By Shigeyuki Hosoe, RIKEN-TRI Collaboration Center for Human-Interactive Robot Research, RIKEN, Japan

Abstract

In Japan, entering into the era of low birthrate and aging, nursing care for the elderly people is a social big subject. In fact, in the overall population in 2010, the ratio of the child population (<14), the working population (>15, <64), and the aged population (>65) is about 1:5:2, implying that 2.5 working person have to support one elderly people. This situation is predicted to be further strengthened in the future. In addition, with the increase of the average life span (about 83 years in 2010), the age of care givers are also increasing and the physical burden for the care is becoming larger. Because of this, introducing robot technologies to the care is strongly expected to be a very effective step to reduce the burdens. Under such backgrounds, various organizations are tackling development of care support robots. A transfer assistant robot furnished with a support board was developed by Panasonic and human wearing type robot HAL was developed and commercialized by Cyberdyne. On the other hand, RTC (RIKEN-TRI Collaboration Center for Human-Interactive Robot Research, 2007-) to which the author is belonging has developed a new prototype care support robot named RIBA, which is a humanoid-type robot with two arms. RIBA can lift a real human (over 80 kg) from a bed or floor to a wheelchair and back by using its human-like arms. This is the first of its kind in the world, and attracted wide attention from all over the world. In the keynote talk, the present status of the development of RIBA together with its some fundamental technologies will be presented using demonstration videos.

Dr. Hosoe was a professor at the Dept. of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Nagoya University until 2003. Currently he is a Director of RIKEN-TRI Collaboration Center for Human-Interactive Robot Research, RIKEN. His research field focuses on Robotics and Control Theory.

Dr. Hosoe is the member of several Learned Societies:

• IEEE
• SICE (Society of Instrument and Control Engineers)
• IEE of Japan (Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan)
• JSME (Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers)

By Rodney S. Tucker, Centre for Energy-Efficient Telecommunications (CEET), Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Melbourne, Australia

Abstract

Today’s Internet consumes approximately 1% of the world’s electricity, and this energy consumption is growing as the Internet expands in reach and capacity. Similarly, the energy consumption of cloud computing infrastructure and data centers is growing in response to the ever-increasing demand for more cloud services. In this talk, I will examine the key contributors to energy consumption in the Internet and cloud computing, and examine future scenarios for network growth. The energy consumption of the network is currently dominated by access networks, both wired and wireless, but the energy consumption of routers and switches in the network is also rising rapidly, and could eventually dominate over the access network. I will explore the gap between the theoretical lower bounds on energy consumption of the network and compare these lower bounds with the actual energy consumption in today’s network.

Rod Tucker is a Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne and Director of the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Energy-Efficient Telecommunications (CEET). He is also Director of the Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society. Rod leads a group of academics and students undertaking research on energy-efficiency in telecommunications. He has previously held positions at Plessey, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Hewlett Packard Laboratories, and Agilent Technologies. In 1997 he was awarded the Australia Prize for his contributions to telecommunications.

By Prof. Chung G. Kang, Korea University

Abstract

According to the latest forecast in bandwidth demand for the future mobile applications, the 'tsunami' of mobile traffic will soon surpass the current capacity of 4G mobile network. In this discussion, we address how the current mobile infrastructure can be evolved to provide a low-cost, yet super-broadband wireless connectivity for the ever bandwidth-demanding mobile multimedia applications and always-on mobile cloud services. Although it may be premature to define 5G services and infrastructure, this talk will discuss the future of mobile technologies beyond 4G, mainly focusing on the technical requirements and enabling technologies. For example, it is essential to increase the peak rate (e.g., beyond 100Gbps) with the wider bandwidth while boosting up the area capacity without incurring too much investment on infrastructure. This talk intends to share our vision on the mobile technology innovation for the next generation.

Chung G. Kang received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego in 1987 and the M.S. and Ph. D. degrees both in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of California, Irvine, in 1989 and 1993, respectively. Since 1994, he has been with the department of radio communication & engineering and later joined the department of electrical engineering at the Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, where he is currently a full professor. His research interests include next generation mobile radio communication system and wireless networks, with special emphasis on cross layer design and optimization. He is currently serving as an editor of JCN (Journal of Communication and Network) and a technical program committee chair of IEEE ICTC 2012. He is also a chair of 2.3GHz IMT-WiBro Project Group (PG702) in Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA), which is a standard development organization (SDO) of mobile communication in Korea. He is a member of IEEE COMSOC, IT, VT, and KICS, and served as a chair of the KICS Mobile Communication Technical Activity Group.

Rodolfo Zich, Torino Wireless Foundation, Italy

Abstract

The recent changes in global markets and economy have a strong impact also on the innovation process, which requires a new approach to research activities. In order to be efficient and optimize the use of resources, modern systems tend to be integrated and therefore more complex, requiring a wider vision and an extended set of competences. Scientists need to agree upon a different approach to research, including new topics in their studies, such as sustainability, business models and the overall social impact of innovation. ICT plays a key role in this context, because it provides technologies and tools to model, design, monitor and control the modern infrastructures typical of smart cities.

Rodolfo Zich serves as Full Professor of Politecnico di Torino. Mr. Zich was President, Chairman of the Board and Director of Telecom Italia Lab. He served as a Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory board of Intesa Sanpaolo He SpA, and served as its Member of the Supervisory board since December 1, 2006. He served as Member of the Board of Directors of Tim S.p.A., from 2001 to 2005. At Politecnico di Torino, he served as member of the Board of Directors from 1981 to 1984 and Rector from 1987 to 2001. He served as Director of Telecom Italia Mobile SpA. For over ten years, Mr. Zich has been Vice President of the National Engineering Committee of the Ministry for Universities and Scientific and Technological Research (MURST). Mr. Zich has been corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of Turin and Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the CNR's Research, Propagation and Antennas Centre since 1987.

For over two years, Mr. Zich has been Vice President of the COLUMBUS Association, for the development and cooperation between European and Latin American Universities. Currently, he serves as Chairman of "Istituto Superiore Mario Boella sulle Tecnologie dell'Informazione e delle Telecomunicazioni" as well as of Fondazione Torino Wireless. Within this field, he has also been the national CRUI Delegate in the "Open and Distance Learning" Work Group of the Confederation of Italian University Rectors since 1996. Mr. Zich is Member of the Board of Directors of the Ecole Polytechnique de Paris and Chairman of the CLUSTER Association (Cooperative Link between Universities of Science, Technology for Education and Research). Finally, Mr. Zich is Member of the Board of Directors of Turin's IEN - Istituto Elettrotecnico Nazionale Galileo Ferraris and of the National Research Group on Electronics, Telecommunications and Electromagnetism (CNR). Mr. Zich served as Member of the Chairman's Committee of the Conference of Rectors of Italian Universities from 1987 to 1996 as well as Chairman of TiLab, from 1999 to 2003. Since 1991, Mr. Zich has Chaired the NET.T.UN.O Consortium (the Italian Acronym stands for Telelearning Network for Universities Everywhere), sponsored by MURST and realised by Universities and companies for the promotion of distance degrees and secondary school courses.