Instructors/Speakers Prof. Man Lung YIU The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Abstract In rank-aware processing, user preferences are typically represented by a numeric weight per data attribute, collectively forming a weight vector. The score of an option (data record) is defined as the weighted sum of its individual attributes. The highest-scoring options across a set of alternatives (dataset) are shortlisted for the user as the recommended ones. In that setting, the user input is a vector (equivalently, a point) in a d-dimensional preference space, where d is the number of data attributes. In this work, we study the problem of determining in which regions of the preference space the weight vector should lie so that a given option focal record is ...

Instructors/Speakers Prof. Luonan CHEN Professor CAS Key Laboratory of System Biology Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, CAS, Shanghai China Abstract Considerable evidence suggests that during the progression of complex diseases, the deteriorations are not necessarily smooth but are abrupt, and may cause a critical transition from one state to another at a tipping point. Here, we develop a model-free method to detect early-warning signals of such critical transitions (or un-occurred diseases), even with only a small number of samples. Specifically, we theoretically derive an index based on a dynamical network biomarker (DNB) that serves as a general early-warning signal indicating an imminent sudden deterioration before the critical transition occurs. Based on theoretical analyses, we ...

Instructors/Speakers Prof. Chunjiang QIAN Mary Lou Clarke Endowed Distinguished Professor, Department Chair Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Texas, San Antonio, USA Abstract In the past, to design controllers for nonlinear systems, the intrinsic nonlinear structures are often ignored or destroyed by linearization or feedback linearization methods. However, these controllers, including PID controllers and even some nonlinear controllers based on feedback linearization, are no longer adequate to accommodate the increasing requirement for improved performances and enlarged operating regions of modern nonlinear control systems. This talk will discuss new perspectives in handling nonlinear systems and sketch recent progresses in nonlinear controller design including finite-time control, nonlinear observer, domination approach, and sampled-data control. In addition, these talk shows that the ...

Instructors/Speakers Prof. Weisi LIN Nanyang Technological University Singapore Abstract As a result of the evolution, the human has developed unique characteristics in perception of viewing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting. Just Noticeable Difference (JND) refers to the minimal amount of “X” that must be changed for the difference to be sensed by the human, where X can be any signal, derived quantity from signals such as emotion and user-experience, or even technical specifications such as resolution, asynchrony, accuracy, etc. “Perception is reality”, so JND plays an important role both explicitly and implicitly throughout our work and life, from sound to smell and from engineering to marketing (e.g., advertisement, logo management, personalization, and recommendation). The scientific measurement and formulation for JND ...

Instructors/Speakers Prof. Zhiming LIU Centre for Research and Innovation in Software Engineering (RISE) Southwest University, Chongqing China Abstract The sustainable development of most economies and the quality of life of their citizens largely depend on the development and application of evolutionary digital ecosystems. The characteristic features of these systems are reflected in the so called Internet of Things (IoT), Smart Cities, Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), Systems of Human-Machine-Things, and Data Centers. Compared to the challenges in traditional ICT applications that engineers used to face, system and software development is to develop and integrate new components or subsystems, new applications and front end services that depends on the infrastructures of existing systems. This has to deal with the complexity of ever evolving ...