Call for Participation for an Inter-agency Workshop on Smart Environments:
With the advent of extremely small, low power computing device and wireless
communications technologies, we are experiencing an explosion in the number
of extremely small, mobile, portable devices. Currently few of these
devices communicate with each other. Those that do are hardwired together.
However, if we are able to compose devices into sophisticated, ad hoc
computational and communications structures, there will be significant
impact on issues ranging from what we can and should expect for human
interaction with our environment to what new requirements this will place on
infrastructure and networking, to the development of new paradigms for
programming. The intention of this workshop is to build on a
multi-disciplinary synergy in identifying challenging research areas.
Consider the following: A mobile user assembles an ad-hoc collection of
devices, agents, and other cyberspace components; some may be mobile and
others static. The user's collection of components is employed to execute
and interact with multiple applications, supported by services within the
environment. The devices have sensors embedded in them to record
information about the user's environment; in fact, this environment will
itself not only be smart but capable of improving its intelligence based on
interactions with the user's assembled components. The collected components
will be used by the application to accomplish smart information delivery to
the user.
One might consider a scenario such as this by addressing increasingly
complex problems. Thus, a research agenda might consider elements as
follows:
(1) Mobile individuals with wearable subnets of devices moving among
work spaces, supported by the services in the environment.
(2) Mobile individuals with wearable subnets moving among work spaces,
communicating with each other, with smart objects, and services in the
environment.
(3) Groups in a richly augmented space, communicating with each other
and specialized objects in the space, and with mobile individuals outside
the space, as well as those entering the space;
(4) Groups, organizational units, and/or scientific analyses interacting
with one another using technologies developed in the above situations as
well as additional technologies and overarching systems designs.
We invite submissions of 2-3 page position statements for a workshop on
Smart Environments. The intention is to explore research directions within
the scope of smart environments. Position statements should propose
alternative scenarios that illuminate not only what might be meant by "smart
environments ", but also and equally importantly, directions for research.
Such research foci need to be justified as being central to making progress
on the creation and deployment of embedded systems. Both mission oriented
and basic research agendas fall within scope. Areas of computer science
research of interest include but are not limited to:
* Human computer interaction and evaluation
* Distributed and real-time operating systems
* Infrastructure, both networking and middleware
* Communicating smart devices
The two major objectives of the workshop are as follows: (1) to foster cross
fertilization of computer science research communities with a focus on
embedded systems; and (2) to identify research agendas in the various areas
of computer science in the scope of embedded systems. The output of the
workshop will be a report identifying both valuable scenarios and issues for
research, with an indication of both the importance of research issues with
respect to smart environments and predicted time-frame for success or
progress.
Administrative Information:
Dates:
* Brief (no more than three pages or 1500 words) position statements
due: June 1, 1999, 5pm EDT (no extensions) by email only to nevans@snap.org.
* Notification of invitation based on position statements: June 28,
1999
* Workshop: July 25-26, 1999
* A hotel block will be setup for the meeting. Information will be
provided at a later date.
Location: Classroom 2000, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
Attendees selected to present will be required to have electronic slides for
use on the Classroom 2000 Liveboards.
Papers: Position statements of invitees will be made available privately to
participants on the web prior to the workshop. If a more public version is
made available, authors will be given the opportunity to rewrite or expand
them.
Report: The workshop will result in a summary and conclusive report.
Agency organizers:
Dr. Darleen Fisher, NSF
Dr. Kevin Mills, NIST
Dr. Jean Scholtz, DARPA
Dr. Karen Sollins, NSF
Dr. Vince Stanford, NIST
Queries and email contact to: Nancy Evans, nevans@snap.org
Dr. Karen R. Sollins
Program Director, Advanced Networking Research
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22230
V: 703/306-1949
F: 703/306-0621
E: ksollins@nsf.gov