Cloud Computing with Special Emphases on Intelligent Robotics
Imre J. Rudas
Óbuda University, Budapest, Hungary
E-mail: rudas@uni-obuda.hu

 [Abstract]
Cloud Computing as an emerging technology is a new paradigm in Information Technology and has dramatically changed our everyday life.
The presentation summarizes the basics of cloud computing, namely the main idea, the definition, the cloud model composed of essential characteristics, service models and deployment models.
In the second part of the presentation the possible applications of cloud computing in robotics are outlined with special emphases to robots as a service in cloud computing. Finally some cloud robotics projects are discussed.
The last part of the presentation summarizes the results and ideas of a new generation internet and Cloud Technology based Virtual Collaboration Arena (VirCA) developed in Hungary and some of its application possibilities in Intelligent Robotics.
VirCA provides a platform where users can build, share and manipulate 3D content, and collaboratively interact with real-time processes in a 3D context, while the participating hardware and software devices can be spatially and/or logically distributed and connected together via IP network. The 3D content and processes in VirCA can be synchronized with the real world, which allows the combination of reality and virtual world in the collaboration arena.

 [Biography] Imre J. Rudas graduated from Bánki Donát Polytechnic, Budapest in 1971, received the Master Degree in Mathematics from the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, the Ph.D. in Robotics from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1987, while the Doctor of Science degree from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2004. He received his first Doctor Honoris Causa degree from the Technical University of Košice, Slovakia and the second one from “Polytechnica” University of Timişoara, Romania. He is active as a full university professor. He served as the President of Budapest Tech from 2003 till 2010. He was elected in 2010 as the President of Óbuda University, the successor of Budapest Tech for a period of five years. He is the treasurer of IFSA (International Fuzzy System Association), he had been the President of Hungarian Fuzzy Association for ten years, he is the Vice-President of the Hungarian Academy of Engineering.
He has been an active member of IEEE. He was a member of IEEE Board of Directors RAB, TAB Section/Chapter Support Committee in 1998. He is a Fellow of IEEE, Senior AdCom member of IES, he was a Vice-President of IEEE Industrial Electronics Society in 2000-2001, and he is a Distinguished Lecturer of IES. He was elected as the Chair of IEEE Hungary Section for the period 2008-1012.
He has been the founding chair of IEEE Hungary Chapter of Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society since 2003; he was the Region 8 Chapter Coordinator for SMC during the period 2002-04. He has been serving as a Technical Program Committee member the annual SMC conferences for many years. He served as a BoG member of SMC in the period 2007-2010 and 2012, he has been a Distinguished Lecturer of the Society since 2009.
He serves as an associate editor of some scientific journals, including IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, member of various national and international scientific committees. He was the founder and has been the organizer of the IEEE International Conference Series on Intelligent Engineering Systems (INES, since 1997), the IEEE International Conference Series on Computational Cybernetics (ICCC, since 2003), IEEE International Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Informatics (CINTI, since 2000), IEEE International Symposium on Machine Intelligence and Informatics (SAMI, since 2003), IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Systems and Informatics (SISY, since 2003), IEEE International Symposium on Applied Computational Intelligence and Informatics (SACI, since 2004), IEEE International Symposium on Logistics and Industrial Informatics (LINDI, since 2007). He has served as General Chair and Technical Program Committee Chair of numerous IEEE international conferences.
His present areas of research activities are Computational Cybernetics, Intelligent Robotics with special emphasis on Robot Control, Soft Computing, Computed-aided Process Planning, Fuzzy Control and Fuzzy Sets. He has published books, more than 700 papers in books, scientific journals and peer reviewed international conference proceedings.

New research trends in the field of neural networks with applications
Farhat Fnaiech
University of Tunis, Tunisia
E-mail: fnaiech@ieee.org

 [Abstract]
In this presentation, the feedforward neural network (FNN) is presented and reviewed; many algorithms for the training of the FNN are also presented. The new trends in research of efficient training algorithms are proposed. A couple of trends are to be presented and developed such as the fast training algorithms and the optimal search of NN structure. Pruning algorithms are discussed and new statistical based algorithms are presented. These FNN pruned structure are then applied on real world applications to control medical devises, image processing of medical imaging, fault diagnosis etc.

 [Biography] Prof. Farhat Fnaiech, Senior Member IEEE, Director of Research Laboratory in Signal and Image Intelligent Control of Industrial¨Processes, Head of the Master Degree Program in Automatic control Production Eng. Associate Editor of IEEE Trans Ind Electr ESSTT 5 Av.Taha Hussein 1008 Tunis Tunisia.

New trends in Computational Intelligence in health applications
Constantinos S. Pattichis
Department of Computer Science, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
E-mail: pattichi@ucy.ac.cy

 [Abstract]
Cardiovascular (CV) disease is one of the most common causes of death worldwide and represents a major financial burden for national economies. Effective prediction and prevention of CV disease particularly that which resulted from high-risk asymptomatic atherosclerosis, has now become a top priority.
The goal of this lecture will be to give a review of non-invasive ultrasound image processing methods that are used to facilitate the intelligent analysis of carotid plaque morphology for predicting stroke risk. The lecture will begin with a review of clinical methods for visual classification that have led to standardized methods for image acquisition. Methods for ultrasound imaging atherosclerotic plaque denoising, and image segmentation will then be described, followed by an overview of the several multi-scale texture-feature extraction algorithms and classification methods investigated. Risk modeling based on clinical and ultrasonic plaque texture features that enable the assessment of the risk of stroke will be described.

 [Biography] He is currently Professor with the Department of Computer Science of the University of Cyprus. His research interests include ehealth and mhealth, medical imaging, biosignal analysis, life sciences informatics, and intelligent systems. He has published 80 refereed journal and 190 conference papers, and 27 chapters in books in these areas. He is Co-Editor of the books M-Health: Emerging Mobile Health Systems, and of the Ultrasound and Carotid Bifurcation Atherosclerosis, published by Springer in 2006, and 2012 respectively. He was Guest Co-Editor of 11 journal Special Issues including the more recent ones on Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Health Informatics, and Citizen Centered e-Health Systems in a Global Health-care Environment,, of the IEEE Trans. on Information Technology in Biomedicine. He was General Co-Chairman of the IEEE 12th Information Technology in Biomedicine (ITAB09). Moreover, he serves as Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE EMBS, an Associate Editor of the IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, and on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Biomedical Signal Processing and Control. He is a Fellow of IET, and Senior Member of IEEE. International Conference on BioInformatics and BioEngineering (BIBE2012), and the IEEE.