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TUCS Newsletter 28.5.2014

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Salomaa@80 International Conference on June 2-3, 2014 in Turku

TUCS activities

New courses

Announcements

Latest publications at TUCS

Salomaa@80 International Conference on June 2-3, 2014 in Turku

Department of Mathematics and Statistics of University of Turku will host a two-day conference (June 2nd - June 3rd) celebrating the 80th birthday of academician Arto Salomaa. Arto Salomaa is one of the founders of and key driving forces behind TUCS.

For half a century Arto Salomaa’s research and writings inspired and guided some of the most significant developments in foundations of computer science.He is one of the founders of, and the towering figure in, formal languages and automata theory. As a researcher, Arto is famous for being prolific, deep and broad, and for pioneering many important research directions. He has had more than 500 publications including 13 books translated into at least 7 different languages. His writings have had enormous influence on the development of theoretical computer science. Well-known examples are his famous "Formal Languages" book declared a classic by the Association for Computing Machinery and the three-volume masterpiece "Handbook of Formal Languages". His retirement in 1999 was in name only: his research is still flourishing and he is pursuing both classic and novel research directions. He has supervised 25 doctoral students, many of whom became well-recognized scientists in their own right and who are at key locations around the world.

Arto's enormous achievements are well recognized by the scientific community both in Finland and abroad. He is one of the most decorated computer scientists - among others, he holds 9 doctorates honoris causa. In 2001 he received Finland's highest scientific honor when he was appointed an Academician - only 12 scientists may hold this title at any moment of time.

The conference will take place at Publicum (T50 on the map) building in the auditorium Pub1.The program of the conference can be found at http://www2.math.utu.fi/projects/salomaa80/index.php

TUCS activities

TUCS Distinguished Lecture Series

Thursday, May 15, 2014 at 13.15

ICT Building, Auditorium Gamma

Here you can find the video on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWPhGKniTew&feature=youtu.be

 

Teuvo Kohonen, Aalto University:  "Data Management by Self-Organizing Maps "

Host: Barbro Back, Åbo Akademi University.

Abstract: The Self-Organizing Map (SOM) is an automatic data-mining and visualization method that has been used in many fields of science and technology, from bioinformatics to document analysis and linguistics, and from finance to industry. The number of scientific papers written on it is over 10,000, and 800 articles are being published yearly. In this presentation I am trying to explain its fundamental principles in nonmathematical terms, and to review some of the most important applications.

Biography: Professor Teuvo Kohonen, Academician since 2000, started as a physicist. After his appointment to Associate Professor in 1963 and Full Professor in 1965 in Helsinki University of Technology, he was the first in Finland to launch regular Computer Engineering curricula. His first book is on digital circuits and systems. However, he soon found his own area in big-data analysis. First he pursued studies of distributed and adaptive associative memories and pattern recognition, including speech recognition. Professor Kohonen played central roles in international scientific societies, and he published several books on his research. His breakthrough idea in 1981-82 was the Self-Organizing Map (SOM), which belongs to clustering and nonlinearly projecting methods, and on which over 10,000 full scientific publications and over 20 books have been written all over the world. The SOM has been used for data analysis in diverse scientific and engineering fields, and it has had applications, e.g., in the analysis of industrial processes and macroeconomic systems, and in finance, trading economics, text analysis, document search, linguistics, and criminology. Numerous SOM software packages have been developed in various laboratories and businesses. A series of international biannual SOM Workshops has been held on four continents and continues since 1997. Professor Kohonen is recipient of numerous prizes and he is a multiple Honorary Doctor, also from Åbo Akademi.

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:

TUCS Research Programme activities

Second call for TUCS travel grants

The second call for the TUSC travel grants during 2014 is underway. The  deadline for applications is Friday 30th May and the applicants will be informed of decisions by Fri 6th June.

 

Applications should be submitted to (tucs@abo.fi) according to the guidelines at http://tucs.fi/education/information-students/travelling-instructions-phd-students/ before the deadline 30.5.2014, 16.00 pm.

 

Any applications arriving after the deadline will automatically be moved to the next application round.

TUCS PhD Student Toolkit

TUCS will host again the course “TUCS PhD Student Toolkit” on practical aspects of research and the academic vs. enterprise R&D on 15.-16.9.2014. The two-day course programme will be published soon.

“TUCS PhD Student Toolkit” is a graduate course targeted for doctoral students and researchers. The aim of the course is to provide an intensive information package for successful PhD studies, research funding possibilities, innovation processes, communication skills and R&D activities in both academia and business environment. The course language is English.

       

TUCS GP PhD defences

On Friday, May 23rd, TUCS GP Student Kameswar Rao Vaddina presented his Doctoral thesis "Thermal-Aware Networked Many-Core Systems" for public criticism. The opponent of M.Sc. Vaddina was Prof. Peeter Ellervee, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia. Adjunct Professor Juha Plosila acted as the custos at this public defence.

Time: 12 noon
Place: Auditorium Beta, ICT Building

On Friday, June 6th, TUCS GP Student Henri Korvela presents his Doctoral thesis “Virtual Communities – A Virtual Treasure Trove for End-User Developers” for public criticism. The opponent of M.Sc. Korvela is Professor Elizabeth Ann Regan, University of Sourth Carolina, USA. Professor Barbro Back will act as the custos for this public defence.

Time: 12 noon

Place: Auditorium Gamma, ICT Building

On Thursday, June 12th, TUCS GP Student Janne Lahtiranta presents his Doctoral thesis ”New and Emerging Challenges of the ICT-Mediated Health and Well-Being Services” for public criticism. The opponent of M.Sc. Lahtiranta is Prof.  Iordanis Kavathatzopoulos, Uppsala University, Sweden. Professor Tapio Salakoski will act as the custos at this public defence.

Time: 12 noon

Place: Auditorium Beta, ICT Building

New courses

New INFORTE courses

Developing theories in the IS discipline

June 10th – 11th

Helsinki

Speaker:

Professor Suprateek Sarker (University of Virginia, USA)

Organizer:

Professor Matti Rossi (Aalto University, Helsinki)

 

Registration closing date: June 3rd

Registration and more information: http://inforte.jyu.fi/events/ISdevelop

 

More information about the event is coming as soon as possible!

 

 

Digital Enterprise Engineering

August 26th  – 27th

Tampere

Speaker:

Professor Henderik A. Proper (University of Njimegen, The Netherlands)

Organizers:

Postdoctoral researcher Mirja Pulkkinen (University of Jyväskylä)

Professor Mikko Ruohonen (University of Tampere)

 

Registration closing date: August 15th

Registration and more information: http://inforte.jyu.fi/events/digital_enterprise_engineering

 

 

eHealth

September 25th – 26th

Turku

Speakers:

Professor Stefan Klein (University of Münster, Germany)

Assistant professor Tobias Mettler (University of St. Gallen, Switzerland)

Professor Reima Suomi (University of Turku)

Organizer:

Professor Reima Suomi (University of Turku)

 

Registration: August 1st – September 15th

Registration and more information: http://inforte.jyu.fi/events/eHealth

 

 

Qualitative Research Methods in Information Systems

October 13th – 14th

Jyväskylä

Speaker:

Professor Michael D. Myers (University of Auckland Business School, New Zealand)

Organizer:

Professor Tuure Tuunanen (University of Jyväskylä)

 

Registration: August 1st – October 1st

Registration and more information: http://inforte.jyu.fi/events/qualitative_research_methods

 

Please, see all detailed programs in: http://inforte.jyu.fi/

Participating in all seminars and workshops is free of charge for PhD students and staff members working in participating university departments. Check out the member list when registering: www.inforte.fi/participate

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 1.5.2014 and the deadline for applications is 26.6.2014 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 June 26, 2014. 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/

ÅA doctoral conferral ceremony 23 May 2014

Åbo Akademi University doctoral conferral ceremony will be on Friday, May 23, 2014.

The ceremony is open to individuals who has received their doctorates, but have not yet taken part in a formal conferral ceremony.

In addition to conferring doctoral degrees, Åbo Akademi University awards honorary doctorate degrees to fourteen individuals.

The festivities commence with the doctoral conferral ceremony on at 12 o'clock midday in the Turku City Concert Hall.

After the conferral ceremony the graduates, together with the academic staff, walk in a ceremonial procession from the Concert Hall to Turku Cathedral, where a conferral service is held. The service begins at 4 p.m.

The subsequent banquet, which will be attended by approximately 400 people, will be held at Turku Castle and begins at 7.30 p.m.

http://www.abo.fi/public/en/promotionen/

UTU researchers take a snapshot of the whole Finnish language part of the Internet

Filip Ginter and Veronika Laippala from the University of Turku Department of Information Technology have taken a snapshot of the whole Finnish Language part of the Internet – 1.5 billion words has been extracted. They are now doing research on this material. The completed material will have all the words categorized. Even Google has shown interest towards the project.

Read more here (article in Finnish): http://yle.fi/uutiset/tutkijakaksikko_pilkkoo_koko_suomenkielisen_internetin_sanoiksi/7227563

41st Finnish Conference of Linguistics Language and linguistics in a technological world

8-10 May 2014, University of Turku, School of Languages and Translation Studies

The program will include three keynote presentations, section papers (20 min + 10 min discussion), workshops and poster presentations. The languages used at the conference are Finnish, Swedish and English. The theme of this year’s conference is language and linguistics in a technological world. However, papers and workshops on any area of linguistics are welcome.

Keynote speakers:

Further information can be requested from ktp2014[at]utu.fi.

http://www.utu.fi/fi/sivustot/ktp2014/Sivut/home.aspx

Call for papers: System Management for Energy Efficient Parallel Applications and Platforms

Special session in 23rd Euromicro International Conference on Parallel, Distributed, and Network-Based Processing (PDP 2015), http://www.pdp2015.org/specialsessions/sysmng/index.html

4th - 6th March 2015, Turku, Finland

This special session aims at gathering researchers working in the broad areas of energy-efficient computing and communication systems. This session seeks submissions addressing the different aspects of system management for energy efficient parallel applications and platforms. Emphasis is given to approaches and analyses targeting real-world energy-efficient system implementations as well as novel approaches to energy-efficient design. Authors are invited to submit high quality papers representing original work from both the academia and industry in (but not limited to) the following topics:

This special session is organized in cooperation with the COST Action 1305, the Network for Sustainable Ultrascale Computing (NESUS - http://www.nesus.eu).

Important dates

Paper submission: 25st August 2014

Acceptance notification: 25th Oct 2014

Camera ready due: 10th Nov 2014

Conference: 4th - 6th Mar 2015

Submission guidelines

Prospective authors should submit a full paper not exceeding 8 pages in the IEEE Conference proceedings format (IEEEtran, double-column, 10pt). Double-bind review: the first page of the paper should contain only the title and abstract; in the reference list, references to the authors’ own work should appear as "omitted for blind review" entries. Manuscript submission

Double-bind review: the paper should not contain authors names and affiliations; in the reference list, references to the authors' own work entries should be substituted with the string "omitted for blind review”.

Publication

Proceedings will be published by IEEE Computer Society in the same volume of the main track. Authors of accepted papers are expected to register and present their papers at the Conference. Conference proceedings will be indexed, among others, by IEEE explore, DBLP, Scopus ScienceDirect, and ISI Web of Knowledge.

Organizers and special session chairs:

EIT ICT Labs: New people at the Helsinki CLC

Fernando Herrera joined EIT ICT labs in October 2013, where he helps with the Doctoral Training Center, coaching students who want to pursue entrepreneurship.

 

Fernando has experience both from startups and academia. Previous to joining EIT, Fernando worked as  Director, New Business Development at Sanoma. Before his time at Sanoma, he was Rovio Mobile's CEO after Rovio acquired Pixelgene, a mobile developer he co-founded. Fernando also worked as a researcher at HIIT's Digital Content Communities research group.

 

 Jesse Haapoja works as a civilian serviceman at the EIT Helsinki Co-location Centre. He supports the  Co-location Centre Manager and other staff especially in events and summer schools. Prior to this assignment he has worked as a researcher at Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT. Jesse’s background is in social sciences and he majored in social psychology.

EIT ICT Labs: Future Cloud Symposium 23-24 June, Rennes

EIT ICT Labs Symposium on Future Cloud Computing

Transitioning from Research to Business

Opportunities in Cloud Business in Europe

A two day international symposium on the future of Cloud Computing hosted by EIT ICT Labs

June 23 & 24, 2014 in Rennes, INRIA Conference Center, France.

Cloud Computing began as a disruption in the marketplace only five short years ago. Since then, it has become a game-changer in terms of how businesses manage the flow of information, how we distribute software and data and how people connect to one another. With Cloud, the industry has the potential to significantly contribute to European growth while offering many opportunities to new ventures and established global players.

The Symposium is your opportunity to take a closer look at the future of Cloud Computing, providing a unique opportunity for entrepreneurs, industry representatives, decision-makers, venture capitalists, academics, researchers and Cloud professionals to:

The Symposium will cover a variety of topics addressing the future of Cloud Computing in the E.U. with perspectives from those shaping the Cloud ecosystem in Europe and in the rest of the world. Expert speakers will converge including representatives from EIT ICT Labs, by leading academics from INRIA, IRISA, TU Berlin, U Neuchatel, entrepreneurs from Europe and the USA and industry leaders such as Microsoft, Google, Thales, and more.

More information on the Symposium: http://www.eitictlabs.eu/future-cloud-symposium/future-cloud-symposium/

Finnish Healthcare ICT Conference in Jyväskylä 20.–21.5.2014

Nationwide healthcare ICT conference (HC ICT ‘14) will be held at Paviljonki conference center in the City of Jyväskylä. During the recent years we have arranged this conference in many cities around Finland with over 1 000 health care and ICT experts each year. The exhibition will display a comprehensive view to national and international health care ICT products.

The conference will be arranged in cooperation with the Hospital Districts of Central Finland and South Ostrobothnia and the city of Jyväskylä. Together we have created versatile event, which provides program with current information for various professions in the health care sector and systems specialist. The conference has 40-year long tradition and offers a large range of actual themes with five different collateral sessions during both conference days:

The full program of the HC ICT ‘14 conference, the online registration form and the hotel booking form will be published on our website (www.kunnat.net/atk-paivat) in the beginning of February. For the exhibition gives more information: Kauko Hartikainen, kauko.hartikainen@kuntaliitto.fi, phone: +358 504309782

Read more here: http://www.localfinland.fi/en/authorities/social-and-health-services/healthcare-ict-conference-2014/Pages/default.aspx

DCFS 2014 in Turku

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics at University of Turku organizes 16th International Workshop on Descriptional Complexity of Formal Systems during August 5-8, 2014. Preliminary information can be found at http://www2.math.utu.fi/projects/dcfs2014/.

TUCS GP travel reports

TUCS GP travel report: SDR-WinnComm 2013 by Stefan Grönroos

Full name of the event: SDR-WInnComm 2014 – Wireless Innovation Forum Conference on Wireless Communications Technologies and Software Defined Radio

Place and date: Schaumburg, Illinois, USA, March 11th – 13th, 2014

Type of event: Conference

My article:

The scientific profile of the event: The conference is not a purely academic conference, but rather both for academia, government, and businesses alike. This means in addition to academic papers, there are also product exhibitions and various regulatory workshops. The conference focus lies on software defined radio (SDR), cognitive radio, and dynamic spectrum access (DSA). These technologies are quite closesly related, and basically the goal is to make wireless receivers and transmitters more flexible and to use the scarce radio spectrum more efficiently

Opinion on the best paper and its topic: The presentation “Software Defined Visible Light Communication” (Rahaim, Mirvakili, Ray et al.) was quite interesting. It was about using LED lights both for illumination and to transfer data wirelessly, using light, at the same time. Visible light communication is an interesting emerging technology, and this presentation described the concept, and its challenges in a clear way. The authors also explained a simple prototype using the open source GNU Radio framework.

Number of participants: I do not know the exact number, but the conference is quite small. I would guess a few hundred (maybe 200) participants maximum.

Social events: Some snacks and drinks were offered at the end of the conference days in the conference venue. There was no main “conference dinner”.

Touristic impressions: Schaumburg is located about 50 km from Chicago. The conference was held inside the Motorola Solutions campus, which was suitable for a small conference. Schaumburg itself did not seem to offer much for the tourist (mostly shopping malls), and for getting around a car would have been beneficial. Chicago is a nice city however, and offered plenty to see.

TUCS GP travel report: CIFER by Samuel Rönnqvist

Full name of the event: IEEE Computational Intelligence for Financial Engineering & Economics (CIFER)

Place and date: London, UK, March 27th – 28th, 2014

Type of event: Conference

My article:

The scientific profile of the event: The CIFEr conference bridges between the professional engineering and financial communities, focusing on new technologies and applications in the intersection of computational intelligence and financial engineering and economics. This year the conference had a special focus on systemic risk, in addition to the more traditional areas related to trading etc.

Number of participants: 120

Social events: Dinner

Touristic impressions: The conference was hosted at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London's Canary Wharf banking district. Surrounded by water in the old docks and the Thames, filled with highrises, it has a very different atmosphere from other parts of the city. You can travel the ferries along the river with normal local transport tickets, from Canary Wharf going towards Westminster or Greenwich, offering a great view to the waterfronts.

Open jobs at University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University

Latest publications at TUCS

Edited special issues of journals (2):

Articles in journals (5):

Articles in proceedings (5):

Chapters in edited books (2):

TUCS General Series (1):

Technical reports (2):