International Review of UK ICT Research 2006
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Overview of Posters and Demos
ICCS
James Clarke
Abstract: The ability to
compress sentences while preserving their grammaticality and most of
their meaning has recently received much
attention. Our work views sentence compression as an optimisation
problem. We develop an integer programming formulation and infer
globally optimal compressions in the face of linguistically motivated
constraints. We show that such a formulation allows for relatively
simple and knowledge-lean compression models that do not
require parallel corpora or large-scale resources. The proposed
approach yields results comparable and in some cases superior to
state-of-the-art.
Further
information
Helen Pain
Abstract: The STANDUP project
explores how humour may be used to help
non-speaking children learn to use language more effectively, through
providing opportunities for language play. Starting from our
previous
research on the automated generation of punning riddles, we have
designed and implemented a large-scale, robust, interactive,
user-friendly pun-generator which allows the user to experiment with
the construction of simple jokes. The STANDUP system was designed in
consultation with potential users (children with communication and
physical disabilities) and suitable experts, was rigorously engineered
using public domain linguistic data, has a special-purpose
child-friendly graphical user interface, and has been evaluated with
real users.
Further information
Frank Keller
Abstract: This poster describes
three areas of cognitive modeling that involve researchers in
Informatics, Psychology, and Linguistics. These include
information-theoretic models that account for prediction in human
parsing, corpus-based studies of syntactic priming and parallelism (the
tendency to repeat syntactic structures), and work on collaborative
tasks involving humans and robots. The use of eye-tracking, an
experimental approach that provides detailed measures of human
cognitive processing, underlies all three areas.
Further information
Miles Osborne
Abstract: The Edinburgh
Statistical Machine Translation Group consists of a dozen faculty,
postdocs, PhD students and visitors. We build frameworks for
translating between any language to any other language, with a
particular emphasis on Arabic to English, Chinese to English and all
major European languages to each other. Our current research areas
include Factored Translation Models, Trillion word Language Modelling,
large scale discriminative approaches to translation and methods for
dealing with low-density languages. We also enter in all of the major
international translation competitions, frequently outperforming
companies and other universities.
Further information
Oliver Lemon
Abstract: We are
investigating machine learning methods for dialogue management
policies. In the TALK project (an EU FP6 project), we have
developed a novel combination of reinforcement learning and supervised
learning, which allows us to learn an entire dialogue policy from a
fixed corpus of human-machine dialogues. We have also developed user
simulations for use in automatic evaluation and optimization of
policies. Experiments with human users have demonstrated the
advantages of the learned policy over a state-of-the-art hand-coded
policy. In a forthcoming EPSRC project, ``End-to-end Integrated
Statistical Processing for Context-Aware Dialogue Systems'', we will
extend this work by developing tractable and effective techniques for
the integrated treatment of uncertainty in context-aware dialogue
systems, for example using Partially Observable MDPs.
Further
information
IPAB
Bob Fisher
Abstract: The Institute of
Perception, Action and Behaviour (formed 1998) is focused on
activities related to the issue of how to link computational
perception, representation, transformation and generation processes to
external worlds. The external world may be the "real" world or another
computational environment that has its own character. Examples of
where this issue arises occur throughout the research in IPAB: video
sequence analysis, 3D shape capture and analysis, interacting agents
in computer games or video, flexible and tolerant robot control,
learning-based robot control, biomimetic robotics, particularly for
various insects. This poster shows some example images from our
research results.
Further
information
Timothy Hospedales
Abstract: We investigate a
solution to the problem of multi-sensor perception and tracking by
formulating it in the framework of Bayesian model selection. Humans
robustly associate multi-sensory data as appropriate, but previous
theoretical work has focused largely on purely integrative cases,
leaving segregation unaccounted for and unexploited by machine
perception systems. We illustrate a unifying, Bayesian solution to
multi-sensor perception and tracking which accounts for both
integration and segregation by explicit probabilistic reasoning about
data association in a temporal context. Unsupervised learning of such
a model with EM is illustrated for a real world audio-visual
application.
Further
information
Finlay Stewart
Abstract: Biorobotics
research in IPAB focuses on understanding sensorimotor control in the
context of the complex system composed of the brain, body and
environment. We choose to study insects because despite the relatively
small size of their brains they are capable of performing interesting
behaviours which solve problems using efficient strategies. The aim of
each project is to produce a sensorimotor controller which can function
on a real robot, acting as a working model of the equivalent neural
pathways in the animal. Using robots as well as simulations ensures
that the controllers produced are robust to noise in real-world sensor
data, and can correctly control the motion of the robot when
constrained by real-world physics.
Further
Information
Matt Howard
Abstract: The Institute
for Perception Action and Behaviour has a variety of links
to industry. These include collaborative research projects as well as
spin-off technology transfer companies. This poster illustrates current
links
with the research efforts of well-known companies such as Honda and
Microsoft as well as new companies started by former IPAB members. The
diversity of these links reflects the broad range of research conducted
in the institute that is highly valued by our commercial counterparts.
Further information - Honda
Further information -
Edinburgh Robotics
Further information
- Microsoft
Further information - Dimensional Imaging
Toby Collins
Abstract: Real 3D scene
acquisition usually requires the ability to scan completely the scene
objects, but this is normally impossible due to access restrictions or
physical limits. The research presented here shows how one can use the
scanned portion of an nobject to hypothesise unscanned portions,
whether holes or the complete back surface. The key idea is to grow
the known surface outward across a hypothesised underlying surface,
using matching sample neighbourhoods from theobserved front surface.
The poster shows a reconstruction of the Leaning Tower at Pisa, where
the floors, ridges and cupolas are realistically reconstructed, even
though no model of the building was used. The approach can be extended
to multiple scales and to incorporate colour.
Further
information
ICSA
Murray Cole
Abstract: The Enhance project
aims to simplify the efficient programming of Grid systems by
exploiting results from two underlying research programmes. Skeleton
based programming recognises that many real parallel applications draw
from a range of well known solution paradigms and seeks to make it easy
for an application developer to tailor such a paradigm to a specific
problem without re-inventing the wheel. Meanwhile, stochastic process
algebras such as PEPA are used to model the behaviour of concurrent
systems in which some aspects of behaviour are not precisely
predictable. By modelling our skeletons with PEPA, and thereby being
able to include aspects of uncertainty which are inherent to Grid
computing, we are able to underpin run-time systems which make better
scheduling and rescheduling decisions than less sophisticated
approaches.
Further information
Nigel Topham
Abstract: Most of the
research undertaken in the Institute for Computing Systems Architecture
has a direct relevance to the embedded computing industry. There is a
history of close interaction between researchers in ICSA and the
embedded computing industry in the UK and Europe in particular. ICSA is
currently involved in: two major collaborative European projects; two
smaller projects involving Engineering Doctorate students at ARM
(Cambidge) and Critical Blue (Edinburgh); and a close collaboration
with ARC International in the area of new high-performance low-power
embedded microprocessor architectures. This poster describes how ICSA
research results have fed into startup activities, and explains how the
long-term research collaboration with ARC International has
cross-fertilized both the product developments at ARC and the research
activities in ICSA.
Further information
Mike O'Boyle
Abstract: Iterative compiler
optimization has been shown to outperform static approaches. This,
however, is at the cost of large numbers of evaluations of the program.
This paper develops a new methodology
to reduce this number and hence speed up iterative optimization. It
uses predictive modelling from the domain of machine learning to
automatically focus search on those areas likely to give greatest
performance. This approach is independent of search algorithm, search
space or compiler infrastructure and scales gracefully with the
compiler optimization space size. Off-line, a training set of programs
is iteratively evaluated and the shape of the spaces and program
features are modelled. These models are learnt and used to focus the
iterative optimization of a new program. We evaluate two learnt models,
an independent and Markov model, and evaluate their worth on two
embedded platforms, the Texas Instrument C6713 and the AMD Au1500. We
show that such learnt models can speed up iterative search on large
spaces by an order of magnitude. This translates into an average
speedup of 1.26 on the TI C6713 and 1.27 on the AMD Au1500 in just 2
evaluations.
Further
information - machine learning
Further information -
compilers`
D.K. Arvind
Abstract: The Research
Consortium in Speckled Computing is a multidisciplinary grouping of
Computer Scientists, Electronic Engineers, Physicists and
Electrochemists, drawn from five universities, researching the next
generation of miniature (5X5X5mm) mobile computing devices called
specks: each speck combines sensing, processing and wireless networking
capabilities. The Consortium is vertically integrated, ranging from the
design, realisation and intergration of the miniature specks, to the
efficient organisation of networks of specks - called specknets - as a
fine-grained distributed computation platform. The research is funded
jointly by the Scottish Funding Council (Strategic Research Development
Grant) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
(Basic Technology Grant) in excess of £5Million for the period
2004-10, and is led by the School of Informatics, University of
Edinburgh.
Further information
LFCS
Julian Bradfield
Abstract: GAMES (Games and
Automata for Synthesis and Verification) is a just-finished Framework V
Research and Training Network. Its objectives were to develop the
theory and practice of the interlinked triad of games, automata and
logic, with particular reference to their applications in verification
and controller synthesis. This poster outlines the project, and then
describes briefly some of the work done at Edinburgh under the project,
namely Etessami and Yannakakis' work on Recursive Markov Chains,
Bradfield and Kreutzer's work on IF fixpoint logic, and Bradfield,
Duparc and Quickert's work on hierarchies in fixpoint logic.
Further information
PEPA:
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION PROCESS ALGEBRA
Jane
Hillston
Abstract: The PEPA language is
a stochastic process algebra used to analyse both natural and
artificial systems such as the biochemical pathways in living organisms
and the performance characteristics of computer and communication
systems. PEPA is a concise modelling language in the tradition of
process algebras such as CCS, designed in Edinburgh by Robin Milner,
founder of the Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science. It
enriches the CCS language with timing information about the activities
performed by the model, enabling the system under study to be analysed
both behaviourally and quantitatively.
Further information
MOBILITY
AND SECURITY
Robert Atkey
The Mobility and Security Group is engaged in building secure
foundations for the next generation of mobile applications, using
proof-carrying code to give mathematical guarantees of program safety.
We aim to provide a new level of code safety assurance by using
Proof-Carrying Code. Programs carry with them a mathematical proof of
their safety. The code consumer checks the proof supplied with a
program and only agrees to run it if this check succeeds. This provides
a new level above current techniques such as cryptographic signatures
because the proof refers not to an external authority, but to the code
itself.
We have developed technology both for the code producer, to generate
programs compiled with proofs of their safety, and for the code
consumer, to check these proofs and guarantee their soundness. On the
producer side, we have developed (with LMU Munich) advanced type
systems that guarantee space bounds of functional programs. These
guarantees can be packaged as proofs along with the compiled code. On
the consumer side, we have guaranteed the soundness of proof checking
by formalising a resource-aware logic for Java bytecode in the
interactive theorem prover Isablle. We are currently extending our work
to cover more resources and to adapt to Java as a source language.
We have two main application areas: small mobile devices and the Grid.
Small mobile devices, such as mobile phones, now have the ability to
download and run small Java applications such as games. These devices
are very limited in terms of resources such as CPU power and memory
space. They also have access to relatively expensive resources such as
the network. Knowing beforehand that a downloaded application will have
the resources to run and will not be unexpectedly expensive to the user
is extremely useful. We have previously completed an EC project "Mobile
Resource Guarantees" on applying proof-carrying code to mobile devices.
We are now working as part of the EC funded Mobius ("Mobility, Ubiquity
and Security") project with 15 other academic and industry partners in
the EU on this area.
Grid computing aims to commoditise super-computing-level processing
power and large shared databases. The Grid is built upon code being
executed by untrusting hosts. Of particular importance is safe use of
computing resources such as CPU time and memory space. A rogue piece of
code must not be allowed to monopolise a shared resource. Our research
in this area is funded by the EPSRC ReQueST grant (Resource
Quantification for e-Science Technologies).
Further
information
Xibei Jia
Abstract: This poster
outlines the results of database research in two areas of data
integration. The first concerns SMOQE, the first system
to provide efficient support for answering queries over virtual and
possibly recursively defined XML views. XML views have been widely used
to integrate data, speed up query answering, and above all, enforce XML
security, for which virtual XML views are necessary. SMOQE encompasses
an array of novel techniques for specifying XML (security) views, and
for rewriting, evaluating and optimizing XML queries posed on views
without materializing the views.
The second provides a picture of a uniform system for integrating,
cleaning, maintaining and securing data. The system supports a number
of functionalities, including (a) automated schema mapping via a novel
notion of schema embedding, (b) XML data publishing for exporting data
from relational databases as XML documents, (c) XML data integration
for combining data from multiple distributed and heterogeneous data
sources, (d) cleaning integrated data based on a set of new integrity
constraints designed for detecting inconsistencies, (e) incremental
maintenance of integrated data, and (f) securing integrated data
(SMOQE). This is the first uniform system capable of doing almost
everything one needs for data integration.
Further
information
Heiko Mueller
Abstract: This poster
presents the results of database research in two areas of digital
curation. The first concerns the preservation aspect of curation; it
demonstrates a technique for archiving all versions of a scientific
database. It allows the efficient retrieval of any version and also
permits temporal queries on the history of components of the database.
The storage overhead is small, and depends on the amount of change
rather than the frequency of changes. The second concerns data
annotation, which is an important activity especially in curated
biological databases. As yet there is no generic technology for
annotating databases and for querying those annotations. Mondrian is a
system for annotating relational databases through blocks and colours.
The colours represent the
annotations, and the blocks allow annotations to be attached to
relationships among data elements.
Other areas of database research that are important for digital
curation include data provenance, data publishing, data integration and
data citation.
Further
information
IANC
Chris Williams, John Quinn, Neil McIntosh
Abstract:
Premature babies in intensive care are monitored continuously, with
several different physiological measurements taken per second. These
measurements indicate the state of health but are noisy and require a
lot of experience to interpret. We model this data probabilistically as
a Factorial Switching Kalman Filter, and show that this allows us to
make inferences about the state of the baby and the operation of the
monitoring equipment.
Further information
A
PROBABILISTIC MODEL FOR MATCHING WHITE MATTER TRACTS RECONSTRUCTED FROM
GROUP DIFFUSION MRI DATA
Jon Clayden
Abstract: Diffusion
magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI), a recently developed medical imaging
technique, provides a rich source of structural information about the
connectivity of the living brain. Fibre tracking algorithms,
which work from dMRI data, are capable of reconstructing the pathways
of axon bundles in the brain, potentially allowing clinical studies of
white matter pathology to focus on specific susceptible
structures. However, segmentations produced by fibre tracking
presently lack consistency between individuals. Here we describe
a probabilistic model for the shape relationships between comparable
tracts, with the aim of using it to maximise the similarity between
segmented tracts in group dMRI data and a predefined reference tract -
thus improving segmentation consistency.
Further information
Judith S. Law and James A. Bednar
Abstract: Neuronal response
properties are often smoothly topographically organised across the
cortical surface. The prototypical example is the map of orientation
preference in primary visual cortex (V1). Many models of orientation
map development have been very successful in reproducing the features
of biological maps. The majority of these models are based on a
principle of short-range excitatory and long-range inhibitory
connections between neurons, e.g. von der Malsburg, 1973, Swindale,
1992, Obermayer et al., 1990 and the LISSOM model, Sirosh and
Miikkulainen, 1997. However, biological data suggests that long-range
connections between V1 neurons arise primarily from putatively
excitatory pyramidal cells (Gilbert & Wiesel,1989, Hirsch &
Gilbert, 1991, Weliky et al.,1995, Angelucci
et al.,2002). Furthermore, simple models with long-range excitation and
shortrange inhibition have shown how a biologically realistic circuitry
can reproduce features of adult V1 function such as extra-classical
receptive field phenomena (Schwabe et al., 2006). These models of adult
function suggest that long-range excitatory connections are
facilitatory when input is at low contrast, yet stronger activation of
local inhibitory neurons at high contrast will cause these connections
to act supressively. Previous developmental map models with long-range
inhibitory connections are therefore unable to account for aspects of
surround modulation. However, it is not yet clear how such circuits can
arise, which parts of the system are plastic, or in general how to
reconcile these findings with otherwise successful developmental models
such as LISSOM. We present the
first model which is consistent with this realistic connectivity, yet
also reproduces the features of successful developmental models of
topographic map formation. Future work will address how this
connectivity can lead to surround modulation both in adult V1 and
throughout development.
Further
information
DTC
neuroinformatics doctoral training centre
Mark van Rossum
Abstract: This poster
gives an overview of the structure, aims, and goals of the
NeuroInformatics Doctoral Training Centre.
Further
information
neuroinformatics: computing and the brain
Mark van Rossum
Abstract: This poster presents
a selection of Phd projects done in the NeuroInformatics DTC. It
addresses: How does a rat know where it is going? How to make a
lasting neural memory? How does human memory work? and How
do we see at low contrast.
Further
information
IGS
Don Sannella
Abstract: There are currently
271 students studying for a postgraduate research
degree in Informatics, nearly all of them for a full-time PhD.
There
are robust arrangements in place for supervision and progress reviews,
and students have access to a range of specialist courses and short
transferrable skills training courses. Networking amongst students
and researchers is facilitated by Research Institutes, by formal and
informal interdisciplinary groupings, and by subsidised social
activities.
Further
information
CSTR
Jean Carletta
Abstract: The AMI
Consortium develops new technologies to aid groups that hold
meetings. The AMI project concentrated on ways of using archives
of face-to-face meetings, and AMIDA will contribute aids for people who
need to attend a meeting, but can't be together. Edinburgh's main
contributions are in project coordination, data collection, speech
processing, and language technology.
Further information
Simon King
Abstract: In this
poster, we describe some of the novel approaches to speech recognition
that we are investigating. These complement the more mainstream work
being carried out in the AMI project, described elsewhere. The
motivations of our novel approaches come from two inadequacies of
current approaches (Hidden Markov Models of phonemes): Describing
speech as a linear string of phonemes is inadequate and causes many
problems for statistical modelling; Modelling speech directly in an
acoustic observation space makes separation of classes very difficult.
To avoid the problems of the phonemic representation, we are working in
two quite different directions. The first has strong linguistic
motivations based on properties of speech production and includes work
with articulatory measurement data and articulatory/phonetic features,
all of which are factored (multi-stream) representations. To build
statistical models of such representations, we use Dynamic Bayesian
Networks. Our second, more recent, direction has purely "engineering"
motivations: we model speech as a string of graphemes; this is
linguistically implausible (especially for English), but avoids the
need for pronunciation dictionaries (which are poor representations of
natural, spontaneous speech); accuracies using grapheme models are
already almost as good as for phoneme models. This is further evidence
that phonemes are inadequate.
Instead of classification using Gaussian mixture models of acoustic
observations (which are derived from the short term spectrum of the
speech signal), we are looking at alternative techniques, including
features based on class posterior probabilities, produced by some
classifier (usually a neural network). This approach is not new in
itself, but our novel contribution is to consider what classification
task this neural network should be performing: conventionally, this is
always phoneme classification, but we are looking at
articulatory/phonetic features and graphemes as alternatives.
The above research is complemented by more theoretical work and by
application-driven work. We are developing theory for learning the
sub-word unit inventory (rather than pre-specifying it as phonemes or
graphemes, for example) and for learning graphical model structure and
the structure of precision (i.e. inverse covariance) matrices. Both of
these topics involve automatically selecting models of appropriate
structure and complexity for the data, to optimise classification
performance. On the applications side, we are testing our models in
areas including multi-lingual speech recognition and audio search. Both
of these areas stand to benefit from using sub-word units other than
phonemes.
Further information
SysBio
Yulia Matskevich
Research in the Computational Systems Biology group is focused
on kinetic and static modeling of biological processes by linking
diverse data and modesl through multiple iterations, from static ab
initio models to highly constrained kinetic models that cross
multiple
scales. Modelling will be supported by the Systems Biology Software
Infrastructure, a new integrated platform, facilitating the modelling
process from databases to knowledge discovery, which is currently
under development in our group.
Current research themes of the group are:
Anatoly Sorokin
EPE is a visual editor designed for annotation, visualization
and presentation of wide variety of biological networks, including
metabolic, genetic and signal transduction pathways. It based on a
metadata driven architecture, which makes it very flexible in drawing,
storing, presenting and exporting information related to the network of
interest.
EPE was created as a stand-alone Eclipse application, with Eclipse
open framework architecture. This enables the development of extensions
to enhance the existing capabilities. Specific plug-ins, to perform
scientific computing and other tasks can be easily incorporated.
Stuart Moodie
A better understanding of human metabolism and its relationship
with human disease is an important task in human systems biology
studies. This project aims to present metabobolic network reconstructed
from the genome annotation information. A preliminary network was first
reconstructed by integrating the information from different databases
such as EMP, KEGG, Brenda and Uniprot and the information from
literature, resulting in a network with about 3000 metabolic reactions.
We have reorganized the reactions into about 50 pathways according to
their functional relationships. The disease related metabolic enzymes
were marked for further analysis of their effect on human disease.
Stuart Moodie
The purpose of this project is to develop modular open source
software to assist researchers in the building and modelling of
circuits. Dynamical system theory including bifurcation analysis and
global optimisation is employed to model the evolution of extremely
complex biochemical pathways of living organisms, using high
performance large-scale parallel computational techniques with aids of
supercomputers.
Further information
Adriano V. Werhii
Abstract: We compare the
accuracy of predicting gene regulatory networks with three different
machine learning methods: (1) relevance networks, (2) graphical
Gaussian models, and (3) Bayesian networks. The evaluation is
carried out on a cellular signalling network that describes the
interaction of 11 phosphorylated proteins and phospholipids in human
immune system cells.
Further
information
eSI & EPCC
Jano van Hemert
Abstract: The
Developmental Gene Expression Map project ams to design the
infrastructure for a pan-European collaborative network on the
study of gene expression in early human development. Where the
project includes the ethical and biological side of the
infrastructure, in this poster, we focus on the ICT oriented
research components that would contribute to a better
understanding of human development. These include collaborative
experiment planning, spatial-temporal gene expression databases,
3D reconstruction and visualisation, data integration, data
mining, integrative biology, computational modelling, and systems
biology.
Further information
Anna Kenway
Abstract: The e-Science
Institute is the UK's interdisciplinary centre for e-Researchers to
meet, work and exchange ideas. Hosted by Edinburgh University, it has
already been operating for 5 years and has now been extended to July
2011. The eSI poster records its past activity and describes its
current development into a more thematic and research oriented mode.
Further information
Neil Chue Hong/Konstantinos Karasavvas/Malcolm Atkinson
Abstract: OGSA-DAI
demonstrates the
University of Edinburgh's ability to combine research on data access
and integration using grid and web service technology and in-house
software engineering expertise to create outputs which benefit
international research. OGSA-DAI enables diverse heterogeneous data
sources to be accessed through uniform interfaces and provides a
flexible framework for managing additional processing functionality on
the data exposed, reducing overall data transfer. Recent research has
focused on designing a pipelining model which enables data integration
activities to be orchestrated, and data transferred between them in an
efficient manner.
Further
information
Neil Chue Hong/Kostas Kavoussanakis
Abstract: As part of its
mission, EPCC is committed to
transferring skills and knowledge to UK and European industry.
EPCC coordinates the
21-partner
NextGRID project, which seeks to ensure that
Europe is a world leader in the next generation of Grid
technology. The three-year project envisions the development of an
architecture for Next Generation Grids which will enable their
widespread use by research, industry and the ordinary citizen.
http://www.nextgrid.org/
With Grid middleware reaching maturity,
industrial uptake of Grid solutions is paramount for European
economy. The 74-partner BEinGRID project includes top
European Grid, IT and business experts, supporting business
experiments as they pilot Grid solutions in diverse market sectors.
Instrumental in the design and management of the project, EPCC also
leads Data Management support to the business experiments.
http://www.beingrid.eu/
Robert Baxter/George Beckett/Mark Parsons
Abstract:
EPCC has an outstanding reputation for providing
computing solutions to disciplines across sciences. We showcase two of
our current projects.
EPCC is working with eight other academic and commercial technology
providers in ITI Techmedia’s Condition-Based
Monitoring (CBM) Programme, investigating the application of
CBM technologies to commercial farming. EPCC leads the biological
modelling work, applying expertise in software, data management and
data analysis to develop key intellectual property for the ITI CBM
platform.
http://www.ititechmedia.com/defaultpage131abcde0.aspx?pageID=806
Distributed Grid Storage (DiGS) is
a grid application that combines disparate storage resources to form a
unified 'data grid', capable of meeting the data management challenges
of both QCD Physics and a wider scientific community. It combines
disparate mass storage technologies (e.g. RAID units or SAN systems)
to provide a unified, multi-Terabyte 'data grid' facility.
http://www.gridpp.ac.uk/qcdgrid/
CISA
Dave Robertson
Abstract: Our aim is to
develop a new form of knowledge sharing that is based not on direct
sharing of ``true'' statements about the world but, instead, is based
on sharing descriptions of interactions. By making interaction
specifications the currency of knowledge sharing we gain a context to
interpreting knowledge that can be transmitted between peers. The
narrower notion of semantic commitment we thus obtain requires peers
only to commit to meanings of terms for the purposes and duration of
the interactions in which they appear. This lightweight semantics
allows networks of interaction to be formed between peers using
comparatively simple means of tackling the perennial issues of query
routing, service composition and ontology matching. After the
first year of the project we have an integrative architecture and an
implemented kernel system, supplemented by verification methods and
demonstrator applications. This is, to our knowledge, the first single
system that shares interaction models in a peer to peer style and uses
these to coordinate peers in an opportunistic but reliable way.
This is a radical departure from the mainstream in terms of the
underlying methods of coordination between peers but it can accommodate
mainstream practices. For example, in our interaction modelling
language (LCC) we can interpret traditional business process modelling
languages; in our interactions we can conscript existing Web services
via standard interfaces; and we can obtain adaptive behaviours such as
ontology matching and mediation using dynamic modification of
interaction models' contexts.
Further information
the helpful environment
Austin Tate
Abstract: The Planning
and Activity Management Group within the Artificial Intelligence
Applications Institute (AIAI) in the School of Informatics at the
University of Edinburgh is exploring representations and
reasoning mechanisms for inter-agent activity support. The agents
may be people or computer systems working in a coordinated
fashion. The group explores and develops generic approaches by
engaging in specific applied studies. Applications include crisis
action planning, command and control, space systems, manufacturing,
logistics, construction, procedural assistance,
help desks, emergency response, etc.
Our long term aim is the creation and use of task-centric virtual
organisations involving people, government and non-governmental
organisations, automated systems, grid and web services working
alongside intelligent robotic, vehicle, building and
environmental systems to respond to very dynamic events on scales
from local to global.
The group is involved in collaborative research projects, programmes,
standards and other activities internationally.
Further information
Graham Steel
Abstract: Cash machines (ATMs)
and other critical parts of the electronic payment infrastructure
contain tamper-proof hardware security modules (HSMs), which protect
highly sensitive data such as the keys used to obtain personal
identification numbers (PINs). These HSMs have a restricted API that
is designed to prevent malicious intruders from gaining access to the
data. However, several attacks have been found on these APIs, as the
result of painstaking manual analysis by experts such as Mike Bond and
Jolyon Clulow. At the University of Edinburgh, a project is underway
to formalise and mechanise the analysis of these APIs. We aim to
develop techniques that help API designers to specify their systems
precisely and check them for flaws. This poster introduces the
challenges of the ATM network scenario, and describes our methods for
analysing security APIs, using theorem provers, protocol analysis
tools, and the PRISM probabilistic model checker.
Further information
