Brief Bio
Mihaela Ulieru is a Professor of Computer Science and holds the NSERC Canada Research Chair in Adaptive Information Infrastructures for the e-Society at the University of New Brunswick. She chairs and is on the board of several international R&D initiatives and is on the governing board of the IEEE Industrial Electronic Society, in charge with the emerging area of Industrial Informatics. With a PhD (1995) in computational intelligence applied to systems diagnostics under the illustrious supervision of Professor Rolf Isermann at Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany, Dr. Ulieru started her academic career as Lecturer in Computer Science and Information Systems at Brunel University, London, UK. A postdoctoral fellowship (1997) with Prof. William Gruver in the Intelligent Manufacturing and Robotics Group at Simon Fraser University brought her to Canada where she was awarded the Junior Nortel Chair at the University of Calgary in 1998. In 2001 Dr. Ulieru founded (under NSERC International Opportunity Fund) the Canadian GAIN (Global Agents Integration Network) that joined the research efforts of 19 Universities and Research Institutes across the Country working together with the industry to develop intelligent web services for collaborative virtual organizations. Several international consortia were involved, among which the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems Consortium and the Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents. In 2002 she founded (under contract of international cooperation with Berkeley Initiative in Soft Computing) the Emergent Information Systems Laboratory at the University of Calgary which she led until she left Calgary for the CRC award at UNB. Her extensive work with the industry earned her the Chairmanship of the 1st IEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics in 2003 and in the same year she founded the IEEE Technical Sub-Committee on Industrial Agents.
Since July 1, 2005 Dr. Ulieru directs the Adaptive Risk Management Laboratory funded by CFI (Canada Foundation for Innovation) at the University of New Brunswick to support her work related to the Canada Research Chair award. Her current research is focused on distributed intelligent environments (coined as 'ambient intelligence') and their applications to e-Health, emergency response management and intelligent manufacturing.


Abstract
With the latest technological convergence of wireless networks and mobile technologies, sensor networks and device miniaturization backed by emerging distributed software architectures we are experiencing a technological revolution that brought a new dimension to Cyberspace - from distributed to pervasive computing via mobile technologies. Developed on this infrastructure, future information systems will use "surrounding intelligence" (coined as 'smart spaces' or 'ambient intelligence') to create collaborative ecosystems ('intelligent environments') of stationary and mobile devices ('smart objects'). These intelligent ecosystems will form an environment that supports complex interactions among living and non-living systems.

To fully benefit from such novel technologies there is a growing need to manage what goes on behind the scenes in Cyberspace. New technologies are required that are capable to "understand" how to adapt to system and data process changes, to make the necessary adjustments automatically and to respond quicker than infrastructures that rely heavily on human intervention. Destined to become an integral part of life, such intelligent environments will be capable to support strategic partnerships with greater user-friendliness, user-empowerment and more efficient services.

This talk will shed light on how such technologies are developed and what can they offer for daily lives from the home to the office as well what it takes to unleash the power of such pervasive intelligence (coined by us 'adaptive information infrastructures' - AII) in order to create 'smart work spaces' in various industry settings. We propose a reference model for deployment of AIIs involving interdisciplinary research in complexity science, networks and distributed systems and intelligent agent technologies to enable quick deployment of such intelligent environments. Major research questions (such as How do we organize billions of mobile, smart objects that are highly dynamic, short living?; Can pathological emergent behavior of the total system, arising from the interactions between people, agents, objects, and their various policies, be avoided?; How do we translate the interaction of agents in different contexts and environments into machine understandable language?; How do we express and code sufficient real world semantics when the scope of interaction between agents is too broad or not predefined?; etc.) will be addressed while we present several applications ranging from e-Science to e-Health and emergency response management. We illustrate how AIIs allow dispersed organizations to work together during emergencies by coordinating their activities and helping the best decisions emerge amid the chaos of crisis.

Brief Bio
Dr. Oleg Gusikhin is a Technical Leader at Ford Manufacturing and Vehicle Design Research Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. from St.Petersburg Institute of Informatics and Automation of Russian Academy of Sciences in 1992. Since 1993, he has been working at Ford Motor Company in different functional areas of the company including Information Technology, Advanced Electronics Manufacturing, and Research & Advanced Engineering. During his tenure at Ford Dr. Gusikhin has been involved in the design and implementation of intelligent control of manufacturing and vehicle systems.


Abstract
This lecture provides an overview and a sampling of the applications of computational intelligence methodologies as building blocks of intelligent control systems in different areas of automotive industry. The review has been prepared in collaboration with Dr. Nestor Rychtyckyj (Ford Information Technology Department) and Dr. Dimitar Filev (Ford Advanced Manufacturing Technology Department). It highlights several relatively mature areas of applications that belong to the class of intelligent systems and have a significant impact on the automotive industry. The examples are drawn from the author's personal experience, as well as published sources with credible evidence of successful vehicle design, production implementation, or research sponsored by an automotive enterprise.

Brief Bio
He is director of ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication laboratories. He received B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Keio University (Japan) in 1976, 1978 and 1986 respectively. He joined NTT during 1978-88. In 1996 through 2001, he served as an executive manager in NTT Communication Science Labs, Soon after he moved to ATR, he established new laboratories which are called the ATR Media Information Science Labs on October, 2001, and the ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication laboratories on Oct. 2002.
His major interest is pattern recognition, human robot interaction, social intelligence, and interactiion media. He is also a fellow of the IEICE of Japan, and a member of the Robotics Society of Japan, the Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ), The Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence, and the IEEE.


Abstract
He presents the possibilities of symbiosis with human and communication robots from the viewpoint of communication media. Recent communication robots have come into greater use as next-generation communication media by allowing communication with humans, PCs and ubiquitous sensors (stationary and wearable). The "Network Robots", a new framework for integrating ubiquitous network and robot technologies, is introduced. The development of communication robots in our labs is outlined.

Brief Bio
Hojjat Adeli is Professor in the Departments of Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Biomedical Informatics, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Neuroscience at The Ohio State University. He is also the holder of Lichtenstein Professorship. He has authored over 400 research and scientific publications in various fields of computer science, engineering, and applied mathematics since 1976 when he received his Ph.D. from Stanford University at the age of 26. He has authored ten books including Machine Learning - Neural Networks, Genetic Algorithms, and Fuzzy Systems, Wiley, 1995, Neurocomputing for Design Automation, CRC Press, 1998, Distributed Computer-Aided Engineering, CRC Press, 1999, Control, Optimization, and Smart Structures - High-Performance Bridges and Buildings of the Future, Wiley, 1999, and most recently Wavelets to Enhance Computational Intelligence, Wiley, 2005. He has also edited twelve books including Knowledge Engineering - Vol. I - Fundamentals and Vol. II -Applications, McGraw-Hill, 1990, Intelligent Information Systems, IEEE Computer Society, 1997. He is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the international research journals Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, now in 21st year of publication and Integrated Computer-Aided Engineering, now in 14th year of publication. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Neural Systems. In 1998 he received the Distinguished Scholar Award from The Ohio State University “in recognition of extraordinary accomplishment in research and scholarship”.

Abstract
This lecture presents an overview of the research carried by author and his research associates on wavelets in conjunction with other intelligent system computing approaches. It is shown how wavelets can be used as a powerful tool to complement and enhance other soft computing techniques such as neural networks and fuzzy logic as well as the chaos theory for solution of complicated, intractable, and nonlinear dynamic problems. Three different problems and applications are presented, a) intelligent transportation systems, b) vibrations control under extreme environmental forces, and c) nonlinear system identification.

Brief Bio
Professor Mark d'Inverno gained an MA in mathematics in 1986 and an MSc in Computation in 1988 both from the University of Oxford, and completed his PhD, entitled Agents, Agency and Autonomy, in 1998 from University College, London.
He is Director of the Centre for Agent Technology at the University of Westminster and has been one of the UK's leading researchers in the formal modelling of agent-based systems for the last 10 years.
He is best known for developing the SMART Agent Framework with Michael Luck using techniques from formal methods. Much of this research can be found in a book entitled Understanding Agent Systems, which is now in its second edition and published earlier this year with Springer. He also co-authored a further book published in 2004 called agent-based software development. He has collaborated with many leading agent researchers and has published over 70 papers in this area.
Mark was one of the founding members of the UK's special interest group on MAS and was general co-chair of the fourth and fifth UK workshops (UKMAS 2000 and 2001). He was also the general co-chair of the First European Conference on Multi-Agent Systems (EUMAS) held at Oxford University in December 2004. In the last year or so he has applied his formal, theoretical work to more practical and cross-disciplinary projects such as modelling stem cell behaviour and building responsive sound installations.


Abstract
The focus of this talk will be on the critical relationship between theoretical investigations into agency and autonomy and their practical application in the physical world. For years I have been interested in the formal, principled approaches to modelling both natural and artificial systems in a computational setting.
The main strand to this research, focuses on the application of formal methods in providing models of intelligent agent and multi-agent systems. This approach has sought to take a structured approach to the development of practical agent systems from theoretical models. Formal specification techniques are applied to describe a library of agent systems, languages and theories that can be used in the principled development of software. This work encompasses many aspects of agent cognition and agent society including action, perception, deliberation, communication, negotiation and social norms. This work has become known as the SMART agent framework and has been presented in a number of books and papers a few of which are detailed below.
In recent years, one of the drivers of his work is applying ideas from mathematical modelling and intelligent agent-based design in a more practical and interdisciplinary settings such as music, art and design. I believe that manyof the problems of the 21st century will require an inherently interdisciplinary approach andI am strongly motivated to understand how best to build teams. language, conceptual frameworks and methodologies that will enable experts from a variety of backgrounds to collectively solve problems. I think the agent metaphoris a natural one for technology to be embraced by other communities.
In this respect, perhaps the most significant exploration to date is his work into the mathematical modelling, simulation and visualisation of stem cells. As experiments with stem cells are fundamentally limited in several significant ways, the modelling and simulation of stem cell models becomes a critical means to investigate cellular mechanisms. For example, it is currently impossible to observe and track individual stem cells in the adult human body and so little is understood about how individual stem cell interaction gives rise to the system behaviours (such as population maintenance, self-renewal, recovery of populations after massive disturbance) that clearly arise in the human body. d'Inverno's research group has expertise in multi-agent system modelling and simulation and believe this is a natural way to investigate what is, without doubt, a dynamic self-organising system of individual agents. The metaphor has several advantages, not least that it is a natural one for biologists and believe that this is key for bringing biologists and computational modelers together. Not only have results to date made testable predictions, and provided insights into building a unified set of cellular mechanisms, d'Inverno also believes that there is a growing sense within the experimental stem cell community of the need to embrace new conceptual models within which they can propose and interpret their own experimental investigations and observations. Moreover, through continuing collaboration in interdisciplinary teams, it has becoming increasingly clear that visualisation might turn out to be the Trojan Horse for theoretical modelling in stem cell biology. Collaboration with artists and designers, to best understand how best to map simulations to visual interpretations for different biological communities, is now underway. In time, this work may lead us into insights about stem cells that could have massive therapeutic impact for a range of diseases from leukemia through to Parkinson's disease.
In this talk I will present the theoretical SMART agent framework and outline some of the applications not only in modelling stem cells, but in computer generated music, design and the production of large scale art works.

Brief Bio
Dr William J O'Connor is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College Dublin, National University of Ireland, the largest and foremost Mechanical Engineering Department in Ireland. He lectures in Dynamics, Control, and Microprocessor Applications at undergraduate level and has presented graduate courses to industry in Control and Microprocessor Applications.


Abstract
There are many contexts, from space structures to disk drive heads, from medical mechanisms to long-arm manipulators, from cranes to robots, in which it is desired to achieve rapid and accurate position control of a system end-point by an actuator working through a flexible system. The system's actuator must then attempt to reconcile two, potentially conflicting, demands: position control and active vibration damping. Somehow each must be achieved while respecting the other's requirements.
Wave-based control is a powerful, relatively new strategy that has many advantages over most existing techniques. The central idea is to consider the actuator motion as launching mechanical waves into the flexible system while simultaneously absorbing returning waves. This simple, intuitive idea leads to robust, generic, highly efficient, adaptable controllers, allowing rapid and almost vibrationless re-positioning of the remote load (tip mass). For the first time there is a generic, high-performance solution to this important problem that does not depend on an accurate system model.
The keynote will investigate the mathematical foundation for a wave-based interpretation of flexible system dynamics, both lumped and continuous. It will then show how this view can be used to interpret the actuator-system interface as a two-way energy flow, leading to the design of controllers that give optimal performance by controlling this energy flow, in ways that are simple, robust, generic, and energy efficient.

Keywords
Flexible mechanical systems, Robot analysis and control, Slewing of space structures, Active vibration control .

Brief Bio
Dr. Gerard McKee is a Senior Lecturer in Network Robotics in the School of Systems Engineering at The University of Reading, UK. He received his BSc in Electronics and his PhD on the topic of Modelling and Engineering Intelligent Systems from the University of Manchester, Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). He joined the Department of Computer Science at the University of Reading in 1987 where he has taught courses in Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Information System Design.
Dr. McKee's primary research interests are in the area of network robotics, robot architectures, cooperative robot systems and telerobotics. He has developed online robot systems to support robotics education and AI teaching in undergraduate single honours and joint degree programmes. He has contributed to workshops on robotics education and has a number of conference and journal publications in the area.


Abstract
Networked Robotics is an area that straddles robotics and network technology. A robot system controlled via the WWW exploits the Internet network and hence is one realisation of networked robotics. A set of field robots that exploit wireless networks to share and distribute tasks might also be considered an exemplar of networked robotics. But isn't this just an exemplar of distributed robotics? And if so, what does networked robotics bring to the 'robotics' table. These are questions and issues addressed in this paper. The paper will propose that networks are at once both enabling and constraining to robotics. They enlarge the scope of the robotics discipline yet introduce challenges that must be overcome if that potential is to be fully realized. In short, when the network becomes a design issue - normally when performance of the system is at a premium - networked robotics is at play.

Keywords
Networked robotics, Ambient intelligence, Distributed robotics.