Kinematically redundant robots - The promise of human-like
dexterity
The vast majority of robots in use today operate in very structured
environments, e.g., in factory assembly lines, and possess only those
limited motion capabilities required to perform specific tasks. While
these robots can outperform humans in terms of speed, strength, and
accuracy for these tasks, they are no match for the dexterity of
human motion. Part of a human's inherent advantage over industrial
robots is due to the large number of degrees of freedom in the human
body. Articulated,
i.e., jointed, motion systems that possess more degrees of freedom than
the minimum required to perform a specified task are referred to as
kinematically redundant. In an effort to mimic the dexterity of biological
systems, researchers have built a number of kinematically redundant
robotic systems, e.g., anthropomorphic arms, multi-fingered hands,
dual-arm manipulators, and walking machines. While these systems vary in
their appearance and intended applications, they all require motion
control strategies that coordinate large numbers of joints to achieve
the high degree of dexterity possible with redundant systems. This
talk will discuss the issues that arise when designing such strategies,
frequently drawing on the use of the singular value decomposition, including
the characterization of redundancy, the quantification of dexterity,
and the development of efficient and numerically stable motion
control algorithms that simultaneously optimize multiple
criteria. In addition, the ability
of kinematically redundant robots to sustain component failures and yet
still complete an assigned task will addressed, thereby extending the
application of robots to environments that are unacceptable or
inaccessible to humans.
BIO
Tony Maciejewski received the PhD degree in Electrical Engineering
from The Ohio State University
and served on the faculty at Purdue University for 14 years. He is
currently the Head of Electrical and
Computer Engineering at Colorado State University. He is a Fellow
of the IEEE for his contributions
to the design and control of kinematically redundant robots.
Split Decomposition of Graphs
The split decomposition of a graph is a well-known, unique recursive
decomposition of a graph. It has many beautiful combinatorial properties
that were worked out in the early 1980's.
The decomposition has applications to solving combinatorial problems that
have important industrial applications, such as finding a maximum independent
set of vertices in a graph. The strategy works as follows: the
decomposition identifies compartmentalized regions of the graph whose
interactions with the rest of the graph have a simple structure.
When these regions are small, as they always are on some well-known
classes of graphs, an inefficient algorithm can be applied independently
to each of these regions. Due to the simple relationships between the
regions, these results can then be combined by induction to get an efficient
solution for the whole graph.
The talk will start with a tutorial on the elegant and intuitive properties
of the decomposition, and finish with some related algorithms that my
students Ben Joeris, Scott Lundberg, and I have recently discovered. The
talk is aimed at a broad audience, and should be accessible to anyone who
is comfortable with induction and recursion.
BIOs
Ben Joeris is in his second year as an undergrad at CSU, and this past
November, he was one of four Americans to rank in the top 48 in the world
in the annual TopCoder International Algorithms Competition. He has been
working with McConnell since he was a junior at Fort Collins High, and is
currently spending a semester abroad studying algorithms and combinatorics
in Budapest. Scott Lundberg got his B.S. in computer science at CSU, and
is currently completing his master's degree while working at Numerica, Inc.
McConnell earned his Ph.D. at the University of Colorado in Boulder in
1994, and has been an assistant professor at CSU since 2002. He has
taught at the University of Colorado at Denver, Willamette University
and Amherst College, and has worked at Vexcel Corporation in Boulder
developing algorithms and scientific software for the Jet Propulsion Lab.
The Economic Performance of Dot-Com Firms and the Impact of the
Internet on Traditional Business: Two Case Studies from the History of the
Commercialized Internet
This paper will present two case studies from a forthcoming book,
William Aspray and Paul Ceruzzi, eds., The Internet and American Business
(MIT Press, late 2007). One case study will discuss the market strategy and
structure of dot-com start-ups and compare their performance with that of
companies in manufacturing and various high-tech industries. The other case
study will examine the impact of the Internet on a traditional business
sector. This business sector has the largest revenue stream of any legal
segment on the Internet (but you will have to come to the talk to find out
what that business sector is!). The talk will also discuss how one frames
the story of the development of the Internet since its commercialization in
1991.
BIO
William Aspray is Rudy Professor of Informatics at Indiana University
in Bloomington. He has formerly held teaching positions at Harvard,
Minnesota, Penn, Rutgers, and Williams; and he has worked in various
administrative positions, including as executive director of Computing
Research Association. His research involves the history, policy, and social
study of information technology. His best-known books are John von Neumann
and the Origins of Modern Computing (MIT Press, 1990) and Computer (Basic
Books, 1996; 2nd edition 2004; with Martin Campbell-Kelly). His most recent
books are Globalization and the Offshoring of Software (ACM, 2006, edited
with Frank Mayadas and Moshe Vardi) and Women and Information Technology
(MIT Press, 2006, ed. With Joanne Cohoon). Current research includes work
on IT entrepreneurship, the impact of digitalization on the media
industries, and the informatics of diabetes.
Cost-sensitive Classifier Evaluation Using Cost Curves
The evaluation of classifier performance in a cost-sensitive
setting is
straightforward if the operating conditions (misclassification
costs and
class distributions) are fixed and known. When this is not the case,
evaluation requires a method of visualizing classifier performance
across
the full range of possible operating conditions. This talk argues
that the
classic technique for classifier performance visualization -- the
ROC curve --
is inadequate for the needs of researchers and practitioners in
several
important respects. It then describes a different way of visualizing
classifier performance -- the cost curve -- that overcomes these
deficiencies.
No familiarity with ROC curves or cost curves is necessary, they
will be
fully explained.
Vulnerabilities and Opportunities in SMS-Capable Cellular Networks
Cellular networks are a critical component of the economic and social
infrastructures in which we live. In addition to voice services, these
networks deliver alphanumeric text messages to the vast majority of
wireless subscribers. To encourage the expansion of this new service,
telecommunications companies offer connections between their networks
and the Internet. The ramifications of such connections, however, have
not been fully recognized. In this talk, we evaluate the security
impact of the SMS interface on the availability of the cellular phone
network. Specifically, we demonstrate the ability to deny voice
service to cities the size of Washington D.C. and Manhattan with
little more than a cable modem. Moreover, attacks targeting the entire
United States are feasible with resources available to medium-sized
zombie networks. This analysis begins with an exploration of the
structure of cellular networks. We then characterize network behavior
and explore a number of reconnaissance techniques aimed at effectively
targeting attacks on these systems. We conclude by discussing
counter-measures that mitigate or eliminate the threats introduced by
these attacks, and identify opportunities and requirements for the
security infrastructure of the next generation cellular networks.
This work was reported in New York Times, Reuters, The Associated
Press, and many other venues of the popular press. For more detail:
http://www.smsanalysis.org/
BIO
Patrick McDaniel is the Hartz Family Career Development Assistant
Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the
Pennsylvania State University, and co-director of the Systems and
Internet Infrastructure Security Laboratory. He received his Ph.D.
from the University of Michigan in 2001 where he studied the form,
algorithmic limits, and enforcement of security policy. Prior to
joining Penn State, Patrick was a senior technical staff Member of
the Secure Systems Group at AT&T Labs-Research and Adjunct Professor
of the Stern School of Business at New York University.
Patrick's recent research efforts have focused on telecommunications
security, distributed systems security, network security, language-
based security, and public policy and technical issues in digital
media. Patrick is a past recipient of the NASA Kennedy Space Center
fellowship, a frequent contributor to the IETF security standards,
and has authored many papers and book chapters in various areas of
systems security. He is the co-chair of the 2007 and 2008 IEEE
Symposium on Security and Privacy, and served as the Program Chair of
the 2005 USENIX Security Symposium, the Vice Chair for Security and
Privacy for WWW 2005, and is the Chair of the Industry and Government
Track at the 2005 and 2007 ACM Computer and Communications Security
conference. Patrick is also an associate editor of the journals IEEE
Transactions on Software Engineering and ACM Transactions on Internet
Technologies . Prior to pursuing his Ph.D. in 1996, Patrick was a
software architect and program manager in the telecommunications
industry.
Turning Software Development into Income: An Example
Mr. Schwaab will present on the keys and pitfalls of creating business from software development, using his current experience with the Rebit Company as an example. The presentation will focus on the pragmatic aspects of creating software businesses, with an emphasis on addressing any questions and aspects of software business development in which the audience has interest.
BIO
David Schwaab has lived on the Front Range of Colorado since 1969, and has divided his career between Denver and the Silicon Valley. He is a principal of two successful software startups, and worked in marketing and business management at Hewlett-Packard for 26 years. He is currently a principal of the Rebit Company, a high-tech startup based in Loveland, CO. Mr. Schwaab attended CSU and Regis College, and holds a BS in business administration.
Malicious Transactions in Mobile Database Systems
Securing the database from the effects of malicious activities and maintaining data consistency have never been easy. This task becomes significantly more complex in Mobile Database Systems (MDS) because of the unique demands it imposes on data processing activity. The characteristics of a malicious transaction have been discussed in many papers; however, a formal definition seems to be missing. Such definition is very useful, rather essential to investigate its interaction with MDS and to develop schemes for its management. In this seminar, we ponder over and discuss a few things about malicious transactions and its interactions with MDS. In particular, we first try to develop a formal definition of malicious transaction, explain our reference architecture of a mobile database system, define the structure and processing of mobile transactions, and investigate interaction of malicious transactions with mobile database systems. Finally, we present an outline of a scheme, which we call "Location Signature", to identify the attack of malicious transactions on mobile database systems.
BIO
Dr.
Vijay Kumar is a professor of Computer Science at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. His research activities, at present, are bounded by (a) Data Dissemination through Wireless Channels, (b) Mobile Database Systems (MDS), (c) Sensor Technology, (d) System Security and Trust management, (e) Web Technology, and (f) Bioinformatics. A number of these projects are funded by grants from National Science Foundation, HP labs, Sprint, and St Lukes Hospital research Foundations. He has 70+ refereed publications in ACM TODS, IEEE TKDE, IEEE TMC, ACM Communications, and others. He has written four books which have been published by John Wiley, Prentice Hall, and Kluwer.
MANET Simulation Studies: Reversing the Incredibles
A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is defined by mobile network nodes, no fixed infrastructure, multi-hop communication, and unreliable wireless links. In the MANET research community, simulation is the main tool used to study these dynamic networks. To determine the state of MANET simulation studies, we surveyed the 2000-2005 proceedings of the ACM International Symposium on Mobile Ad Hoc Networking and Computing (MobiHoc). From our survey, we found significant shortfalls in the credibility of presented simulation results.
A simulation scenario must be properly constructed to be effective in evaluating the performance of a MANET routing protocol. For example, a poorly defined routing protocol might appear successful in a scenario with a low average hop count because little routing is needed. Of course, many standards are needed to establish a rigorous evaluation procedure for MANET simulation research, e.g., standards are needed for simulation scenarios, random number generation, and results analysis.
In this talk, I will propose and explore two standard metrics that researchers should consider to ensure long routes are available and used in the evaluation of a MANET routing protocol. I will also discuss tools that my students and I have developed to assist MANET researchers in improving the credibility of MANET simulation-based studies. Lastly, I will briefly present past successes, current research challenges, and future directions of my research group.
BIO
Tracy Camp is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the
Colorado School of Mines. She is the Founder and Director of the
Toilers (http://toilers.mines.edu), an active ad hoc networks research
group currently consisting of five faculty and 18 students. Dr. Camp has
received 12 grants from NSF, including a CAREER award in 1997.
She has published over 50 refereed articles and 9 invited articles;
as of August 2006, her articles have been cited over 1300 times
(per Google Scholar). Dr. Camp recently returned from New Zealand,
where she was a Fulbright Scholar. She is currently a member of both the
Ad Hoc Networks Journal and the Pervasive and Mobile Computing
Journal editorial boards, the elected Treasurer of ACM's
Special Interest Group on Mobile Computing (SIGMOBILE), and a
member of ACM's Committee on Women in Computing. Dr. Camp was
recently invited to be an ACM Distinguished Lecturer (August 2006),
awarded IEEE Senior Member status (July 2006), and selected as
an ACM Distinguished Scientist (October 2006).
Careers and Challenges for Computer Scientists at Sandia National
Laboratories
The US Department of Energy's national laboratories provides an
alternative
career path for Computer Scientists, who generally focus on industrial
and
academic positions. This talk will survey the history and role evolution
of the US national laboratory system, with specific emphasis on Sandia
National Laboratories, a large (10,000 employee) engineering laboratory
headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I will discuss the unique
career
challenges faced by a relatively new PhD (myself) in this environment,
as
contrasted with academic and industrial positions. I will also survey a
number of key problems I have tackled - and helped to solve - over my
relatively short tenure at Sandia. Interactivity, especially by
soon-to-be
graduating students, will be encouraged.
BIO
Dr. Jean-Paul Watson graduated from Colorado State
University with a PhD in Computer Science in 2003, and was advised by
Professors Adele Howe and Darrell Whitley. He is currently a Senior
Member
of Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories, with
responsibilities
in research and management of applications ranging from water security,
military logistics, materials science, and fundamental optimization
algorithms.
Using Random Circulations to Find Small Cuts
Using basic properties of circulations, we show that it is easy to
generate random circulations on G which can be used to compute the cut
edges, cut edge-pairs, and cut vertices of a graph. For example, the
cut edges are "usually" the edges where a random circulation vanishes.
In the distributed setting, this leads to an improvement in the time
complexity of finding cut edge-pairs to O(Diam), where Diam is the
diameter of the graph . Asymptotic improvements are also implied for
finding cut vertices. These algorithms are the Las Vegas kind and use
messages of length O(log |V |). The distributed cut vertex algorithm
can also be used to find the blocks of G.
BIO
Ramki Thurimella received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at
Austin in 1989.
He spent 2 years as a Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced
Computer Studies at the University of Maryland, before joining the
University of Denver in 1991, where he
is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science. His
research interests include algorithms, networks security, intrusion
detection, reputation systems, Internet and peer-to-peer computing. He
is the recipient Research Initiation and other grants from NSF.
Genuinely Secure Systems
Secure64 Software Corporation has developed a micro-OS called
"SourceT." SourceT was designed from the ground up to provide the
foundation for systems with a strong set of security properties. Such
systems are called "Genuinely Secure." The Intel Itanium architecture
for the first time provides capabilities that enable a genuinely secure
system. The talk will define and discuss the properties of a genuinely
secure system, the innovative uses of unique Itanium processor
capabilities, and the synergy with other emerging trusted system
directions. Properties of Secure64's first product based upon the
SourceT micro-OS also will be presented.
BIO
Dr. William S. Worley Jr. (Bill)
MS physics, University of Chicago
Bill is a system architect. At Hewlett Packard he directed the team that developed the PA-RISC
architecture. He later directed the development of the PA Wide Word
architecture - the foundation
for the HP/Intel partnership that led to the Itanium 2 microprocessor family. Prior to HP, during 13
years with IBM, he had contributed to architectures for mainframes, storage systems, and IBM's
first RISC architecture. In the years prior to his retirement from HP Bill focused upon hardware and
software architectures for secure systems. Following retirement, Bill joined Secure64 Software as
a co-founder and CTO. Secure64 has developed a multi-core platform control system, including a
queued, asynchronous network stack, which fully exploits the security capabilities of the Itanium
architecture. This foundation is inherently secure by design, self-defending, high performance, and
scalable. It will feature growing capabilities for integrated defensive countermeasures and
applications executing under securely supported guest operating systems.
Tony Maciejewski
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Colorado State University
Ross McConnell
Department of Computer Science
Colorado State University
William Aspray
Professor of Informatics
Indiana University
Robert C. Holte
Department of Computing Science
University of Alberta
(joint work with Chris Drummond
National Research Council, Ottawa)
Patrick McDaniel
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
The Pennsylvania State University
David Schwaab
Rebit Co.
Fort Collins, Colorado
Prof. Vijay Kumar
Computer Science & Informatics
University of Missouri-Kansas City
Tracy Camp
Department of Computer Science
Colorado School of Mines
Jean-Paul Watson
Senior Member of Technical Staff
Sandia National Laboratories
Ramakrishna Thurimella
Department of Computer Science
University of Denver
(joint work with David Pritchard, University of Waterloo)
Bill Worley
CTO
Secure64 Software Corporation
CTO, Secure64 Software Corporation
Retired HP Fellow, Chief Scientist, and Distinguished Contributor
Former Commissioner, Colorado Governor's Science and Technology Commission
Education
MS Information Science, University of Chicago
PhD Computer Science, Cornell University