Seminars, Workshops and Conferences
November 20, 2003: 'The Long and Winding Road To Industrial Strength Semantic Web Services' seminar by Dr. Michael Brodie, Chief Scientist, Verizon Information Technology, USA. The seminar will be held at 10:00-11:00 a.m. in Room CS-209, Computer Science Building.
Abstract
Web Services appear to be the basis for the Next Generation of computing in which rigid, non-interoperable, monolithic, legacy applications bound within organizational boundaries are replaced by E-Services - flexible services that can be discovered and invoked anywhere on the World Wide Web and composed, as required, to achieve higher level goals. Web Services are proposed to address software integration - the largest cost component in Information Technology. But Web Services are plumbing - inexpensive remote invocation.
The E-Services vision requires Semantic Web Services to enable discovery, composition, and integration. But this is techie talk. Neither Web Services nor Semantic Web Services are or should be goals. What really matters is a grander vision flexible, cost effective E-services that substantially overcome the integration challenge on an industrial scale. As with previous attempts at similar goals, such as the heroic journey to relational databases and the less than heroic treks to distributed object computing, economics, business aspects, and technical pragmatics such as scalability and performance dominate mere plumbing. This talk investigates the pragmatic challenges on the long and winding road to realizing the vision of truly interoperable applications based on cost effective, flexible integration through the land of Semantic Web Services. What will it take for Web Services to avoid Silver Bullet status in the annals of computing?
'...it's less about improving the technology that we have, it's
more about using that technology to solve business problems, the problems
we have in everyday life.'
-- A Survey of the IT Industry, The Economist, May 10, 2003
Biography
Dr. Michael L. Brodie is Chief Scientist, Verizon Information Technology. Dr. Brodie works on large-scale strategic Information Technology (IT) challenges for Verizon Communications Corporations senior executives. His primary interest is in the optimal use of IT, with an emphasis on emerging and advanced technologies and practices, to enable organizational and business objectives, including organizational change. In addition to Computer Science he has investigated the relationships between economics, business, and technology. His long-term industrial research focus is on advanced computational models and architectures and the large-scale information systems that they support. He is concerned with the Big Picture, business and technical contexts, core technologies, and integration within in a large scale, operational telecommunications environment.
Dr. Brodie has an active interest in advances in eBusiness, cooperative information systems, interoperability, information systems, databases, infrastructure and application architectures, legacy systems migration, business processes, experimental or domain-driven computer science, and the effective evaluation and deployment of advance IT solutions. Dr. Brodie has authored over 150 books, chapters, journal articles, and conference papers. He has presented keynote talks, invited lectures, and short courses on many topics in over thirty countries. He is a member of the Board of six research foundations including the VLDB (Very Large Databases) Endowment (1992 - present), is on the editorial board of several research journals.
December 1-19, 2003: The Electric Power System Management (EPSM), Energy Field of Study of Asian Institute of Technology will organize a medium training workshop on Power System Operation, Automation and Deregulation at AIT Conference Center. The training workshop is organized into three modules, namely, Power System Operation (Dec. 1-4), Power System Automation (Dec. 8-9, Dec. 11-12), and Power System Deregulation (Dec. 15-19).
Attendees may be registered for one or more modules of this training
workshop.
December 2-3, 2003 : International Symposium on Soil/Ground Improvement and Geosynthetics in Waste Containment Applications to be held at AIT the Conference Center
INTRODUCTION
The amount of solid waste generated is enormous. Both landfill/surface impoundment and treatment/stabilization of wastes require properly lined facilities. Adequate and safe storage of all wastes must be insured.
Municipal waste is the highest in quantity, followed by industrial waste and power plant ash. Hazardous and radioactive wastes are much less quantity, but significantly, more dangerous in quality.
This International Symposium on Soi/Ground Improvement and Geosynthetics in Waste Containment Applications aims to gather together the various experts in these fields so that the participants can learn the latest technology, application and design techniques in this area of specialization.
RESOURCE PERSONS
Prof. Masashi Kamon is the Keynote Speaker. Prof. Kamon is the leading International expert on the use of geosynthetics for waste, containment applications. He is presently the Head of the Department of Global Engineering at Kyoto University in Japan. Furthermore, Prof. S. Hayashi, Prof. K. Onitsuka of Saga Univeristy, Prof. J Chu of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and Dr. Y. J. Du of China as well as Prof. Mandal of India, Dr. Alexiew of Germany and Prof. Laloui of Switzerland have agreed to share their knowledge and expertise to the participants. The participants will have the chance to hear from them new developments and advancement in soil/ground improvement techniques and geosynthetics that will not only increase the strength of the soil and reduce settlement but will also shorten construction time and reduce construction cost. Moreover, Prof. Bergado and many other specialists and experts will also give lectures.
From the previous Symposia, there has been an international mix of Resource Persons from Thailand, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore. In Thailand, faculty members and researchers from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), Chulalongkorn University, Kasetsart University, Thammasat University, Siam University and Wilailak University and others as well as personnel from Department of Highways (DOH) and Electric Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) have actively participated.
For other inquiries, contact Ms. Cheryl Esin at tel. 02-524-5500 or email:
acsig@ait.ac.th
December 4, 2003 : Short Course 2003 on Design and Application of Geosynthetics in Waste Containment Structures will be held at the AIT Conference Center
PRODUCTION
The addition of man-made (geosynthetic) materials to enhance the properties of the soil has been done long before our historical records. The concepts of reinforcing poor soils has continued until the present. Moreover, geosynthetics are also used as intermediate barrier between two dissimilar materials for water drainage and soil filtration. In addition, geosynthetics are also applied to create a leak-proof barrier to prevent liquid movement from one point to another. Thus, geosynthetics perform five major functions, namely: separation, reinforcement, filtration, drainage, and containment. The family of geosynthetics includes: geotextiles (GT), geogrids (GG), geonets (GN), geomembranes (GM), geopipe (GP), geocomposites (GC), geosynthetic clay liners (GCL), and geo-others. With increasing development and industrial activities, waste disposal and ground contamination have become serious problems. Geosynthetics have been utilized in waste containment structures as barrier, drainage, protection filter and reinforcement components.
In conjunction with the International Symposium on Soil/Ground Improvement and Geosynthetics for Waste Containment Applications to be held on December 2-3, 2003, the IGS-Thailand and ACSIG are jointly organizing a Short Course on Design and Application of Geosynthetics in Waste Containment Structures. The short course will be held on December 4, 2003 at the AIT Conference Center
RESOURCE PERSONS
To date, several personalities in the field of geosynthetics have confirmed their attendance as resource speakers to the Symposium. Prof. S. Hayashi, Prof. K. Yasuhara, Prof. D.T. Bergado, Ir. Chris Lawson, Dr. Anupong Cajornsakbampen, Dr. Montri Dechasakulsom, Dr. Kanop Ketchart and many other experts in Geosynthetics have agreed to share their knowledge and expertise to the participants. The participants will have the chance to hear from them new developments and advancement in geosynthetics that will not only increase the strength of the soil and reduce settlement but will also shorten construction time and reduce construction cost. The reasons why more and more designers now include geosynthetics in their projects, such as subsoil drainage and filtration, subgrade stabilization and soil reinforcement, will also be discussed. Case studies indicating the proper and effective applications of the different types of geosynthetics will be extensively illustrated.
This year a very experienced consultant from Hong Kong and a member of the IGS Council, John Cowland, has kindly agreed to deliver the Theme Lecture of the Short Course entitled ' Use of Geosynthetics in Hong Kong Landfills'.
For other inquiries, contact Ms. Cheryl Esin at tel. 02-524-5500 or email:
acsig@ait.ac.th
January 14-16, 2004:: International Conference on 'Electric Supply Industry in Transition: Issues and Prospect for Asia' will be held at the AIT Conference Center.
The conference is co-organized by the Power Systems Engineering Research Center (PSERC, comprising of more than a dozen leading universities in the USA, including U.C. Berkeley), University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, and Asian Institute of Technology. The conference is coordinated by Professor Surapong Chirarattananon, SERD, AIT
The conference focus will be on 'Electricity Supply Industry in Transition': pertinent issues and prospects for Asia. The topic is timely as most of the utilities around the world, including developing nations, are changing the way they do businesses in electricity supply. A variety of people, power utilities, private power producers and academic institution, are expected to benefit from this conference.
For further information please email: olivier@ait.ac.th