Archive for August, 2009
This days, the advanced networking centre (ANC) of Salzburg Research is organising a Workshop on “SECIT – Security IT”. This is a joint undertaking with UPT Timisoara, Rumania.
Our main idea is to join forces concerning evacuation scenarios: UPT for instance, offers know-how in the domain of object recognition, i.e., they can count the number of people by anlysing videos; companies such as Flexit, are looking for software (and know-how) that helps them developing smart evacuation systems; Salzburg Research/ANC offers know-how by developing models that combine object recognition techniques and evacuation needs and thus helps in linking knowledge from basic research with applied research. The following figure is adapted from a slide from TNO and tries to symbolise these relationships:
Also, I learned that data fusion is the technique that combines data from multiple sources in order to obtain satisfying results. Often, pure object recognition techniques are not sufficient, hence, one needs to combine various data sources (with varying degrees of trust and reliability).
August 25th, 2009
… with Prof. Sissi Closs as Keynote Speaker.
She started her carrier by studying computer science at the University of Munich. Interesting to see that she came to research because she wanted to do dance courses and Siemens Munich was the only employer that offered flexible working hours at that time (that was in the seventies), so that she could do her dance courses (and work part-time). IMHO an excellent example how flexible working hours are part of a good habitat for acquiring young researchers!
She founded “COMET-Computer” which focuses on technical documentation (not just the technical part, but of course this domain is very technology centric). Naturally, COMET offers flexible working hours.
She argues for the necessity of role models to attract other female students/researchers/etc. And, of course, it is important that women are equally represented on the management (board) level.
News coverage (in German) is available at http://www.salzburg.gv.at/lkorr-meldung?nachrid=43449. And, most important: the ditact summer school is online at http://www.ditact.ac.at/.
August 24th, 2009
Viviane Reading presented “Investing in a digital recovery: ICT and innovation driving growth“. A well written statement!
What I take from that
- Based on an OECD analysis, two sectors merit investment (for future prospects): “green, low carbon economy” and the “networked economy”
- Why is ICT important for recovery? Because there is a direct link between investment in IT and economic performance; because IT is a key driver for efficiency (and effectiveness)
- The PP Partnerships will be cross-thematic involving five FP7 themes (energy, environment, nmp, transport and ICT)
- Three PPPs will be directly supported by ICT: factories of the future; energy-efficient buildings; and green cars
- Finally: there is a definition of “Future Internet”: the Future Internet will feature almost unlimited bandwidth capacity, wireless access everywhere, potentially trillions of devices interconnected, integrated security and trust for all parties, and adaptive and personalised services and tools. It will open the door to a wide range of new business opportunities and will help us address even better our key societal challenges.
Overall: good to see that Europe (and its politicians) are investing heavily in ICT!
August 18th, 2009
This summer we are hosting a total of 9 students doing internships. The programme is supported by the ministries bmvit and bmukk and is called “generation innovation“.
The themes the students covered includes
- Usability
- Tag Clouds
- Flash Overlays
- geotaging on the iPhone
- Open Street Map Clients
- Rich-Client-Applications
We got some very good feedback by the students. Firstly, the got a completely different view of research and IT; they were exposed to a way of working with a high degree of self-responsibility (which was appreciated very much); and finally, they had fun.
Personally, I believe that the way of opening up research labs to young people means that they get to know what research in practise is; and the researchers themselves are confronted with new (and fresh) ideas and this is of benefit to both sides.
There is a German video available at Salzburg.com.
August 5th, 2009
