Pervasive Computing: connected -> aware -> smart



Wednesday, 15. October 2003 | 16:15 Uhr

Speaker

Alois Ferscha

Organisation

University of Linz, Austria

Reporting

We are facing a new era in the information age: In the foreseeable future, the world will be full of invisible and at the same time ubiquitous computer systems, whose communicating sensors will allow them to detect their surrounding environment and even undertake independent actions (= Pervasive Computing). The first quantum in this epoch “the connectedness of all things” is already well-advanced from a technological point of view. Challenges that remain are the “awareness” factor – creating mutual awareness between humans and connected things – and consequently the “smartness” of objects – the invisible, unobtrusive, intelligent activity of connected objects in the background. The radical displacement of computer technology to a background position, embedded and concealed in everyday objects, and cultivated to engage in routine activities, preserves the hope of winning back “human lifestyles” through Pervasive Computing – at least from a technological point of view.

Alois Ferscha

Alois Ferscha (*1962) received his Master’s degree in 1984, and a PhD in business informatics in 1990, both from the University of Vienna, Austria. From 1986 through 2000 he was with the Department of Applied Computer Science at the University of Vienna at the levels of assistant and associate professor. In 2000 he joined the University of Linz as full professor where he is now head of the department for Practical Computer Science. He has been a visiting researcher at the Dipartimento di Informatica, Universita di Torino, Italy,  at the Dipartimento di Informatica, Universita di Genoa, Italy, at the Computer Science Department, University of Maryland at College Park, College Park, Maryland, USA, and at the Department of Computer and  Information Sciences, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA. Prof. Ferscha is member of the OCG, GI, ACM, IEEE and holds the Heinz-Zemanek Award for distinguished contributions in computer science.

 

He has been the project leader of several national and international research projects like e.g.: Network Computing, Performance Analysis of Parallel Systems and their Workload, Parallel Simulation of Very Large  Office Workflow Models, Distributed Simulation on High Performance Parallel  Computer Architectures, Modelling and Analysis of Time Constrained and Hierarchical Systems (MATCH, HCM), Broadband Integrated Satellite Network Traffic Evaluation (BISANTE, ESPRIT IV) and Distributed Cooperative Environments (COOPERATE) and Virtual Enterprises. Currently he is pursuing project work related to context based application frameworks in a “Wireless Campus” network, public community displays with wireless remote controls, geo-enhanced mobile navigation systems, RFID-based real-time notification systems, wearable computing and embedded internet application frameworks.

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