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Fwd: [TIER] CFP: ACM MobiCom 2020 - FRUGALTHINGS 2020: 1th Workshop on Frugal Smart Objects
by Kurtis Heimerl 22 May '20

22 May '20

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Pietro Manzoni <pmanzoni(a)disca.upv.es> Date: Fri, May 22, 2020 at 9:51 AM Subject: [TIER] CFP: ACM MobiCom 2020 - FRUGALTHINGS 2020: 1th Workshop on Frugal Smart Objects To: <tier(a)tier.cs.berkeley.edu> **Hoping that this workshop will be of interest to the members of the group. I apologize if it is not appropriate for the list.** FRUGALTHINGS 2020: 1th Workshop on Experiences with the Design and Implementation of Frugal Smart Objects http://www.grc.upv.es/frugalthings2020/ **In conjunction with ACM MobiCom 2020 - The 26th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking, 21-25 Sep, London, United Kingdom.** Paper Submissions Deadline extension: June 5th, 2020 (FIRM) ## MOTIVATION AND RATIONALE Frugal innovation employs a creative approach to problem solving which starts from user needs and works to develop contextually appropriate solutions that have to be scalable, durable and environmentally sustainable, while using state-of-the-art technologies and know-how. Frugal innovation explores the introduction of emerging technologies to new populations, by developing ubiquitous computing systems, designing interaction techniques, and collecting and analyzing data. Examples of frugal innovations uncover the facilitating role of digitization and technological advancements in developing resource efficient and sustainable solutions. Ubiquitous internet, telecommunication and technological tools such as 3-D printing, cloud computing, social media, crowdfunding are a few examples. The FRUGALTHINGS workshop focuses on frugal innovations and the application of its goals for the design, implementation, deployment, operation and evaluation of novel approaches and systems in the emerging cooperative environments. We are therefore seeking original, previously unpublished papers empirically addressing key issues and challenges in the frugal innovation arena. ## TOPICS * Accessibility Through Smart Objects * App Concepts and Technologies for Different Mobile Platforms * Applications for Social Good * Content Distribution * Context-awareness * Data Collection, Organization and Dissemination Methods * Deployment and Field Testing * Engineering of Frugal Objects * Game, Entertainment, and Multimedia Applications * Human-object Interaction * Location- and Track-based Services * Middleware for Fog/edge Infrastructures * Mobile Service Architectures and Frameworks * Multimodal Interaction With Frugal Objects * Novel Interaction Concepts for Frugal Objects * Pervasive and Ubiquitous Services in Cloud and IoT * Platforms and Frameworks for Mobile Devices * Privacy and Trust Aspects Of Frugal Objects * Protocol Design, Testing, and Verification * Rural Areas Connectivity Solutions * Security Issues, Architectures and Solutions * Self-explanatory Smart Objects * Sensors and Data Collection * Smart Sensory Augmentation and Smart Spaces * Technology and Models Required for Enabling The Interaction With Smart Objects * User Studies and Evaluation Techniques ## IMPORTANT DATES - Workshop Paper Submissions Deadline: June 5, 2020 (FIRM) - Workshop Paper Notification: July 1st, 2020 - Camera-ready Workshop Papers Due: July. 31st, 2020 **Submission web page:** http://www.grc.upv.es/frugalthings2020/authors/ Accepted workshop papers will be included with the MobiCom proceedings and published in the ACM Digital Library. Authors of selected papers will be invited to submit an extended version to the: * Special Issue on "Sustainable Human-Computer Interaction Development" of the MDPI Sustainability Journal (Impact Factor: 2.592) * Special Issue on "AI for IoT" of the MDPI Sensors Journal (Impact Factor: 3.031) ## ORGANIZING COMMITTEE **GENERAL CHAIRS** * Claudio Palazzi, Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy * Pietro Manzoni, Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain **TPC CHAIRS** * Catia Prandi, University of Bologna, Italy * Dejan Vukobratovic, University of Novi Sad, Serbia * Giovanni Pau, University of Bologna, Italy -- Pietro Manzoni @ Universitat Politècnica de València (SPAIN) http://www.grc.upv.es/members/pmanzoni -- *Pietro Manzoni @ Universitat Politècnica de Valè**ncia (SPAIN)* *http://www.grc.upv.es/members/pmanzoni <http://www.grc.upv.es/members/pmanzoni>* _______________________________________________ TIER mailing list Website: http://tier.cs.berkeley.edu TIER(a)tier.cs.berkeley.edu https://www.millennium.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tier -- Public Key: https://flowcrypt.com/pub/kheimerl@cs.washington.edu

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Call for participation: virtual "_4D" events this summer
by Neha Kumar 07 May '20

07 May '20

Dear friends, TL;DR: Please fill out this short survey <https://t.co/8BQJrfXLZo?amp=1> to let us know if and how you'd like to participate in our virtual events, and circulate to all the 4Ders you think may be interested. We hope that this email finds you in good health. COVID-19 has forced some of us to hit pause on many aspects of our lives, even as it throws others’ into a frenzy. To make sense of this madness, build a stronger and richer community, and draw together our strengths in this current (and rapidly evolving) state of the world, we propose a series of virtual events to bring us together: to take a step back and learn more about each other’s work, engage in dialog over various ongoing discussion threads, and think about the larger questions that face us, as a community and as a world. The goal of these events will be to organize dialog in varying formats on topics pertaining to computing and global, sustainable development. Included in our target audience will be students, researchers, and practitioners working at this intersection across fields such as ICT4D, HCI4D, ML4D, AI4D, Data Science for Social Good, COMPASS, ICT4S, Sustainable HCI, etc. If this series is successful in the summer, we will aim for extending it, possibly to culminate with an in-person event when the COVID madness is behind us (TBD indeed). Questions on our minds that we could start with (no doubt there are more on yours): - How is COVID-19 impacting underserved communities across the world? - How is the research I’m doing relevant or useful in these times? - How are others in my research community responding to COVID-19 in their work and/or day-to-day lives? - How might we best continue with our past research initiatives given our lack of mobility in these times? - How might we make use of this time to reorient ourselves, our students, our scholarship, our community, maybe by being better/different learners, instructors, researchers, practitioners, communicators, etc.? - Are there research questions and agenda that we as a community should be brainstorming right now? - How can *I* get involved in more, and more impactful, research and initiatives? - These and many more! All types of participation are welcome—you can choose to stay informed, participate as listener or learner, or contribute more actively either by talking or collaborating with others. If there was ever a time that was right for us all to come together, this would perhaps be it. But what would be the structure of these events? Here is the result of our first brainstorm, and your inputs via the survey or just email would be great! Proposal version 0.0: We conduct a session every two weeks (starting mid-late May) that lasts 90-120 minutes and involves one/more of the following: - A panel with 3-4 participants (e.g., the use of social media during COVID-19) - A set of research talks (e.g., a selection of CHI2020 HCI4D paper presentations) - Reporting back on efforts from non-profits (e.g., GramVaani) - Facilitated brainstorming session (e.g., on doing research under lockdown) - Calls for action (e.g., for collaborations across disciplinary borders) - Virtual happy hours (or dance parties?!) - ... We plan to do informal Zoom/BlueJeans calls that are open to everyone. We will send out a schedule roughly once a month, and publicize using Facebook and Twitter. We will also send out a brief announcement on the Google groups mailing list we create. So please fill out this short survey <https://t.co/8BQJrfXLZo?amp=1> to let us know how you’d like to be involved. Thank you, stay well, and see you soon! Your friendly 4D (virtual) neighborhood

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ICT4S Summer School 2020 - ICT for Sustainability
by Jay Chen 30 Mar '20

30 Mar '20

--------------------------------------- ICT4S Summer School 2020 --------------------------------------- The ICT4S summer school will bring together researchers from all areas related to the transformational role of ICT for sustainable futures. Program: ------------- The preliminary program is online: https://www.lorentzcenter.nl/international-summer-school-on-ict-for-sustain… <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.lorentzcenter.nl_i…> For whom: --------------- For researchers of any area related to Information and Communication Technologies for Sustainability. When: --------- From Monday 17 August through Friday 21 August 2020 (full time) Where: ---------- The school is hosted by the Lorentz center on the campus of the University of Leiden, in The Netherlands, a short 30 minutes west of Amsterdam. 3rd Floor Oort Building, Niels Bohrweg 2, Leiden, Netherlands https://www.lorentzcenter.nl/ <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.lorentzcenter.nl_&…> School format: -------------------- The format combines lectures on cutting-edge ICT4S topics with hands-on sessions discussing future collaborations and synergies, and collaborative paper writing. Organizers: --------------- Christoph Becker, University of Toronto Jay Chen, NYU Abu Dhabi Patricia Lago, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Daniel Pargman, KTH Royal Institute of Technology Daniel Schien, University of Bristol Accommodation: ----------------------- At the Hotel Van der Valk, a few minutes walk from the Lorentz Center. Haagse Schouwweg 14, 2332 KG Leiden, Netherlands https://www.hotelleiden.nl/en/ <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.hotelleiden.nl_en_…> Costs: -------- Lorentz Center does not charge registration fees. In addition, Lorentz Center hosts a welcome reception and a workshop dinner, both free of charge. We are still in the process of acquiring additional funding. If you need a contribution to your expenses, please indicate so in the online registration. If reimbursements will be granted, they will be transferred after the workshop, upon presentation of ticket or travel receipts. Sponsorship: ------------------ For questions about sponsoring, please contact Prof. Patricia Lago <p.lago(a)vu.nl <mailto:p.lago@vu.nl>> Applications: ----------------- Interested attendees can apply online at: https://www.lorentzcenter.nl/international-summer-school-on-ict-for-sustain… <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.lorentzcenter.nl_i…> SIKS, IPA and ASCII PhD-students working on the ICT4S topics are strongly encouraged to apply. However the number of seats is limited. Applications will be evaluated by the organizers based on need and fit in the school topics, and will be informed about the decision as soon as possible. Application Deadline ---------------------------- 30 April 2020 The Lorentz Center --------------------------- The Lorentz Center is a Dutch national center for international workshops in all scientific disciplines. Its guiding philosophy is that innovative research thrives on interaction between creative researchers. Lorentz Center workshops focus on new collaborations and on interactions in highly diverse groups of researchers – international and with different scientific viewpoints as well as seniority, gender, and culture. The Lorentz Center receives structural financial support by Leiden University, and by the Dutch research councils Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research NWO.

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Change Seminar Cancelled Spring 2020
by Kurtis Heimerl 27 Mar '20

27 Mar '20

Owing to the unique climate we're in, the Change seminar is cancelled for the quarter. I hope everyone remains healthy as we pick it back up in the fall. Thanks! -- Public Key: https://flowcrypt.com/pub/kheimerl@cs.washington.edu

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Fwd: [liberationtech] COVID 19 app for D.R. Congo - Dev support needed
by Kurtis Heimerl 22 Mar '20

22 Mar '20

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Kambale Musavuli <kambale(a)friendsofthecongo.org> Date: Sun, Mar 22, 2020 at 3:59 PM Subject: [liberationtech] COVID 19 app for D.R. Congo - Dev support needed To: lt(a)lists.liberationtech.org <lt(a)lists.liberationtech.org> Hello everyone. For years now, I’ve followed the list and have found it very informative especially around tools we can use in Africa. Today, I’m coming for support as the COVID-19 spread in my country may get out of control. I know all cases worldwide are important. I do hope that some of you may be able to help with the situation we have. We are a group of volunteer devs from the Democratic Republic of the Congo helping the ministry of telecommunications in having a platform to report cases in DRC faster than the John Hopkins API, mainly so that health workers can be updated on the live situation of the virus spread. Today we launched our website helping the ministry of telecommunications with contact tracing and sms notification. We are a group of about 5 techies trying to respond to a massive need of 80 million people. The specific help we need revolves around our code and other best practices for scenarios like ours (huge USSD users, WhatsApp and sms adoption all across the country, low internet penetration - below 10%) The site is live here: https://covid-19info.cd The code is here: Backend: https://github.com/devscast/covid19-backend Client: https://github.com/devscast/covid19-client SMS notifier: https://github.com/devscast/covid19-notifier 1. We hope that we can have any developer who has free time to join us in the expansion of the platform. This will be helpful for code review or also managing/creating issues on github. 2. We have used Ushaidi and smssync by them also before but we are not experts in setting it up properly for 80 million people. We are still waiting for telecoms support to give us a shortcode but for now we are using twilio with a US number since we are not able to use +243 on their platform. There are other issues to add but these are the main ones for now. If you are interested in helping us in this endeavor, feel free to contact me. Kambale -- "Nous ne sommes pas seuls. L’Afrique, l’Asie et les peuples libres et libérés de tous les coins du monde se trouveront toujours aux côtés de millions de Congolais" Watch Crisis in the Congo http://congojustice.org Kambale Musavuli <http://kambale.com/> National Spokesperson Friends of the Congo <http://friendsofthecongo.org/> 1629 K Street, NW Suite 300 Washington, DC 20006 Cell Phone: 646-571-8312 <(646)%20571-8312> Work Phone: 202-584-6512 <(202)%20584-6512> Linked In <http://www.linkedin.com/in/kambale> - Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/KambaleMusavuli> - Twitter <http://www.twitter.com/kambale> - Youtube <http://www.youtube.com/kambaletv> Break the Silence Speakers Tour >From February to July Sign up at http://www.congoweek.org Breaking The Silence: Congo Week <http://www.congoweek.org/> Every Third Week of October Break the Silence Become A Friend of the Congo <http://www.friendsofthecongo.org/action> Ph: 1-888-584-6510 <(888)%20584-6510> -- Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable from any major commercial search engine. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/lt. Unsubscribe, change to digest mode, or change password by emailing lt-owner(a)lists.liberationtech.org. -- Public Key: https://flowcrypt.com/pub/kheimerl@cs.washington.edu

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Course Announcement: CSE 599 H1: Computing for Social Good
by Kurtis Heimerl 17 Mar '20

17 Mar '20

Hi everyone, I'm leading a computing for social good class this Spring quarter and am seeking wider participation across the university. Please reach out if you have any questions. Spring 2020 Time: MW 1:30-2:50pm Instructor: Kurtis Heimerl <kheimerl(a)cs.washington.edu> TA: Esther Jang <infrared(a)cs.washington.edu> Location: t.b.a. As the role of technology has grown, from mainframes to laptops to mobile phones and pervasive AI, so has the desire to leverage these advances for the good of society. This class will explore the broad, ongoing themes around Computing for Social Good, inclusive of advances in HCI, computer networks, artificial intelligence, and sustainability. We will read about national- and global-scale challenges and more specific subproblems, and relevant technology projects. While we will examine some conventional engineering ethics topics, our aim is much broader: we will start with fundamental social and ecological challenges and then consider what role, if any, technology should play in responding to them. One of our aims will be to differentiate between nice-sounding-but-ineffective tech-for-good solutions and those that have a chance for real impact. As a result, we will take a systems perspective -- to trace root causes and find the right place(s) to make lasting change. While a working knowledge of critical technology theory is important to doing good work, this is a class for builders and designers. All students will complete a project and end up with an artifact; potentially a tool (designed and/or built) for solving a real-world problem that they bring to the class or a fictional narrative elucidating the potentials and dangers of new ongoing advances. This is a graduate-level computer science class but particularly motivated and experienced students (including undergrads) from other disciplines can reach out if they'd like to participate. More info here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17RNcB0wb3I1ZbAaLXEuwB5W7X32MOVvP8LAhMON… -- Public Key: https://flowcrypt.com/pub/kheimerl@cs.washington.edu

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Summer fellowship opportunity for graduate students
by Meher Antia 13 Mar '20

13 Mar '20

Hello all, Applications are now being accepted for the Population Health Initiative Summer Social Entrepreneurship Fellows Program.<https://www.washington.edu/populationhealth/education-and-training/social-e…> The paid fellowship will be offered to four graduate students from different disciplines to develop strategic roadmaps for how UW innovations with societal impact can become successful and sustainable ventures. Projects this year include: * Global Water Labs - An affordable technology to remove heavy metal contamination from water (Katya Cherukumilli, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering) * PestiSeguro/PestiSafe - A mobile app that delivers pesticide safety information in Spanish (Kit Galvin, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Services) * PHAST - A financial reporting tool for public health agencies (Betty Bekemeier, School of Nursing) * Central District Loan Program (AVAILABLE ONLY FOR FOSTER MBA STUDENTS) - Structuring a loan guarantee program for minority entrepreneurs (Michael Verchot, Foster School of Business) Applications are due by March 13. Learn more and apply<https://www.washington.edu/populationhealth/education-and-training/social-e…> Please feel free to forward to any others who may be interested in this opportunity. Thanks, Meher MEHER ANTIA, PHD Assistant Director for Strategic Engagement Population Health Initiative Executive Office of the President & Provost Gerberding Hall, Box 351230 Seattle, WA 98195 206.897.1405 meher(a)uw.edu<mailto:meher@uw.edu> / uw.edu/populationhealth<http://www.uw.edu/populationhealth> [logo]

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No Change Seminar this week
by Samia Ibtasam 09 Mar '20

09 Mar '20

Hi everyone, Given the end of the quarter and the recent health concerns, we would not have a Change Seminar this week. We hope to see you all next quarter! Best, Samia Ibtasam <http://samiaibtasam.com/> PhD Student Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering University of Washington

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Re: [change] Change Seminar Thursday 3/5: Mohsen Ali - "Deep Learning for Intelligent Mapping of Pakistan"
by Samia Ibtasam 05 Mar '20

05 Mar '20

Join us in 30 minutes! Please note the change in time and room for today. *When: *Thursday 3/5, 12:30 pm-1:30 pm *Where:* CSE1 305 (Allen Building) *Who:* Dr. Mohsen Ali (Intelligent Machines Lab, Information Technology University, Pakistan) *Title:* Deep Learning for Intelligent Mapping of Pakistan *Live Stream:* We will have today's Change seminar in the form of a video recording. We will serve our regular lunch with the seminar but everyone should feel free to watch it at home as well. In case you cannot attend in person, we will also live-stream the talk using the link https://youtu.be/4WVRKpvlFgs *Question & Answers:* If you are not able to attend in person, we will take Question & Answers in the youtube Live chat section on the same link. Please list your questions there. Since we are trying a video lecture today, so please bear with us in case we experience any technical issues. Best, Samia Ibtasam <http://samiaibtasam.com/> PhD Student Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering University of Washington On Thu, Mar 5, 2020 at 10:21 AM Samia Ibtasam <samiai(a)cs.washington.edu> wrote: > Hi, > We will have today's Change seminar in the form of a video recording. We > will serve our regular lunch with the seminar but everyone should feel free > to watch it at home as well. In case you cannot attend in person, we will > also live-stream the talk using the link https://youtu.be/4WVRKpvlFgs > > Since we are trying a video lecture today, so please bear with us in case > we experience any technical issues. > > Best, > Samia Ibtasam <http://samiaibtasam.com/> > PhD Student > Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering > University of Washington > > > > On Mon, Mar 2, 2020 at 10:03 AM Samia Ibtasam <samiai(a)cs.washington.edu> > wrote: > >> Hi everyone, >> >> Please note that this week's special Change seminar will be on Thursday, >> March 5th, 2020 starting at 12:30 pm. Please note the change in day and >> time only for this week. There won't be a seminar on Tuesday this week. >> >> >> *When: *Thursday 3/5, 12:30 pm-1:30 pm >> >> *Where:* CSE1 305 (Allen Building) >> >> *Who:* Dr. Mohsen Ali (Intelligent Machines Lab, Information Technology >> University, Pakistan) >> >> *Title:* Deep Learning for Intelligent Mapping of Pakistan >> >> >> *Abstract * >> >> The past decade saw the graduation of machine learning from the academic >> setting to incorporation into the practical world. From self-driving cars >> to designing antibiotics, from personal life to businesses we are relying >> on the data-driven algorithms to make decisions for us. Dependence on the >> data means that members of societies, which are not similar to the >> technologically advanced ones, and which do not produce a regular and >> uniform stream of data, are left behind. With a data democratization a >> target, we are trying to fill the gap by designing deep learning-based >> neural networks for satellite imagery to do urban analysis and combine the >> information extracted from it with the existing geospatial data sources to >> create rich informative maps of Pakistan in the public domain. >> >> >> >> In this talk, I will start by looking at an attention-based deep neural >> network we designed to compute the fine-grain building foot-print map of >> the province Punjab in Pakistan. Moving from there, I will talk about our >> work on counting buildings from satellite imagery (think about boxes inside >> boxes, next to the other boxes) and detecting areas devastated by war or >> natural disaster. All this will lead to the Slum Detection project and how >> we boot-strapped our algorithm to detect slums from satellite imagery in >> three cities of Pakistan. And our current effort to use satellite imagery >> and other GIS information to approximate multidimensional poverty. Finally, >> I will introduce two on-going projects Tag-Pakistan and “Yadain: An Oral >> History”; [Yadain means memories in Urdu] where we are using crowdsourced >> images and augmented reality to create highly informative maps. >> >> >> >> >> >> *Bio:* >> >> Mohsen Ali is an Assistant Professor >> <http://itu.edu.pk/faculty-itu/mohsen-ali/> at Information Technology >> University and co-founder of the Intelligent Machines Lab >> <http://im.itu.edu.pk/researches/>. IML has been established with the >> objective to provide a platform for researchers and engineers working in >> machine learning, computer vision, and robotics to collaborate and solve >> real-world problems. Mohsen’s current interest lies in theoretical and >> practical problems entailing Computer Vision and Machine Learning >> (including Deep learning), and their application in the field of video and >> image analysis, remote sensing and affective computing >> <http://im.itu.edu.pk/research/affective-computing/>. His work on >> decreasing the Affective Gap, between the multimedia content and modeling >> emotional response, and designing Emotion Filters >> <http://im.itu.edu.pk/affective-image-transfer/> to transform an image >> in order to garner desired emotional impact, has been accepted in respected >> computer vision conferences. >> >> >> Currently, he is working on satellite imagery analysis using deep >> learning to understand urbanization and economic condition. In >> collaboration with UNDP and Sustainable Development Goal Tech Lab at ITU, >> he is working to replace intensive surveying exercises to detect and >> estimate the economic condition of slums, with satellite imagery and >> geospatial data analysis techniques. His work on counting buildings >> <http://im.itu.edu.pk/deepcount/> and detecting destroyed areas from >> satellite imagery has been accepted in a top-ranking journal. Intending to >> democratize the data, he is interested in using machine learning and >> computer vision to collect large datasets capturing bio-diversity, culture, >> and history to create an informative, self-growing and in-depth map of >> Pakistan. His group is exploring techniques like active learning, domain >> adaptation, unsupervised learning for the task. >> >> >> Mohsen Ali completed his doctoral studies from the University of Florida >> in the area of Computer Vision and is the recipient of the Fulbright >> Scholarship award. His work has been accepted in venues like ICCV, CVPR, >> ISPRS P&RS. >> >> Our Research Page: Computer Vision and Machine Learning Research Group >> <http://im.itu.edu.pk/computer-vision-and-machine-learning-research-group/> >> >> Selected Publications: http://im.itu.edu.pk/publications/ >> >> Google Scholar Page: https://scholar.google.com.pk/ >> <https://scholar.google.com.pk/citations?user=59ISSCEAAAAJ&hl=en> >> >> Best, >> Samia Ibtasam <http://samiaibtasam.com/> >> Ph.D. Student >> Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering >> University of Washington >> >> _______________________________________________ > change mailing list > change(a)change.washington.edu > https://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change >

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Change Seminar Thursday 3/5: Mohsen Ali - "Deep Learning for Intelligent Mapping of Pakistan"
by Samia Ibtasam 05 Mar '20

05 Mar '20

Hi everyone, Please note that this week's special Change seminar will be on Thursday, March 5th, 2020 starting at 12:30 pm. Please note the change in day and time only for this week. There won't be a seminar on Tuesday this week. *When: *Thursday 3/5, 12:30 pm-1:30 pm *Where:* CSE1 305 (Allen Building) *Who:* Dr. Mohsen Ali (Intelligent Machines Lab, Information Technology University, Pakistan) *Title:* Deep Learning for Intelligent Mapping of Pakistan *Abstract * The past decade saw the graduation of machine learning from the academic setting to incorporation into the practical world. From self-driving cars to designing antibiotics, from personal life to businesses we are relying on the data-driven algorithms to make decisions for us. Dependence on the data means that members of societies, which are not similar to the technologically advanced ones, and which do not produce a regular and uniform stream of data, are left behind. With a data democratization a target, we are trying to fill the gap by designing deep learning-based neural networks for satellite imagery to do urban analysis and combine the information extracted from it with the existing geospatial data sources to create rich informative maps of Pakistan in the public domain. In this talk, I will start by looking at an attention-based deep neural network we designed to compute the fine-grain building foot-print map of the province Punjab in Pakistan. Moving from there, I will talk about our work on counting buildings from satellite imagery (think about boxes inside boxes, next to the other boxes) and detecting areas devastated by war or natural disaster. All this will lead to the Slum Detection project and how we boot-strapped our algorithm to detect slums from satellite imagery in three cities of Pakistan. And our current effort to use satellite imagery and other GIS information to approximate multidimensional poverty. Finally, I will introduce two on-going projects Tag-Pakistan and “Yadain: An Oral History”; [Yadain means memories in Urdu] where we are using crowdsourced images and augmented reality to create highly informative maps. *Bio:* Mohsen Ali is an Assistant Professor <http://itu.edu.pk/faculty-itu/mohsen-ali/> at Information Technology University and co-founder of the Intelligent Machines Lab <http://im.itu.edu.pk/researches/>. IML has been established with the objective to provide a platform for researchers and engineers working in machine learning, computer vision, and robotics to collaborate and solve real-world problems. Mohsen’s current interest lies in theoretical and practical problems entailing Computer Vision and Machine Learning (including Deep learning), and their application in the field of video and image analysis, remote sensing and affective computing <http://im.itu.edu.pk/research/affective-computing/>. His work on decreasing the Affective Gap, between the multimedia content and modeling emotional response, and designing Emotion Filters <http://im.itu.edu.pk/affective-image-transfer/> to transform an image in order to garner desired emotional impact, has been accepted in respected computer vision conferences. Currently, he is working on satellite imagery analysis using deep learning to understand urbanization and economic condition. In collaboration with UNDP and Sustainable Development Goal Tech Lab at ITU, he is working to replace intensive surveying exercises to detect and estimate the economic condition of slums, with satellite imagery and geospatial data analysis techniques. His work on counting buildings <http://im.itu.edu.pk/deepcount/> and detecting destroyed areas from satellite imagery has been accepted in a top-ranking journal. Intending to democratize the data, he is interested in using machine learning and computer vision to collect large datasets capturing bio-diversity, culture, and history to create an informative, self-growing and in-depth map of Pakistan. His group is exploring techniques like active learning, domain adaptation, unsupervised learning for the task. Mohsen Ali completed his doctoral studies from the University of Florida in the area of Computer Vision and is the recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship award. His work has been accepted in venues like ICCV, CVPR, ISPRS P&RS. Our Research Page: Computer Vision and Machine Learning Research Group <http://im.itu.edu.pk/computer-vision-and-machine-learning-research-group/> Selected Publications: http://im.itu.edu.pk/publications/ Google Scholar Page: https://scholar.google.com.pk/ <https://scholar.google.com.pk/citations?user=59ISSCEAAAAJ&hl=en> Best, Samia Ibtasam <http://samiaibtasam.com/> Ph.D. Student Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering University of Washington

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