Thursday, June 22, 2023 | 09:00 am (CET) | Room: B04.1.06 | Lakeside Science & Technology Park

Ass.-Prof. Dr. Jan Steinbrener | Department of Smart System Technologies (Control of Networked Systems group) at Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt

Abstract: Deep neural networks (DNNs) have become an important tool in many fields of applications from image recognition to natural language processing and beyond, often outperforming human experts in their domains. Compared to heuristic, expert algorithms or shallow machine learning models, DNNs benefit from better prediction accuracy and better generalizability to unseen data. This comes at the cost of resource and data-intensive training of these models and a black-box-like behavior that does not provide information about underlying reasoning or uncertainty of the predictions. In robotics, DNNs have been successfully applied to diverse tasks such as state estimation, path planning, and control for various different platforms. This talk will explore the application of deep neural networks for sensor data processing with a particular focus on state estimation for robotic applications. End-to-end trainable deep neural networks that directly predict the desired state based on raw sensory inputs as well as hybrid models where the predictions of the DNNs are fused with other sensor data in a statistical state estimator will be discussed. Finally, strategies how to quantify model and task-based uncertainties of DNN predictions with the goal to improve the consistency of DNN-based state estimators will be presented.

Bio: Jan Steinbrener is an assistant professor on a tenure track position in the Control of Networked Systems group (CNS) at the University of Klagenfurt. He obtained his PhD in Physics in 2010 from Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, NY USA. After his PhD, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Max-Planck Institute for medical research in Heidelberg, Germany, and then spent 5 years working in industry developing medical x-ray machines at Siemens Healthcare in Erlangen, Germany. Before joining CNS in 2019, he worked as a senior researcher at the Carinthian Tech Research Centre (now Silicon Austria Labs) in Villach Austria.

His current research focuses on combining machine learning approaches with classical methods for state estimation and navigation of autonomous systems. He has authored or co-authored more than 40 peer reviewed publications on novel imaging systems, image processing and reconstruction techniques, applied machine learning, machine learning algorithm development, and combination of machine learning with classical filters for state estimation. He currently holds 2 patents on image processing techniques.

Tuesday, May 16, 2023 | 01:00 pm (CET) | Room: Z.1.09 | | Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt

Dr. Michael Has | University of Grenoble

Abstract: The impact of climate change to biosphere and the human civilization living therein are widely discussed as is the need to reduce the consumption of energy and materials – measured in footprints. Despite of that the means on how to reduce footprints and the difficulties going along with that are lesser discussed.
The assessment of CO2 Footprints during all phases of its production and existence (Life Cycle Assessment) is embedded in the legally required of non-financial reporting for companies. This talk is intended to provide background on non-financial reporting and how that relates to footprints and risks. Of course reporting is not l´art pour l´art. It is intended to reduce the impact of an activity – Ecodesign and it impacts the value of companies. The intent is to discuss in more detail how reporting is done, how (CO2-) Footprints are derived, ways to reduce footprints and how the related activities influence the value of companies. 

Bio: Following apprenticeships Has studied physics at the University of Regensburg. In 1992 he received his doctorate on his work in the field of biophysics.  Has also attended the INSEAD Business School in Fontainebleau, France. He spent the initial part of his industrial career at FOGRA delivering industrial research in the field of new technology analysis, consulting, offset and digital print, digital workflows and Color Management. Has founded the predecessor organization of the International Color Consortium (ICC, Reston, Virginia), whose first technical secretary he became.

In 1998 he received his habilitation from the University of Grenoble. Since 1998 he serves as Distinguished Professor in the fields of future technology, business – and portfolio strategy, circular economy and sustainability at University of Grenoble. From 1998 until 2020 Has worked with Canon where he has held senior and executive positions in R & D, marketing and strategic planning and product design.  

Has was active in various scientific advisory boards, held board positions and worked as business advisor in start-up companies. His work on industrial development led to numerous publications and patents. 

Stimulated by a long stay with indigenous populations in Canada Has was and is active in the field of human rights for minorities: He was board member of the Society for Threatened Peoples, Göttingen, and the World Uranium Hearing, Munich. Today he chairs the board of trustees of the foundation Vielfalt der Kulturen der Welt, Göttingen. As such he dealt with the impact tourism, resource conservation and consequences of mining and waste disposal. In connection with his professional work in the printing industry, these interests led him to work, publications and research in the fields of sustainability and the circular economy (eg for the World Economic Forum, Davos, and scientific and commercial conferences on circular economy). 

Monday, April 17, 2023 | 04:00 pm (CET) | Room: HS 3 | | Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt

Prof. Bruno Clerckx | Faculty of Engineering, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering | Imperial College London

Abstract: Radio waves carry both energy and information simultaneously. Nevertheless, radio-frequency (RF) transmissions of these quantities have traditionally been treated separately. Future wireless networks will experience a paradigm shift, namely, unifying wireless transmission of information and power to make the best use of the RF spectrum and radiation as well as the network infrastructure for the dual purpose of communicating and energizing. Such networks will enable trillions of future low-power devices to sense, compute, connect, and energize anywhere, anytime, and on the move. The design of such future networks brings new challenges and opportunities for RF, communications, signal processing, machine learning, sensing, and computing. In this talk, I give an overview progress in laying the foundations of the envisioned dual-purpose networks by establishing a signal theory and design for wireless information and power transmission (WIPT) and identifying the fundamental tradeoff between conveying information and power wirelessly.

Bio: Bruno Clerckx is a (Full) Professor, the Head of the Wireless Communications and Signal Processing Lab, and the Deputy Head of the Communications and Signal Processing Group, within the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, Imperial College London, London, U.K. He is also the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Silicon Austria Labs (SAL) where he is responsible for all research areas of Austria’s top research center for electronic based systems.

He received the MSc and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, and the Doctor of Science (DSc) degree from Imperial College London, U.K. Prior to joining Imperial College in 2011, he was with Samsung Electronics, Suwon, South Korea, where he actively contributed to 4G (3GPP LTE/LTE-A and IEEE 802.16m). He has authored two books on “MIMO Wireless Communications” and “MIMO Wireless Networks”, 250 peer-reviewed international research papers, and 150 standards contributions, and is the inventor of 80 issued or pending patents among which 15 have been adopted in the specifications of 4G standards and are used by billions of devices worldwide. His research spans the general area of wireless communications and signal processing for wireless networks. He received the prestigious Blondel Medal 2021 from France for exceptional work contributing to the progress of Science and Electrical and Electronic Industries, the 2021 Adolphe Wetrems Prize in mathematical and physical sciences from Royal Academy of Belgium, multiple awards from Samsung, IEEE best student paper award, and the EURASIP (European Association for Signal Processing) best paper award 2022. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and the IET, and an IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Lecturer.

Monday, February 27, 2023 | 02:00 pm (CET) | Room: S.2.42 | | Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt

Dr. Farzad Tashtarian | Department of Information Technology (ATHENA Christian Doppler (CD) Laboratory)

Abstract: Empowered by today’s rich tools for media generation and collaborative production and convenient network access to the Internet, video streaming has become very popular. Dynamic adaptive video streaming is a technique used to deliver video content to users over the Internet, where the quality of the video adapts in real time based on the network conditions and the capabilities of the user’s device. HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS) has become the de-facto standard to provide a smooth and uninterrupted viewing experience, especially when network conditions frequently change. Improving the QoE of users concerning various applications‘ requirements presents several challenges, such as network variability, limited resources, and device heterogeneity. For example, the available network bandwidth can vary over time, leading to frequent changes in the video quality. In addition, different users have different preferences and viewing habits, which can further complicate live streaming optimization. Researchers and engineers have developed various approaches to optimize dynamic adaptive streaming, such as QoE-driven adaptation, machine learning-based approaches, and multi-objective optimization, to address these challenges. In this talk, we will give an introduction to the topic of video streaming and point out the significant challenges in the field. We will present a layered architecture for video streaming and then discuss a selection of approaches from our research addressing these challenges. For instance, we will present approaches to improve the  QoE of clients in User-generated content applications in centralized and distributed fashions. Moreover, we will present a novel architecture for low-latency live streaming that is agnostic to the protocol and codecs that can work equally with existing HAS-based approaches.

Bio: Farzad Tashtarian (M’15) is a post-doctoral researcher in the ATHENA project at the Institute of Information Technology (ITEC), Alpen-AdriaUniversitat Klagenfurt (AAU). Before joining ATHENA, he was an assistant professor at the Azad University of Mashhad, Iran. He received his Ph.D. from the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in Computer Engineering.

As a researcher, he co-authored more than 60 papers published in prestigious journals such as  IEEE Transactions of Vehicular Technology, IEEE Transactions on Network Service and Management, IEEE Transactions on Multimedia,  Elsevier Computer Communication, and IEEE Access and difference conferences. He is a member of the Technical Program Committee of several international conferences. His current research areas of interest are end-to-end latency and QoE in video streaming, video networking, software-defined networking, network function virtualization, mathematical modeling, and distributed optimization. Further information is at https://tashtarian.net/.

Tuesday, March 14, 2023 | 02:00 pm (CET) | Room: HS 8 | | Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt

Dr. Vincenzo De Maio | Vienna University of Technology

Abstract: In recent years, we have experienced an exponential growth in the amount of data generated by IoT devices. Data have to be processed strict low latency constraints, that cannot be addressed by conventional computing paradigm and architectures. On top of this, if we consider that we recently hit the limit codified by the Moore’s law, satisfying low-latency requirements of modern applications will become even more challenging in the future. In this talk, we discuss challenges and possibilities of heterogeneous distributed systems in the Post-Moore era.

Bio: Dr. Vincenzo De Maio has a Ph.D. in Computer science by the Institute of Computer Science at the University of Innsbruck, (Austria). He received his Ph.D in November 2016 under the supervision of Univ. Prof. Dr. Radu Prodan and Dr. Gabor Kecskemeti.  

Since 2017 he is working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Information Systems Engineering of the Vienna University of Technology, whose leader is Univ. Prof. Dr. Ivona Brandic. He has been author of different conference and journal publications on the topic of energy efficiency and modelling for Cloud and Edge computing. His research in the area of parallel and distributed systems includes energy-aware Cloud/Edge computing and Post-Moore computing.

Since 2023, he also collaborates with the Department of Experimental Physics of the University of Innsbruck and Dr. Thomas Monz as CO-PI of the HPQC FFG Leitprojekt Project, whose goal is the integration of quantum hardware in HPC systems.