SPECIAL SESSIONS MEASUREMENT, MONITORING AND CONTROL OF LASER PROCESSING Organizer: Prof. Vincenzo Piuri, University of Milan, Italy, piuri@elet.polimi.it The special session will focus on all aspects of measurement technologies, measurement systems, sensors, monitoring systems, control systems, and quality assurance in industrial use of laser for manufacturing. RECENT TRENDS IN TEST SYNTHESIS IN VLSI Organizer: Prof. Sunil R. Das, University of Ottawa, ON, Canada, das@site.uottawa.ca This session will focus on all aspects related to testing, on-line testing and diagnosis in VLSI devices and systems. SIGMA DELTA MODULATORS Organizer: Prof. Izzet Kale, University of Westminster, London, UK, kalei@westminster.ac.uk In the past decade, Sigma-Delta modulators have found themselves in the heart of very many instrumentation and measurement devices, circuits and systems. They have primarily been used as the workhorse for high fidelity data conversion systems, both in A/D and D/A converters. However, their application has not been restricted to data conversion systems alone. They have been used in a diversity of application areas, which include integrated transducers, frequency synthesizers and beam formers for sonar and medical imaging. This session will be looking at Sigma-Delta modulator related work and applications in instrumentation and measurement, including the ADC and DACs. MEDICAL MEASUREMENTS AND INSTRUMENTATION Organizer: Prof. Marco Parvis, Politecnico di Torino, Italy, parvis@polito.it This special session will focus on all the aspects related to sensors and measurements in the medical field. Main session topics, but not limited to, include: Sensors for medical systems specific instrumentation; Embedded systems and signal processing; Sensor fusion and calibration; Standards and medical applications; Digital imaging and communication in medicine (DICOM) Issues IMAGING SYSTEMS Organizer: Prof. George C. Giakos, University of Akron, OH, USA, gcgiakos@uakron.edu The Technical Session on IMAGING SYSTEMS deals with the application of engineering principles towards the design, development, testing, and evaluation of electronic imaging systems and techniques, for machine vision systems, medical imaging, aerospace, radar, terrestrial, and industrial applications. These imaging systems can be operated on lightwave, x-ray andgamma rays, ultrasound, RF, microwave, and MRI detection principles. Topics such as imaging sensors and detectors, signal quality and noise analysis, detection and image performance parameters, data aquisition systems, image analysis, image display and image trasmission techniques, as well as image enhancement techniques including neural-fuzzy algorithms, will be considered. SENSORS AND SENSOR FUSION FOR CONTEXT-AWARE COMPUTING Organizer: Prof. Mel Siegel, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA USA, mws@cmu.edu The emerging field of "context-aware computing" (perhaps better called "context-aware human-computer interaction") addresses issues relating to the differential response of computer-based (often wide-area) systems to differently sensed local contexts: different user, different lighting, different weather, etc. Substantial effort has already been reported on computational architecture, network communication, application programming infrastructure, etc., for prototype context-aware systems. But hardly anything has to date been reported on the difficult sensing and unusual sensor-fusion requirements that will have to be satisfied in order to achieve practically useful context-aware systems. This special session is open to reporting of theoretical and (preferably) experimental work toward realization of sensors and sensor-fusion approaches for context-aware systems. Reports of related work, e.g., progress toward "middleware" for the interfacing of the sensory and decision-making levels, are also strongly encouraged. VIRTUAL LABORATORIES Organizer: Prof. Hans Spoelder, The Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, hs@nat.vu.nl The ever-increasing world-wide connectivity opens up new ways for the sharing of remote facilities. An extreme form of this development are the so-called "virtual laboratories" which put an entire experimental set-up at the disposal of a remote user. Virtual laboratories trigger a broad range of interesting research questions like the amount of autonomous behavior of the set-up needed, the shape and structure of the user-interface, the required bandwidth, the software structure of virtual laboratories, calibration and so on. DISTRIBUTED MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING Organizers: Prof. Roberto Ottoboni and Prof. Arnaldo Brandolini, University of Milan, Italy, ottoboni@bottani.etec.polimi.it, arnaldo.brandolini@polimi.it This special session will address the problem of environmental monitoring. It will be specifically oriented toward new developments, recent progress, and innovations in the design and the application of distributed multi-sensor measuring systems. Special session topics include (but are not restricted to): - environmental modelling for environmental measurements - measurement methodologies and systems - microelectronic and sensor systems - mobile sensors - signal processing, software and Virtual Instrument systems - robotic techniques - environmental modelling for environmental measurements. PERCEPTUAL SYSTEMS Organizer: Prof. Peter Wide, Örebro University, Sweden, Peter.Wide@tech.oru.se This special session will cover all aspects of the theory and practice of sensor systems with perception capabilities: (i) detect and classify complex data patterns, (ii) bring these patterns to a level of abstraction at which relevant properties can be extracted, and (iii) use intelligent classification schemes to deduce or learn particular properties in a human-like manner. These systems can be mobile as well as immobile (stationary) and can employ different amount and type of sensors and perceptual routines in order to detect and analyze objects, events, and processes in dynamic and uncertain environments. The scope will include, but not restricted to, the following topics: - robotic systems, - process control systems, - manufacturing, - food/health control and monitoring, - medical systems - systems helping the disabled - inspection systems, - automotive systems, - unmanned underwater/land/air/space vehicles. HYBRID AND FAULT-TOLERANT SENSOR SYSTEMS Organizer: Prof. Georg Brasseur, University of Technology Graz, Austria, brasseur@emt.tu-graz.ac.at The ability of systems to autonomously respond to a non-static environment is constrained by its ability to sense and interpret its world. Multiple and heterogeneous sensors integrated into a sensor- system, and their real-time interpretation give a better estimation of the interesting environmental properties. If self-diagnostic and monitoring abilities are introduced as well as redundancy you not only end up with a hybrid but with a fault- tolerant sensor system. This session deals with all aspects of hybrid and/or fault tolerant sensor-systems. The topics will include, but are not limited to, sensor-system design, sensor types for sensor-systems, sensor calibration and verification, fault-detection and fault-tolerance, redundancy, sensor fusion, applications, ... A major focus is set on fusion of heterogeneous sensor signals. RESILIENT COMPUTING FOR INSTRUMENTATION AND DISTRIBUTED SENSORS IN HARSH ENVIRONMENTS Organizer: Nohpill Park, Oklahoma State University, USA, npark@a.cs.okstate.edu This special session will cover all aspects of theory and practice of computerized or computer-coordinated instrumentations and sensors in harsh environment from the resilient design and operation's standpoint. The scope will include, but not be restricted to, the following topics: - Resilient Space/Avionic Instrumentation and Sensing - Resilient Adaptive Computing for Distributed Heterogeneous Instrumentatation and Sensing - Resilient Distributed/Wireless Multi-Sensor Fusion - Resilient Multi-Chip Module Instrumentation - Resilient Nanoarchitecture Instrumentation - Resilient MEMS Instrumentation INSTRUMENTATION CONTROL ON WIDE AREA NETWORKS Organizer: Prof. Barna Szabados, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada, szabados@mcmaster.ca The session deals with all aspects of the instrumentation control on wide area networks. The topics will include, but are not limited to: protocols for instrumentation; real time WAN issues; pseudo-real time systems for instruments; virtual real time access; optimal communication parameters in WAN; setup/read protocol; full-duplex RT protocols; experimental instrumentation systems on WAN; multichannel access; single channel multiplexed exchanges; applications of XML for instrumentation. SENSING FOR ROBOTIC APPLICATIONS Organizer: Prof. Pierre Payeur, University of Ottawa, Canada, ppayeur@site.uottawa.ca This session will focus on the use of sensors to build environment representations and to control robots and autonomous systems. The emphasis will be on the impact of sensor characteristics and calibration on the control and performances of handling devices, manufacturing systems or robots operation. Sensors of many types will be considered both from the perspective of strategic implementation and raw data processing. The scope will include, without being restricted to, the following topics: -Strategic sensing for automatic systems -Dedicated sensors -Fusion of data from different sources -Calibration from raw data -Processing of raw data -Model building for validation and decision making -Embedded sensing on robot architectures VIRTUAL DISTRIBUTED MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS Organizer: prof. M.Bertocco, Padova University, Padova, Italy, matteo.bertocco@dei.unipd.it Technology now available offers powerful and low cost computing environments, as well as network facilities that deeply impact on instrumentation and measurement systems. Virtual environments gives to the designer conceptual models and practical tools for the development of highly reconfigurable systems that offers features previously unknown in rack-and-stack instruments. Network solutions adds to virtual systems new valuable capabilities including an easy design of wide, distributed, and cooperating measurement devices. Applications include, but are not limited to, domotics, industrial plants monitoring, distributed gathering of data, remote or cooperative control of instrumentation, automated and centralized testing facilities, and remote calibration. This session is open to discussion from previous topics. Examples include, although not limited to, architecture of distributed or easy reconfigurable measurement systems, models of virtual systems, network protocols for instrumentation, calibration and traceability of distributed or virtual systems, development tools, system integration.