1. technology and computing

KEYNOTE ADDRESS I
Title: Trends in Software Defined and Cognitive Radios
Dr. Ajit T Kalghatgi
Director (R&D), BEL, Bangalore.
Email: ajittkalghatgi@bel.co.in
Abstract: Modern day communication technologies provide for effective transmission and reception of high
data rate multi-media information over constrained channels. Migration from conventional Analog radio to
packetized digital radios has enabled networked, mobile broad band access over demanding terrains.
Dependence on standards driven & protocol dependant point-point & point-multipoint mobile Adhoc network
has given rise to the need for platform agnostic software driven customizable radios. This has led to
proliferation of a range of Software Defined Radios & Software Defined Networks. Challenges associated with
optimal resource management of spectrum, user bandwidth driven applications & minimization of cost, weight
and power requirements has led to the development of smart, intelligent or Cognitive Radios. This talk presents
the trends and the challenges associated with the development, engineering & deployment of configurable,
smart communication technologies associated with SDR & Cognitive Radios, Spectrum sensing and deployment
of Cognitive Radios.
Curriculum Vitae:
Dr. Ajit T Kalghatgi is currently Director (R&D) of Bharat Electronics Ltd. He was till recently Chief
Scientist at BEL’s Central Research Laboratory (CRL). He has more than 30 years of Experience in the field of
RF & Microwave Engineering. After graduating from Mysore University with B.E in Electronics &
Communications, he completed his M.Tech in Microwave & radar engineering from IIT, Kharagpur and Ph.D.,
from Leeds University, UK.
He worked in Avionics Design Bureau of HAL Hyderabad as Design Engineer responsible for Microwave
Front-ends & IFF transceiver. He was with the University of Leeds, UK from 1988 to 1993 for his Ph.D as a
Commonwealth Research Scholar and later as a Post-Doctoral Fellow. He was with CRL of BEL from 1994.
His research interests are in RF and Microwave systems, Smart Antennas, RF MEMs and Secure
Communication Technologies. He has more than 80 research papers and a patent to his credit. He is recipient of
R&D Award from BEL for his significant contribution to its R&D programme, and the Society of Defence
Technologists (SODET) Gold Award for Technology Development & Innovation for the year 2005-06. He is
also recipient of Raksha Mantri Award of Excellence in Innovation for the year 2007-2008 as well as for the
year 2008-09.
He is in the advisory board and review boards of number of international journals and conferences. He is in the
review panel of Journal of Progress in Electromagnetic Research (PIER) and of IET Proceeding of Microwaves
and Antennas. He is a member of review committees of Government of India, Member of the Editorial Board of
IET’s Microwave & Antennas research publications, Fellow of IETE, Member of IEEE and IET-UK. He is
presently Chairman of local Network of the IET-UK at Bangalore.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS II
Title: Sensing Order Problem in Cognitive Radio Networks
Dr. Arun Pachai Kannu
Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
Email: arunpachai@ee.iitm.ac.in
Abstract: Cognitive radios (CR) enhance the spectrum usage by intelligently detecting available licensed
wireless channels in their vicinity and dynamically configuring their transmission and reception parameters so
as to make the best use of spectrum holes. In general, a CR would need to search over multiple portions of the
licensed spectrum, in order to select the best free channel for its use. It would be expensive to build CR which
can simultaneously sense more than one portion of the spectrum quickly, efficiently and reliably. As a result,
each CR would need to have a sensing-order, an order in which it will sequentially sense the different primary
channels until it finds a suitable channel for its communication. In this talk, we discuss the problem of choosing
the optimal sensing order to maximize the total throughput of the cognitive radios. We address various scenarios
such as fixed and adaptive rate transmissions as well as single-user and multi-user cognitive radio networks. We
employ mathematical tools from optimal stopping theory to solve this problem and present performance
comparisons with other sensing order selection methods.
Curriculum Vitae:
Dr. Arun Pachai Kannu received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State
University in 2004 and 2007, respectively. From 2007 to 2009, he was a Senior Engineer in Qualcomm Inc.,
San Diego, CA. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian
Institute of Technology, Madras. His research interest includes Information theory, Estimation theory and
Wireless communications.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS III
Title: Challenges in Defence Research
Dr. S. Christopher
Distinguished Scientist
Programme Director (AEW&C) & Director,
Centre for Airborne System, Bangalore.
Email: s_chris_in@yahoo.com
Abstract: A product of Defense Research should fully meet an identified Operational Requirement and should
be available in the timeframe specified by User Services. Otherwise, there is the risk of the whole effort getting
defeated. Factors like Global Politics, Technology Denials, Galloping Military Technologies, Changing Tactics
of War and the like affect the nature and pace of indigenous Defense Research and should be guarded against.
Formed in 1958 with 10 laboratories, The Defense R&D Organisation (DRDO) has grown today to 52
laboratories catering to R&D in 10 disciplines covering all contemporary military S&T areas.
Currently 30,000 trained personnel including 5,000 scientists work for the DRDO. DRDO labs that
were initially engaged in small weapons and equipment development projects, progressively switched over to
development of larger military systems, like Main Battle Tank, Guided Missiles, Light Combat Aircraft,
AEW&C systems, etc. Networking with National R&D and S&T centres increased with the arrival of these
larger programmes. A 100 percent Self Reliance in Defense Systems is unthinkable in today’s context. Military
systems may need to be procured by a judicial combination of indigenous development and joint production by
foreign vendors and Indian industries, for timely induction. AEW&C systems are the current ‘Force Multipliers’
playing a leading role in today’s wars. With the advent of Active Electronically Scanning Array (AESA)
Radars, the AEW&C systems have become smaller, effective and affordable. India has taken a lead to acquire
this capability through the AEW&C India programme undertaken by Centre for Air-Borne Systems (CABS) of
DRDO. Despite setbacks with initial attempts, CABS has been able to establish the necessary R&D
infrastructure and generate crucial building-block technologies for development of AEW&C systems.
Forming a strong ‘Team AEW&C’ and networking with National R&D and S&T centres as well as
foreign collaborators, CABS has been able to build a state-of-the-art AEW&C India system that has turned out
to be ‘notable’ among equivalent contemporary systems in the world market. The judicial packing of
capabilities like Primary Radar, IFF, Electronic Intelligence, Communication Intelligence, Self Protection, etc.,
in the medium class aircraft and adding an In-Flight Refuelling system to enhance range and endurance of
operations in the AEW&C India has caught the attention of developing Nations of the world, who now want to
buy this Indian product. AEW&C India has thus opened up a turning point for the Nation from being a ‘buyer’
to a ‘seller’ of military systems.
Realisation of this measure of success with the programme is a result of:
(i) Networking with National and International resources,
(ii) Synchronous generation of critical technologies and creation of
(iii) Continuous interactions with the User Service that led to mutual infrastructure for integration and testing as
the Mission system was evolving through co-ordinated efforts of dedicated work-centres, and understanding on
the desired product and user confidence in the developed system.
Nation has thus established capability in an advanced area of military systems and User Services are looking up
to Indigenous R&D for their future needs. This is setting a new trend and hope for the Nation.
Curriculum Vitae of Dr. S. Christopher:
Dr. S. Christopher obtained his BE (Hons) in Electronics & Communication Engineering from College of
Engineering, Guindy, University of Madras and M.Tech in Microwaves and Radar Engineering from IIT,
Kharagpur. He joined IIT, Madras, as Project Associate in 1980, and carried out research in Microwave Antenna
Design and Near-field Measurement Techniques. He obtained PhD in Antenna and Measurement Techniques
from IIT, Madras.
After completing his PhD, Dr S Christopher worked for M/s Bharat Electronics, Ghaziabad, as Senior Engineer,
from 1985 to 1988 and designed antenna for Digital Tropo-scatter Communication system. He then joined
Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE) as Scientist-'D' and rose to Scientist 'G' and worked
on many projects. He led a team to create the Automated Planar near Field Measurement Facility at LRDE for
the first time in the country, which paved way for the electronically scanned array antenna evaluation at LRDE.
He was Project Director for LCA Multi-Mode Radar and led the team for designing and developing slotted array
technology, which was used for several airborne and missile projects including export to Poland, which was a
first ever export from LRDE. He was also Project Director for ASP project and for development of the Maritime
Patrol Airborne Radar, Super Vision 2000, for the Indian Navy.
Dr S Christopher joined the Centre for Air-Borne Systems (CABS) and assumed charge as Programme Director
for the Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) programme. Dr S Christopher was appointed Director,
CABS, in addition to his responsibility as Programme Director (AEW&C) in 2007. Dr S Christopher was
elevated to the rank of Distinguished Scientist in 2012. The AEW&C programme is one of the flagship
programmes of DRDO for the design and development of indigenous AWACS. The AEW&C systems will be
delivered to IAF in 2015. By this development India has joined the elite group of four countries and created
export potential.
Dr S Christopher is a Fellow of the National Academy of Engineers (FNAE) and the Institution of Electronics &
Telecommunication Engineers (IETE). He is a member of SEE, IEEE and AeSI. He is recipient of many awards
including prestigious 'Scientist of the Year Award' in 1998. Dr Christopher has published over 70 papers and
holds copy rights and patents for many of his works.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS IV
Title: India Micro Processor Initiative
Dr. A. Kamakoti
Professor
Department of Computer Science and Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
Email: kama@cse.iitm.ac.in
Abstract: This keynote addresses the Open source Micro Processor development initiative of IIT Madras,
towards indigenous computing environment for the country.
Curriculum Vitae:
Dr. A. Kamakoti is currently working as Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering in
IIT Madras. His research interest includes Software for VLSI, Reconfigurable Systems Design, and Computer
Architecture. He completed his PhD in Theoretical Computer Science from Indian Institute of Technology,
Madras and Post-Doctoral Fellow in Computer Science from Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai.
Before joining IIT Madras he was working as a Senior Design Engineer at ATI Research Silicon Valley Inc.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS V
Title: Person-Centered Multimedia Computing: A New Paradigm Inspired
by Assistive and Rehabilitative Applications
Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan
Senior Vice President for Knowledge Enterprise Development,
Arizona State University, USA.
Email: panch@asu.edu
Abstract: Human Centered Multimedia Computing (HCMC) has recently emerged as a field of computational
science where human-centered principles of design are core to the creation of multimedia systems. However,
multimedia technologies and solutions are still largely focused on the “able” population. HCMC is anchored on
the explicit needs of the broader population. Success of future multimedia systems requires capturing both the
explicit and implicit needs of the user. The implicit needs of the “able” population are best represented by the
explicit needs of individuals with disabilities and impairments. At the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous
Computing (CUbiC), we have focused on working with individuals with a range of disabilities to understand,
model and build technologies, devices and environments to promote independence and improve quality of life.
The range of the implicit needs and the diversity of disabilities mandate a person-centered methodology to
address the comprehensive set of challenges faced by these individuals. We therefore propose a Person-Centered
Multimedia Computing (PCMC) approach inspired by assistive and rehabilitative applications. We present two
case studies that exemplify this new PCMC paradigm. The first case study presents the computational
framework of the Social Interaction Assistant—an assistive environment to improve access to visual, nonverbal
social cues, such as facial expressions and gestures, for individuals who are blind. The second case study
describes the design of person-centered wearable technologies to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of athome rehabilitation for stroke survivors.
Curriculum Vitae:
Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan is the Senior Vice President for Knowledge Enterprise Development at
Arizona State University (ASU). He is also Director of the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing
(CUbiC), Foundation Chair of Computing and Informatics at ASU and Professor in ASU’s School of
Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering (CIDSE), part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of
Engineering. On June 13, 2014 he was nominated by President Barack Obama as a member of the National
Science Board of National Science Foundation. He got his B.Sc (Physics) from Vivekananda College
(University of Madras) in 1981. Subsequently, in 1984, he earned a B.E. in Electronics and Communication
Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India. In 1986, he completed his M.Tech in
Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical and
Computer Engineering in University of Ottawa, Canada in 1989. His research interests include Human-centered
Multimedia Computing (HCMC), assistive and rehabilitative technologies, haptic user interfaces, face/gait
analysis and recognition, medical image processing, media processor designs and ubiquitous computing
environments for enhancing quality of life for individuals with disabilities. His research contributions have been
disseminated in over 425 papers in various refereed journals and conferences. He also mentored over 100
students and scholars, which include graduate students, post-docs, research engineers and research scientists.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS VI
Title: Marriage of Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine learning
Techniques towards Sustainable Smart Infrastructure
Dr. G. Subrahmanya VRK Rao
Cognizant Technology Solutions, Chennai.
Email: subrahmanyavrk.rao@cognizant.com
Abstract: In today’s data-centric world, people expect the right data to be available everywhere, cheaply, in
growing quantities, ‘processed-right’ and available on demand. Increasing data storage, processing and
continuity requires a globally growing and more efficient data-centre footprint for sustainability. We believe
that the application of state-of-the-art ICT tools and techniques can improve the environmental footprint of
energy-intensive facilities and deliver Smarter and Greener Data-Centres, through ‘self-help’. The current talk
shares our ongoing International collaborative research towards marrying Machine Learning techniques for
Internet of Things (IoT) towards Smart-and-Green Data Centres.
Curriculum Vitae:
Dr. G. Subrahmanya VRK Rao is currently associated with Global Technology Office of Cognizant
Technology Solutions as Senior Director-Technology. Dr. Rao has Twenty years of work experience which
include Government, Industry, Academia and Research careers. A recipient of multiple International
Technology awards, Dr Rao was also awarded with multiple Industry / Public Private Partnership (PPP)
Research grants. A Ph.D. Gold-medalist, Dr Rao did his Postdoctoral Research work at Telkom Center of
Excellence attached to University of Fort Hare, South Africa. Author of the Book entitled “WiMax – A Wireless
Technology Revolution” and Editor of the book entitled “Web Services Security and E-Business”, Dr Rao
regularly files Patents and Trademarks. Widely published / presented his research at International
Conference/Journals, Dr Rao is the Founder and Organizing Chair for ‘Cloud for Business Industry and
Enterprises (C4BIE)’. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and a Senior Member of ACM, and his Bio is available
in multiple editions of “Who’s Who in the World”.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS VII
Title: Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensors for Internet of Things
Dr. Xavier Fernando
Ryerson University,
Faculty of Engineering,
Toronto, Canada.
Email: Fernando@ee.ryerson.ca
Abstract: Wireless sensors with myriad of applications are fast becoming the backbone of modern life which
boosts the mobile data. For example, mobile traffic will be grown by 13 fold from 2012 to 2017 according to
Intel. The Internet is migrating from human centric to device centric Internet of Things (IoT) as, by 2017, there
will be 3 times more connected devices than people on earth. This is facilitated by the 128-bit IPv6 that allows
340 trillion-trillion-trillion (3.4 x 1038) addresses. However, such a migration will require efficient sharing of
the already limited radio spectrum. Cognitive radio and other intelligent coexistence techniques will play a big
role in the future. In addition, many of these wireless nodes will be off the grid relying on batteries to operate.
Therefore, powering these wireless nodes will be an expensive exercise. Energy harvesting techniques are
looked at as an attractive alternative which is also more environmentally friendly. In this presentation, an
overview of emerging wireless sensor networks will be given with few interesting applications. Possible and
energy harvesting approaches in indoor and outdoor environments will be reviewed and various energy saving
techniques will be outlined.
Curriculum Vitae:
Dr. Xavier Fernando (http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~fernando) was an IEEE Communications Society
Distinguished Lecturer. He earned his PhD from the University of Calgary, in 2001. He has delivered invited
talks worldwide and organized big conferences such as the Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer
Engineering. He has authored and co-authored close to 100 research articles and holds two patents. He is also a
co-author of IEEE COMSOC WEBOK, and the sole author of the book, ‘Radio over Fiber for Wireless
Communications’, IEEE Wiley 2014. He and his students have won several awards and prizes including IEEE
Microwave Society Prize in 2010, Sarnoff Symposium prize in 2009, Opto-Canada prize in 2003 and CCECE
best paper prize in 2001. He was a finalist for Canadian Top-25 Immigrant Award in 2012.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS VIII
Title: Wireless RFID/Sensor Network using SAW (WiRSeNS): A Feasibility
Study
Dr. Varun Jeoti
Associate Professor,
E & E Engg, Universiti Teknologi, Petronas, Malaysia.
Email: jeotivarun@gmail.com
Abstract: The Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) RFID/sensor technology is increasingly becoming popular
because it is passive and wirelessly addressable while being tolerant to high temperatures and pressure load. In
order that the SAW sensors can be interrogated faithfully while being in the presence of considerable multipath
and multiple-access interference, two key questions need to be answered – one, what suitable signal design will
facilitate robust detection of sensor ID and sensing variable and two, what suitable suite of network protocols
will give rise to robust and reliable data propagation through the network of interrogators. This keynote presents
a feasibility study of the same. Such a network for operation in industrial applications is targeted. There are
certain locations inside a plant which cannot be easily accessed. These remarkably long-life and passive sensors
can be installed within those locations for real time monitoring. This keynote includes the background of SAW
RFID/sensors, its sensing mechanisms and parameter determination. Network design issues and their possible
solutions are also discussed.
Curriculum Vitae:
Dr. Varun Jeoti is currently working as Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronics in
Universiti Teknologi, Petronas, Malaysia. His research interest includes Broadband Communication, Wireless
Communication. He completed his PhD from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS IX
Title: New Frontiers in Face Detection
Dr. Vidit Jain
Research Director
American Express Big Data Labs, Bangalore.
Email: viditumass@gmail.com
Abstract: Nowadays, even tiny mobile devices have the capability of detecting faces in a photo. Is single-image
face detection really solved? This talk will focus on a new research direction for face detection: rapid adaptation
of detectors to new domains. In particular, we will focus on some of our recently published work that obliterates
the need of a massive training set to build a detector from scratch, rather it rapidly and simply adapts an existing
detector to a new domain. The proposed method of adaptation enables us to expand the scope of face detectors
to more practical, unconstrained settings.
Curriculum Vitae:
Dr. Vidit Jain served as Research Scientist at Yahoo! Labs and currently he is working as Research Director,
American Express Big Data Labs, Bangalore. He received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of
Massachusetts, Amherst, USA and a B.Tech. in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology
Kanpur. His main research interests are in large-scale, machine-learning for computer vision and text
processing.
WORKSHOP I
Title: Software Defined Networking - Opportunities and Challenges
Dr. M. S. Sricharan
Wipro Technologies, Chennai.
Email: sricharanms@gmail.com
Abstract: Software-defined networking (SDN) is a new approach to designing, building, and managing
networks that separates the network’s control and forwarding planes. Software Defined Networking (SDN) is
enabling organizations to accelerate application deployment and delivery, dramatically reducing IT costs
through policy-enabled workflow automation. SDN technology enables cloud architectures by delivering
automated, on-demand application delivery and mobility at scale. SDN enhances the benefits of data centre
virtualization, increasing resource flexibility and utilization and reducing infrastructure costs and overhead. This
seminar will provide an overview of SDN and how the idea is likely to evolve in the days to come.
Curriculum Vitae:
Dr. M. S. Sricharan is currently working as Senior Consultant with Wipro Technologies, India. He is a
member of the training/competency team of Wipro Technologies and offers training and consultancy services to
senior architects and technical managers in telecom/wireless domain, across the globe. He joined Wipro
Technologies in November 2006 as a consultant in aerospace, defense and satellites group. He was part of the
core team that developed a High Level Architectural Model for an affordable Soldier Radio System, for US
Defense. He was actively involved in developing proof of concept solutions to showcase Wipro’s capabilities in
location based services space. Before joining Wipro he was working in the department of Information
Technology, Madras Institute of Technology, Chennai. He obtained his doctorate degree in Wireless networks
from Anna University. He is a senior member of IEEE. He has published several papers in international journals
and conferences. His areas of interest include broadband wireless networks, location based services, wireless
simulators, innovations in engineering education.
WORKSHOP II
Title: Video Analytics using Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)
Dr. V. Vaidehi
Director
AU-KBC Research Centre,
MIT, Anna University, Chennai.
Email: vaidehi@annauniv.edu
Abstract: The rapid adaptation of ‘Smart planet’ concept has paved way to extensive use of Intelligent Video
surveillance applications. In this quest of making the environment intelligent, Video data needs to be stored,
analyzed, indexed and searched in real time. Though Video analytics provides solutions to handle large volumes
of data, the challenge of speed and accuracy is to be addressed.
Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) developed based on Parallel processing architecture are very
efficient at manipulating computer graphics and are generally more effective than general-purpose CPUs. GPUs
have more processor cores than CPUs and most suited for computationally intense operations such as video
surveillance and analysis. Modern GPUs are capable of performing many video processing tasks with the help
of frameworks such as CUDA and OpenCL.
This workshop presents solutions for real time Video surveillance application and its challenges using
GPU. The workshop covers the following topics;
 GPU module introduction
 OpenCV and GPU integration
 CPU vs. GPU performance analysis
 Image and Video processing techniques in GPU with demo using CUDA framework.
Curriculum Vitae:
Dr. V. Vaidehi received her BE (ECE) from College of Engineering, Guindy, ME (Applied Electronics) and
Ph.D. in the area of Parallel Processing from Madras Institute of Technology, Anna University, Chromepet,
Chennai. She was task team member in Micro Satellite (ANUSAT) and Executed several funded project in the
area of Target Tracking, Multi-Sensor Fusion, Semantic Intrusion Detection System and Complex Event
Processing. She has served as the Head of Computer Centre, Head of Electronics department, Head of Computer
technology and Head of Information Technology. Currently she is the Director of AU-KBC Research Centre,
MIT, Anna University, Chennai and Chairman of Faculty of Information and Communication Engineering,
Anna University, Chennai. Her research interest includes Networking, Parallel and Distributed Processing
Adaptive Digital Signal Processing, Image and Video Processing.
Panel Discussion & Valedictory address
Mr. N. Ramachandran
Managing Director
MEL Systems and Services Ltd, Chennai.
Email: nramachandran@melss.com
Curriculum Vitae:
Mr. N. Ramachandran is an Electronics Engineer from MIT, Chennai and with management qualifications
from the Delhi University and the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade with 36 years of experience. Has also
undergone Management Development Programs in Geneva (ITC) and in Australia. He is associated with a
number of Trade bodies.
Panel Discussion
Dr. D. Vidya
Director
iNautix Technologies India Pvt Ltd, Chennai.
Email: vdurai@inautix.co.in
Curriculum Vitae:
Dr. D. Vidya is currently working as Director at iNautix Technologies India Pvt Ltd, Chennai. She received her
BE (ECE) from Government College of Technology, M.E in Electronics Engineering from MIT, Chennai and
she received her Ph.D. in the area of Reconfigurable Architectures for Image Processing applications from
Anna University, Chennai. Before joining iNautix, she worked as Assistant Professor in MIT, Chennai. She
has 18 years of experience in Teaching and 13 years of experience in Industry. Her research interest includes
Computer Architecture, VLSI Design, Image Processing and Information Technology.