Alfredo Cuzzocrea
University of Calabria, Italy

Privacy-Preserving Federated Learning in Decentralized Big Data Settings: A New Scent for Real-Life Big Data Analytics

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Bio: Listed in the AI2000 Most Influential Scholar list as one of the top-cited research scholars in AI in the last decade, Friedland's contributions to the field of machine learning have been both substantial and enduring since he started working in the field in 2001. His Simple Interactive Object Extraction algorithm has been part of open source image editing and creation tools since 2005 and his cloud-less MOVI Speech Recognition board has been used by makers since 2015. Currently, he is an adjunct faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Principal Scientist in the Sagemaker team at Amazon AWS. After earning his Ph.D. from Freie Universität Berlin in 2006, Gerald led a team of researchers in speech and multimedia content analysis as the Director of Audio and Multimedia research at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley. He then held the role of Principal Data Scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Lab from 2016 to 2019. That year, he co-founded Brainome, Inc., where he harnessed his technical expertise to develop an automatic machine learning tool rooted in the information measurement techniques central to this book. His journey then took him to Amazon AWS in 2022 as a Principal Scientist, AutoML. Beyond his industry and academic roles, Gerald is a seasoned author. His literature contributions span from the textbooks Multimedia Computing (Cambridge University Press) and Multimodal Location Estimation of Videos and Images (Springer) to a programming book for young children published by Apress.

 

Gerald Friedland
Brainome, Inc. and University of California, Berkeley, USA

From Origins to Frontiers: Shaping the Future of Multimedia Computing
in the Presence of Automatic Machine Learning and Large Language
Models

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Abstract: Gerald Friedland explores how the foundational principles of multimedia computing, particularly it's generalized view on different data types, can be used to significantly deepen our understanding of the mechanisms underlying machine learning. This talk, rooted in Dr. Friedland's work on information-based machine learning (*), highlights the potential for multimedia computing to extend its impact beyond empirical applications to foster fundamental insights into machine learning processes. Dr. Friedland draws a parallel between the evolution of multimedia computing, with its rich history in coding, network theory, and multimodal data analysis, and the current landscape of machine learning. He emphasizes how multimedia's experience in handling and interpreting vast and diverse datasets is crucial for unraveling the complexities of advanced machine learning models, including transformers used for large language models like GPT-4. Dr. Friedland advocates for a synergistic future where multimedia computing's insights into data, combined with the knowledge gained through the history of the field, contribute significantly to the evolution of transparent and accountable machine learning models.

(*) G. Friedland: ``Information-Driven Machine Learning: Data Science as an Engineering Discipline", Springer-Nature, ISBN 978-3031394768, Jan 2024.

Bio: Listed in the AI2000 Most Influential Scholar list as one of the top-cited research scholars in AI in the last decade, Friedland's contributions to the field of machine learning have been both substantial and enduring since he started working in the field in 2001. His Simple Interactive Object Extraction algorithm has been part of open source image editing and creation tools since 2005 and his cloud-less MOVI Speech Recognition board has been used by makers since 2015. Currently, he is an adjunct faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Principal Scientist in the Sagemaker team at Amazon AWS. After earning his Ph.D. from Freie Universität Berlin in 2006, Gerald led a team of researchers in speech and multimedia content analysis as the Director of Audio and Multimedia research at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley. He then held the role of Principal Data Scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Lab from 2016 to 2019. That year, he co-founded Brainome, Inc., where he harnessed his technical expertise to develop an automatic machine learning tool rooted in the information measurement techniques central to this book. His journey then took him to Amazon AWS in 2022 as a Principal Scientist, AutoML. Beyond his industry and academic roles, Gerald is a seasoned author. His literature contributions span from the textbooks Multimedia Computing (Cambridge University Press) and Multimodal Location Estimation of Videos and Images (Springer) to a programming book for young children published by Apress.

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Julienne Greer
University of Texas, Arlington, USA

Humanizing Robotic Computing: Developing Empathy, Embodiment, and Engagement in Robot Systems Interacting with Humans

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Abstract:  This talk will focus on how we develop robotics that interact with humans from a humanities perspective. As human behavior processes are generally difficult to quantify often robotic computing involving humans does not leverage the robot effectively to authentically represent its interaction in human goals. This talk will look at how the robotic unit may be developed to increase human-robot engagement. My perspective includes expanding robotic computing  aims to  enhance how we perceive the ‘humanized’ robot in the  Human-Robot Interaction and whether that perception can be evolved and translated for high social impact in a variety of areas for the robotic community.

 

Bio:  Dr. Julienne A. Greer is the Associate Chair of the UTA Department of Theatre Arts and Dance. She is an Associate Professor and director of the Emotional Robotics Living Lab at University of Texas at Arlington. She earned a BFA in Drama from NYU, an MA in Media Arts from TCU, and her Ph.D. in Humanities at UTD. Dr. Greer is an interdisciplinary scholar + artist working at the emerging intersection of theatre and social robotics. Her primary focus is examining Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) to “humanize” social robots to the nuances of human behavior and develop better human-robot relational outcomes. Dr. Greer works with interdisciplinary teams including Social Work, Education, Computer Science, and Engineering. Her work includes Shakespeare and Robots: robots acting Shakespeare with older adults for psychological well-being, Caretaker Respite: building trust and connection between humans and robots so caretaker burden can be lessened, and Assistive Technologies for Persons with Disabilities: a National Science Foundation external grant working with undergraduate students to examine how technology can augment the capabilities of people with disabilities.

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Max Mühlhäuser

Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany

Resilience: Another Buzzword or a Grand Challenge?

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Abstract: The term resilience has become fashionable in many contexts and disciplines. It is increasingly mentioned in the context of information and communication technologies (ICT), too. However, definitions of resilience are often blurry and ambiguous, and in the ICT context it seems hard to distinguish resilience from the well-established field of fault tolerance or from other blurry terms like robustness or security.

 

Yet, as another recent development, our society faces an era of disruptions like radical geopolitical ruptures, severe weather events causing catastrophes, pandemics-triggered lockdowns, etc. Further crises always lie in the wait, caused by natural, technical and (un)intentionally man-made crises, or lately in the wake of trust evasion through disinformation / fake-news and unpredictable AI risks. What’s worse, increasing interdependencies in our high-tech interconnected world bring about complex “poly-crises” with cascading effects and unpredictable event courses. Hence, our society must urgently investigate approaches towards becoming more resilient i.e. towards withstanding such disruptions ever faster and with ever smaller disturbance—everywhere.

 

The talk will investigate the role of ICT in all this, along two axes: i) “Resilience *through* ICT”: Where and how can ICT help to make critical systems and infrastructures resilient—and where and how not? ii) “Resilience *for* ICT”: Can ICT itself be made more resilient, as a mandatory requirement for critical-systems ICT? We will highlight interesting approaches towards both (i) and (ii), discuss how all this impacts multimedia research and technology, and derive research challenges for multimedia.

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Bio: Max Mühlhäuser is a Full Professor of Computer Science and head of the Telecooperation Lab at the Technical University of Darmstadt. His lab conducts research on smart spaces in the Future Internet—in the spectrum from smart mixed-reality rooms to smart cities and resilient critical infrastructures. He has extensively contributed towards these fields through innovations across Human-Computer Interaction, Networked & Multimedia Systems, Proactive Intelligent Systems, and PST (Privacy, Cyber Security, and Trust). He holds key positions in several large collaborative research centers, e.g., in the directorate of the center for resilient digital cities (emergenCITY) and as spokesperson of the Doctoral School on Privacy and Trust.  Max founded and managed industrial research centers, and worked as either professor or visiting professor at universities in Europe, North America, and Australia. He published over 700 peer-reviewed articles and was and is active in numerous conference PCs, as organizer of several annual conferences, and editorial board or SC member / chair, reviewer, or guest editor for various journals, including ACM IMWUT, ACM ToIT, IEEE T-MM, ACM Multimedia, and Elsevier PMC.

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Jacob Rosen 

University of California, Los Angeles, USA

Ophthalmology - The Case for Automation in Surgical Robotics

 

Abstract: In the past two decades, medicine at large and in particular surgery as a discipline along with the operating room are going through a revolution that is equivalent in its breath and depth to the industrial revolution. The common element in both revolutions is automation trying to address high demand accompanied with a cost effect approach. The combination of population growth combined with a significant extended human lifespan create essential needs for cost effective high quality healthcareapprouch. These demands in terms of both volume of care and effectiveness of the treatment stress the healthcare system beyond its current capacity. The presentataion will cover the priciple approuch to incorporating surgical robotic systems into operating rooms and will facouse on the unique application surgical robotics in Opthomology.       

 

 

Bio: Jacob Rosen is a professor of medical robotics at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering with joint appointments with the Department Surgery and the Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His research interests focus on medical robotics, biorobotics, human centered robotics, surgical robotics, wearable robotics, rehabilitation robotics, neural control, and human-machine interface. Dr. Rosen received his B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering, M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Tel-Aviv University in 1987, 1993 and 1997 respectively.

From 1987 to 1992 he served as an officer in the IDF studying human-machine interfaces. From 1993 to 1997 he was a research associate developing and studying the EMG based powered Exoskeleton at the Biomechanics Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tel-Aviv University. During the same period of time he held a position at a startup company developing innovative orthopedic spine/pelvis implants. From 1997 to 2000 he was a Post-Doc at the departments of Electrical Engineering and Surgery, University of Washington while developing surgical robotic and medical simulation systems. From 2001- 2008 he served as a faculty member at the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Washington in Seattle with adjunct appointments with the Departments of Surgery. From 2008- 2013 he served as a faculty member at the Department of Computer Engineering, University of California - Santa Cruz (UCSC). Since 2014 he serves as a full professor at UCLA, directing the Bionics lab, and serves as a member at the Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology at David Geffen School of Medicine UCLA. Jacob Rosen co-founded several startups in the general space of medical robotic systems. In 2021 he co-founded Horizon Surgical Systems - a startup aimed to develop an image guided and AI driven surgical robotic platform for Opthonology.     

Dr. Rosen developed several key systems in the field of medical robotics such as the Blue and the Red Dragon for minimally invasive surgical skill evaluation that is commercialized by Simulab as the “Edge”, Raven – a surgical robotic system for telesurgery that is commercialized by Applied Dexterity as an open source research platform, several generations of upper and lower limb exoskeletons and most recently the Exo-UL7 – a dual arm wearable robotic system, Raven - an open source surgical robotic system for minimally invasive approach in gerentral surgery, and IRIS (Gen 2) an image guided AI driven surgical robotic system for Ophthalmology. He is a co-author of more than 140 manuscripts along with 3 issued patents in the field of medical robotics and a co-author and co-editor of three books entitled: "Wearable Robotics: Systems and Applications" published by Academic Press / Elsevier, “Surgical Robotics – Systems, Applications, and Visions” and "Redundancy in Robot Manipulators and Multi-robot systems" published by Springer.      

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V.S. Subrahmanian 

Northwestern University, USA

The Future of Review Fraud: Offense & Defense

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Abstract: Fake reviews are having a devastating negative influence on online shopping sites. The proliferation of fake reviews is exacerbated by the presence of SockFarms, companies that create and operate huge sets of sockpuppet accounts to promote their customers' products by posting fake reviews. Our proposed SockAttack algorithm allows such companies to optimize their actions in order to maximize profits. We show that SockAttack  compromises the F1-score of 4 well known review fraud detection engines on real world datasets (up to 27.1% more than baselines). We then propose a defense algorithm called SockDef and show that it mitigates the impact of SockAttack  (up to 69.2% w.r.t. F1-score).

 

Bio: V.S. Subrahmanian is the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Computer Science and Buffett Faculty Fellow in the Buffett Institute of Global Affairs at Northwestern University. He was previously the Dartmouth College Distinguished Professor in Cybersecurity, Technology, and Society and Director of the Institute for Security, Technology, and Society at Dartmouth. Earlier, served as a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Maryland from 1989-2017 where he also served for 6+ years as Director of the University of Maryland's Institute for Advanced Computer Studies. Prof. Subrahmanian is one of the world’s foremost experts at the intersection of AI and security issues. He pioneered the development of machine learning and AI-based techniques to analyze counterterrorism, cybersecurity, text, geospatial, and social network-based data in order to generate forecasts of various types of outcomes. He has written eight books, edited ten, and published over 300 refereed articles. He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and received numerous other honors and awards. His work has been featured in numerous outlets such as the Baltimore Sun, the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, Science, Nature, the Washington Post, American Public Media and more. He serves on the editorial boards of numerous journals including Science, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of SentiMetrix, Inc. and on the Research Advisory Board of Tata Consultancy Services. He previously served on the Board of Directors of the Development Gateway Foundation (set up by the World Bank),  DARPA's Executive Advisory Council on Advanced Logistics and as an ad-hoc member of the US Air Force Science Advisory Board.

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