Keynotes
Keynote Address #1, 8:30-9:30 am, 13 October 2008
Singapore: An Example of System of Systems
By: Professor Lui Pao Chuen
Chief Scientific Advisor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore
Advisor, National Research Foundation, Singapore
Abstract
“Our model is paranoid government - a government which worries all the time, which plays a crucial role in this system, is proactive, looks ahead over the horizon. Whenever people tell you not to worry, you start getting concerned”
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong , 11th April 2007, Singapore Parliament
Singapore is an example of a State that is a System of systems. Our history as an independent nation began in 1965. With a population of 2 million occupying an area of 209 square miles (535 sq km) on 41 islands Singapore had grown and prospered over the last 43 years.
The independence of Singapore in 1965 and the UK’s decision in 1968 to withdraw all troops led to the need for accelerated Economic Development to create jobs and Defence Development to secure the fledging nation. Social Development provided improved welfare for the people.
With limited resources in population, land area and capital, it was a major challenge to make major decisions on Economic Development, Defence Development and Social Development to meet immediate needs and at the same time to create options for the future. The value of optimization over time and organizations is demonstrated by the System of Systems that is the State of Singapore we have today.
About the Speaker
Professor Lui Pao Chuen was appointed to the newly created post of Chief Defence Scientist, Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) in 1986. He relinquished this appointment after 22 years of service in 2008 and is now serving as Consultant to MINDEF.
He graduated from the University of Singapore in 1965 with a degree in Science, majoring in Physics. In 1971, he was awarded a postgraduate fellowship by MINDEF. He elected to go to the US Naval Postgraduate School and graduated with a Master degree in Operations Research and Systems Analysis in 1973
In 1975, he was appointed Special Projects Director and was responsible for the planning, system engineering and implementation of major weapon systems for the SAF. In 1984, he was appointed acting Director, Joint Operations and Plans Directorate of the Ministry of Defence, in additional to his appointment as Director, Special Projects Organisation. In 1986, he was made Senior Director to set up the Defence Material Organization with the amalgamation of the Material Management Organization and the Special Projects Organization. He was also appointed to the newly created post of Chief Defence Scientist.
Prof Lui was on the board of directors of various Government-linked-companies and Government agencies. Currently, he is holding several appointments including the Director of Singapore Technologies Electronics Ltd since 2004, Chairman of Singapore Technologies Dynamics Pte Ltd since 2000, Chairman of Jurong International Holdings Pte Ltd since 2001, Chairman of Sembcorp Design and Construction Pte Ltd since 2006, Chairman, Board of Directors, ATREC Pte Ltd since 2006, Director of Singapore Technologies Kinetic since 2008. He was also a board member of several agencies and institutes including the Tropical Marine Science Institute in NUS since 1996, NUS High School Board of Governors since 2006, Executive Committee for Environmental and Water Technologies since 2006 and Public Utilities Board since 2007, member of Governing Board, Centre of Quantum Technologies, NUS since 2007 and member of the Economic Development Board since 2008..
Prof Lui has been an Adjunct Professor of the Faculty of Engineering in NUS since 1990 and recently the College of Engineering in NTU since 2007. His is the Chief Scientific Advisor since 2004 and the Advisor of National Research Foundation since it started in 2006. He was recently also appointed Senior Advisor on Systems and Technology to the President in NTU and a Special Advisor to the Office of the President in NUS in 2007.
Prof Lui was recipient of numerous awards due to this long service in the public service sector. He received the SAF Good Service Medal in 1975, The Public Administration Silver Medal (Silver) in 1979, The Public Administration Gold Medal in 1992 and the Long Service Award in 1997 for his 30 years service in Singapore. Prof Lui was appointed The Commander of the Royal Order of the Polar Star in Sweden in 1994. He was also appointed Senior Fellow in 2000 and was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2002 by the US Naval Postgraduate School. He was also inducted into the Naval Postgraduate School Hall of Fame. Prof Lui received a Teaching Excellence Award by Faculty of Engineering in NUS and the National Science & Technology Medal in 2002. He also received the Distinguished Science Alumni Award and Outstanding Service Award in 2005 and 2007 respectively from NUS.
Keynote Address #2, 08:30 – 09:30, 14 October 2008
Shaping How Technology Drives Attention
Professor John D. Lee
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
University of Iowa, USA
Abstract
Technology increasingly influences how people distribute their attention. Driving is a domain where this influence is particularly critical, with a recent study showing that an inappropriate distribution of attention contributed to approximately 80% of crashes. Cellphones and other distracting technology can undermine attention to the road. However, increasingly sophisticated sensors and algorithms may enhance attention to the road by guiding drivers to threats and helping them recognize when they are distracted. Designing vehicle technology to the enhance distribution of attention confronts similar challenges as in other high-tempo, high-consequence, multi-task domains. This talk uses examples of emerging vehicle technology to highlight successes and challenges. One such challenge concerns how to draw meaning from either sensor data in real time or from petabytes of accumulated data. Such data could identify distraction-related impairments and provide the basis for feedback to operators and to designers.
About the Speaker
John D. Lee is a professor in the department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Iowa, and is the director of human factors research at the National Advanced Driving Simulator. He is also affiliated with the Department of Neurology, the Public Policy Center, the Injury Prevention Research Center, and the Center for Computer-Aided Design. His research focuses on the safety and acceptance of complex human-machine systems by considering how technology mediates attention. Specific research interests include trust in technology, advanced driver assistance systems, and driver distraction. He is a coauthor of the textbook An Introduction to Human Factors Engineering, is the author or coauthor of over 170 articles, and is the coauthor of a recent book on driver distraction Driver Distraction: Theory, Effects and Mitigation. He received the Ely Award for best paper in the journal Human Factors (2002) and the best paper award for the journal Ergonomics (2005). He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences committee on human factors and has served on several other committees for the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Lee serves on the editorial board of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making; Cognition, Technology and Work; International Journal of Human Factors Modeling and Simulation; and is the associate editor for the journal Human Factors and IEEE-Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.
Keynote Address #3, 08:30 – 09:30, 15 October 2008
Scalable Clustering Algorithms
Lawrence O. Hall
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, ENB118
University of South Florida
hall@cse.usf.edu
Abstract
Clustering is the most typical way to group unlabeled data. Today, there are very large unlabeled data sets available. Some of these data sets are so large that they can only be treated as data streams because not all of the data can be stored in a cost-effective manner. Classic clustering algorithms are known to be very useful on small to medium-size data sets. This talk focuses on how to make some well understood classic clustering algorithms scale to very large data sets and streaming data sets. In particular, we argue that the c-means and fuzzy c-means families of algorithms can be scaled to provide data partitions that are very close and potentially identical to what you would get if you were able to cluster all the data. Examples show excellent partitions are obtained using data sets which contain tens of millions of examples, as well as streaming data sets.
About the Speaker
Lawrence O. Hall is a Professor and the Chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at University of South Florida. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Florida State University in 1986 and a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1980. He is a fellow of the IEEE. His research interests lie in distributed machine learning, extreme data mining, bioinformatics, pattern recognition and integrating AI into image processing. The exploitation of imprecision with the use of fuzzy logic in pattern recognition, AI and learning is a research theme. He has authored or co-authored over 60 publications in journals, as well as many conference papers and book chapters. Some recent publications appear in the IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Neural Computation, Information Fusion, Journal of Machine Learning research, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computing, the International Conference on Data Mining, the Multiple Classifier Systems Workshop, and the FUZZ-IEEE conference.
He received the IEEE SMC Society Outstanding contribution award in 2000. He received an Outstanding Research achievement award from the Univ. of South Florida in 2004. A Past president of NAFIPS. The former vice president for membership of the SMC society. He was the President of the IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics society for 2006-7. He was the Editor-In-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Part B, 2002-05. Also, associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, International Journal of Intelligent Data Analysis, the International Journal of Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence and International Journal of Approximate Reasoning.