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TUCS Newsletter 27.11.2013


Content of the newsletter

TUCS activities

New courses

Announcements

Latest publications at TUCS

TUCS activities

TUCS Research Programme activities

TUCS Distinguished Lecture Series

TUCS Distinguished Lecture Series has been a great success and drawn large audiences to each lecture. TUCS Staff is currently viewing the attendance lists from the past year that the Series has been underway.  One study point will be granted to students who have attended at least four lectures of the series.

TUCS Distinguished Lecture Series is a forum for public lectures by outstanding national and international researchers in all aspects of computing, coming both from academia and industry. All lectures are free and open to the public.

Turku Centre for Computer Science (TUCS) is a joint research institute of University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University. The research activity in TUCS is currently carried out through four research programmes:

PhD Comic Movie night

Wednesday, November 20th, TUCS organized a screening of the PHD Movie that is based on the popular webcomic PHD Comic, where PHD is opened as “Piled Higher and Deeper”. It is a comic focused on all aspects of graduate student life. The author is Ph.D. Jorge Cham who got his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University, and was a full-time Instructor and researcher at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) from 2003-2005.

The screening gathered a good crowd in the Auditorium Alpha of the ICT Building. The movie was received very positively and gave the audience good laughs and “good therapy”. We were happy to see all you there with us to watch this piece of popular culture aimed precisely at academic communities such as us!

For more laughs and “therapy”, you find the PHD Comic at http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php

TUCS business cards

TUCS PhD students have the opportunity to order business cards via TUCS Office / Irmeli Laine. She will make the cards for you and have them printed. Cost for 100 pcs is 24€, a bank transfer comes along with the cards. Delivery time is only a few days.

TUCS Christmas lunch

TUCS Christmas lunch will be held at Hotel Julia on Thursday 5 December 2013 at 14.00-17.00. The invitations have been sent out last week. The registrations should be emailed to Irmeli Laine (along with special dietary needs) by Wed 27 November 2013 at the latest.

TUCS GP Doctoral Defences

Rajeev Kumar Kanth

On Thursday, December 5th, M.Sc. Rajeev Kumar Kanth from University of Turku, Department of Information Technology, presents his Doctoral Thesis “Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment of Printed Antennas for Sustainable Wireless Systems” for public critisism. The opponent of M.Sc. Kanth is Professor Shaofang Gong from Lingkoping University, Sweden. Adjunct Professor Pasi Liljeberg will act as a custos at this public defence.

Time: 12 noon

Place: Auditorium Beta, ICT Building

Bo Yang

On Monday, December 9th, M.Sc. Bo Yang from University of Turku, Department of Information Technology, presents his Doctoral Thesis “Towards Optimal Application Mapping for Energy-Efficient Many-Core Platforms” for public critisism. The opponent of M.Sc. Yang is Associate Professor Jesús Barba Romero from University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. Associate Professor Juha Plosila will act as a custos at this public defence.

Time: 12 noon

Place: Auditorium Beta, ICT Building

Khalid Latif

On Friday, December 20th, M.Sc. Khalid Latif from University of Turku, Department of Information Technology, presents his Doctoral Thesis “Design Space Exploration for MPSoC Architectures” for public critisism. The opponent of M.Sc. Latif is Professor Koen Bertels from Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. Docent Tiberiu Seceleanu will act as a custos at this public defence.

Time: 9:00 em

Place: Auditorium Beta, ICT Building

New courses

TUCS Short Course: Data Forecasting with Artificial Intelligence

Course title: Data Forecasting with Artificial Intelligence

Lecturer: Dr. Iulian Nastac, University Politehnica Bucharest, Romania

Course objectives and description

The course’s aim is to reduce the sophisticated models in artificial intelligence to their essence, and, at the same time, adopt a pragmatic orientation in describing when and how to use them in data forecasting. Case studies and evaluation techniques of these models are considered.

List of content

- A brief introduction in Artificial Intelligence Theory. Artificial Intelligence limitations.

- Encoding the knowledge. Rule-based reasoning. Case-based reasoning.

- Data Mining Models. Quality of available resources. Data distribution. Logistical Constraints. Outliers. Data preprocessing.

- Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) models for for data forecasting. Adaptive retraining technique.

- Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Mathematical aspects of PCA. Space dimension reduction. Non-Linear Principal Component Analysis.

- Analysis of data forecasting applications in industry, economy, bio-engineering (medicine), environmental pollution preventing, and meteorology.

Course schedule, location:

Tue    19.11 15-17, room Catbert (B3028), ICT Building

Wed  20.11 15-18, room Fortran (3058), ICT Building

Thu   21.11 15 -18, room Fortran (3058), ICT Building

Courses on transferable skills at University of Turku

http://www.utu.fi/fi/Tutkimus/tutkijakoulu/courses/Sivut/home.aspx

Announcements

Call for applications to the Doctoral Network in Information Technologies and Mathematics

The application period for the Doctoral Network in Information Technologies and Mathematics at the Åbo Akademi University has begun on 15.11.2013 and the deadline for applications is 16.12.2013 at 16.00.

The Doctoral Network in Information Technologies and Mathematics is a continuation of the long-standing co- operation in PhD education and research in Information Technologies and Mathematics in the Turku region, formalized through the Turku Centre for Computer Science (TUCS).

The research at TUCS is organised into research programmes and the following programmes are participating in the doctoral network:

The research in mathematics at ÅAU is concentrated in mathematical analysis, in particular, functional analysis, complex analysis, probability theory and stochastics. Researchers are participating in the activities of the national doctoral programmes in Mathematics and its Applications and in Stochastics and Statistics.

This call for application is open to those who have a Master's degree in computer science, computer engineering, information systems, mathematics or a related field. Applicants must receive their Master's degree before December 16, 2013. The applications should be supported in writing by the planned PhD supervisor in the Doctoral Network in Information Technologies and Mathematics at Åbo Akademi University.

More information on the network and how to apply can be found here: http://tucs.fi/education/phd/abo_programme/

EUROWEB fourth application call now open

EUROWEB, European Research and Educational Collaboration with Western Balkans, is a scholarship programme for students on undergraduate, master, doctoral and post-doctoral level as well as for university staff in academic or administrative positions, financed by the European Commission. The Erasmus Mundus EUROWEB scholarship offers a unique opportunity for full-financed academic mobility for individuals from the EU and Western Balkans partner countries. The project is part of the large-scale, EU-funded programme Erasmus Mundus Action 2.

The EUROWEB Scholarship Programme is open to selected nationals in EU countries and Western Balkans who want to study or work at one of the partner institutions (see Applicant information). The overall objective of EUROWEB project is to create a partnership in research and education that will strengthen the ties between EU and Western Balkans.

The Consortium includes 17 Higher Education Institutions: 9 in Europe and 8 in Western Balkans. Scholarships are available for mobility from the Western Balkan countries to EU partners and vice versa.

European Partners:

 Western Balkan Partners:

The details about partners, and the offer from the partner institutions to EUROWEB applicants, are available under Partner Institutions: http://www.mrtc.mdh.se/euroweb/index.php?choice=partners

The fourth application call is now open!

The application deadline is January 1, 2014.

More information on the programme can be found here:http://www.mrtc.mdh.se/euroweb/index.php  or from Outi Tuohi (otuohi@abo.fi).

APPLY here: http://www.mrtc.mdh.se/euroweb/index.php?choice=application

Information on DAAD scholarship opportunities

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) provides a wide range of scholarships for students, graduates and academics of all disciplines!

Two information sessions on scholarship opportunities are arranged in November:

1. Information session in English on DAAD scholarships

Information on scholarships for students, researchers and staff on Thursday, November 28, 2013 at 10-12 in Lilla Auditoriet (ASA, C122). A video session will be arranged in DC:s mötesrum in Vasa.

Participants in Åbo and Vasa are kindly requested to sign up by November 22 by sending an e-mail at anyby@abo.fi.

Please check out the DAAD-scholarship-database and find the right program for you:

in German, English and Spanish: www.funding-guide.de

in German and Finnish: www.helsinki.diplo.de/Vertretung/helsinki/de/06/Stipendien/seite__daad__stipendien__de.html

2. Infoveranstaltung auf Deutsch über Sommerkurse

Komm zur Infoveranstaltung des DAAD am Mittwoch, den 20. November 2013 um 13 Uhr in den Hörsaal Parnassos (Arken, A203).

Mit einem DAAD-Stipendium für einen Sommerkurs an einer Uni kannst du einen allgemeinen Sprachkurs oder einen fachbezogenen Kurs (z.B.

Wirtschaftsdeutsch) besuchen! ...Sommerkurse gibt es überall in Deutschland!

www.daad.de/deutschland/stipendium/datenbank/de/15367-hochschulsommerkurse-fuer-auslaendische-studierende-in-deutschland/

For more information, please contact

Dina Heegen, M.A.

DAAD-Lecturer

Åbo Akademi

e-mail: dheegen@abo.fi

 EIT ICT Labs Future Cloud Action Line Workshop

EIT-ICT Labs Future Cloud Action Line Workshop 12th December 2013

 

Cloud with Big Data - Stratosphere

 

Place: Open Innovation House, Otaniemientie 19b, Espoo, Finland

Time: 13:00-15:30

 

There is a huge opportunity for advancing and commercialising technological innovations on data-intensive cloud platforms and big data analytics frameworks that are able to collect, aggregate and process distributed real-time streaming data collected from a large number of sources. Not only are there brand new services being created, existing businesses are leveraging data and providing new extensions to their core offerings.

Stratosphere (www.stratosphere.eu) is open source based Big Data Analytics Platform, which enables businesses to obtain deeper insights from their data assets and provides support in decision making.

Come to hear more about Stratosphere and learn how you could use the platform in your organisation:

 

13:00-14:00                      Introduction to Stratosphere

14:00-14:30                      General Q&A

14:00-15:30                      Hands on Tutorial  - How to get started with Stratosphere

 

 Registration by 10th Dec (free of charge): https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FC_WS1

TUCS GP travel reports

TUCS GP travel report: q-bio Summer School by Diana-Elena Gratie

Full name of the event: The 7th q-bio Summer School, Synthetic Biology track

Place and date: San Diego, USA, July 21 - August 6, 2013

Type of event: summer school

The scientific profile of the event: The q-bio summer school is part of a series of conferences and summer schools in quantitative biology, with the aim of advancing predictive modeling of cellular regulation, decision making, and other information processing phenomena. The emphasis is on deep theoretical understanding, detailed modeling, and quantitative experimentation directed at understanding the behavior of particular regulatory systems and/or elucidating general principles of cellular information processing.

The summer school has several focus areas, or tracks. The tracks this year were: Stochastic Gene Regulation, Cell Signaling, Biomolecular Simulations, Viral Dynamics, Cancer, Synthetic Biology and Computational Neuroscience. I attended the Synthetic Biology track.

Opinion on the best presentation: I enjoyed most of the presentations in the summer school. I particularly liked Jeff Hasty’s short tutorial on Deterministic modeling of gene circuits, Gurol Suel’s Cellular Decision-making, and Mike Ferry’s Synthetic Biology for Biofuels. I also enjoyed the Synthetic Biology lab tour, which included a small hands-on part on nanoscale devices and a close look at a bacterial ongoing experiment, and the visit at the biofuel pond.

Number of participants: 30

Social events: Orientation and summer school opening in the first evening; visit to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in the week end.

Touristic impressions: The campus in La Jolla, San Diego is large, with trees stemming from heavy concrete blocks, and hosts many different summer activities (from synthetic biology to creative camps and cheerleading). The most interesting building is the art faculty, which bears the thoughts of many generations of students in the form of graffiti. The Zoo Safari Park was a great place to bond over favorite animals and common hate of the heat.

TUCS GP travel report: q-bio conference by Diana-Elena Gratie

Full name of the event: The 7th q-bio Conference

Place and date: Santa Fe, USA, August 10, 2013

Type of event: conference

My poster:

The scientific profile of the event: The q-bio conference is part of a series of conferences and summer schools in quantitative biology, with the aim of advancing predictive modeling of cellular regulation, decision making, and other information processing phenomena. The emphasis is on deep theoretical understanding, detailed modeling, and quantitative experimentation directed at understanding the behavior of particular regulatory systems and/or elucidating general principles of cellular information processing.

Opinion on the best paper and its topic: I liked several talks, especially The evolution of Crosstalk in Signalling Networks, by Eric Deeds, Models for GTPases in Cell Polarization by Leah Edelstein-Keshet and the pioneer talk on new imaging strategies by Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz. I also learned a lot in the two tutorials that I attended as satellite events of the conference: PySB, a programming environment to generate algorithmic representations of biological systems by Carlos Lopez and Rule-Based Modeling with BioNetGen and RuleBender by James Faeder.

Number of participants: 60

Social events: Welcome dinner and closing banquet.

Touristic impressions: Santa Fe is a wonderful artsy small city in the heart of New Mexico, one hour drive away from the capital Albuquerque. It has over 60 art galleries, and many open-air exhibitions in the gardens along the Art Walk. The conference was located at St. John’s College, well known for its distinctive curriculum, the Great Books Program, and with a small, modern and artsy campus.

TUCS GP travel report: Petri Net Course by Diana-Elena Gratie

Full name of the event: Petri Net Course, a satellite event of the 34th International Conference on Application and Theory of Petri Nets and Concurrency

Place and date: Milan, Italy, June 23-25, 2013

Type of event: course

The scientific profile of the event: The course focused on giving an introduction to the theory of Petri nets, and introducing various extensions of Petri nets for modeling: colored Petri nets, timed and stochastic Petri nets, unfoldings, Petri nets for multiscale systems biology.

Opinion on the best paper and its topic: In my opinion the best presentation was Reconstruction of (Extended) Petri Nets and its Application to Signal Transduction and to Gene Regulatory Networks, by Wolfgang Marwan. The talk presented a method of generating all possible networks that could fit a given time course. Another very interesting talk was Colour for space, levels and movement by Monika Heiner, David Gilbert and Ovidiu Pârvu. The presentation introduced an application of colors in Petri nets that was totally new to me, namely using colors to represent the spatial distribution and movement of species in a biological system, using either Cartesian or polar coordinates.

Number of participants: 20

Social events: none

Touristic impressions: The course was organized at University of Milano-Bicocca, in a nice and modern campus just outside of Milan. The city itself was full of life, history and art.

Open jobs at University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University

Latest publications at TUCS

Articles in journals (5):

Articles in proceedings (7):

Chapters in edited books (4):

TUCS General Series (1):

Ph.D. thesis (1):

Technical reports (4):