GPU Developer Conference, Singapore 27th August 2015

GPU Technology Conference (GTC) is the largest and most important event of the year for GPU developers and the entire ecosystem.This year, the GTC Asia South highlights the growing revolution in deep learning, and how technology enables growing number of Smart Cities around the world.

GTC ASIA SOUTH 2015 TRACKS:

• Smart City
• Deep Learning & AI
• High Performance Computing & Accelerated Science

To learn more about agenda and speakers, please visit GTC Asia South website.

EVENT DETAILS
DATE: August 27, 2015
VENUE: Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre

ARM mbed Microcontroller IOT Device Platform Tutorial

ARM is eyeing on building new operating system, software components, tools and ecosystem that will make creation and deployment of commercial, standards-based Internet of Things devices is possible at scale. The ARM® mbed™ IoT Device Platform has been introduced to make this vision a reality. The design principles of this ARM based platform focus on connectivity, efficiency, security and productivity. For this reason, mbed OS, mbed Device Server and mbed Tools were built. To have insight of this platform, below are video tutorials on mbed microcontroller by Bme Builds:

• mBed Tutorial 1: Getting Started with mBed  
• mBed Tutorial 2: DigitalOut   
• mBed Tutorial 3: Pulse Width Modulation   
• mBed Tutorial 4: DigitalIn   
• mBed Tutorial 5.1: ADC and DAC Introduction   
• mBed Tutorial 5.2: Digital to Analog Conversion   
• mBed Tutorial 5.3: Analog to Digital Conversion   
• mBed Tutorial 6: Serial Communications using mBed   
• mBed Tutorial 7: Interfacing with an LCD Display   
• mBed Tutorial 8.1: I2C Introduction pt. 1   
• mBed Tutorial 8.2: I2C Introduction pt. 2   
• mBed Tutorial 8.3: I2C Introduction pt. 3   
• mBed Tutorial 8.4: I2C Set up   
• mBed Tutorial 8.5: I2C Reading the TCS34725 Spec Sheet   
• mBed Tutorial 8.6: I2C Interfacing with the TCS34725   
• mBed Tutorial 8.7: I2C Reading Data from the TCS34725   
• mbed Tutorial 9.1: SPI Introduction pt. 1   
• mbed Tutorial 9.2: SPI Introduction pt. 2   
• mbed Tutorial 9.3: SPI Introduction pt. 3   
• mBed Tutorial 9.4: SPI Spec Sheet for the LSM9DS0 (Gyroscope)   
• mBed Tutorial 9.5: SPI Interfacing with the LSM9DS0 (Gyroscope)   
• mBed Tutorial 9.6: SPI Spec Sheet for the LSM9DS0 (Accel/Mag)   
• mBed Tutorial 9.7: SPI Interfacing with the LSM9DS0 (Accel/Mag) 

Top 50 Internet of Things Applications

Libelium listed top 50 Internet of Things sensor applications ranking which include Smart Cities, Smart Environment, Smart Water, Smart Metering, Security and Emergencies, Retail, Logistics, Industrial Control, Smart Agriculture, Smart Animal Farming, Domestic and Home Automation, e-Health. On top of the list is the Smart Parking that can reduce the possibility of your car being towed. 

Smart Cities

1. Smart Parking - Monitoring of parking spaces availability in the city.
2. Structural health - Monitoring of vibrations and material conditions in buildings, bridges and historical monuments.
3. Noise Urban Maps- Sound monitoring in bar areas and centric zones in real time.
4. Smartphone Detection - Detect iPhone and Android devices and in general any device which works with WiFi or Bluetooth interfaces.
5. Eletromagnetic Field Levels - Measurement of the energy radiated by cell stations and and WiFi routers.
6. Traffic Congestion - Monitoring of vehicles and pedestrian levels to optimize driving and walking routes.
7. Smart Lighting - Intelligent and weather adaptive lighting in street lights.
8. Waste Management - Detection of rubbish levels in containers to optimize the trash collection routes.
9. Smart Roads - Intelligent Highways with warning messages and diversions according to climate conditions and unexpected events like accidents or traffic jams.

read more at Libelium

Can we convert video images into sound?

Most of us know that sound comes from vibrations. These vibrations create sound waves which move through mediums such as air and water before reaching our ears.But, can we recreate sound from video images? Abe Davis takes one step further to proof his method to these hidden properties. A software called "the motion microscope" finds the subtle motion of a video and amplifies them so that it become large enough for us to see. Thus, it can be used as touch sensor to monitor breath and pulse. The same concept can be applied to what we hear. The motion is used to capture the vibration of sound and turn everything that we see into microphone. Watch the video below:

Reference:

Abe Davis, Michael Rubinstein, Neal Wadhwa, Gautham Mysore, Fredo Durand,William T. Freeman "The Visual Microphone: Passive Recovery of Sound from Video", ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proc. SIGGRAPH, 2014,   Volume 33, Number 4, Pages 79:1-79:10

The Internet of Things New Direction

The IoT is advancing and beginning to visualize a very different world. System architects think that it could change change Things, data centers, and even the Internet. The sensor selection can be one thing to watch since a single camera may be able to collect more data, more reliably, than a swarm of simple sensors. If camera is chosen, should we move the raw data up to the cloud for analysis? Or do they design-in substantial computing power close to the sensors? If your algorithm is highly intolerant of latency, you have no choice but to rely on local computing by having hardware accelerators such as GPU, FPGA, or Xeon-Phi chips. But if you can tolerate some latency between sensor input and system response, the question becomes how much, and with how much variation. Here, the limitations of the Internet will become an issue.

Read more

Postgraduate Potluck Event @ FCSIT, UM

A potluck is a gathering of people where each person or group of people contributes a dish of food prepared by the person or the group, to be shared among the larger gathered group. (Wikipedia).

The Department of Computer System & Technology has successfully organized Postgraduate Potluck Event on the 9th April 2015. The goal of the event is to chill, relax and socialize among Postgraduate students and supervisors while enjoying good food brought by themselves. Other than tasting different types of food from different cultures, this event aims to bridge the gap between supervisors and students, cultivate team spirit and recharge positive attitude. Great thanks to all who have help to make the event a great success.

One head cannot carry an entire roof alone and that friendship means adding value. 

When cobwebs unite, they can tie up a lion. 

Ants united will drive a dead elephant to their abode

Malaysia Public Research Grants Workshop

We managed to conduct grant preparation workshop on the 1st April 2015 @ The Cube, Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology, University of Malaya. The purpose of the workshop is to prepare grant proposal for public grants and to expose the post graduate student with grant application. Grants are normally divided into two categories i.e Fundamental and Applied. Fundamental grants focus on fundamental research which questions the proposed algorithm, methodology or approach whether they will work or not. The Applied grants on the other hand looks at how the proposed method can be applied to certain area. Therefore, it is very important to choose the right title and objectives according to the grant applied. The Applied grants are also divided into several stages such as idea, prototype, pre-commercialization and commercialization.  There are also grants which target multidisciplinary research.    

In Malaysia, 2 main public grant comes from Ministry of Education (MOE) and Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI). Below are the grants

Ministry of Education (MOE)  (MOE Grant Info, applied through mygrants.gov.my)

• Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS)
• Long Term Research Grant Scheme (LRGS)
• Exploratory Research Grant Scheme (ERGS)
• Prototype Development Research Grant Scheme (PRGS)
• Geran Sanjungan Penyelidikan (GSP-KPM)
• Research Acculturation Grant Scheme (RAGS)
• Niche Research Grant Scheme (NRGS-KPM)
• Trans Disciplinary Research Grant Scheme (TRGS)
• Research Acculturation Collaborative Effort (RACE)

Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) (MOSTI grant info)

• Science Fund
• Techno Fund
• Inno Fund
• Flagship Program

If you're interested to have collaborative joint research project (national/international), please do not hesitate to contact us.