Mohammad S. Obaidat

Professor

Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering

Monmouth University

Keynote Speaker #1

Abstract:

Trends and Challenges in Green Information and Communication Technology and Samples of our Related Research Findings

Information and communication technologies (ICT) play a vital role in modern days, touching almost all aspects of our lives. Critical infrastructure and key resources (CIKR) including transportation systems, energy, banking and financial institutions, water resources and dams, chemical plants, postal and shipping systems, nuclear reactors, defense and industrial base, commercial facilities, national monuments and icons, emergency facilities and services, agriculture and food sector, hospitals and health centers, among others, are all affected and depend heavily on ICT. Due to the heavy reliance of organizations and individuals on ICT technologies on a daily basis, there has been an increasing demand for computing, communication, networking, and storage systems. In order to meet these needs, state of the art ICT infrastructures have been extended and scaled. This has brought the issues of green computing and communication to the attention of various entities including governments, research laboratories, academics, industry, business, military and others. Issues such as energy expenditure, heat distribution, greenhouse discharge and energy-aware design and operation have become hot issues that require a lot of research and development efforts.

Among the trends in ICT is virtualization in order to find ways to reduce the amount of dedicated resources needed for an individual computer user. The non-stop increase in data generation will require us to have more and more storage devices. Although these devices are becoming less expensive, they still need power to operate them and mechanisms to cool them. It is expected that providing applications via mobile tools will continue growing rapidly. This will entail more server capability and rise in the demand for computing power in data centers. This is also a potential area for virtualization. Due to virtualization and integration, data centers are now able to push more into a rack. This has lead to an increase in the power consumption per square foot by a factor of 10 or so. Cloud computing is becoming more and more popular as it provides scalable and resilient IT-enabled resources using the Internet means.

In addition to the trends and challenges in green ICT, we will be presenting some of our related research works. We propose a Dynamic Energy Efficient and Secure Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks in Urban Environments, DEESR. A decision is made by every node based on various parameters like longevity, distance, and battery power, which measure the node and link quality to decide the next hop in the route. This ensures that the total load is distributed evenly while conserving the energy of battery-constrained nodes. The protocol also maintains a trusted population for each node through Dynamic Trust Factor (DTF), which ensures secure communication in the environment by gradually isolating the malicious nodes. The results obtained show that the proposed protocol when compared with other energy efficient protocols such as the MMBCR and DSR gives far better results in terms of energy efficiency. We also introduce an Efficient Reactive and Angular – Optimized Link State Routing (ERA-OLSR) for MANETs. It is observed that ERA-OLSR performs better than both AODV and DSR in terms of end-to-end delay and average energy consumed. ERA-OLSR is best suited for dense scenarios. The simulation results obtained after implementing the proposed protocol have shown that ERA-OLSR has better performance than both AODV and DSR in terms of End-to-end delay and Average Energy Consumption. Other related research efforts by our group will be presented.

Short Bio:

Professor Mohammad S. Obaidat (Fellow of IEEE and Fellow of SCS) is an internationally well known academic/researcher/ scientist. He received his Ph.D. and M. S. degrees in Computer Engineering with a minor in Computer Science from The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA. Dr. Obaidat is currently a full Professor of Computer Science at Monmouth University, NJ, USA. Among his previous positions are Chair of the Department of Computer Science and Director of the Graduate Program at Monmouth University and a faculty member at the City University of New York. He has received extensive research funding and has published Ten (10) books and over Four Hundred and seventy fie (475) refereed technical articles in scholarly international journals and proceedings of international conferences, and currently working on three more books. Prof. Obaidat is the author of a new upcoming book: Wireless Sensor Networks (Cambridge University Press). He is also the editor to 2 new upcoming books: Cooperative Networking (John Wiley &Sons 2010) and Pervasive Computing and Networking (John Wiley &Sons 2010). Prof. Obaidat is the author of the book entitled: “Fundamentals of Performance Evaluation of Computer and Telecommunications Systems,” by John Wiley & Sons in 2010. Dr. Obaidat is the Editor of the Book entitled, “E-business and Telecommunication Networks”, published by Springer in 2008. He is the co-author of the book entitled, “Security of e-Systems and Computer Networks” published by Cambridge University Press in 2007. He is the co-author of the Best Selling Book, “Wireless Networks” and “Multiwavelength Optical LANs” published by John Wily & Sons (2003). Obaidat is the editor of the book, APPLIED SYSTEM SIMULATION: Methodologies and Applications, published by Kluwer (now Springer) in 2003. Professor Obaidat has served as a consultant for several corporations and organizations worldwide. Mohammad is the Editor-in-Chief of the Wiley International Journal of Communication Systems and the FTRA Journal of Convergence. . He served as an Editor of IEEE Wireless Communications from 2007-2010. Between 1991-2006, he served as a Technical Editor and an Area Editor of Simulation: Transactions of the Society for Modeling and Simulations (SCS) International, TSCS. He also served on the Editorial Advisory Board of Simulation. He is now an editor of the Wiley Security and Communication Networks Journal, Journal of Networks, International Journal of Information Technology, Communications and Convergence, IJITCC, Inderscience. He served on the International Advisory Board of the International Journal of Wireless Networks and Broadband Technologies, IGI-global. Prod. Obaidat is an associate editor/ editorial board member of seven other refereed scholarly journals including two IEEE Transactions, Elsevier Computer Communications Journal, Kluwer Journal of Supercomputing, SCS Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation, Elsevier Journal of Computers and EE, International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems, The Academy Journal of Communications, International Journal of BioSciences and Technology and International Journal of Information Technology. He has guest edited numerous special issues of scholarly journals such as IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, SMC, IEEE Wireless Communications, IEEE Systems Journal, SIMULATION: Transactions of SCS, Elsevier Computer Communications Journal, Journal of C & EE, Wiley Security and Communication Networks, Journal of Networks, and International Journal of Communication Systems, among others. Obaidat has served as the steering committee chair, advisory Committee Chair and program chair of numerous international conferences including the IEEE Int’l Conference on Electronics, Circuits and Systems, IEEE International Phoenix Conference on Computers and Communications, IEEE Int’l Performance, Computing and Communications Conference, IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks, SCS Summer Computer Simulation Conference, SCSC’97, SCSC98-SCSC2005, SCSC2006, the International Symposium on Performance Evaluation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems since its inception in 1998, International Conference on Parallel Processing, Honorary General Chair of the 2006 IEEE Intl. Joint Conference on E-Business and Telecommunications, ICETE2006. He served as General Co-Chair of ICETE 2007-ICETE 2010. He has served as the Program Chair of the International Conference on Wireless Information Networks and Systems from 2008-Presnet. He is the co-founder and Program Co-Chair of the International Conference on Data Communication Networking, DCNET since its inception in 2009. Obaidat has served as the General Chair of the 2007 IEEE International Conference on Computer Systems and Applications, AICCSA2007, the IEEE AICCSA 2009 Conference. and the 2006 International Symposium on Ad hoc and Ubiquitous Computing (ISAHUC’06). He is the founder of the International Symposium on Performance Evaluation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems, SPECTS and has served as the General Chair of SPECTS since its inception. Obaidat has received a recognition certificate from IEEE. Between 1994-1997, Obaidat has served as distinguished speaker/visitor of IEEE Computer Society. Since 1995 he has been serving as an ACM distinguished Lecturer. He is also an SCS distinguished Lecturer. Between 1996-1999, Dr. Obaidat served as an IEEE/ACM program evaluator of the Computing Sciences Accreditation Board/Commission, CSAB/CSAC. Obaidat is the founder and first Chairman of SCS Technical Chapter (Committee) on PECTS (Performance Evaluation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems). He has served as the Scientific Advisor for the World Bank/UN Digital Inclusion Workshop- The Role of Information and Communication Technology in Development. Between 1995-2002, he has served as a member of the board of directors of the Society for Computer Simulation International. Between 2002-2004, he has served as Vice President of Conferences of the Society for Modeling and Simulation International SCS. Between 2004-2006, Prof. Obaidat has served as Vice President of Membership of the Society for Modeling and Simulation International SCS. Between 2006-2009, he has served as the Senior Vice President of SCS. Currently, he is the President of SCS. One of his recent co-authored papers has received the best paper award in the IEEE AICCSA 2009 international conference. He also received the best paper award for one of his papers accepted in IEEE GLOBCOM 2009 conference. Dr. Obaidat received very recently the Society for Modeling and Simulation Intentional (SCS) prestigious McLeod Founder’s Award in recognition of his outstanding technical and professional contributions to modeling and simulation.

He has been invited to lecture and give keynote speeches worldwide. His research interests are: wireless communications and networks, telecommunications and Networking systems, security of network, information and computer systems, security of e-based systems, performance evaluation of computer systems, algorithms and networks, high performance and parallel computing/computers, applied neural networks and pattern recognition, adaptive learning and speech processing. Recently, Prof. Obaidat has been awarded a Nokia Research Fellowship and the distinguished Fulbright Scholar Award. During the 2004/2005, he was on sabbatical leave as Fulbright Distinguished Professor and Advisor to the President of Philadelphia University in Jordan, Dr. Adnan Badran. The latter became the Prime Minister of Jordan in April 2005 and served earlier as Vice President of UNESCO. Prof. Obaidat is a Fellow of the Society for Modeling and Simulation International SCS, and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). For more info; se: http://bluehawk.monmouth.edu/mobaidat/

Ahmad H. Nasri

Professor

Department of Computer Science

American University of Beirut

Keynote Speaker #2

Abstract:

Subdivision Techniques for Computer Graphics Applications

Recursive subdivision is a well-established technique in computer graphics. Its use in modeling three-dimensional objects goes back to the mid 70, where the two pioneering papers were published in the same year and the same journal of Computer-Aided Design.  The popularity of using such techniques in surface modeling is due to some basic features: the ease of implementation, the wide range of representation, the stability of their computation, and their use for modeling and animation.  In this respect, subdivision surfaces are becoming the state-of-the-arts in computer graphics and Animation.

In this talk, we present a journey of these techniques beginning from curve design, to the generation of surfaces of general topology. We demonstrate their basic properties and their capabilities.  Furthermore, their use in constraint-based applications such as curve-based morphing will be highlighted. Pixar produced one of the first short movies using such surfaces: Geri’s game. Since then, they have been adopted in all subsequent movies such as Cars, Finding Nemo, etc.

Short Bio:

Ahmad Nasri is a professor in computer graphics at the American University of Beirut. Currently he is seconded as a A/President of Fahad Bin Sultan University (KSA).  He received a Ph.D in Computer Graphics from the University of East Anglia in 1985. He was a research visitor at various universities such as MIT, Arizona State University, Calgary University, Purdue University, Brigham Young University, Seoul National University, City University of Hong Kong, University of Geneva, and Cambridge University. He is on the editorial board of  the International Journal of Shape Modeling, The International Journal on Software and Informatics, The International Journal of CAD/CAM, the Lebanese Scientific Journal, and The International Journal of Computer Aided Design and Applications. He also served on the PC committee of several international conferences in computer graphics and related fields: such as the Computer Graphics International, The Computer Animation and Social Agents, The Pacific Graphics, The ACM Solid Modeling, The Geometric Modeling and Processing, Shape Modeling International, CAD & Graphics, etc. With Malcolm Sabin he co-edited a special issue of the Journal of Visual Computer on Subdivision surfaces, 2002. Since 1982 he has been involved in promoting subdivision surfaces and its use in computer graphics, geometric modeling, and animation.  He conducted several research projects in computer graphics and published more than 70 journal/conference papers, some appeared in ACM Transactions on Graphics, ACM SIGGRAPH, and other prestigious journal/conference proceedings. His research interests also include Digital Arts, and the use of Computer Graphics in Education.

Azzedine Boukerche

Professor

School of Information Technology and Engineering

University of Ottawa

Keynote Speaker # 3

Abstract:

Wireless and Mobile Sensor Based System: A Necessary Public Security and Safety Testbed for An Urban Emergency Preparedness class of applications

This talk will consist in an overview about the major research projects related to distributed simulation, distributed and collaborative virtual environment, context aware computing, vehicular networks and mobile computing, which we are currently investigating at PARADISE Research Laboratory, University of Ottawa. Next, we shall focus upon the design of large-scale distributed and mobile simulation system for an urban emergency preparedness class of applications using both location/context aware computing and the latest wireless networking technologies. Then, we shall focus upon the coverage and time synchronization problems in mobile and wireless ad hoc and sensor networks. Finally, we will talk about LIVE testbed, a convergence of distributed simulation, distributed collaborative virtual environment and wireless sensors and vehicular technologies we are developing at PARADISE Research Laboratory for an emergency preparedness and response class of applications as well as SWiMNet, a high performance testbed we have developed which allows very detailed and realistic model specifications. It will facilitate and enable us to evaluate and design new protocols and applications for futuregenerations of wireless vehicular and sensor network technologies.

Short Bio:

Azzedine Boukerche is a Full Professor and holds a Canada Research Chair position in distributed simulation and wireless and mobile networking at the University of Ottawa. He is the Founding Director of PARADISE Research Laboratory at Ottawa U. Prior to this, he held a faculty position at the University of North Texas, USA. He worked as a Senior Scientist at the Simulation Sciences Division, Metron Corporation located in San Diego. He was also employed as a Faculty at the School of Computer Science McGill University, and taught at Polytechnic of Montreal. He spent a year at the JPL/NASA-California Institute of Technology where he contributed to a project centered about the specification and verification of the software used to control interplanetary spacecraft operated by JPL/NASA Laboratory.

His current research interests include sensor networks, mobile ad hoc networks, mobile and pervasive computing, wireless multimedia, QoS service provisioning, performance evaluation and modeling of large-scale distributed systems, distributed computing, large-scale distributed interactive simulation, and parallel discrete event simulation. Dr. Boukerche has published several research papers in these areas.

Dr. Boukerche is the recipient of the Ontario Distinguished Researcher Award, Ontario Early Researcher Award (previously known as Premier of Ontario Research Excellence Award (PREA)), the Canada Research Chair , the G. S. Glinski Award for Excellence in Research, and the Ontario Distinguished Researcher Award. He was the recipient of the Best Research Paper Award at IEEE/ACM PADS’97, and the recipient of the 3rd National Award for Telecommunication Software 1999 for his work on a distributed security systems on mobile phone operations, and has been nominated for the best paper award at the IEEE/ACM PADS’99, ACM MSWiM 2001, and ACM MobiWac 2004.

He is a Co-Founder of QShine Int’l Conference, on Quality of Service for Wireless/Wired Heterogeneous Networks (QShine 2004), served as a General Chair for several conferences, such as ACM/IEEE MASCOST 1998, IEEE DS-RT 1999-2000, ACM MSWiM 2000; Program Chair for ACM/IFIPS Europar 2002, IEEE/SCS Annual Simulation Symposium ANNS 2002, ACM WWW’02, IEEE/ACM MASCOTS 2002, IEEE Wireless Local Networks WLN 03-04; IEEE Wireless, Mobile ad hoc and Sensor Networks (IPDPS/WMAN) 04-05, ACM Modeling, Analysis and Simulation of Wireless and Mobile Systems (MSWiM) 98-99, and TPC member of numerous IEEE and ACM conferences related to wireless communication, mobile computing, ad hoc and sensor networks, and distributed systems. He served as a Guest Editor for the Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing (JPDC) (Special Issue for Routing for Mobile Ad hoc, Special Issue for wireless communication and mobile computing, Special Issue for mobile ad hoc networking and computing), and ACM/kluwer Wireless Networks and ACM/Kluwer Mobile Networks Applications, and the Journal of Wireless Communication and Mobile Computing.

Dr. A. Boukerche serves as an Associate Editor and is on the Editorial Board for ACM/Springer Wireless Networks, Wiley In’t Journal of Wireless Communication and Mobile Computing , the IEEE Wireless Communicaion Magazine, the Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing , and the SCS Transactions on simulation . he also serves as a Steering Committee Chair for the ACM Modeling, Analysis and Simulation for Wireless and Mobile Systems Symposium, the ACM Workshop on Performance Evaluation of Wireless Ad Hoc, Sensor, and Ubiquitous Networks, the IEEE Workshop on Performance and Management of Wireless and Mobile Networks, and the IEEE Distributed Simulation and Real-Time Applications Symposium (DS-RT).

Dr. Azzedine Boukerche has published a Book on “Algorithms and Protocols for Wireless and Mobile Systems” (Chapman & Hall/CRC 2005). a Book on “Algorithms and Protocols for Wireless and Mobile Ad Hoc Networks”, Wiley&Sons, 2008, and a a Book on “Algorithms and Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks”, Wiley&Sons 2008. Two more books are in preparation, Stay Tune, for more news.