CENTRA 2020-2021 Webinar Series

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CENTRA

You are invited to attend our webinars to learn about ongoing and proposed CENTRA collaborative research. The purpose of these webinars is also to engage international researchers in transnational collaborations. Webinar presentations will include descriptions of specific areas or questions where collaborations are desirable and attendees will have the opportunity to follow up with presenters on their interest in engaging in such collaborations. The Global CENTRA Webinars are free and open to all, whether they have been involved in CENTRA member organizations or not. Please invite your colleagues and students interested in these topics and may benefit from interacting with the speakers and CENTRA researchers! Questions? Please e-mail centra@acis.ufl.edu.

SCHEDULE

All Webinars are 9am (USA Eastern)

Date: 10/7/2020    Title: Differential Privacy and its Applications on Data Release and Data Collection

Dr. Chia-Mu Yu
Dr. Chia-Mu Yu

Speaker: Dr. Chia-Mu Yu, Department of Information Management and Finance, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
Abstract: Differential privacy can be seen as a de-facto standard for data privacy. Compared to the conventional de-identification approaches such as k-anonymization, l-diversity, and t-closeness, differential privacy can not only have a provable privacy guarantee but also achieve better data utility. Differential privacy has been deployed by government agencies such as the U.S. Census Bureau and commercial companies such as Apple, Google, and Facebook. In this talk, we will overview how differential privacy helps data release and data collection without sacrificing personal privacy.

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Date: 10/21/20    Title: KISTI Supercomputing for COVID-19 Challenges

Dr. Sangjae Seo
Dr. Sangjae Seo

Speaker: Dr. Sangjae Seo, Korea Institute of Science and Technology.
Abstract: Continuing global pandemic of coronavirus diseases (COVID-19) is a serious threat to global health. Drug repurposing is an attractive approach for the immediate development of treatments for COVID-19. In this regard, it is important to perform high-throughput screening on approved drugs for rapid identification of drug candidates. Our approach utilizing supercomputer resource allowed fast screening of 19,168 drug molecules. We targeted to identify potential drug candidates, which can inhibit the main protease of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Based on the docking calculation and molecular dynamics simulation, we selected 8 drugs as potential candidates, and in-vitro test is undergoing to validate calculation results.

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Date: 11/4/2020   Title: Edge X and IoT technology

Dr. Kiwook Kim
Dr. Kiwook Kim

Speaker: Dr. Kiwook Kim, Korea Institute of Science and Technology.
Abstract: KISTI is preparing for the convergence of edge computing and IoT as the next challenge for the ScienceLoRa project. As Chicago’s AoT (Array of Things) project has shown, the infrastructure that processes IoT data at the local edge can be an enabler for numerous IoT application studies. In particular, AI processing at the edge is an essential part of the research using image/video data. We need to deploy edge computing resources on our IoT network infrastructure (IoT gateways and network servers), unlike in the case of AoT, which has deployed it bundled with the sensors. To achieve this, we plan to upgrade the software structure of ScienceLoRa by utilizing a flexible open-source edge IoT platform called Edge-X Foundry.
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Date: 11/18/2020   Title: Edge intelligence: QoS-Cost tradeoff for learning-based services at the edge

Dr. Hana Kamfroush
Dr. Hana Kamfroush

Speaker: Dr. Hana Khamfroush, University of Kentucky
Abstract: Edge computing is an enabling technology that pushes computationally intensive services to the edge to attain reduced delay due to physical proximity. However, due to hardware constraints of edge clouds, approaches to optimizing the performance of services while minimizing the cost of service implementation has been considered. More recently, different implementations of deep learning based services such as split learning, and federated learning at the edge have been studied. This talk describes the potential challenges of implementing deep learning-based services at the edge and the QoS-cost tradeoff for such implementations. Some initial results will be presented.
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Date: 12/2/2020   Title: InterConnect: European large scale demonstration of IoT interoperability

Dr. Fabio Coelho
Dr. Fabio Coelho

Speaker: Dr. Fábio Coelho, INESC TEC, Portugal.
Abstract: True interoperability strikes as one of the major challenges for IoT in the home, building and energy domains. As the number of connected devices increases in our smart homes, detachment from vendor ecosystems via true interoperable data solutions and protocols will allow new data-driven services for consumers, building managers and ultimately for energy sector. InterConnect will install large sale demonstrators across 7 European Countries, reaching out more than 1900 households and several industrial and public buildings. A meaningful cascade funding call within the project will allow for external applicants to enroll and leverage on the interoperability framework to sponsor their own demonstrations.
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Date: 12/16/2020   Title: EdgeVPN.io: Software-Defined Overlay Virtual Private Networks for Edge Computing

Dr. Rento Figueiredo
Dr. Rento Figueiredo

Speaker: Dr. Renato Figueiredo, University of Florida.
Abstract: Edge and fog computing encompass technologies that are poised to enable new applications across the Internet that support data capture, storage, processing, and communication across the networking continuum: from Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices to edge and cloud data centers. These environments pose challenges to the design and implementation of networks: membership can be dynamic, devices are heterogeneous, widely distributed geographically and/or mobile, and potentially assigned private IP addresses constrained by policies of different NAT (Network Address Translation) and firewall middleboxes. This talk overviews EdgeVPN.io, an open-source, software-defined network (SDN) that addresses challenges in the deployment of virtual networks spanning distributed edge and cloud resources. The talk describes the Evio software architecture, how it leverages standards and open-source software for firewall/NAT traversal (XMPP, STUN, TURN, and WebRTC), how it integrates with SDN software switches (Open vSwitch), and how it supports deployment of container-based middleware and services (Docker, Kubernetes, and Flannel).
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Date: 1/20/2021   Title: STAYAWAY COVID

Dr. Rui Oliveria
Dr. Rui Oliveria

Speaker: Dr. Rui Oliveira, INESC TEC.
Abstract: Digital contact tracing applications have appeared for the first time in the beginning of 2020, with COVID-19, to complement traditional tracing in a galloping outbreak that quickly became a world-wide pandemic. Test and trace is central to any infectious disease in order to break the chains of contagion. The “manual” contact tracing protocol is however highly dependent on the people’s memory, and resource and time consuming. Intuitively, a digital proximity tracing protocol that could be run by any individual would easily scale out and contribute to the completeness and efficiency of the process. This is the aim of the many digital contact tracing apps being deployed and whose efficacy will need to be assessed in a few months.
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Date: 2/3/2021   Title: AI-Support Network Control and Management towards Beyond 5G Era

Dr. Hiroaki Harai
Dr. Hiroaki Harai

Speaker: Dr. Hiroaki Harai, NICT, Japan.
Abstract: Digital contact tracing applications have appeared for the first time in the beginning of 2020, with COVID-19, to complement tradicional tracing in a galloping outbreak that quickly became a world-wide pandemic. Test and trace is central to any infectious disease in order to break the chains of contagion. The “manual” contact tracing protocol is however highly dependent on the people’s memory, and resource and time consuming. Intuitively, a digital proximity tracing protocol that could be run by any individual would easily scale out and contribute to the completeness and efficiency of the process. This is the aim of the many digital contact tracing apps being deployed and whose efficacy will need to be assessed in a few months.
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Date: 2/17/2021   Title: Dynamic Interactions between Human and Information in Complex Online Environments Responding to SARS-COV-2

Dr. Yan Wang
Dr. Yan Wang

Speaker: Dr. Yan Wang, University of Florida.
Abstract: This project advances knowledge of how health and response agencies can better ensure credible information predominates in social media by quantitatively demonstrating the complex roles of social media in information diffusion during the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic response. The research project studies information and human response dynamics in communicating COVID-19 in an online environment, i.e. Twitter. The research identifies key influencers and misinformation sources and examines co-evolution in different information categories over time.
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Date: 3/3/2021   Title: Management of geospatial time series from ship measurements in the scope of the AIR_DataNet infrastructure

Dr. Susana Barbosa
Dr. Susana Barbosa

Speaker: Dr. Susana Barbosa, INESC TEC.
Abstract: An intensive monitoring campaign was recently set-up on board the Portuguese navy tall ship NRP Sagres. A substantial amount (> 10 GB/day) of observations covering multiple domains (space, ocean and atmosphere), was collected over the Atlantic. The dataset resulting from these ship measurements is preserved at INESC TEC’s Research Data Management repository and will be made accessible through the AIR_DataNet, a computational infrastructure serving the Atlantic International Research (AIR) center. The ongoing implementation focuses on the development of research data management policies, the set-up of flexible data and metadata models, as well as further data exploration services and interactive computing.
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Date: 3/17/2021   Title: IoT Edge Computing Technologies

Dr. Yuuichi Teranishi
Dr. Yuuichi Teranishi

Speaker: Dr. Yuuichi Teranishi, NICT, Japan.
Abstract: The edge computing architecture enables applications to have a shorter response time, reduces the computation load on devices, and localizes the data processing. These properties are suitable for the real-time and context-aware Internet of Things (IoT) applications. We have been developing a dynamic data flow platform for IoT applications in edge computing environments. To avoid the overloads on network and computational resources that are caused by IoT applications, our platform replicates processes and changes the structure of the data flow dynamically on the distributed computational resources located at network edges and data centers. The talk describes the technologies to implement the platform. The talk also presents several evaluation results and use cases.
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Date: 3/31/2021   Title: The full-scale experiment testbed of building green energy technology – The SPIN Lab in Taiwan

Dr. Yen-Jong Chen
Dr. Yen-Jong Chen

Speaker: Dr. Yen-Jong Chen, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan.
Abstract: To promote the green energy technology industrialization in Taiwan, and entrusted by Bureau of Energy (BOE), Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) has just finished the construction of a facility of so-called “Subtropical Performance-Testbed for Innovative eNergy Research in Buildings Laboratory”, with acronym the SPIN Lab, located at Shalun Smart Green Energy City in Tainan, Taiwan. It is a full scale testbed for building energy related research. SPIN Lab is a rotatable facility for simulating building at different orientations. It also serves to verify various green building technologies and products, and provides R&D and academic research opportunities, such as construction technology, envelop materials, A/C system, lighting system, IAQ, ventilation, BEMS/HEMS and renewable energy, etc. In the long run, the facility will be helpful for gathering data that are essential to amending building code for better energy efficiency.

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Link to Webinar Series

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