Category Archives: research

Apr 2008 TRIL BioMOBIUS Launch

I am one of the Principal Investigators for the TRIL Centre (Technology Research for Independent Living) on the Technology Platform and today we launched the BioMOBIUS™ Research Platform. This is the combined effort of a dedicated and highly creative group of hardware engineers, software engineers, biosignal process engineers, researchers, designers and managers. Congratulations to the entire TRIL TTP team for great research platform.

NEWS Links:
UCD Research
CARDI

BioMOBIUS Logo

The TRIL Centre BioMOBIUS™ Research Platform an Open, Shareable Hardware and Software System

TTP TeamIn a clinical laboratory in St. James’s Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, an older woman walks along a mat that is embedded with motion sensors. The woman, who has experienced a recent fall, is also wearing several wireless sensors that monitor her heart rate and the motion of her limbs as she walks across the room. Small video cameras placed around the room also track her movement. As data is captured by the sensors and cameras, it is processed and streamed to a nearby computer. The computer screen displays a continually changing graph indicating irregularities in the woman’s gait that could lead to another fall—and a costly hospital stay. The clinical researcher viewing the screen asks the woman to slow her pace. Her gait becomes more regular and her heart rate slows. The clinician ends the experiment, gives the woman feedback on the results, and together they review a rehabilitation plan to help the woman improve her gait and hopefully, prevent another fall.

Scenarios such as the one above unfold on a regular basis at a clinic in St. James’s Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, enabled by the TRIL Centre BioMOBIUS™ Research Platform. The BioMOBIUS Research Platform is a combination of hardware, sensors, software, services, and a graphical development environment that enables therapists, clinicians and engineers to rapidly deploy technology solutions for biomedical research. The BioMOBIUS Research Platform supports the application needs of a broad range of stakeholders, from non-technical end users (such as older people) to hardware and software engineers.

Applications built using the BioMOBIUS Research Platform can be deployed in a wide variety of settings, from the clinical lab to the home. A typical application comprises wireless sensors that monitor markers such as gait stability, heart rate, and alertness; processing functionality, which
converts the sensor data into meaningful information; and a user interface, which enables the clinician to view the information and adjust application settings (for instance, to increase or reduce the frequency of sensor data collection).

The BioMOBIUS Research Platform was developed by the TRIL (Technology Research for
Independent Living) Centre— a groundbreaking research collaboration, jointly funded by Intel Corporation and the Irish government, to explore technology to help older people to continue living independently in the homes of their choice. Intel and the Industrial Development Agency (IDA) Ireland launched the Centre in 2007, jointly investing $30 million in this three-year research initiative involving researchers from Intel, University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway.

The first version of the BioMOBIUS Research Platform was released on 22 April, 2008 and is being made freely available to the research community (for research only) by the TRIL Centre. It can be downloaded at biomobius.trilcentre.org.

Reusable, Extensible

A key challenge in health care research is the amount of time that must be devoted to technology development. ‘In a typical research project, 50 percent of a researcher’s time may be spent creating the foundational technologies required to get to the point of collecting data,’ says Dr. Aaron Quigley (UCD), the Academic Principal Investigator for the TRIL Technology Platform research strand. ‘Every researcher has to essentially reinvent the wheel. That’s inefficient, and it stalls research progress.’ The BioMOBIUS Research Platform addresses the problem by enabling researchers to leverage previous technology development efforts. The BioMOBIUS Research Platform is reusable and extensible, with an open architecture. The underlying model relies on the use of discrete functional
components or ‘blocks’ of code that perform certain tasks. Blocks can be reused or reconfigured to create new applications. This allows researchers to spend more time focusing on their research and less on developing technology. The first release of the BioMOBIUS Research Platform includes roughly 40 blocks that users can access to build applications, and anyone can build new blocks that others can reuse, modify and extend.

Simple, User-Friendly
The BioMOBIUS Research Platform addresses another challenge that researchers face: the
complexity of sensor software. ‘Much health care research relies on wireless sensing capability to collect data, but the software that comes with the wireless sensors usually is esoteric and quite difficult to use,’ says Michael McGrath, the Industrial Principal Investigator for the TRIL Technology Platform
research strand. ‘You have to be a specialized programmer to use the software effectively, due to its complexity.’

The software component of the BioMOBIUS Research Platform is complex too, but the complexity is hidden from most users. The software is based on the EyesWeb graphical development environment, created at the University of Genoa, and it makes the process of creating an application intuitive. The user drags and drops icons (blocks) onto a palette. Each icon represents an input (e.g., motion data or heart rate), output (e.g., a display of a graph) or processing function. The user connects the blocks in
the required order of execution to create an application. Even non-technical users can develop simple applications in a matter of minutes.

The technical requirements to use the BioMOBIUS Research Platform are modest. Running the BioMOBIUS Research Platform requires a medium- to high-specification PC or notebook computer (it runs on any x86-32 bit PC running Windows XP, but it works best with a multicore CPU). There is plenty of support at the BioMOBIUS Research Platform website (biomobius.trilcentre.org) for users who need it, including a discussion forum, documentation, guidelines and tutorials.

The BioMOBIUS Research Platform provides support for a variety of hardware, via wired and wireless interfaces. Default blocks are supplied to support a wide range of generic hardware devices (e.g., TCP/IP, Serial, and WDM camera devices). The BioMOBIUS Research Platform also currently supports the SHIMMER (Sensing Health with Intelligence, Modularity, Mobility and Experimental Reusability) family of wireless sensors, developed by Intel’s Digital Health Group, as well as Tactex Controls Inc. sensor products.

While the BioMOBIUS Research Platform is designed for ease of use, some engineering support likely will be required to configure and test new applications. In addition, non-technical users who want to develop new blocks will need the help of a software developer to write appropriate code (C++). BioMOBIUS Research Platform Applications

Today the BioMOBIUS Research Platform is being used primarily by TRIL researchers to help clinicians detect and prevent or ameliorate certain conditions related to ageing, such as falls and cognitive decline, and to help older people to strengthen their social connections. Among other applications developed using the BioMOBIUS Research Platform, TRIL researchers have created a neurological monitor, gait analysis and sleep quality applications, and a falls data capture solution involving the use of USB cameras.

Researchers within and beyond TRIL have shown a strong interest in developing other health care applications as well, including in-home diagnostic tests to identify biomarkers of diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease. Beyond health care, the BioMOBIUS Research Platform can be used for a range of applications that require wireless capture and processing of sensor data, such as sports science applications.

An Expanding Ecosystem

In 2008, applications developed in the lab using the BioMOBIUS Research Platform will be tested in a small number of homes. The TRIL researchers will apply the results to further refine the prototypes and inform their research. The test results also can be used by clinicians to make informed recommendations to the healthcare and/or social services agencies who serve the older people participating in the pilots.

The establishment of the TRIL Centre and launch of the BioMOBIUS Research Platform have put ageing and independent living. An ecosystem of activity has
been growing steadily around TRIL, with the Irish business community, Irish universities, and multinationals such as Intel collaborating to provide research and technology leadership in this important domain.

The TRIL researchers hope that the ecosystem will grow and expand beyond Ireland. ‘We’re anxious to have researchers around the world embrace the open BioMOBIUS Research Platform,’ says McGrath. ‘We want to build a global community of practice, with people creating and sharing new blocks and applications that others can use, so we can accelerate research progress.’ As future versions of the BioMOBIUS Research Platform are released, TRIL plans to host a series of national and international workshops to promote the platform.

‘The TRIL Centre is only scratching the surface of what we can do with the BioMOBIUS Research Platform, especially to empower older people,’ says Quigley. ‘Today there are 600 million people over the age of 60, and the UN projects that this figure will grow to almost two billion by 2050. Home-based applications that use the BioMOBIUS Research Platform could potentially help those two billion people to monitor their own health, remain in their own homes, and maintain their independence for as long as possible. That’s a huge opportunity to do good in the world. ‘

Apr 2008 TRIL TTP – CASL Research Day

TRIL TTP/ CASL joint research day
Date: April 9th 2008
Time: 9:00-14:10
Location: UCD CASL, Seminar Room (ground floor)
http://www.useamap.com/casl

  • 9:00 – 9:30 Welcome and coffee
  • 9:30 – 10:00 Dr. Joseph Kiniry – A Bit of Rigor Goes a Long Way – Making Small Changes to Software Process for Large Gains, School of Computer Science and Informatics UCD, CASL PI
  • 10:00 – 10:30 Dr. Brian Caulfield – Applications for wearable computing in sport and health, School of Physiotherapy UCD, CLARITY Associate PI
  • 10:30 – 11:00 Prof. Mark Keane – CSETs and their properties, Vice President for Innovation UCD
  • 11:00 – 11:15 Coffee break
  • 11:15 – 11:45 Dr. Scott Rickard – Techniques for Source Separation and Localization in Sensor Networks, School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering UCD, CASL Interim Director
  • 11:45 – 12:15 Dr. Colm Harmon – SHARE Ireland – Initial Findings from the Survey of Health and Retirement in Europe, Geary Institute UCD
  • 12:15 – 12:45 Rodd Bond – Recent urban improvement initiative for positive aging, Netwell Centre, Dundalk IT
  • 12:45 – 13:15 Dr. Terry Dishongh – TRIL roadmap, Digital Health Group Senior P.E., PRI Lead Technologist Intel / CTO TRIL Centre
  • 13:15 – 13:40 Lunch
  • 13:40 – 14:10 Dr. Aaron Quigley – Research Opportunities for use of BioMOBIUS in Chronic Cancer Care Research ideas informed from Pervasive Computing research, School of Computer Science and Informatics UCD, TRIL TTP PI, CASL PI

Jan 2008 Co-Chair PPD’08 (public/private multi-touch displays)

Along with some colleagues I had a workshop proposal for AVI 2008 the International Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces accepted recently.

PPD logo

PPD’08 Call for Papers
Workshop on designing multi-touch interaction techniques for coupled
public and private displays
(AVI 2008 the International Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces)

Workshop Paper submission deadline: March 25, 2008, 11:59 pm PST

Workshop: May 31, 2008 Napoli, Italy

Organizers:
Shahram Izadi – Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK
Aaron Quigley – University College Dublin, Ireland
Sriram Subramanian – University of Bristol, UK

———————————
Overview
———————————

The PPD 08 workshop on designing multi-touch interaction techniques for coupled
public and private displays focuses on the research challenges and opportunities
afforded by the combination of touch sensitive small private input displays
coupled with large touch sensitive public displays. Different touch-enabled
devices rely on different types of touches (passive stylus, active stylus,
fingers and tangible objects), the motivating question for this workshop is
how do users switch between these devices and how to facilitate fluid transition
from a collection of multiple displays to a single integrated multi-display
environment.

Recent developments have seen the wide spread proliferation of both large shared
displays and small display technologies. In parallel we have seen the emergence
of new classes of device which support both touch or multi touch interaction.
Examples of small touch driven devices include PDAs, Tablets and iPhones and
examples of large interactive surfaces (mutli-touch driven displays) include
the Diamondtouch and Surface Computing. Interactive surfaces offer great
potential for face-to-face work and social interaction and provide natural
ways to directly manipulate virtual objects whereas small devices afford the
individual a personal workspace or “scratch space” to formulate ideas before
bringing them to a wider audience. Advanced visual interfaces can be built
around a combination of both private and public touch driven displays. Such
computer mediated multi-device interaction between local touch-driven displays
and shared public ones presents a number of novel and challenging research
problems.

This workshop will specifically focus on the research challenges in designing
touch interaction techniques for the combination of small touch driven private
input displays such as iPhones coupled with large touch driven public displays
such as the Diamondtouch or Microsoft Surface.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to

* Understanding the design space and identifying factors that influence
user interactions in this space
* The impact of social conventions on the design of suitable interaction
techniques for shared and private displays
* Exploring interaction techniques that facilitate multi-display interfaces
* Personal displays as physical ob jects for the development of interaction
techniques with shared multi-touch displays
* Novel interaction techniques for both private and public multi-touch
devices as part of multi-display environments
* Techniques for supporting input re-direction and distributing information
between displays
* Developing evaluation strategies to cope with the complex nature of
multi-display environments
* Ethnography and user studies on the use of coupled public and private
display environments

We invite contributions from researchers and practioners working in the area of
multi-display environments and horizontal interactive surfaces coupled with
private displays. Interested attendees should submit a short position paper of
less than 4 pages. Based on a peer review of the position papers about 10 to 15
participants will be invited to attend the workshop.

Please visit our website (http://ppd08.ucd.ie/) for further details and
submission procedures.

Dec 2007 Co-Chair Pervasive 2008 Late Breaking Results

+————————————————————-+
Preliminary Call for Late Breaking Results Papers

Pervasive 2008
The Sixth International Conference
on Pervasive Computing
Sydney, Australia
May 19-22, 2008
http://pervasive2008.org/

+————————————————————-+

Preliminary Call for Late Breaking Results Papers

Submission Deadline: 1st February 2008, 18:00 EST
Notification of acceptance: 15th March 2008
Camera-ready paper deadline: 29th March 2008

Within the category of Late Breaking Results, PERVASIVE 2008
provides researchers the opportunity to present their results in
three ways, as a poster, published paper and short “1 minute madness”.
We welcome contributions on original and recent research findings,
early stage research, fundamental results, basic research contributions
and novel ideas in the area of pervasive computing technologies,
systems, and application.

Authors are invited to submit late breaking results papers to be peer
reviewed, which if accepted will be published in the Adjunct Proceedings
of PERVASIVE 2008 by the OCG. Authors of accepted late breaking
results papers will present a poster at a dedicated conference poster
session.

All authors of late breaking results papers will be able to present an
overview of their paper/poster during the established “1-minute madness
session” prior to the poster session – a prime spot for showcasing new
and innovative ideas. This open forum stimulates discussion and facilitates
multiple avenues for you to disseminate your research and affords attendees
several ways to access your research.

Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

* Device, communication, and interaction technologies for pervasive
computing.
* Pervasive sensing, perception and inference for context
technologies.
* Software infrastructure, middleware and frameworks for pervasive
computing systems and environments.
* Analysis, design, implementation and evaluation of pervasive
systems and applications.
* Deployment and management of pervasive systems and services and
emerging industrial scenarios.
* Pervasive computing interaction models, user interfaces and user
experience.
* Privacy, security, and trust in pervasive computing.

Contributions will be peer reviewed and, if accepted, will be published
as short papers in the Adjunct Proceedings of PERVASIVE 2008 with
the Austrian Computer Society (OCG) series and online.

Submission and Review Process
Submissions must be no longer than 4 pages in OCG Format. A sketch
outlining the planned poster presentation may be attached as an
additional page. Authors should submit electronic versions (in PDF
format) of their papers to EDAS. Once logged in select “Pervasive
2008 Late Breaking Results Papers” to submit your paper or use the
direct URL: http://www.edas.info/newPaper.php?c=6032&

Late Breaking Results Co-Chairs
Aaron Quigley
University College Dublin, Ireland

Rene Mayrhofer
Lancaster University, UK

Nov 2007 UbiComp 2008 Program Committee

I was invited to serve on the UbiComp 2008 Program Committee. UbiComp is a top-tier conference. UbiComp 2008 is the Tenth International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing and will be held in Seoul, South Korea from September 21 – 24, 2008. I look forward to working with my students on various submissions and participating in this program committee with my international colleagues.

Oct 2007 Three Open Postdoc Posts

3 postdoctoral research positions available in:

* wireless sensor networks
* software engineering for autonomic systems
* enterprise systems engineering

Systems Research Group
School of Computer Science and Informatics
UCD Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland

The group
=========

UCD’s Systems Research Group conducts world-recognised research in
software and systems engineering, with particular emphasis on
pervasive computing, autonomic communications, software development of
dependable systems, complex systems visualisation and embedded systems
design. SRG is unique in spanning the range of systems disciplines
from hardware and programming up to mathematical modeling and
analysis, and places great emphasis on collaborative research that
leverages this expertise. The group is accommodated within UCD’s
Complex and Adaptive Systems Laboratory (CASL, http://casl.ucd.ie/), a
groundbraking facility that brings together researchers in computer
science, mathematics, bioinformatics, physical and earth sciences to
conduct researech in a highly cross-disciplinary environment. SRG
currently consists of five academic staff, three postdoctoral
researchers and around 30 graduate students (almost all fully-funded)
studying both full- and part-time for advanced degrees. The group has
a current grant portfolio worth over EUR3.5M and a publication output
of over 30 papers per year in world-leading conferences and journals.

As part of its on-going research programme, SRG has vacancies for
three talented and well-motivated postdoctoral researchers to help
drive the group’s evolution. Suitable candidates will have a
successful academic record to doctoral level, together with a
portfolio of internationally peer-reviewed conference and journal
publications and evidence of significant future potential in
research. Furthermore they will be expected to engage broadly in the
development of the group, the supervision of graduate students and
other activities.

Salaries for all three posts will be in the range EUR37,886 –
EUR46,043 depending on qualifications and experience. All posts are of
two years’ durattion with the possibility of extension, and will be
probational for the first 12 months.

The positions
=============

Postdoctoral researcher in wireless sensor networks
—————————————————

The successful candidate will conduct and manage research in the area
of wireless sensor networks embedded into the built environment,
providing advanced sensor and actuator capabilities within built
artefacts. This will take place within the framework of a large-scale
collaboration managed by Cork Institute of Technology and including
several other Irish universities and public bodies, which will also
fund two studentships in the area. A track record of research in one
or more of pervasive computing, network analysis, embedded systems
development and systems architecture are essential, as is a
willingness to learn and work in a variety of new areas. Further
particulars can be obtained from Dr Simon Dobson
(simon.dobson@ucd.ie).

Postdoctoral researcher in software engineering for autonomic systems
———————————————————————

The successful candidate will work in conjunction with LERO, the Irish
Software Engineering Research Centre (http://www.lero.ie) to conduct
research into improving the principles and practice of engineering
autonomic systems — self-managing, self-optimising, self-healing and
so forth. Current interests include programming languages and
approaches, middleware, complex systems visualisation, and
mathematical models of software engineering, and a track record in one
or more of these areas are essential. The researcher will join a team
including an exisiting postdoc and four fully-funded graduate
students. Further particulars can be obtained from Dr Aaron Quigley
(aaron.quigley@ucd.ie).

Postdoctoral researcher in enterprise systems engineering
———————————————————

The successful candidate will work in collaboration with Oracle
Ireland Ltd on the development of improved models and techniques for
diagnosing, predicting and managing faults and failures within
large-scale distributed software systems. A track record in one or
more of distributed systems, autonomic computing, dependable systems,
fault-tolerance and fault analysis are essential. Further particulars
may be obtained from Prof Paddy Nixon (paddy.nixon@ucd.ie).

To apply
========

Please direct expressions of interest (including short CV) to the
contact individual named above for the specific post of
interest. Applications will be accepted until all posts are filled.

CASL Logo

Oct 2007 European Patent Office Invention Filed

As part of my role as an IBM CAS Visiting Scientist I work with Extreme Blue groups during the summer period. Three of my former UCD honours student Keith, Cheryl and Darin have ended up on Extreme Blue. I consider it to be an exceptional opportunity for any grad to understand and experience industrial R&D. My involvement with Extreme Blue is a collaboration and often results in invention disclosures and from time to time a patent is filed. One such patent for a mobile recommendation invention was recently filed in Europe and we expect a follow up international application in the months to come.

Sept 2007 CellTransformer: A Tool to Generate Reaction Networks through Graph Transformation

Brendan Sheehan MSc, one of the PhD scholars I supervise is off to The Eighth International Conference on Systems Biology, Long Beach California Oct 1-6, 2007. He is attending various tutorials and presenting a poster on his research, namely: “CellTransformer: A Tool to Generate Reaction Networks through Graph Transformation“

ICSB 2007

Abstract:
Rule-based models provide a declarative means to construct a computational model of biological systems. Rules specify how the model can evolve over time by transforming the underlying data or model into its next state. Most rule-based systems operate on strings. Graph transformation systems (GTS) can provide a more direct and intuitive description of many kinds of biological data such as protein-interaction data and data relating to cell-signalling pathways. Here we implement the GTS based formalism defined by Blinov et al to help generate molecular reactions based on rules that describe interactions between protein domains. We use the GTS tool AGG to implement the tool as a plugin for the forthcoming version of CellDesigner.
by Sheehan and Quigley.

Sept 2007 Masterclass in Software Architecture

Next week along with a few invited software architecture leaders and members of UK and Irish academia I am attending an IBM Masterclass. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to learn more about this area due to my work with Lero, the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre.

Grady Booch Software Architecture Masterclass 13th and 14th September 2007 Royal Academy of Engineering, London

The objectives include:
• Sharing participant understanding of the state of the art
• Exploring opportunities for research
• Identifying curriculum needs and ways of meeting them
• Exploring opportunities for collaborative initiatives
• Strengthening relationships between academia and IBM

Following a keynote from IBM Fellow Grady Booch, participants will break out into a succession of affinity groups to share understanding and experience, and discuss further initiatives.