| Abstracts |
Accomplishments, New Opportunities and Challenges
--Ruzena Bajcsy
In this presentation we shall first describe the genesis of the Center, its scientific goals and organization. The second half describes the most recent technical accomplishments, notably related to the network of MOTEs, and their applications.
A MOTE is an assembly of sensors, a small computer and a radio. It has the capability of sensing some physical property, such as temperature, light, velocity or acceleration, chemical sensors, strain gage sensor and their like. The computer has a small operating system, called TinyOS, which enables the user to program and control some of their activity. The radio transmits the sensed and processed information in 36 byte packets. The MOTEs operate on 2AA batteries.
We shall present several examples of applications of these reconfigurable networks. However we shall also show the outstanding technical problems and issues of privacy and reliability. |
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AI Goes Quantitative
--Michael Jordan
In recent years AI has become more of an engineering discipline, aiming at solving real-world problems, and more tightly integrated with other areas of engineering and computer science. Superficially, the change is heralded by the increasing presence of vectors and matrices on AI researchers' whiteboards, but more deeply the change reflects the fact that AI researchers have embraced probability and statistics. The statistical nature of current AI makes it well equipped to exploit the increasingly copious data that are available to modern computers, and to cope with the uncertainty and noise inherent in real-world applications. I will describe a number of such applications and provide some hints as to the exciting algorithmic and mathematical developments behind them.
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Great Moments in Computing Systems at Berkeley
--Dave Patterson
Berkeley has a proud tradition in Computer Systems, reflected in part by our top ranking in Systems by the most recent U.S. News and World Report. The projects are stories of both the technology innovations and the people who built them. I'll start the story telling with a few pictures that may be nostalgic to some of the audience, but I'm sure the that others in the audience will share their rememberances too.
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IT in Fire Fighting: Better tools for those on the frontline
of home defense
--Paul Wright
This project began in a Berkeley class (sponsored by Ford, CITRIS and Intel) called “High Tech Product Design and Rapid Manufacturing”. The class was in progress when the shocking events of September 11th, 2001, took place. As a result, one of the design teams began to reformulate the communications and information systems needed in a large fire, based on the recognition that the heroes of that day did not have the equipment they needed and deserved. We have thus been creating wearable computing systems that are integrated into standard fire-fighting masks. We refer to them as “Heads Up Display (HUD)” units that can show the wearer a postage-stamp-size “You Are Here” map of the building-floor. The same map can be seen on the Fire Chiefs laptop as he or she coordinates the fire with the deployed fire crew. Using wireless sensor platforms as the research base, we have also created rudimentary ‘beacons’ for each fire fighter to wear. This allows each fire fighter to be tracked on the HUD-maps as a moving ‘red-dot.’ Such tracking allows further coordination with the Chief’s laptop that monitors the main location of fire and smoke. Improved designs of wireless smoke and CO alarms are also integral to the project and we will be powering these with some novel “energy scavenging devices” that will also be described in the presentation.
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| Biographies |
Ruzena Bajcsy
Dr. Ruzena Bajcsy (“buy chee”) was appointed Director of CITRIS at the University of California, Berkeley on November 1, 2001. Prior to coming to Berkeley, she was Assistant Director of the Computer Information Science and Engineering Directorate (CISE) between December 1, 1998 and September 1, 2001. As head of National Science Foundation’s CISE directorate, Dr. Bajcsy managed a $500 million annual budget. She came to the NSF from the University of Pennsylvania where she was a professor of computer science and engineering.
Dr. Bajcsy is a pioneering researcher in machine perception, robotics and artificial intelligence. She is a professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at Berkeley. She is also a member of the Neuroscience Institute and the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the former Director of the University of Pennsylvania’s General Robotics Automation Sensing Perception Laboratory, which she founded in 1978.
Dr. Bajcsy has done seminal research in the areas of human-centered computer control, cognitive science, robotics, computerized radiological/medical image processing and artificial vision. She is highly regarded, not only for her significant research contributions, but also for her leadership in the creation of a world-class robotics laboratory, recognized world wide as a premiere research center. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, as well as the Institute of Medicine. She is especially known for her wide-ranging, broad outlook in the field and her cross-disciplinary talent and leadership in successfully bridging such diverse areas as robotics and artificial intelligence, engineering and cognitive science.
Dr. Bajcsy received her master’s and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Slovak Technical University in 1957 and 1967, respectively. She received a Ph.D. in computer science in 1972 from Stanford University, and since that time has been teaching and doing research at Penn’s Department of Computer and Information Science. She began as an assistant professor and within 13 years became chair of the department. Prior to her work at the University of Pennsylvania, she taught during the 1950s and 1960s as an instructor and assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics and Department of Computer Science at Slovak Technical University in Bratislava. She has served as advisor to more than 50 Ph.D. recipients. In 2001 she received an honorary doctorate from University of Ljubljana in Slovenia
In 2001 she became a recipient of the ACM A. Newell award. In the November 2002 issue of Discover Magazine she was named to its list of the 50 most important women in science. In April of 2003 she received the CRA Distinguished Service Award and in May 2003 she was named to PITAC (the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee). |
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Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan is Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Department of Statistics at the University of California at Berkeley. He received his Masters from Arizona State University, and earned his PhD from the University of California, San Diego. He was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1988 to 1998. His research has spanned a number of areas in computer science and statistics, and he has published over 200 research papers in these fields. In recent years he has focused on algorithms for approximate probabilistic inference in graphical models, on kernel machines, and on applications of machine learning to problems in bioinformatics, information retrieval, and signal processing. He has given invited plenary lectures at the International Conference on the Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems, the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, the ACM Conference on Computational Learning Theory, the Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence, and the Valencia Conference on Bayesian Statistics.
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Dave Patterson
David Patterson joined the faculty at the University of California at Berkeley in 1977, where he now holds the Pardee Chair of Computer Science. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and is a fellow of both the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) and the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers).
He was a leader, along with Carlo Sequin, in the design and implementation of RISC I, likely the first VLSI Reduced Instruction Set Computer. This research became the foundation of the SPARC architecture, used by Sun Microsystems and others. He was a leader, along with Randy Katz, of the Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks project (or RAID), which led to reliable storage systems from many companies. He is co-author of five books, including two with John Hennessy, who is now President of Stanford University. Patterson has been chair of the CS division at Berkeley, the ACM SIG in computer architecture, and the Computing Research Association. He is currently runningfor President of ACM.
His teaching has been honored by the ACM, the IEEE, and the University of California. Patterson shared the 1999 IEEE Reynold Johnson Information Storage Award with Randy Katz and Garth GIbson for the development of RAID and shared the 2000 IEEE von Neumann medal with John Hennessy for "creating a revolution in computer architecture through their exploration, popularization, and commercialization of architectural innovations."
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Stuart Russell
Professor Stuart Russell received his B.A. with first-class honors in physics from Oxford University in 1982, and his Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford in 1986. He then joined the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley, where he is a professor of computer science, director of the Center for Intelligent Systems, and holder of the Smith-Zadeh Chair in Engineering. In 1990, he received the Presidential Young Investigator Award of the National Science Foundation, and in 1995 he was co-winner of the Computers and Thought Award. He was a 1996 Miller Professor of the University of California and was appointed to a Chancellor's Professorship in 2000. In 1998, he gave the Forsythe Memorial Lectures at Stanford University. He is a Fellow and former Executive Council member of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery. He has published over 100 papers on a wide range of topics in artificial intelligence. His books include "The Use of Knowledge in Analogy and Induction" (Pitman, 1989), "Do the Right Thing: Studies in Limited Rationality" (with Eric Wefald, MIT Press, 1991), and "Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach" (with Peter Norvig, Prentice Hall, 1995, 2003). |
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Paul Wright
Paul Wright’s recent research accomplishments are in “Internet-based CAD/CAM Systems” based on the “CyberCut/CyberBuild” project with Carlo Sequin of CS. Their work takes place in the Ford Prototyping Studio and Manufacturing Laboratory, a 2,000 sq.ft. space on the 2nd Floor of Etcheverry Hall at Berkeley, which is being used for teaching and research. In recent years, the Studio has designed and prototyped energy-scavenging, pico-radio systems for the Berkeley Wireless Research Center (BWRC), small “mote” platforms and the Personal Server device for Intel, fire-rescue products for the Chicago Fire Department, in-tire sensors for Pirelli, and (in newer work) Demand-Response thermostats, nodes and meters for the California Energy Commission and in conjunction with Ed Arens (also speaking in the program). All these projects are under the CITRIS umbrella. Wright was born in London and obtained his degrees at the University of Birmingham, England. He is the A. Martin Berlin Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Berkeley. He is also the Co-chairman of the Management of Technology Program, and the Associate Dean for Distance Learning and Instructional Technology in the College of Engineering. He has co-authored over 200 articles for journals and conferences, as well 4 books. A recent book "21st Century Manufacturing" just won the book of the year award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers: <pwright@robocop.me.berkeley.edu>.
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