SmartCom 2017

Bio: An internationally renowned scholar, Professor Wei Zhao has been serving as the eighth Rector (i.e., President) of the University of Macau since 2008. Before joining the University of Macau, Professor Zhao served as the Dean of the School of Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the U.S., Director for the Division of Computer and Network Systems in the U.S. National Science Foundation, and Senior Associate Vice President for Research at Texas A&M University. Professor Zhao completed his undergraduate studies in physics at Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China, in 1977, and received his MSc and PhD degrees in Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1983 and 1986, respectively. During his academic career, he has also served as a faculty member at Shaanxi Normal University, Amherst College, the University of Adelaide, Texas A&M University, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
An IEEE Fellow, Professor Zhao has made significant contributions in distributed computing, real-time systems, computer networks, and cyberspace security. His research group has received numerous awards including the outstanding paper award from the IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems, the best paper award from the IEEE National Aerospace and Electronics Conference, an award on technology transfer from the Defense Advanced Research Program Agency, and the best paper award from the IEEE International Communication Conference. In 2011, he was named by the Ministry of Science and Technology as the Chief Scientist of the national 973 Internet of Things Project.
Since Professor Zhao's arrival in 2008, UMacau has made tremendous progress towards this goal. A brand new campus with 60+ buildings and US$2B investment has been successfully built and is now fully operational. An endowment foundation has acquired more than US$ 200M in committed donations. The University has developed and implemented a unique and innovative "4-in-1" pedagogical model, integrating discipline-specific education, general education, research or internship education, and community & peer education. Furthermore, the University of Macau has become the first in Asia that fully adopts a residential college system, and its research outcome has increased more than 500%. The University of Macau is now recognized as being among the fastest growing universities in the world.
In recognition of his outstanding achievements in science and higher education, Professor Zhao was awarded the Lifelong Achievement Award by the Chinese Association of Science and Technology in 2005. In 2007, he was honored with the Overseas Achievement Award by the Chinese Computer Federation. Professor Zhao has been conferred honorable doctorates by twelve universities in the world and academician of the China Science Center of International Eurasian Academy of Sciences (IEAS CHINA).

Topic: Big Data: Its Science, Industry, and Business

Time: 11AM - 12AM, December 11, 2017.

Abstract: Ever since humanity had consciousness, science, industry, and business have all played inalienable roles in the development of its civilizations and they have always been developed in a way that they reinforce each other. We believe that the same will be replayed for big data.  In this talk, we will begin by reviewing how major scientific discoveries in one form or another have involves the discovery and accumulation of data and that, typically, it is through profound understanding of the data that resulted in discoveries. With this as preamble, we argue that because data are de facto representations of natural phenomena, they naturally should have their own inherent rules. With this, in today’s age of enlightenment, there is a call for the creation and development of "data science," the objective of which is to discover such rules. We then address several critical issues related to development of new data industry and business. We would argue that new data industry and business would not be possible if the fair sharing of a large amount of data is not properly realized. Legal, economical, and technical aspects of the fair sharing of big data must be properly resolved and then we can effectively create new data industry and business that benefits every human being on earth.

Bio: Dharma P. Agrawal is the Ohio Board of Regents Distinguished Professor and the founding director for the Center for Distributed and Mobile Computing in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computing Systems. He has been a faculty member at the ECE Dept., Carnegie Mellon University (on sabbatical leave), N.C. State University, Raleigh and the Wayne State University. His current research interests include applications of sensor networks in monitoring Parkinson’s disease patients and neurosis, applications of sensor networks in monitoring fitness of athletes’ personnel wellness, applications of sensor networks in monitoring firefighters physical condition in action, efficient secured communication in Sensor networks, secured group communication in Vehicular Networks, use of Femto cells in LTE technology and interference issues, heterogeneous wireless networks, and resource allocation and security in mesh networks for 4G technology. His recent contribution in the form of a co-authored introductory text book on Introduction to Wireless and Mobile Computing, 4th edition has been widely accepted throughout the world and fourth edition is in press. The book has been has been reprinted both in China and India and translated in to Korean and Chinese languages. His co-authored book on Ad hoc and Sensor Networks, 2nd edition, has been published in spring of 2011. A co-edited book entitled, Encyclopedia on Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, has been published by the World Scientific and co-authored books entitled Wireless Sensor Networks: Deployment Alternatives and Analytical Modeling, and Innovative Approaches to Spectrum Selection, Sensing, On-Demand Medium Access in Heterogeneous Multihop Networks, and Sharing in Cognitive Radio Networks have being published by Lambert Academic. He is a founding Editorial Board Member, International Journal on Distributed Sensor Networks, International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing (IJAHUC), International Journal of Ad Hoc & Sensor Wireless Networks and the Journal of Information Assurance and Security (JIAS). He has served as an editor of the IEEE Computer magazine, and the IEEE Transactions on Computers, the Journal of Parallel and Distributed Systems and the International Journal of High Speed Computing. He has been the Program Chair and General Chair for numerous international conferences and meetings. He has received numerous certificates from the IEEE Computer Society. He was awarded a Third Millennium Medal, by the IEEE for his outstanding contributions. He has delivered keynote speech at 38 different international conferences. He has published over 666 papers, given 57 different tutorials and extensive training courses in various conferences in USA, and numerous institutions in Taiwan, Korea, China, Jordan, UAE, Malaysia, and India in the areas of Ad hoc and Sensor Networks and Mesh Networks, including security issues. He has graduated 72 PhDs and 65 MS students. He has been named as an ISI Highly Cited Researcher, is a Fellow of the IEEE, the ACM, the AAAS and the World Innovation Foundation, and a recent recipient of 2008 IEEE CS Harry Goode Award. Recently, in June 2011, he was selected as the best Mentor for Doctoral Students at the University of Cincinnati. Recently, he has been inducted as a charter fellow of the National Academy of Inventers. He has also been elected a Fellow of the IACSIT (International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology), 2013. [PDF]
Topic: Managing Large Health Care Data

Abstract: Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) were primarily introduced for defense application, with an objective of monitoring enemy’s activities without any human intervention. In recent years, addition of camera sensors has added another dimension to volume of data. In this talk, we consider two complimentary scheme of handling data for instantaneous sensing and 24x7 transmitting important physiological signals. The first step consists of transmitting biomedical data at needed rate without affecting the accuracy of results. The second step involves aggregation of data over period of time. Pulmonary Artery Pressure (PAP) and Electrocardiogram (ECG/EKG) are selected as two preliminary physiological signals for Cardio-Vascular Diseases (CVDs). We use physiological data from a user's body and transmit them to a coordinator. The second step is to aggregate sensor data by combining overtime as signals change slowly over time. Effectiveness of such an aggregation scheme is illustrated by measuring the degree of compression for EEG scalp readings, gait measurement in patients with neurodegenerative conditions, and motor movement signals in normal subjects. Final comments are added to provide glimpse of what can be done to handle volume of biomedical data in the context of cameras.