Middleware 2010 in Bangalore, India

I recently returned from the Middleware 2010 conference in Bangalore India, where I chaired the MidSens workshop and helped to deliver a tutorial on the Loosely-coupled Component Infrastructure (LooCI). It was also nice to see old colleagues from Lancaster University and K.U. Leuven.

I stayed in the Ramada near Indian Express Circle, right opposite one of the small Hindu temples that are dotted around Bangalore. Every morning I had to make a 5K trip accross town to the conference venue at the Chancery Pavillion.

The Bangalore traffic can be heavy, with cars, rickshaws, bikes and horses(!) so the best way to get around is by motorbike...

..like this family on their way to school, or by Rickshaw. Here you can see Nelson and Klaas from K.U. Leuven posing in a one (photo by Klaas):

The MidSens workshop went very well and it was great to see people getting to grips with the LooCI during the tutorial:

  

The conference banquet was excellent and featured Indian Dancing as entertainment. You can see a video of this below:

After the close of the conference, we got to see some of Bangalore's famous sites, including the great Hare Krishna temple, Iskcon. The Lalbach botanical gardens and the Bull Temple. There are some photos below:

The Iskcon Temple By Night

Climbing the Stone Hill in the Center of Lolbagh Park

Twisting Paths Through the Forest in Lalbagh Park 

Wild Mokeys Outside of the Bull Temple

The Holy Bull Statue in the Bull Temple

Bangalore was excellent and I look forward to returning soon.

IEEE NESEA 2010 Conference Banquet

Shortly after the first day of the conference closed, the attendees gathered for the group photo in the lobby of the XJTLU Conference Center Hotel:.

The Conference Group Photo

After the group session, we headed to the 5 Star Kempinksi Hotel, which hosted the conference banquet in a beautiful private room in the Wan Hu Ge resteraunt.

The Banquet at the Kempinski

After dinner, there was free flowing drinks at the Paulaner Brewhouse for all attendees. Thankfully our dedicated attendees were up bright and early for Friday's morning sesison.

Free Flowing Beer in the Paulaner Brew House

Suzhou was a great start to the NESEA Conference Series and I can't wait for NESEA 2011 in Perth, Australia. We hope to see you there!

IEEE NESEA 2010 Conference Sessions

The Inaugural IEEE conference on Networked Embedded Systems for Enterprise Applications (NESEA 2010) just closed at XJTLU in Suzhou. It was a small, but tightly focused and high quality event with great discussion in all of the paper sessions. 

The XJTLU Conference Center did a great job of hosting the event and made sure that everything was taken care of during the conference.

XJTLU's final-year Computer Science students were indispensible, manning the registration desk and helping the attendees. NESEA would not have been the same without them.



As local chair, I was honored to open the proceedings, and I even wore a suit for the occasion, which as you know, is very rare.

NESEA was a single-track event with ten academic papers and one keynote speech delivered over one and a half days. Papers were divided into four key themes: (i) application composition, (ii.) the tangible cloud, (iii.) secure routing and (iv.) hardware design. In the photo above, Dean Kramer from Thames Valley University, UK presents his work on MobDSL, a domain-specific language for developing mobile applications. This work won the best paper award in the DATICS-NESEA workshop.

It was extremely gratifying to see that the audience remained engaged throughout the event and that all of the authors got a good grilling on their work. I think that in-depth discussion is the hallmark of a good conference.

The main conference best paper award was given to Rabindra Bista from Chonbuk University, Korea for his paper "Assuring Integrity in Data Aggregation for Wireless Sensor Networks".

Of course, the conference banquet and social event were also a lot of fun. I will upload some photos of this next week when I return from Middleware'10 in Bangalore, India.

IWISA 2010 Conference in Qinhuangdao

In late October my colleague Kaiyu and I flew to Qinhuangdao in the north-eastern Hebei province to attend the IWISA 2010 conference. The conference organizers were very hospitable and we had a great time at Yanshan University.

Kaiyu's Presentation on Context Aware SOA

After the conference, we had time to explore some of the Qinhuangdao sights and I was really excited to see the great wall for the first time.

Steps up to the Great Wall

The section of the great wall at Shanhai Guan near Qinhuangdao is the most easterly in China. At 'First Pass Under Heaven', the wall provides intimidating fortifications for the old city of Shanhai Guan.

Market Stalls Along the Top of the Wall

There are a series of towers along the top of the wall, inside of which are some historic artifacts. Below you can see a photo of me in front of Lin Lu tower, which dates from 1584 and an ancient tablet showing the progression of the animals in the Chinese calendar.

Lin Lu Tower

Chinese Animal Calendar: this is the Year of the Tiger.

A short taxi ride form First Pass Under Heaven is 'The Old Dragon Head' where the great wall meets the sea. This fortification was most recently to defend against Japanese pirates and it contains a number of Chinese naval relics.

Inside the Old Dragon Head Fort

The Old Dragon Head: where the Great Wall meets the Ocean

The Old Dragon Head is an impressive symbol of ancient China's achievemets. Standing on the wall and looking out into the Bohai Sea, it was possible to see dozens of huge ships waiting to dock. An impressive display of modern China's growing economic power.

The View Down the Coast to the Sea God Temple

Just down the coast from the wall, there is a small but pleasent shrine to the god of the sea, which was used by fishermen. Below you can see a statue of the sea god himself:

The God of the Sea

Tristan and Liv's Wedding in Changzhou

Last Weekend, Caren and I were invited to a friend's wedding in Changzhou. Changzhou is about 90 minutes north of Suzhou, but Tristan and Liv had hired a bus, which made the journey really easy.

Heading to Changzhou

Our first stop was at the bride's parent's house, where according to Chinese tradition the whole wedding party collected the bride to take her to the ceremony. Lots of firecrackers were set off in celebration.

Collecting the Bride

Firecrackers!

After collecting the bride, the whole wedding party headed into Changzhou to the hotel where the reception would be held.

Tristan and Liv Greeting Guests at the Reception

The format of Chinese weddings is a little different to Western weddings, with the bride and groom taking to the stage at various times throughout the guests meal to make toasts.

Bubbles

Fireworks

The food and drink was all excellent. I tried my first good Baijiu (Chinese spirit) and also bird's nest soup, which I was assured is vegetarian, though I am skeptical. I think that even if I wasn't vegetarian, I wouldn't have tried the soft-shelled turtle. However, I'm told it was delicious.

Bird's Nest Soup

Soft Shelled Turtle

Grand Sumo Tournament in Tokyo

Two of my Friends, Simon and Jenny were on honeymoon in Japan and invited me to join them for their last weekend where they were watching the Grand Sumo tournament in Tokyo. It sounded like fun, so I decided to join them.

I cashed in some air miles to pay for my plane ticket. There were no economy seats left, so I had to use my miles to fly business... but the generous measures of Glenfiddich persuaded me it was worthwhile...

Big Measures of Whisky in Business Class

As I was traveling alone, I decided to try one of Tokyo's 'Capsule Hotels' where you sleep in a coffin-like enclosure with its own alarm-clock, TV and radio. The capsule hotel had really good communal facilities and was very cheap for Tokyo at 25 pounds per night. You can see my room below:

My Capsule Hotel 'Room'

Before the tournament started I went with Si and Jenny to see some of Tokyo. Taking the lift to the upper floors of many high-rises affords fantastic views:

Tokyo Harbor

The City Skyline

The Sumo tournament itself was held at a stadium near Ryogoku subway station and it was really wierd to see Sumo wrestlers in full costume riding bikes, using the subway and generally just hanging out.

Mural at the Ryogoku Subway Station

The tournament itself was great fun. The early fights go very quickly, but by the end of the day, the biggest and best fighters get into some epic struggles:

The Wrestlers Square Off

Clashing Wrestlers

One thing I was surprised by was the McDonald's product placement. Is this the secret diet of sumo wrestlers?

Unfortunate Product Placement

All in all it was a great weekend, and I look forward to seeing Simon and Jenny again.

Visiting Research Position at K.U. Leuven, Summer 2010

We spent this summer in Leuven, Belgium. Caren finished the first draft of her thesis and I was working with the WSN team in the DistriNet research group. We stayed in the Groot Begijnhof, a carefully restored religious community from the 13th century. The Groot Begjinhof is a UNESCO world heritage site and a wonderful place to live.

Inside the Begjinhof

Our Street (ours is the 2nd building on the left)

The View from our Loft Appartment

Caren Working in our Loft Appartment

I was working over in the Heverlee Campus of K.U. Leuven, which is right next to the Historic Arenberg Castle:
 

The Arenberg Castle

The Old Waterwheel

As we were working hard over the summer, we didn't get to make many trips, but we did make a trip over to Brugge, some photos of which you can see below:

Floating on the Canals of Brugge

The Bell Fort

The Chapel of the Holy Blood

My friend Kiel came to visit us for a weekend and he and I sampled a few Belgian beers at some great bars like Blauwe Kater in Leuven, Cambrinus in Brugge and Delirum Cafe in Brussels. 

The Delirum Cafe, home of 2004 beers.

Kiel Drinking from a Skull in Le Cercueil (the Coffin in French)

Drinking in Cambrinus: Kiel has a Kwak and I have a Poirot

All in all it was a great trip. I hope to return to Leuven soon.