeting into Estimation of Distribution Algorithms

Targetted EDA (TEDA) is a new hybrid Genetic Algorithm (GA) crossover
approach that combines a targeted intervention principle with Estimation
of Distribution Algorithms (EDA) to solve optimal control problems. In
problems such as our sample problem, scheduling chemotherapy treatment the
number of interventions used is an important part of solution fitness.
Fitness Directed Crossover (FDC) is a modified GA crossover method that
actively chooses the number of interventions to set in new solutions based
on the number in fit existing solutions. EDA are able to find fit
solutions by discovering patterns within a set of fit solutions. TEDA uses
FDC to select a suitable number of interventions to set while using an EDA
based approach to select which interventions to set. Results suggest that
by combining the two approaches, TEDA is able to outperform both EDA and
FDC on a sample optimal control problem.

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:15 – 15:15.

Multi-objective optimisation of building designs

In recent years, evolutionary algorithms have increasingly been applied to the optimisation of real-world industrial problems. Optimisation of building designs is one such area: typical building designs have large numbers of variables, including construction materials, dimensions and equipment specifications. All of these can affect construction cost, operational energy use and occupant comfort.

The goal of Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimisation (EMO) is to find a set of designs representing a trade-off (or Pareto front) between conflicting objectives such as cost vs energy efficiency. This trade-off is used to support the end user in decision making. A typical building design optimisation problem will have two or three conflicting objectives and multiple constraints to be met. Further to this, a typical evolutionary algorithm evaluates thousands of solutions to converge on an optimum or optimal set; that building energy simulations can take minutes to hours represents a significant challenge. Techniques for overcoming this issue include multithreading, fitness inheritance and surrogate models of fitness.

In this presentation, I will introduce the broad concepts of EMO, and present recent work conducted as part of a project designed to deploy EMO techniques in a commercial software package. For two example building optimisation problems I will present some results, together with approaches we have taken in improving the algorithms to overcome challenges such as long computation time and constraint handling.

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:15 – 15:15.

Direct evolution of process algebra model parameters

Process algebras are an effective method for defining models of complex interacting systems, especially biological systems, but tuning parameters to allow model outputs to match experimental data can be difficult. This is the well-known parameter fitting problem. Evolutionary algorithms are powerful methods for finding solutions to optimisation problems with large search spaces, such as the parameter fitting problem mentioned. In this talk we’ll present a framework bringing together evolutionary computation techniques with modelling using process algebra to provide numeric parameters for predefined models. The tuned models can then be used confidently for further simulation or analysis. Moreover, further insight into the system under investigation may be gained by examining the performance of the evolutionary algorithm. The Evolving Process Algebra (EPA) framework will be demonstrated through benchmark examples from systems biology or computer science. This is joint work with David Cairns and David Marco at Stirling.

http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~ces/

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:15 – 15:15.

Augmentative and Alternative Communication across the Lifespan of Individuals with Complex Communication Needs

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) attempts to augment natural speech, or to provide alternative ways to communicate for people with limited or no speech. Technology has played an increasing role in AAC. At the most simplest level, people with complex communication needs (CCN) can cause a prestored message to be spoken by activating a single switch. At the most sophisticated level, literate users can generate novel text.

Although some individuals with CCN become effective communicators, most do not – they tend to be passive communicators, responding mainly to questions or prompts at a one or two word level. Conversational skills such as initiation, elaboration and story telling are seldom observed.

One reason for the reduced levels of communicative ability is that AAC technology provides the user with a purely physical link to speech output. The user is required to have sufficient language abilities and physical stamina to translate what they want to say into the code sequence of operations needed to produce the desired output.
Instead of placing all the cognitive load on the user, AAC devices can be designed to support the cognitive and language needs of individuals with CCN, taking into account the need to scaffold communication as children develop into adulthood. A range of research projects, including systems to support personal narrative and language play, will be used to illustrate the application of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Natural Language Generation (NLG) in the design and implementation of electronic AAC devices.

http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/staff/awaller/

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:15 – 15:15.

3D/4D imaging in facial deformity corrections

Dentofacial deformities are predominantly developmental problems, resulting from either under-development or over-development of either or both jaw bones.  Dentofacial deformities can be associated with some syndromes, e.g. cleft lip and palate or occur in isolation.  The correction of dentofacial deformities is aimed at restoring function and aesthetics.  Management of these groups of patients is multi-disciplining and depends on comprehensive planning using recent advances in image acquisition.

Correcting maxillofacial deformities involves surgical repositioning of the underlying bone and predicting the soft tissue outcome.  A systematic and full evaluation of the patient existing facial characteristics is essential for good surgical planning and a favorable outcome.

Many facial deformities present as three dimensional problems and as such planning needs to include the 3^rd dimension.   Three dimensional prediction planning relies on cone beam CT to image the 3D skeletal structure, laser scanning or 3D stereo photogrammetry to capture the facial soft tissue and cone beam CT or laser scanning to image the teeth.  This multi-model imaging modality then needs to be “fused” to allow the production of a “virtual patient”.  Glasgow Dental Hospital and School has this equipment readily available and in routine clinical use.  The research group has succeeded in reconstructing photorealistic digital 3D virtual patients ready for virtual surgery (orthognathic surgery). Further the group is moving towards analyzing 4D facial animation for facial deformity corrections.

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:15 – 15:15.

Designing enjoyable multimodal interactions

Multimodal Interaction encompasses several areas of research e.g. tangible, mobile and social interactions. Applications and systems in the future will be built mainly for mobile and ubiquitous settings it is therefore imperative that researchers lead the way in developing and investigating: novel interaction modalities, novel genres, interactive navigation, novel interface solutions for particular user groups, such as elderly users, and novel perspectives on how to integrate the digitally mediated social space with the physical space. The presentation will encompass two of our current projects, one with Orange Mobile investigating how we can use multimodality to feel more personally connected to the applications on our phones and one with the EPSRC & MRC investigating how to design enjoyable rehabilitation for the elderly in the home.

Dr Lynne Baillie has a PhD and MSc in Computing and is currently a Reader and Director of the Multimodal Interaction Design Research Group at Glasgow Caledonian University. Her published research spans HCI, mobile application design, location based games and technology design in the home. She has a PhD and MSc in Computing and was previously a Senior Researcher at the Telecommunications Research Centre in Vienna (FTW), an internationally acclaimed centre for research and development of technologies for future communication systems. She has led teams tasked with building interactive applications for mobile and home devices for France Telecom, Alcatel-Lucent, Siemens, Vodafone, the Austrian Research Council and Deutsche Telekom. She is Chair and an expert member of the International Federation of Information Processing working groups on Entertainment Computing and Home Technologies.

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:15 – 15:15.

Patterns, Skeletons and the Parallel Software Crisis

Parallelism is now mainstream architectural technology. Pattern and skeleton based programming methodologies claim to have answers to some of the challenges this poses to application programmers. This is our moment – are we ready? I will examine some of the evidence. I will present on-going work at Edinburgh in skeletal programming and machine-learning led optimization, and will offer some thoughts on future directions.

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:15 – 15:15.

Beyond the paper book loan: what the library can do for you

The library has a wide variety of services and resources that enhance research, learning, and teaching. This presentation will highlight some of these ranging from the well known to those that you may never have looked at before. In particular we will look at key electronic resources that enable research to be done from anywhere the internet is accessible; open access resources; ways of keeping up to date in topics you are interested in; our online reference management system, and other significant services.

Key Resources (online).

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:15 – 15:15.

Lifestyle Monitoring

Lifestyle monitoring as a subset of telecare sets out to use information derived from a range of sensors to put in place a profile of individual behaviour against which changes in behaviour can be compared and referenced to detect variations indicative of a change in health status and need. Based on their research, the authors suggest that in order for lifestyle monitoring to develop, there is a need to more fully understand the way in which such systems operate and how the various aspects such as data collection through to analysis and interpretation come together. The paper therefore presents elements of a system structure for lifestyle monitoring and shows how this structure can incorporate a range of approaches to interpretation and analysis, illustrating this with reference to practical trials involving numeric, analytic and statistical methods as well as a machine learning based approach along with the potential for developments such as those of adaptive computing to contribute to improving the interpretation of the data.

Related Articles
Developing a systems and informatics based approach to lifestyle monitoring within eHealth: part I- technology and data management (online).
Developing a systems and informatics based approach to lifestyle monitoring within eHealth: part II- Analysis & Interpretation (online).
Linking recorded data with emotive and adaptive computing in an eHealth environment (online).

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:15 – 15:15.

Spectral Methods for Learning Graphical Models

This talk presents a methodology for learning graphical models with hidden nodes that I have been studying with collaborators in recent years. The idea is to employ algebraic techniques (in particular, matrix decomposition and spectral methods) to learn unobserved quantities in graphical models. The talk focuses on tree models, and covers two aspects of the underlying learning problem: parameter estimation and structural learning. The first part is concerned with parameter estimation, where an algorithm called learnHMM is presented that learns hidden Markov models. It is shown that this method can efficiently recover the correct HMM dynamics with a sample complexity depending on some mild conditions of the underlying system. The advantage of this approach over some traditional methods (such as EM) is that our algorithm does not suffer from local minimum issues in nonconvex optimization, and it handles high dimensional observations and long range dependencies more easily. The method can be extended to estimating parameters for nonlinear systems and general tree structured graphical models with unobserved nodes. The second part is concerned with structural learning, where an algorithm is presented to learn the underlying tree topology of a broad class of multivariate tree models with hidden nodes. Exact recovery of the tree structure can be established based on certain natural dependencies on statistical and structural properties of the underlying joint distribution. This method handles high dimensional observations and is more general than existing approaches. Collaborators: Daniel Hsu, Sham Kakade, Anima Anandkumar, Le Song.

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room A12, 14:00 – 15:00.

Finding the Hidden Gems: Recommending Untagged Music

In this paper we present a novel hybrid representation for Music Information Retrieval. Our representation is built by incorporating audio content into the tag space in a tag-track matrix, and then learning hybrid concepts using latent semantic analysis. We apply this representation to the task of music recommendation, using similarity-based retrieval from a query music track. We are interested in measuring the recommendation quality, and the rate at which cold-start tracks are recommended. We develop a new approach to evaluating music recommender systems, which is based upon the relationship of users liking tracks. Our hybrid representation is able to outperform a tag-only representation, in terms of both recommendation quality and the rate that cold-start tracks are introduced to the system.

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room A12, 14:00 – 15:00.

Systems and Security Modelling: From Theory to Practice

I describe a mathematical systems modelling framework that is motivated by a desire to represent and reason about properties of (large-scale) systems situated in dynamic environments. Motivated by the concepts of distributed systems theory, the framework has at its core mathematical treatments of environment, location, resource, and process, and comes along with a separating modal logic. Extensions to analyze questions in computer security are also considered. The mathematical structures provide a semantics for a modelling tool, called (Core) Gnosis, that, together with some elementary utility theory, has been deployed in a range of commercial projects undertaken with Hewlett-Packards information security business and its customers. I conclude by discussing the role of economics in the context of modelling questions in information security.

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room A12, 14:00 – 15:00.

The Patient Records Enhancement Project (PREP): making free text available for public health research

The problem: Electronic patient records contain a mixture of coded information and free text. Information is variably recorded by practitioners as coded or free text, but free text is difficult to convert into forms suitable for quantitative analysis. Important information for health services research or epidemiology may be “hidden” to an unknown extent in free text. In the PREP project we aim to develop generalisable methods for the identification and interrogation of potentially important data “concealed” in free text, use the results to enhance coded data, and evaluate the utility of this approach. The study integrates expertise in computational linguistics, user centred social informatics, statistical/epidemiological and visualization, in a multidisciplinary study. Our methods: Natural Language Processing (NLP) be used to search the free text of large quantities of anonymised free text patient records, and to enhance coded data with pseudo-codes. Statistical methods will be used to explore the impact of integrating the additional information on (a) prevalence estimates (rheumatoid arthritis), and (b) estimates of dates of first relevant presentation (ovarian cancer). A visualization tool for the integrated graphical display of coded and NLP generated data is being developed. It will be used to validate the novel data through clinician and researcher review, and thus to explore the value of these techniques in improving the quality and accessibility of information in electronic patient records. Through user centred social informatics approaches, we are also explore what influences clinicians in the balance between recording free text vs using standard codes (e.g 002.23 Appendicectomy), and how information needs to be stored for it to be useful to and retrievable by clinicians. Our collaboration: This Wellcome Trust funded study is a collaboration between Brighton and Sussex Medical School, the Universities of Sussex and Brighton and University College London.

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:00 – 15:00.

Self-Organized Criticality in Neurorobotics

Self-organised criticality is a principle for the generation of complexity in nature. It is characterised by power-law event distributions and has been used to describe phenomena in domains such as the dynamics of neural activity, natural evolution and biological motor control. We show that critical behaviour is brought about in a natural way in neural networks and can be achieved in autonomous robots by the optimisation of conflicting goals. The critical dynamics in these systems leads to self-organisation of behavioural options that later can be composed into meaningful behaviours e.g. by reinforcement learning. Furthermore, we discuss applications of the approach in prosthetics as well as methods for guidance of the process of behavioural self-organisation in order to bias the emerging behaviour towards promising regions in the behavioural space, to include background knowledge or to achieve more coherent representations.

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room A12, 14:00 – 15:00.

An overview of the research activities at the Department of Informatics at the West University of Timisoara, Romania

The presentation will cover several of the research topics and corresponding national and international projects ongoing at the Department of Informatics from the West University of Timisoara, Romania. These topics are mainly related to grid and cloud computing, high performance computing, multi-agent systems, nature inspired metaheuristics and computational mathematics. It will be also shortly presented the computational infrastructure which currently consists of a 400 cores cluster and a BlueGene/P.

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room A12, 12:00 – 13:00.

Machine Learning for Computer System Performance

Probabilistic modelling is central to modern statistical machine learning, because it allows us to connect prior knowledge to data and uncertainty. New applications of probabilistic modelling have the potential to not only be useful in their own right, but also to motivate new methodological and theoretical advances. In this talk I will discuss the problem of predicting the performance of large, distributed computer systems, motivated by distributed applications such as the data centre applications of Google, Yahoo!, and Amazon. I will describe how these applications raise interesting new problems for machine learning, and how a probabilistic modelling perspective is opening up new techniques for debugging these systems when their performance is poor. I will aim for the talk to be relevant not only to researchers in artificial intelligence and machine learning, but also to researchers in performance modelling and autonomic computing.

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room A12, 14:00 – 15:00.

Probablistic Models for Captive Touch

In this talk I will present some of the work being done in the new Inference, Dynamics, and Interaction group, at the University of Glasgow. In particular, we are interested in using probabilistic inference to improve interaction technology on handheld devices (particularly with touch screens). I will show how we are using sequential Monte-Carlo techniques to infer distributions over user inputs which can be (1) augmented with applications to provide a smooth handover of control between the human and device and (2) used to extract additional information regarding touch interactions and subsequently improve touch accuracy.

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room C48, 14:00 – 15:00.

A Practical Guide to using Peer Review in Computing Science

Although peer review is a normal part of both academic and professional practice, undergraduates are rarely given the opportunity to develop this skill. This is puzzling, as the effort required to incorporate a peer review activity into a course can be minimal and the benefits numerous. In this talk, I will present the Aropa web-based peer review tool, and discuss how it has been used in courses at Glasgow and Auckland.

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room A12, 14:00 – 15:00.

Sensing, Understanding and Modelling People using Mobile Phones

Mobile phones are increasingly equipped with sensors, such as accelerometers, GPS receivers, proximity sensors and cameras, that can be used to sense and interpret people behaviour in real-time. Novel user-centered sensing applications can be built by exploiting the availability of such technologies in these devices that are part of our everyday experience. Moreover, data extracted from the sensors can also be used to model people behaviour and movement patterns providing a very rich set of multi-dimensional data, which can be extremely useful for social science, marketing and epidemiological studies. In this talk I will present some of my recent work in this area including the design and implementation of the CenceMe platform, a system that supports the inference of activities and other presence information of individuals using off-the-shelf sensor-enabled phones and of EmotionSense, a system for supporting social psychology research. Finally, I will briefly discuss how we are using these data to model people activity and movement patterns in the geographical space.

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room A12, 14:00 – 15:00.

Institutional Analysis, The Capability Approach and Technological Change

Institutional theory and the Capabilities Approach have become influential in international development research and practice. Both theories offer analytical tools for interpreting and guiding Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for adoption interventions. An analytical framework is proposed which applies Institutional Theory and the Capabilities Approach in the domain of ICT enabled technology change. It is argued, using empirical evidence from a case study in sub-Saharan Africa, that there are benefits in research and practice of utilizing the contrasting strengths of these analytical tools. A combined theoretical framework offers analytical and practical insights in terms of potential for stimulation (“excitation”) and degradation (“inhibition”) of technological change goals. ICT can create changes in institutional rules and norms enabling enhanced capabilities for individuals. It can also enhance capabilities which in turn lead to institutional change. There are counter-examples, where ICT has negative influences and the lack of capabilities or institutional rules or norms can prevent fulfilment of hoped for benefits from its interventions. This work contributes a combined framework linking both theories and the attendant exciters and inhibitors, illustrated with the case study. The framework contributes to theory development and informing practice by offering a novel approach to analyze ICT led international development interventions.

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room A12, 14:00 – 15:00.

Social Signal Processing: Understanding Nonverbal Communication in Social Interactions

There is more than words in linguistic communication. Whenever involved in social interactions, people display a wide number of nonverbal behavioural cues (facial expressions, vocalisations, gestures, postures, etc.) that add entirely new layers of meaning to the words being uttered. Social Signal Processing is the new, emerging domain aimed at conceptual modelling, automatic analysis and machine synthesis of nonverbal cues used as social signals, i.e. signals conveying information about social actions, social relations, social emotions and social attitudes. The goal of this talk is to illustrate the general aspects of the domain, present some examples of SSP works, and show how SSP can be helpful to make computers more adept and robust to realistic socio-cultural phenomena.

School of Computing, Robert Gordon University, St Andrew Street, Aberdeen, Lecture Room A12, 14:00 – 15:00.