November 2010
National Conference on IT for Rural & Agriculture Development
Date : 23-24 November 2010
Host: Indian Institute of Business Management, Patna
Organized by: Patna Chapter
For details contact: Prof. A K Nayak
National Conference on Theoretical Computer Science & Applications
Date : 25-26 Nov. 2010
Hosted by : B S Abdur Rahman Institute of Science and Technology
Organised by: CSI Chennai Chapter and B S Abdur Rahman Institute of Sc.
and Tech.
For details contact: Dr. K M Mehata, [email protected]
45th Annual Convention
Date : 25-27 Nov. 2010, Mumbai
Venue : Mumbai Host: CSI Mumbai Chapter
For details contact: www.csi-2010.org
December 2010
5th CSI National Conference on IT for Defence
Theme: Emerging Technologies in the Modern Battlefi eld
Date : 2-3, December, 2010
Host: CSI Bangalore Chapter
Organized by: SIG-IS, Div.IV
For details contact: [email protected], [email protected]
Tel.: 080-22862215, 2286046
Region-I Student Convention
Date : 4-5 December 2010
Hosted/Organized by: CSI Student Baanch at Graphic Era University, Dehradun
For details contact: Dr. Harish Kumar, [email protected], Dr. R.K.
Vyas, [email protected]
Summit on Cloud Computing and Green IT
Date : 8-10, December, 2010
Hosted and Organized by: CSI New Delhi Chapter
For details contact: [email protected], Cell : 9654298354
COMAD-2010 International Conference on Management of Data
Date : 8-10, December, 2010
Organized by: CSI Division II (Software), SIG-Data, Region VI and Nagpur
Chapter
For details contact: P S Deshpande, VNIT Nagpur
E-mail: [email protected]
National Conference on E-Governance & E-Society (NCEGOVS-2010)
Date : 11-12 December 2010
Hosted by: Allahabad Chapter
For details contact: Mr. D K Dwivedi, [email protected]
Workshop on Java Androids & Web Technologies
Date : 10-12 December 2010
Hosted by: Jaypee University of Engineering & Technology, Guna (MP)
Organised by: CSI and Jaypee University of Engineering & Technology,
Guna
For details contact: Dr. Shishir Kumar, [email protected]
National Conference on E-Governance & E-Society (NCEGOVS-2010)
Date : 11-12 December 2010
Hosted by: Allahabad Chapter
For details contact: Mr. D.K. Dwivedi, [email protected]
ICoAC 2010: 2nd International Conference on Advanced Computing
Date: 14-16, Dec. 2010 at Chennai, India
Organised by: Dept. of Information Technology, Anna University Chennai,
MIT Campus and IEEE Madras Section and Supported by Computer Society
of India Div IV & Chennai Chapter, IEEE Computer Society, Madras Chapter,
Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) and University
Grants Commission (UGC)
For details contact: Dr. S. Thamarai Selvi, Professor, Dept. of Information
Technology, MIT Campus, Anna University Chennai, Chromepet,
Chennai 600044, India. Phone: 91-44-22516319 / 22516015. Email:
[email protected] OR Mr. H.R. Mohan, Chair Div IV at hrmohan.
[email protected] Website: www.annauniv.edu/icoac2010
ICSIP-2010: International Conference on Signal and Image Processing
Date : 15-17, Dec. 2010 at Chennai, India
Organized by: RMD College of Engineering and University of Mysore in
association with Computer Society of India Div IV & Chennai Chapter and
IEEE Computer Society, Madras Chapter
For details contact: Prof. Dr. R. M. Suresh, Chair – Programme Committee at
[email protected] or [email protected] OR Mr. H R Mohan, Chair
Div IV at [email protected] Website: www.rmd.ac.in/icsip2010/
Role of IT in National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA)
Date : 17-18 December 2010
Hosted by: Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Organised by: CSI and Tata Institute of Social Sciences
For details contact: Prof. Bino Paul, [email protected]
Seminar on Knowledge Management
Date : 18th December 2010
Hosted by: Academic Staff College, VIT University
Organised by: CSI SIG-KM and CSI Vellore Chapter
For details contact: [email protected], [email protected]
January 2011ConfER-2011: The 4th National Conference on Education & Research
Date : 23-24 January, 2011
Hosted by: Shambhunath Institute of Engineering & Technology, Allahabad
Organized by: CSI Division V, Region-I and Allahabad Chapter
For details contact: Prof. J P Mishra
E-mail: [email protected]),
Mr. Zafar Aslam (e-mail: [email protected])
February 2011NCCSE-2011: Second National Conference on Computational Science and
Engg.
Date : 4-5, Feb 2011 at Kochi, India
Organized by: Department of Computer Science & CSI Student Branch
Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, Cochin In association with Computer
Society of India Div. IV on Communications and Cochin Chapter
For details contact: Dr. P. X. Joseph, Conference Convener, Prof. & HOD,
Department of Computer Science, Rajagiri College of Social Sciences.
Rajagiri P.O, Kalamassery, Cochin - 683104, Kerala, India. Phone: Ph: 0484-
2555564
Email: [email protected] or visit the website at: www.rajagiri.edu
CONSEG-2011 : International Conference on Software Engineering
Date : 17-19 February, 2011
Organized by: CSI Div. II (Software) and Bangalore Chapter
For details contact: Dr. Anirban Basu, [email protected]
Second International Conference on Emerging Applications of Information Technology (EAIT 2011)
Date : 18-20 February, 2011
Host by: Kolkata Chapter
For details contact: Mr. D P Sinha, [email protected]
March 201127th CSI National Student Convention
Date : 9-12, March 2011
Hosted by: ITM Gwalior
Organized by: CSI ITM Universe Student Branch and CSI Gwalior Chapter
For details contact: [email protected], [email protected],
M D Agrawal
Vice President & Chair, Conference Committee, CSI
CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010 1
Volume No. 34 Issue No. 8 November 2010
President Prof. P [email protected]
Vice-PresidentMr. M D [email protected]
Hon. SecretaryProf. H R [email protected]
Hon. TreasurerMr. Saurabh H [email protected]
Immd. Past PresidentMr. S [email protected]
Regional Vice-Presidents
Mr. M P Goel (Region I)[email protected]
Dr. D P Mukherjee (Region II)[email protected]
Prof. S G Shah (Region III)[email protected]
Mr. Sanjay Mohapatra (Region IV)[email protected]
Dr. D B V Sarma (Region V)[email protected]
Mr. C G Sahasrabuddhe (Region VI)[email protected]
Mr. S Ramanathan (Region VII)[email protected]
Mr. Jayant Krishna (Region VIII)[email protected]
Division ChairpersonsDr. Deepak Shikarpur Division-I (Hardware)[email protected]
Dr. T V Gopal Division-II (Software)[email protected]
Dr. S Subramanian [email protected] (Applications)
Mr. H R Mohan Division-IV [email protected] (Communications)
Prof. Swarnalatha Rao Division-V [email protected] (Edu. & Research)
Nominations CommitteeDr. Shyam Sunder Agrawal
Prof. (Dr.) U K Singh
Dr. Suresh Chandra Bhatia
Publications Committee
ChairmanProf. S. V. [email protected]
Chief EditorDr. T V [email protected]
Director (Education)Wg. Cdr. M Murugesan (Retd.)[email protected]
Resident EditorMrs. Jayshree [email protected]
Executive SecretaryMr. Suchit [email protected]
Published by
Mr. Suchit GogwekarFor Computer Society of India
Executive Committee 2010-11/12 CONTENTS
Theme Section : Fuzzy Computing
04 Life with Fuzzy Logic and its Father
M M Sufyan Beg
06 Some Refl ections on the Birth and Evolution of Fuzzy Set Theory
Lotfi A. Zadeh
1 0 Decision Making under Risk and Uncertainty : Revisited
Vidyottama Jain and Ashok Deshpande
1 3 Industrial think tank’s approach towards Fuzzy Logic
Mohammad Saad Alam
1 5 Computing Linguistic Knowledge using Fuzzy Theory
Bindu Garg
1 7 Computing in a Fuzzy Environment
Apostolos Syropoulos
HR Column
20 Pragmatics of “Hire-Fire” in India
Hastha Krishnan
Ideas & Opinions
22 Teaching Information Systems: The Generation Gap
Nilay M Yajnik
Special Section
23 Welcome to CSI 2010
M D Agrawal
24 The CSI Annual Convention’2010 – Overview
Atanu Rakshit
26 CSI 2010 – Convention Programme
28 CSI-Nihilent e-Governance Awards 2009-10
Articles
29 Cloud computing-Resource management for effective E-governance
Savita Bhatnagar
35 Social Media Mega Trends
Hareesh Tibrewala
Departments
02 Community Talk
03 President’s Desk
37 Report on Divisional Conference on Mobile Computing (DCMC-2010)
39 SIG e-Governance – A Report
42 Workshop on “Software Testing – Tools and Practices in Industry”
46 ExecCom Transacts
CSI Topics
CSI Calendar 2010-11 (2nd Cover)
39 CSI AGM Notice
47 From CSI Chapters
CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010 2
COMMUNITY TALK
Human beings have a remarkable capability
to reason and make decisions in an environment
of uncertainty, imprecision, incompleteness of
information, and partiality of knowledge, truth
and class membership. The principal objective of
fuzzy logic is formalization / mechanization of this
capability.
The term “fuzzy logic” emerged in the
development of the theory of fuzzy sets by Lotfi Zadeh
during 1965. Fuzzy Logic is a superset of Boolean logic
dealing with the concept of partial truth -- truth values
between “completely true” and “completely false”.
Fuzzy logic and probability are different ways of
expressing uncertainty. While both fuzzy logic and
probability theory can be used to represent subjective
belief, fuzzy set theory uses the concept of fuzzy set
membership (i.e., how much a variable is in a set),
probability theory uses the concept of subjective
probability (i.e., how probable do I think that a variable
is in a set).
Lotfi Zadeh argues that fuzzy logic is different in
character from probability, and is not a replacement
for it. He fuzzifi ed probability to fuzzy probability and
also generalized it to what is called possibility theory.
A special article by Lotfi Zadeh is the highlight of the
theme section of this issue.
There are many misconceptions about fuzzy
logic. To begin with, fuzzy logic is not fuzzy. In large
measure, fuzzy logic is precise. Another source of
confusion is the duality of meaning of fuzzy logic. In
a narrow sense, fuzzy logic is a logical system. But in
much broader sense which is in dominant use today,
fuzzy logic is much more than a logical system. More
specifi cally, fuzzy logic has four principal facets:
1. The fuzzy-set-theoretic facet
2. The logical facet
3. The epistemic facet
4. The relational facet
Fuzzy logic in this broad sense serves mainly as
apparatus for fuzzy control, analysis of vagueness
in natural language and several other application
domains. It is one of the techniques of soft-computing,
i.e. computational methods tolerant to suboptimality
and impreciseness (vagueness) and giving quick,
simple and suffi ciently good solutions.
Fuzzy logic is symbolic logic with a comparative
notion of truth developed fully in the spirit of classical
logic (syntax, semantics, axiomatization, truth-
preserving deduction, completeness and so on; both
propositional and predicate logic). It is a branch of
many-valued logic based on the paradigm of inference
under vagueness.
“Fuzzy Logic is basically a multivalued logic that
allows intermediate values to be defi ned between
conventional evaluations like yes/no, true/false, black/
white, etc. Notions like rather warm or pretty cold
can be formulated mathematically and processed by
computers.”
– Bauer et al
The 1980s saw a whole wave of practical
applications of fuzzy theory, mainly in the fi eld of
process control, with Japan as pioneer. In the ‘90s
there has been a fl ood of applications to household
electrical appliances, and “fuzzy” has become a
high-tech buzz-word in Japan. Over the past several
decades, Fuzzy Logic has been applied in various
domains like Medicine, Finances, Geography,
Philosophy, Ecology, Agricultural Processes, Water
Treatment, Baggage Handling at Denver International
Airport, Remote Sensing, Handwriting Recognition,
Nuclear Science, Stock Market and Weather
Forecasting.
Computing with Words (CW) is a methodology
in which words are used in place of numbers for
computing and reasoning. Fuzzy logic plays a pivotal
role in CW and vice-versa. Fuzzy logic starts with
and builds on a set of user-supplied human language
rules. The fuzzy systems convert these rules to their
mathematical equivalents. This simplifi es the job of
the system designer and the computer, and results
in much more accurate representations of the way
systems behave in the real world.
Additional benefi ts of fuzzy logic include its
simplicity and its fl exibility. Fuzzy logic can handle
problems with imprecise and incomplete data, and it
can model nonlinear functions of arbitrary complexity.
“If you don’t have a good plant model, or if the
system is changing, then fuzzy will produce a better
solution than conventional control techniques”
– Bob Varley, Senior Systems Engineer at Harris Corp.,
an Aerospace Company in Palm Bay, Florida.
I must thank Dr. Sufyan Beg for the thoughtful
selection of articles on “Fuzzy Computing”. We are
thankful to Prof. Lotfi Zadeh, the father of “Fuzzy
Computing” for a visionary article on the theme
specially written for this issue.
The endeavor of the “CSI Communications
(CSIC)” team has been to make this issue a special
one for the 45th National Convention of CSI scheduled
to be held during 25 – 27 November 2010 at Mumbai.
On behalf of the CSIC team, I extend a warm welcome
to all the delegates of the CSI 2010.
Dr. Gopal T V
Hon. Chief Editor
“My crystal ball is fuzzy”- Lotfi Zadeh (inventor of Fuzzy Logic, when asked to predict the future)
to CSI 2010Mumbai
CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010 3
From : [email protected]
Subject : President’s Desk
Date : 1st November, 2010
Dear Affectionate Members of CSI Family,
In our attempts to improve the services to our members at
large, we are able to install the latest Equipment at our offi ces
at Chennai Educational HQ and Mumbai. We could establish the
professional structures in the services of members. Extra human
resources could also be recruited.
HQ Infrastructure @ Mumbai:
The offi ce space at Mumbai is not suffi cient and it has become essential
to look for alternatives. A lot of effort is put in by the OBs, ExecCom
members and offi ce staff during the past few months, to fi nd out suitable
place for our Mumbai HQ offi ce. I am happy to inform you that we are
successful, in getting allotted about 500 Sq. meter of space in the 4th
Floor of Samruddhi Venture Park Bldg of MIDC, Govt. of Maharastra, in
Andheri (East) for about 95 years ownership registration. We would
like to complete all the formalities soon and make our new offi ce of HQ
to function in the NEW YEAR. I am grateful to Shri Raj Saraf, Dr. Vijay
Bhatkar, Shri S. Mahalingam, Shri M. D. Agrawal, Shri Saurabh Sonawala,
Prof. H. R. Viswakarma, Shri Mohan R. Datar, Shri Suchit Gogwekar &
our Staff for working together as an excellent team and the ExecCom
members for the support in getting the deal fi nalized.
Elders’ day: Ist October:
Hyderabad chapter arranged Prof. R. Narasimhan Memorial “ CSI Hall of
Fame” Lecture by Prof. D.V.R. Vithal, befi tting the day by remembering
simple living, high thinking Legend Prof. Narasimhan who has been a
model Professional(24/7). An Industry- Academic knowledge sharing
meet has been arranged on that day, by Hyderabad Chapter, by inviting
all the Student Counselors of CSI Region V with student representatives
and Industry representatives. This meet has helped in bringing together
Industry and Academic institutions on their attempts to improve the
employability of the youth and in understanding the human resources
requirement in the Industry. This model could be repeated in each region
by regional/ state coordinators. I am grateful to the Chairman Shri Raju
Kanchibhotla, Vice chairman Prof I. L. Narasimha Rao and Managing
Committee of Hyderabad Chapter for arranging this useful event while
making arrangements for the ExecCom meeting, which was held on the
following day at Hyderabad.
MOU between the Institution of Engineers( India) and CSI.
An MOU between IEI and CSI could be signed on 8th October 2010 at
the Institution of Engineers (India), 8 Ghokhale Road, Kolkata-700020.
This MOU enables the members of both the societies to organize
events together, exchange the technical expertise and also to share the
infrastructure facilities for common programs. Brig. SVS Chowdhry, Past
President of CSI and the Institute of Engineers, deserves my Salute for
his relentless efforts in bringing together both CSI and IEI. It is he, who
could travel from Delhi to Kolkata for facilitating the process of MOU.
We are grateful to Er. Madan Lal, President, Maj. Gen. R. K. Sanan, VSM
(Retd.), Secretary & Director General of the Institution of Engineers and
their colleagues in the Institution of Engineers for their support and for
the courtesies extended to the CSI team headed by the President with
the Kolkata Chapter Managing Committee and Senior members of CSI.
I am sure many chapters would utilize this MOU to plan more activities
for our members.
E-Governance Workshop by the CSI Regional Research
Centre@ Kolkata
Our attempts to promote research have yielded good results. Dr. (Mrs.)
Jayasri Chaudhuri, Hon. Research Director, could successfully organize a
National workshop on e-Governance during October 8-9, 2010 with the
help of Kolkata Chapter. More than 16 research accomplishments have
been presented and discussed during the two days. Dr. Debesh Das,
Minister of ICT, West Bengal inaugurated the event while Ajoy Roy VC,
BESU and Dr. N. Vijayaditya, former DG, NIC were the key note speakers.
SEARCC International Schools Software Competitions: SISSC-
2010:
To foster the development of Computer competence among young
people in the South East Region of the world, SEARCC instituted a
software competition which is open to school students, who are not
more than 18 years of age. The competition also provides opportunities
for the young people to acquire better awareness of the culture, Life-
Style and aspirations of each other’s country, there by contributing to
better understanding in relationships for future generations.
SEARCC Secretary General: Mr. Yasa Karunaratne had requested CSI
to host this event in India during 2010 while the SEARCC conference
was planned at Brisbane. CSI ExecCom has accepted the request and
considered the proposal of RMD Engineering College to conduct the
competitions.
Australia, India, New Zealand, Srilanka and ROC: Taiwan fi elded their
teams for the competitions that were held during 21-25 October 2010.
RMK International School has been the venue for accommodating
the team members, chaperons and judges of the competitions. RMD
Engineering College provided the logistics for arranging competitions It
has been an exceptionally organized Mission by the management of RMD
and RMK group in institutions to receive the teams, chaperons, judges
at different timings, arranging AC accommodation, security, providing
computing and internet facilities, cultural exchange meets, Sight seeing,
Extending recreation- sports-go-carting, swimming and in taking care of
the variety requirements of food and health care with affectionate Indian
Hospitality in a festive environment at every location of the campus.
The management headed by Shri Muniratnam Naidu deserves our
Pranam for sponsoring the event logistics. And the young Director Shri
Pradeepbhai is remembered by all of us for providing excellent boarding
and lodging facilities to all of us in the RMK International School. Our CSI
stalwarts: Shri HR Mohan, Dr. O. S. Srivastav, Prof. K. Rajasekhararao
and Prof. P Kumar have been in the board of judges. Shri Ramasamy
excelled as event chair while Prof. Suresh has exceptionally organized
the event with minute to minute monitoring. Commander Murugesan,
Mr. Bhuvaneswaran, Mr. Gyana Sekhar, Mr Natarajan, Mr Yogendar and
our education Directorate had taken care of intrinsic requirements and
interfaced the teams through out the event, This is an event that one can
site an example of “unlimited voluntary strength” to achieve the target
as gel team. We are thankful to Mr. Yasa Karunaratne for attending and
encouraging the event in India.
F.C. Kohli Challenge Trophy:
A trophy is instituted by CSI on the name of the father of SEARCC
movement Dr. F. C. Kohli for presenting to the winning team of SEARCC
International Schools’ Software Competition. This year, the trophy has
been bagged by ROC: Taiwan while Srilanka and New Zealand stood at
second and third positions respectively.
Swarnim Gujarat & CSI-2011
While Gujarat is celebrating the Golden jubilee celebrations of the
formation of Gujarat State, our CSI family wanted to encourage the
celebrations by granting Annual convention of CSI in Gujarat. Thus,
Ahmedabad Chapter of CSI would host the CSI-2011 in Ahmedabad.
Kolkata Chapter has kindly opted to host the CSI-2012.
Prof. P ThrimurthyPresident, Computer Society of India
PRESIDENT ’S DESK
4CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
Life with Fuzzy Logic and its FatherM M Sufyan Beg
Professor and Head, Department of Computer Engineering, Jamia Millia Islamia (A Central University)
New Delhi – 110025 (India). Email: [email protected]
GUEST EDITORIAL
Farewell Party hosted by Prof. L A
Zadeh (fourth from left) and other
BISC scholars for the Guest Editor,
Prof. M M Sufyan Beg (third from left),
on completion of his Fellowship at UC
Berkeley in 2005-06.
Life was not the same before 1965, because it
took a revolutionary to put forth his path breaking idea
in that year. It was in that very year that Fuzzy Theory
took birth to an illustrious father in Lotfi Ahmed
Zadeh. It took the world a while to even fathom this
novel idea, leave alone digesting it. It was a blunder on
the part of the world to ignore these ground-breaking
ideas for quite a while. It was only when people
started applying his theory of Fuzzy Logic to practical
applications that the potential of this theory started
dawning on them.
In the year 2002, when I was a Ph.D. candidate
at IIT Delhi, I happened to go to USA to present
three of my research papers in the Joint Conference
on Information Sciences (JCIS 2002). I was
overwhelmed to see Prof. Zadeh walking into my
session and listening to all three papers of mine very
patiently and attentively. That day I realized what
makes great people great. After having crossed 80
years of age, he was still listening to a novice in the
fi eld so very diligently.
In the 40th year of the birth of Fuzzy Logic, I got
very lucky to join Prof. Zadeh’s group at the University
of California at Berkeley as a Postdoctoral scholar. The
year of 2005-06 that I spent there, gave me ample
opportunity to see Prof. Zadeh from very close. He
won’t hesitate to open the doors for you. He won’t shy
from offering you the lunch every time you go to see
him. He personally took me to the meeting of all the
faculty members of his Department and introduced
me publicly there. He would always be concerned
about the well being of all his sub-ordinates. While
there, I experienced back pain once. He was the fi rst
to email me the following:
Dear Mirza,
I regret to hear that you are experiencing back pain.
Almost everybody has this problem. Rest is the best cure.
Keep in touch.
Warm regards.
Lotfi
He would always inquire the state of my native
country, India. He would go on to the extent of
inquiring about the state of “Moslems” (as he used to
pronounce) in India. He was concerned about one and
all. I could very clearly see the gentleman in him from
very close quarters.
No wonder a great man has given a great theory
to the world. The human beings have this amazing
capability of working with perceptions, the perception
of being “intelligent”, “tall”, “beautiful”, etc. The
computers, on the other hand, need numbers to work
upon. They don’t go by perception. How to bridge this
gap between the human beings and computers? It is
here that Fuzzy Logic becomes handy. It attributes
a degree of belongingness to every element of a
set. Alice may be “intelligent” to a certain degree
between 0 and 1. Bob may be “tall” to a certain degree
and “short” to the remaining degree. Carol may be
“beautiful” to a very high degree but still carry some
degree of “ugliness”, howsoever less it may be. So, in
the nature, things are not crisply 0 and 1 always. The
nature is better modeled by Fuzzy Theory instead.
Zadeh himself described Fuzzy Logic in one of his
posts dated November 7, 2008 as follows:
Dear Members of the BISC Group,
There are many misconceptions about fuzzy logic.
The following may help to clarify what fuzzy logic is and
what it has to offer.
Fuzzy logic is not fuzzy. Like traditional logical
systems, fuzzy logic is precise. In large measure, fuzzy
logic is designed to address an important class of
problems which are not addressed by traditional logical
systems--problems in which the central issues relate to
imprecision, uncertainty, incompleteness of information,
unreliability and partiality of truth. The importance of
fuzzy logic derives from the fact that in much of the real
world such problems are the norm rather than exception.
Here are a few examples of simple problems which are
not addressed by traditional logical systems.
Most Swedes are tall
Most tall Swedes are blond
What fraction of Swedes are blond?
Most Swedes are tall
What is the average height of Swedes?
Most Swedes are tall
What is the truth value of “Many Swedes are not
tall”?
X is the value of a real-valued variable. What is
known about X is: (a) X is larger than approximately
a; (b) X is smaller than approximately b. What is the
probability that X is approximately c?
f is a function from reals to reals, Y=f(X). A linguistic
summary of f is described as a collection of fuzzy if-then
rules:
if X is small then Y is small
if X is medium then Y is large
if X is large then Y is small
5CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
Prof. M. M. Sufyan Beg obtained his B.Tech. (Electronics) degree from the Aligarh Muslim University, India in 1992 with first rank. He obtained his M.Tech. (Microelectronics) degree from IIT Kanpur, India in 1994. Thereafter, he joined the Department of Electronics Engineering, Aligarh Muslim University, India as a member of the faculty. He has been a Lecturer, a Senior Lecturer and then a Reader in the Department of Computer Engineering at the same University. While on study leave from there, he obtained his Ph.D. degree in the area of Computer Technology from IIT Delhi, India in 2002. He also visited the University of California at Berkeley as a BT Fellow from November 2005 to October 2006. Currently, he is a full Professor at the Department of Computer Engineering at JMI, New Delhi from March 01, 2007. He is also heading this very department at the moment.Prof. Beg has published 6 book chapters and over 60 papers on a wide range of topics in Web Mining and Soft Computing. He has also been an invited lecturer at many places in U.S.A., U.K., K.S.A., Pakistan and India. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and its Computational Intelligence Society. He is also the Life Member of Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE), Institution of Electronics and Telecommunications Engineers (IETE), Computer Society of India (CSI) and System Society of India (SSI).Prof. Beg was awarded the University Gold Medal for standing First at B.Sc. (Engg.) Examinations (all branches combined). He has also bagged twice the Best Paper Awards and the High Quality Presentation Awards each.Prof. Beg has served as reviewer and has been on the board of many journals and conferences of repute. His current research interests are in the areas of Parallel and Distributed Processing, Soft Computing, Question Answering Systems, Natural Language Processing, Web Mining and Searching.
About the Guest Editor
What is the value of Y if X is larger
than approximately a and smaller than
approximately b?
f is a function from reals to reals which is
described as a collection of fuzzy if-then rules:
if X is small then usually (Y is small)
if X is medium then usually (Y is large)
if X is large then usually (Y is small)
What is the value of Y if usually (X is
medium)?
Pose these problems to those who claim
that anything that can be done with fuzzy logic
can be done equally well without fuzzy logic.
Regards to all,
Lotfi
Zadeh went on to refi ne his defi nition
of Fuzzy Logic in another post dated
December 11, 2008 as follows:
Dear members of the BISC Group,
Refl ecting the posted comments, I should
like to suggest a slightly improved defi nition of
fuzzy logic.
Fuzzy logic is a precise system of
reasoning, deduction and computation in
which the objects of discourse and analysis
are associated with information which is, or is
allowed to be, imperfect.
Imperfect information is defi ned as
information which in one or more respects
is imprecise, uncertain, vague, incomplete,
partially true or partially possible.
Notes
In fuzzy logic everything is or is allowed to be a
matter of degree. Degrees are allowed to be fuzzy.
Fuzzy logic is not a replacement for
bivalent logic or bivalent-logic- based
probability theory. Fuzzy logic adds to bivalent
logic and bivalent-logic-based probability
theory a wide range of concepts and techniques
for dealing with imperfect information.
Fuzzy logic is designed to address problems
in reasoning, deduction and computation with
imperfect information which are beyond the
reach of traditional methods based on bivalent
logic and bivalent-logic - based probability
theory.
In fuzzy logic the writing instrument is
a spray pen with precisely known adjustable
spray pattern. In bivalent logic the writing
instrument is a ballpoint pen.
The importance of fuzzy logic derives from
the fact that in much of the real world imperfect
information is the norm rather than exception.
Comments are welcome.
Warm regards to all.
Lotfi
Zadeh even defi ned “Soft Computing” in
one of his posts dated November 25, 2010
as follows:
Dear Members of the BISC Group:
Soft computing is a coalition of
methodologies which collectively constitute a
system with wide-ranging capabilities for the
conception, design and operation of intelligent
systems. The principal members of the coalition
are: fuzzy logic, neurocomputing, evolutionary
computing and probabilistic computing. The
guiding principle of soft computing is:
In general, better results can be achieved
through the use of constituent methodologies
of soft computing in combination rather than
isolation.
In recent years, the label “Computational
Intelligence” has gained popularity. The
meaning of computational intelligence is close
to the meaning of soft computing.
Comments are welcome. Comments
will be posted to the BISC Group unless it is
requested not to do so.
Warm regards to all.
Lotfi
Fuzzy Theory, in turn, has given
rise to what is now popularly known as
“Computing with Words”. This is in much
contrast to what the computers are used
to doing, viz. computing with just numbers.
Suppose, proposition 1 says “Most balls are
large”, while proposition 2 says “Many large
balls are heavy”. Now, the question “How
many balls are large and heavy?” will have
the answer “(Most x Many)”. How will a
computer calculate this unless it is provided
with the capability of fuzzy membership
functions?
Recently, Zadeh has started talking
about “Precisiated Natural Language (PNL)”.
By the non-dictionary word “Precisiation”, he
means to coin a term for “making precise”.
The natural language, which is otherwise
imprecise in nature, can be converted into a
precise and hence a computable form using
the theory of PNL.
The ideas of Prof. Zadeh are never
ending. Even after having crossed 85 years
of age, he is still writing single-authored
papers. He is an active Director of the
Berkeley Initiative in Soft Computing (BISC)
program. He is still giving out keynote talks.
To me, it appears that he did not just invent
Fuzzy Logic and keeps developing it, but he
also preaches it now.
With the huge impact that Prof.
Zadeh has over the Artifi cial Intelligence
community, in general, and the Fuzzy
community, in particular, it is only
appropriate that this special issue of CSI
Communications be dedicated to this living
legend. The highlight of this issue is an
article from Prof. Zadeh himself. An industry
scenario is presented by Dr. Saad Alam.
Under the ‘Who is Who’ column, we have
a short CV of Prof. L. A. Zadeh to inspire us
all. The student’s section includes an article
entitled Computing Linguistic Knowledge
using Fuzzy Theory by Bindu Garg. A State-
of-the-Art report is presented on Decision
Making under Risk and Uncertainty:Revisited
by Vidyottama Jain (Post Doctoral Fellow,
Berkeley Initiative in Soft Computing) and
Ashok Deshpande (Chair, Berkeley Initiative
in Soft Computing-Special Interest Group-
Environment Management Systems).
Also included is an article on Computing
in a Fuzzy Environment by Apostolos
Syropoulos.
6CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
To begin with, I should like to extend to Professor
Sufyan Beg, the Guest Editor of the Special Issue on
Fuzzy Computing, and the Honorary Chief Editor,
Professor T V Gopal of CSI Communications, my
appreciation for giving me an opportunity to share my
thoughts with the readers of CSI Communications.
I should like to add that one cannot be but highly
impressed by the contributions which Indian
mathematicians, scientists and engineers have made
to the advancement of fuzzy logic and its applications.
To see my refl ections in a proper perspective,
a bit of history is in order. When I chose systems
analysis as my calling, I was a strong believer in the
capability of mathematically-based systems analysis
to solve any problem. Gradually, over a period of time,
my faith began to falter. I became more conscious
of the existence of a vast array of problems which
systems analysis could not address. The problems
were associated, in the main, with human-centric
fi elds such as psychology, sociology, linguistics, law,
economics, political science and biological sciences.
The crocks of the problem is that realistic models of
such systems are hard to construct. Furthermore,
once constructed, the models are hard to analyze. A
familiar example is the stock market. How can one
construct a mathematically precise model of the stock
market? Another example. How can one describe the
relationship between unemployment, infl ation, budget
defi cit, trade imbalance, levels of manufacturing,
imports, exports, etc? Refl ecting on such problems, I
came to the conclusion that what was missing in the
armamentarium of systems analysis was a conceptual
framework which can accommodate systems in which
uncertainty and imprecision relate to unsharpness
of class boundaries. In a 1962 paper entitled “From
Circuit Theory to System Theory,” published in the
Proceedings of IRE (Zadeh 1962), this is what I had
to say:
In fact, there is a fairly wide gap between what
might be regarded as “animate” system theorists
and “inanimate” system theorists at the present
time, and it is not at all certain that this gap will be
narrowed, much less closed, in the near future.
There are some who feel that this gap refl ects
the fundamental inadequacy of the conventional
mathematics the mathematics of precisely-defi ned
points, functions, sets, probability measures, etc. for
coping with the analysis of biological systems, and
that to deal effectively with such systems, which are
generally orders of magnitude more complex than
man-made systems, we need a radically different
kind of mathematics, the mathematics of fuzzy or
cloudy quantities which are not describable in terms
of probability distributions. Indeed, the need for such
mathematics is becoming increasingly apparent even
in the realm of inanimate systems, for in most practical
cases the a priori data as well as the criteria by which
the performance of a man-made system is judged are
far from being precisely specifi ed or having accurately
known probability distributions. (2)
Since I am not a mathematician by training, I tried
to persuade my two best friends, Richard Bellman and
Herbert Robbins, both brilliant mathematicians, to
develop a formalism for dealing with non-probabilistic
imprecision. I was not successful.
The problem was on my mind much of the time.
In June of 1964 I was visiting my parents in New York. I
was going to have dinner with a friend. My friend could
not make it. I was alone in my parents’ apartment. At
that point a simple idea occurred to me. Precisiate a
class with unsharp boundaries by associating each
element with a grade of membership in the class. This
was the genesis of the concept of a fuzzy set. I gave
quite a bit of thought on how to call a precisiated class
with unsharp boundaries. I settled on the name “Fuzzy
Sets,” knowing full well that in English “fuzzy” is not
a good word. I did so because I could not think of a
euphonious name that would describe what I had in
mind. I wrote a short memorandum on fuzzy sets and
sent it to Bellman for his comment. This is what he wrote:
THEME ARTICLE
Some Refl ections on the Birth and Evolution of Fuzzy Set TheoryLotfi A. Zadeh1
Department of EECS, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1776, USA.
Email: [email protected]
Department of EECS, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1776; Telephone: 510-642-4959;
Fax: 510-642-1712; Email: [email protected]. Research supported in part by ONR N00014-09-1-0914,
BT Grant CT1080028046, Omron Grant, Tekes Grant, Azerbaijan Ministry of Communications and Information
Technology Grant, Azerbaijan University of Azerbaijan Republic and the BISC Program of UC Berkeley.
Father of Fuzzy Logic
7CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
Dear Lotfi :
I think that the paper is extremely
interesting and I would like to publish it in
JMAA, if agreeable to you. When I return, or
while in Paris, I will write a companion paper
on optimal decomposition of a set into subsets
along the lines of our discussion.
Cordially,
Richard Bellman
It did not take me long to prepare a paper
for publication. I submitted a paper entitled
“Fuzzy Sets” to Information and Control
(Zadeh 1965). I chose Information and
Control because I was on its Editorial Board,
in anticipation that reviewers would be
skeptical. That turned out to be the case. I got
one lukewarm review. If I were not a member
of the Editorial Board my paper would have
been rejected. Such are the facts of life.
My fi rst paper was basically what I
call today an FL-generalization of naive
set theory. FL-generalization of a theory,
T, involves replacing the concept of a set
in T with the concept of a fuzzy set. This
replacement results in a theory which may
be called fuzzy T. FL-generalization can be
applied to any theory and any formalism.
Today, there are many FL-theories in the
literature, among them fuzzy topology, fuzzy
arithmetic, fuzzy control, fuzzy game theory,
fuzzy linear programming, etc. I believe that
eventually most scientifi c theories, most
algorithms and most concepts will be FL-
generalized.
The reaction to my paper was for the
most part one of indifference, skepticism,
hostility, and, occasionally approbation. In
1996, one person who liked my ideas was
my mentor, the eminent logician Stephen
Kleene. At his suggestion I was invited to
present a paper on fuzzy sets at the 1966
International Congress of Mathematicians
in Moscow. In 1966, I gave a seminar lecture
at UCLA. Here are a skeptical comment by
Professor Geoffrion and a positive comment
by Professor Edmundson:
Discussion of “Fuzzy Sets and Concepts,”
by L.A. Zadeh on November 18, 1966.
Arthur Geoffrion (WMSI)
I agree with your remark during the
Colloquium that the present development
of fuzzy sets is probably still overly
restrictive for many potential applications.
It is applicable when there is a standardized
and perfectly accurate method of measuring
degree of class membership, but it seems to
be considerably less applicable otherwise,
as when opinion is involved.
H.P. Edmundson (Linguistics, UCLA)
Professor Zadeh’s view that the
concept of fuzzy sets seems to be needed
in many disciplines has been supported by
comments today from specialists in the
fi elds of psychology, economics, and logic.
In this connection I would like to point
out that fuzzy sets also arise in linguistics.
In particular, in the study of semantics,
attempts to formulate satisfactorily the
notion of a semantic space using crisp sets
have essentially failed. As a consequence,
the modeling of meaning as a set of senses
or the modeling of synonymy in terms of
equivalence classes has proved diffi cult to
justify either theoretically or empirically. It
seems likely that the concept of fuzzy set
will provide a way to account for what has
been called a “semantic space” and lead to
a suitable metric or pseudometric. Similarly,
it also may lead to a satisfactory way to
replace the strict dichotomy of sentences
as grammatical or ungrammatical, by a
more natural concept involving grade of
membership.
What is important to note is that the
country in which my ideas were welcomed
and developed was Japan. Here is a letter
which I received in 1966 from a researcher
in Japan:
Nippon Hoso Kyokai, 1966
Dear Sir,
In one of the last volumes of “Information
and Control,” I have read your interesting
papers on “Fuzzy Sets.” We are working about
‘Pattern Recognition,’ ‘Artifi cial Intelligence’ or
something like that since just a short time, and
therefore I am highly interested in your work.
Yours sincerely,
Yoshinori Uesaka
In Japan, the most visible application
area of fuzzy set theory is consumer products
such as washing machines, microwave
ovens, cameras, vacuum cleaners, etc. One
of the most noteworthy applications was
the subway system in the city of Sindai,
inaugurated in 1987, which was designed
and built by Hitachi and Kawasaki Heavy
Industries. What is remarkable is that work
on the system began in 1976, at a time when
fuzzy set theory was still in its early stages
of development.
When I wrote my fi rst paper on fuzzy
sets my expectation was that fuzzy set
theory would be welcomed in the realm of
human-centric sciences—a realm for which
it was intended. Contrary to my expectation
this was not the case. The main application
areas of fuzzy set theory were, and still
are, in the realm of engineering systems
and consumer products—application areas
in which traditional methods of systems
analysis can be employed. An interesting
question is: Why? There are many reasons,
one of which is that the mathematics
of fuzzy set theory is easy to master by
engineers and scientists, and much less so
by those who work in human-centric fi elds.
There is another important reason which
will be discussed at a later point.
A few years after the publication of my
fi rst paper I began to realize that fuzzy set
theory may have important applications in
the realm of control. I sketched my ideas
in a 1972 note entitled “A Rationale for
Fuzzy Control.” (Zadeh 1972) But a pivotal
paper which made fuzzy control a reality
was my 1973 paper entitled “Outline of a
New Approach to the Analysis of Complex
Systems and Decision Processes.” (Zadeh
1973) Two key concepts which were
introduced in this paper were those of a
linguistic variable and fuzzy-if-then rule.
Not long after the publication of my paper,
Mamdani and Assilian described, in their
pioneering paper, an application of the
concepts of linguistic variable and fuzzy
if-then rule to the control of a laboratory
steam engine. (Mamdani 1975) This was
the beginning of the era of fuzzy control.
Today, close to 40 years later, the concepts
of linguistic variable and fuzzy if-then rule
still play a key role in most applications of
fuzzy set theory.
My 1973 paper opened the door to
describing system behavior in natural
language. This was its key contribution. If
there is a tolerance for imprecision, it can
be exploited by describing the behavior of
a system in natural language. Subsequently,
natural language is precisiated through
graduation of the meaning of words, that is,
through describing the meaning of words
through fuzzy sets. This is the essence
of what I call Fuzzy Logic Gambit. Today,
Fuzzy Logic Gambit is employed in many
applications of fuzzy set theory, especially
in the realm of consumer products. Fuzzy
Logic Gambit is one of the principal reasons
why fuzzy set theory turned out to play an
important role in conception, design and
utilization of engineering systems.
My 1973 paper may be viewed as a
move from the use of numbers to the use
of words. The countertraditional spirit of
this move evoked a great deal of hostility.
Following my 1972 lecture on linguistic
variables and fuzzy if-then rules in France,
my good friend and a brilliant systems
scientist, Rudolf Kalman had this to say:
I would like to comment briefl y
on Professor Zadeh’s presentation. His
proposals could be severely, ferociously,
even brutally criticized from a technical point
of view. This would be out of place here.
But a blunt question remains: Is Professor
Zadeh presenting important ideas or is he
indulging in wishful thinking? No doubt
Professor Zadeh’s enthusiasm for fuzziness
has been reinforced by the prevailing
8CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
climate in the U.S. – one of unprecedented
permissiveness. ‘Fuzzifi cation’ is a kind of
scientifi c permissiveness; it tends to result in
socially appealing slogans unaccompanied
by the discipline of hard scientifi c work and
patient observation.
In a similar vein, my colleague, a brilliant
computer scientist, William Kahan, wrote:
“Fuzzy theory is wrong, wrong, and
pernicious.” says William Kahan, a professor
of computer sciences and mathematics at Cal
whose Evans Hall Offi ce is a few doors from
Zadeh’s. “I cannot think of any problem that
could not be solved better by ordinary logic.”
“What Zadeh is saying is the same sort
of things ‘Technology got us into this mess
and now it can’t get us out.’” Kahan says.
“Well, technology did not get us into this
mess. Greed and weakness and ambivalence
got us into this mess. What we need is more
logical thinking, not less. The danger of fuzzy
theory is that it will encourage the sort of
imprecise thinking that has brought us so
much trouble.”
Fuzzy logic was introduced in my
1975 paper entitled “Fuzzy Logic and
Approximate Reasoning.” (Zadeh 1975a)
This paper and my long 1975 paper “The
Concept of a Linguistic Variable and its
Application to Approximate Reasoning”
opened a new direction in the development
of fuzzy set theory. (Zadeh 1975b) What
should be underscored is that fuzzy logic
has a much broader scope than multivalued
logic and a very different agenda. In fuzzy
logic everything is or is allowed to be a
matter of degree.
A methodology which is very closely
related to fuzzy logic is Computing with
Words (CW or CWW). (Zadeh 1999) On
the face of it, CW may appear to be related
to natural language processing. In fact, this
is not the case. CW and natural language
processing have very different agendas.
In large measure, CW is concerned with
solutions which are stated in a natural
language. A simple example is the following:
I am scheduled to fl y from San
Francisco to Los Angeles. My fl ight is
scheduled to leave at 5pm. I have to be at
the airport about an hour before departure.
Usually it takes about forty fi ve minutes to
get to the airport from my home. I would like
to be pretty sure that I arrive at the airport in
time. At what time should I leave my home?
Use of CW is greatly facilitated
through employment of what may be called
a Z-mouse. Briefl y, the cursor, called an
f-mark of a Z-mouse is a circular fuzzy set
with a trapezoidal cross section. The curser
is used to mark the value of a variable of a
lighted scale. Position of an f-mark and its
size is controlled by the user. The size is a
measure of uncertainty and/or imprecision
of the user’s perception of the value of
the variable. An f-mark is read as the
membership function of a trapezoidal fuzzy
set. The trapezoidal fuzzy sets serve as
arguments of an aggregation function which
computes the desired value of a variable.
[See Figure 1].
In my view, Computing with Words is
an important direction in the evolution of
fuzzy set theory—a direction which opens
the door to a wide-ranging enlargement of
the role of natural languages in scientifi c
theories and engineering systems. The
principal concepts which underlie CW may
be summarized as follows.
Computing with Words is a
system of computation which offers
an important capability that traditional
systems of computation do not have—a
capability to compute with information
described in a natural language. In the main,
CW is concerned with solution of problems
which are stated in a natural language. The
importance of CW derives from the fact that
much of human knowledge is perception-
based and is described in a natural language.
The point of departure in CW is a
question, q, of the form: What is the value of
a variable, X? q is associated with a question-
relevant information set, I, an association
expressed as X is I, meaning that the answer
to q, Ans(q/I), is to be deduced (computed)
from I. Typically, I consists of a collection of
propositions, p1, ..., p
n, which individually or
collectively are carriers of information about
the value of X. In I, some or all of the pi, i=1,
…, n, are expressed in a natural language.
Some of the pi may be drawn from external
sources of information, typically from world
knowledge. I is open if it includes propositions
drawn from external sources of information. I
is closed if inclusion is not allowed.
Precisiation of meaning is a prerequisite
to computation with information which
is described in a natural language. If p is a
proposition drawn from a natural language,
then precisiation of p leads to a computation-
ready proposition, p*, which may be viewed
as a computational meaning of p or,
equivalently, as a computational model of
p. p* is assumed to be mathematically well-
defi ned and is intended to serve as an object
of computation. In CW, there are two levels
of generality, Level 1 and Level 2. In Level 1
CW, the carriers of information are simple
propositions. Examples: Vera is middle-
aged; if Pressure is high then Volume is low.
In Level 2 CW, the carriers of information
are complex propositions. Example: Usually
it takes Robert about an hour to get home
from work. Today, the bulk of the literature
is still focused on Level 1 CW. In particular,
the widely used calculi of fuzzy if-then rules
fall within the province of Level 1 CW.
Computation of Ans(q/I) is carried out
in two phases. Phase 1, called Precisiation,
involves precisiation of q and I, leading
to precisiated q, q*, and precisiated I, I*.
Phase 2, called Computation, involves
computation with q* and I*, leading to
Ans(q/I). This is done through the use of an
aggregation function which has the pi* as its
arguments. In CW, the pi* are represented
as generalized assignment statements or,
equivalently, as generalized constraints.
Computation with the pi* involves
propagation and counterpropagation of
generalized constraints. In CW, precisiation
and computation employ the machinery of
fuzzy logic.
A generalized constraint is an
expression of the form X isr R, where X is
a constrained variable which, in general, is
implicit in p; R is the constraining relation
which, like X, is in general implicit in p;
and r is an indexing variable whose value
identifi es the way in which R constrains
X. The principal types of constraints are:
equality (r is =); possibilistic (r is blank);
veristic (r is v); probabilistic (r is p); random
set (r is rs); fuzzy graph (r is fg); usuality (r
is u); and Pawlak set (r is ps). In this system
of classifi cation of constraints, the standard
constraint, X belongs to C, where C is a
crisp set, is possibilistic. Representation of
p as a generalized constraint is the point
of departure in what is called Precisiated
Natural Language (PNL). (Zadeh 2004)
PNL associates with a natural
language, NL, a precisiation language, GCL
(Generalized Constraint Language), which
consists of generalized constraints and
Time of
departure
Time of
arrivalUsually
1
&.8
Time of
departure
from home
5 pm
*3:50 pm
*4 pm
f-mark
specifi ed specifi ed
computed
specifi ed trial
0 0 0 0
allyy
11
&.88
111111
m
ff m
m
m
homemee
Fig. 1 : Z-mouse representation of values of variable
9CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
their combinations and qualifi cations. A
simple example of an element of GCL is:
(X is A) and (X, Y) isu B. A proposition, p,
in NL is precisiable if it is translatable into
GCL. In effect, PNL is a sublanguage of NL
which consists of propositions which are
precisiable through translation into GCL.
More concretely, PNL is associated with
three dictionaries (a) from NL to GCL,
(b) from GCL to what is referred to as the
Protoform Language (PFL), and (c) from NL
to PFL. An element of PFL is an abstracted
version of an element of GCL. The translates
of p into GCL and PFL are denoted as GC(p)
and PF(p ), respectively.
In addition, PNL is associated with a
deduction module, DM, which consists of
rules of deduction expressed in PFL. An
example of such a rule is the intersection/
product syllogism: if Q A’s are B’s and R
(A and B)’s are C’s, then QR A’s are (B and
C)’s, where Q and R are fuzzy quantifi ers,
e.g., most, many, few; A, B and C are fuzzy
sets, and QR is the product of Q and R in
fuzzy arithmetic. Basically, a protoform of p,
PF(p), identifi es its deep structure.
The principal function of PNL is to serve
as a system for computation and reasoning
with perceptions. A related function is that
of serving as a defi nition language. In this
capacity, PNL may be used to (a) defi ne
new concepts, e.g., the usual value of a
random variable; and (b) redefi ne existing
concepts, e.g., the concepts of statistical
independence, risk and stability. The need
for redefi nition arises because standard
bivalent-classic-based defi nitions may lead
to counterintuitive conclusions.
CW has important applications to
decision analysis, question-answering
systems, system modeling, specifi cation
and optimization, and mechanization of
natural language understanding. CW is
based on fuzzy logic. In its early history,
fuzzy logic was an object of skepticism and
derision. Today fuzzy logic is in wide use but
not as yet accepted by all. A brief report on
the impact of fuzzy logic speaks for itself.
Patents
� Number of fuzzy-logic-related patents
applied for in Japan: 17,740
� Number of fuzzy-logic-related patents
issued in Japan: 4,801
� Number of fuzzy-logic-related patents
issued in the US: around 1,700
Journals
Fuzzy in title
1. Fuzzy Sets and Systems
2. IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems
3. Fuzzy Optimization and Decision Making
4. Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems
5. Fuzzy Economic Review
6. International Journal of Uncertainty,
Fuzziness & Knowledge-Based Systems
7. Journal of Japan Society for Fuzzy
Theory and Systems
8. International Journal of Fuzzy Systems
9. International Review of Fuzzy
Mathematics
10. Fuzzy Systems and Soft Computing
11. Turkish Journal of Fuzzy Systems
12. Annals of Fuzzy Sets, Fuzzy Logic and
Fuzzy Systems
Count of Publications
� Count of publications containing the
word “fuzzy” in the title, as cited in
INSPEC and MATH.SCI.NET databases.
Compiled on October 4, 2010.
Inspec Database
1970-1979 : 521
1980-1989 : 2,163
1990-1999 : 20,210
2000-present : 48,627
Total : 71,521
MathSciNet Database
1970-1979 : 444
1980-1989 : 2,466
1990-1999 : 5,487
2000-present : 10,439
Total : 18,863
� Number of citations of papers by L.A.
Zadeh (Web of Science Citation): 28,122
� Number of citations of papers by L.A.
Zadeh (Google Scholar): 85,500
References1. Mamdani, E.H., Assilian, S., An experiment
in linguistic synthesis with a fuzzy logic
controller, International Journal of Man–
Machine Studies 7, 1–13, 1975.
2. Zadeh, L.A., From circuit theory to system
theory, Proc. IRE 50, 856-865, 1962.
3. Zadeh, L.A., Fuzzy sets, Information and
Control 8, 338-353, 1965.
4. Zadeh, L.A., A rationale for fuzzy control,
Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement
and Control 94, Series G, 3-4, 1972.
5. Zadeh, L.A., Outline of a new approach
to the analysis of complex systems and
decision processes, IEEE Transactions on
Systems, Man and Cybernetics SMC-3, 28-
44, 1973.
6. Zadeh, L.A., Fuzzy logic and approximate
reasoning, (In Memory of Grigore Moisil),
Synthese 30, 407-428, 1975a.
7. Zadeh, L.A., The concept of a linguistic
variable and its application to approximate
reasoning, Part I: Inf. Sci.8, 199-249, 1975;
Part II: Inf. Sci. 8, 301-357, 1975; Part III: Inf.
Sci. 9, 43-80, 1975b.
8. Zadeh, L.A., From computing with numbers
to computing with words –from manipulation
of measurements to manipulation of
perceptions, IEEE Transactions on Circuits
and Systems 45, 105-119, 1999.
9. Zadeh, L.A., Precisiated natural language
(PNL), AI Magazine, Vol. 25, No. 3, 74-91,
2004.
(http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~zadeh/scv.html)
LOTFI A. ZADEH is a Professor in the Graduate School, Computer Science Division, Department of EECS, University of California, Berkeley. In addition,
he is serving as the Director of BISC (Berkeley Initiative in Soft Computing).
Lotfi Zadeh is an alumnus of the University of Tehran, MIT and Columbia University. He held visiting appointments at the Institute for Advanced Study,
Princeton, NJ; MIT, Cambridge, MA; IBM Research Laboratory, San Jose, CA; AI Center, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA; and the Center for the Study
of Language and Information, Stanford University. His earlier work was concerned in the main with systems analysis, decision analysis and information
systems. His current research is focused on fuzzy logic, computing with words and soft computing, which is a coalition of fuzzy logic, neurocomputing,
evolutionary computing, probabilistic computing and parts of machine learning.
Lotfi Zadeh is a Fellow of the IEEE, AAAS, ACM, AAAI, and IFSA. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Foreign Member of the
Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, the Finnish Academy of Sciences, the Polish Academy of Sciences, Korean Academy of Science & Technology and
the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He is a recipient of the IEEE Education Medal, the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal, the IEEE Medal of Honor, the
ASME Rufus Oldenburger Medal, the B. Bolzano Medal of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Kampe de Feriet Medal, the AACC Richard E. Bellman
Control Heritage Award, the Grigore Moisil Prize, the Honda Prize, the Okawa Prize, the AIM Information Science Award, the IEEE-SMC J. P. Wohl Career
Achievement Award, the SOFT Scientifi c Contribution Memorial Award of the Japan Society for Fuzzy Theory, the IEEE Millennium Medal, the ACM
2001 Allen Newell Award, the Norbert Wiener Award of the IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society, Civitate Honoris Causa by Budapest Tech
(BT) Polytechnical Institution, Budapest, Hungary, the V. Kaufmann Prize, International Association for Fuzzy-Set Management and Economy (SIGEF),
the Nicolaus Copernicus Medal of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the J. Keith Brimacombe IPMM Award, the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame,
the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum Wall of Fame, other awards and twenty-six honorary doctorates. He has published extensively on a wide variety of
subjects relating to the conception, design and analysis of information/intelligent systems, and is serving on the editorial boards of over sixty journals.
About the Author
10CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
Introduction
In real life scenario, most decisions are made
without advance knowledge of their consequences,
which lead to some degree of risk or uncertainty. The
study of decision-making under risk and uncertainty
has received signifi cant attention from economists
and psychologists in the last few decades.
The best-known defi nition of risk is provided
by Knight in 1921 during a period of active research
into the foundations of probability. Economist Knight
fi rst distinguishes risk from uncertainty. Decisions
under risk entail options that have well specifi ed or
transparent outcome probabilities, such as a bet
on a coin toss or a lottery with a known number of
tickets. Decisions under uncertainty, by contrast,
entail options whose outcomes depend on natural
events such as a victory by the home team or a rise in
interest rates, so that probabilities must be estimated
by the decision maker with some degree of vagueness
or imprecision. Knight acknowledged that his use of
the term risk did not conform to the common usage.
The fi rst and predominant economic theory for
decision making under risk, formulated axiomatically
by Von Neumann and Morgenstern [9], is expected
utility theory. Further, experimental evidence shows
that people violate the axioms of Von Neumann and
Morgenstern [9]. Allais paradox is the most perfect
and celebrated violation of expected utility theory.
In 1979 Kahneman and Tversky [2] proposed a
leading behavioral model of decision making under
risk and uncertainty, named as prospect theory, which
accommodates Allais paradox and the violation of
Von Neumann and Morgenstern axioms. This original
prospect theory has some drawbacks; it is not always
satisfy stochastic dominance and also it cannot be
applied to prospects with large number of outcomes.
In an important later development several
authors (Quiggin [5], Schmeilder [6], Yaari and
Weymark) have developed a new representation call
the rank dependent model and sign dependent model,
which transforms cumulative rather than individual
probabilities. Further, Tversky and Kahneman [8]
represents prospect theory incorporating rank
dependent model and resolved the original prospect
theory issues.
This paper is organized as follows. Section I is
the introduction. Decision making under risk and
uncertainty with a brief write up on the mathematical
foundation of prospect theory is covered in Section II.
The contents of Section III refer to Zadeh’s suggested
real life problems and the scope for future research.
Decision Making under Risk and Uncertainty
There is an extensive literature on decision-
making under risk, but the foundation stone of
decision theory is 17th century correspondence
between Pascal and Fermat that laid fundamental
groundwork for the theory of probability. Following
this work, theorists asserted that decision makers will
choose the option which offers the highest expected
value (EV). Expected value is calculated by
where ix is the outcome of state i and ip is the
probability of state i.
An individual may have different risk attitudes
THEME ARTICLE
Decision Making under Risk and Uncertainty : RevisitedVidyottama Jain* and Ashok Deshpande£
* BISC-Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Computer Science, University of California Berkeley, USA
Email: *[email protected]£ Chair: Berkeley Initiative in Soft Computing (BISC)-Special Interest Group (SIG)-Environment Management
Systems (EMS) Email: [email protected]
The importance and real potential of decision making under risk and uncertainty based on perceptions and behavioral aspects related to real life is now being well recognized. In this paper, we present a review of some important approaches discussing decision making under risk and uncertainty. Further, Zadeh’s suggested real life problems are presented with the future research scope.
Keywords decision making, choices, risk,uncertainty, perception, imprecise probability, fuzzy environment.
11CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
while making decision under risky situation.
He will be called risk neutral if he is indifferent
between bet and its expected value; he will
be called risk averse if he prefers certain
payment to a risky prospect of equal or
higher expected value; he will be called risk
seeking if he prefers a risky prospect to a
sure payment of equal or higher expected
value. Thus, expected value maximization
assumes a neutral attitude toward risk.
Daniel Bernoulli’s observed that
people’s utility from wealth, is not linearly
related to wealth but rather increases at
a decreasing rate - the famous idea of
diminishing marginal utility. He asserted
that a person’s valuation of an option is not
by their objective values but rather by their
utility or moral values. This gives rise to a
utility function, which is concave over states
of wealth. He modifi ed expected value
theory by presenting that decision makers
choose the option with highest expected
utility
where u(xi) represents the utility of
obtaining outcome xi.
Expected utility theory gained more
power in economic world when Von
Neumann and Morgenstern [9] exhibited
a set of axioms (NM axioms) between
preferences of expected utility theory. If
all these axioms are satisfi ed, then the
individual is said to be rational and the
preferences can be represented by a utility
function. These axioms are very simple,
though people in both experimental and
real life situations frequently do not conform
to the NM axioms. Allais Paradox is the
most celebrated violation of NM axioms of
expected utility theory.
Further, Tversky and Kahneman
have demonstrated in numerous highly
controlled experiments that most people
systematically violate all of the basic
axioms of expected utility theory in their
actual decision making behavior at least
some times. In response to their fi ndings,
Tversky and Kahneman proposed a theory
of choice, based on psychophysical model,
which accurately describes how people go
about making their decisions. The Original
Prospect Theory (OPT), suggested by
Kahneman and Tversky in 1979 [2], is based
on non-linear transformation of outcome
and probabilities, which allow describing
psychological aspects of decision-making.
The OPT developed for simple prospects
with monetary outcomes and stated
probabilities has three major characteristics:
1. Reference point dependence : An
individual views consequences
(monetary or other) in terms of
changes from the reference point,
which is usually that individual’s status
quo.
2. Diminishing sensitivity: The values
of the outcomes for both positive
and negative consequences of the
choice have the diminishing returns
characteristic. That means limit values
of gains and losses decrease with an
increase of their absolute values.
3. Loss aversion: Losses loom larger than
gains which means people prefer “not
to bear losses”.
OPT predicts that people go through
two distinct stages while taking decisions.
In the fi rst phase, decision makers are
predicted to edit a complicated decision into
a simpler prospect, usually specifi ed in terms
of gains or losses. In the second phase, the
decision makers evaluate each of the edited
prospects available to them and choose the
prospect of highest value between the edited
prospects. This evaluation is expressed in
terms of two scales w and v. The fi rst scale w
associates with each probability p a decision
weight w(p) which shows the impact of p
on the over all value of the prospect. The
second scale, v, assigns to each outcome a
number v(x) that gives the subjective value
of that outcome x. Therefore, the evaluation
function for a prospect (xi, p
i) is given by
where pi is perceived probability of outcome
xi, w(p
i) is the probability weighting function
and v(xi) is value function.
The value function v(xi) has the
following properties based on the above
mentioned thee properties of OPT and it is
depicted in Fig. 1:
1. It is defi ned on deviations from a
reference point.
2. It is concave for gains and convex for
losses.
3. It is steeper for losses than for gains.
value function v(.)
losses gains
Fig. 1: Value function v as a function of gains and
losses.
Here, the probability weighting function
is a monotonic function defi ned over (0,1).
Consequently, the weighting function does
not always satisfy stochastic dominance.
Also, in their experiments Kahneman
and Tversky ([2], [8]) observed that
the interplay of over weighting of small
probabilities and concavity-convexity of the
value function leads to the so-called fourfold
pattern of risk attitudes: risk-averse for high
probability gains and low probability losses;
risk-seeking for low probability gains and
high probability losses.
In brief, OPT encounters two problems:
1. Weighting function does not always
satisfy stochastic dominance and,
2. OPT cannot be applied to prospects
with a large number of outcomes.
These problems can be resolved by
the rank dependent model or cumulative
functional fi rst proposed by Quiggin [5]
for decision under risk. On the basis of rank
dependent model, Tversky and Kahneman
[8] proposed cumulative representation
of prospect theory, which applies rank
dependent model separately to gains and
losses. Also, this cumulative prospect theory
can be applied to uncertain as well as risky
prospects with any number of outcomes.
Following Tversky and Kahneman [8],
the value function can be parameterized as
a power function
where α,β measure the curvature of
the value function for gains and losses,
respectively, and λ is the coeffi cient of loss
aversion. This value function for gains and
losses is increasingly concave and convex
respectively for α,β<1.
The weighting function, defi ned by
Tversky and Kahneman [8], is an inverse-
S-shaped weighting function. It is concave
near 0 and convex near 1 as presented in
the Fig. 2. It is very clearly explaining the
fourfold pattern of risk attitudes as the low
are overweighted (leading to risk seeking
for gains and risk aversion for losses) and
high probabilities are underweighted the
weighting function (leading to risk seeking
for losses and risk aversion for gains). It
also satisfi es Allais paradox. Therefore, this
modifi ed inverse-S-shaped weighting is more
consistent with a range of empirical fi ndings.1
10
weighting
function
w(.)
Probability p
Fig. 2 : weighting function w for gains as a function of
the probability p of a chance event.
12CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
Following Lattimore et al. [4], the
weighting function can be parameterized in
the following form
It assumes that the relation between
w and p is linear in a log-odds metric. Here
δ measures the elevation of the weighting
function and γmeasures its degree of
curvature. The cumulative prospect theory
parameters δλβα ,,, and γ can all
be estimated for individuals using simple
choices tasks on computer ([7], [8], [10]).
Zadeh’s suggested real life problems
Decision - making under risk and
uncertainty is associated with an extensive
literature. Lotfi Zadeh has given a new
direction to think over decision making
under second order uncertainty. Imprecise
probability and fuzzy set of type 2 are
instances of second order uncertainty. In
reality, many high level decisions, which
are made to resolve the fi nancial crisis, are
treated as decisions under second order
uncertainty.
Lotfi Zadeh stated the following
example involving decision making with
imprecise probability.
Statement of the problem: Assume
that we have two open boxes, A and B, each
containing twenty black and white balls. A
ball is picked at random. If I pick a white ball
from A, I win a1 dollars; if I pick a black ball, I
lose a2 dollars. Similarly, if I pick a white ball
from B, I win b1 dollars; and if I pick a black
ball, I lose b2 dollars.
Pb.1 An elementary example of decision
making under uncertainty with precise
probability: If I could count the number
of white balls in A, say m, then the
probability of picking a white balls
would m/20. In the case of B, the
probability would be n/20. If I have to
make a choice between A and B, which
one should I choose? What would be
the degree of preference? This is an
example of decision-making under
uncertainty with precise probabilities.
Pb.2 Now, next assume that I am shown A
and B but not long enough to allow me
to count the number of white balls. I
form perceptions of m and n. I represent
these perceptions as fuzzy marks on a
scale from 0 to 1 using a spray pen. At
this point, there are two versions of
the problem. Here, the fuzzy marks are
not precisiated. All we have are visual
perceptions.
The fi rst suggested problem by
Zadeh can be solved using Kahneman and
Tversky’s cumulative prospect theory [8] as
explained in Section II.
The inherent concept in the second
problem, which describes decision making
under imprecise probability, carries the
potential for a major impact on the ways in
which uncertainty/imprecision is dealt with
in science, engineering and other domains of
human activity. It is, therefore, our endeavor
to develop an imprecise probability based
formulation in a fuzzy environment, which
might be useful to the decision makers in
resolving some of the realistic problems.
Acknowledgment
We are deeply indebted and would like
to express our immense gratitude towards
Prof Lotfi A. Zadeh, the father of fuzzy
logic for his motivation and all helpful and
insightful suggestions.
References
[1] R. Gonzalez and G. Wu, “`On the shape
of the probability weighting function”,
Cogn. Psychol., 38, pp 129– 166, 1999.
[2] D. Kahneman and A. Tversky, “Prospect
theory: an analysis of decision under
risk”, Econometrica, 4, pp 263– 291,
1979.
[3] F. H. Knight, Risk, Uncertainty, and
Profi t, New York: Hart, Schaffner, and
Marx, 1921.
[4] P.K. Lattimore, J.R. Baker, and A.D.
Witte, “The influence of probability
on r isky choice—A parametr ic
examination”, J. Econ. Behav. Organ.,
17 (3), pp 377–400, 1992.
[5] J. Quiggin, “A theory of anticipated
utility”, Journal of Economic Behavior
and Organization, 3(4), pp 323-343,
1982.
[6] D. Schmeilder, “Subjective probability
and expected utility without additivity”,
57(3), pp 571-587, 1989.
[7] Christopher Trepel, Craig R. Fox, and
Russell A. Poldrack, “Prospect theory
on the brain? Toward a cognitive
neuroscience of decision under risk”,
Cognitive brain research, 23, pp 34-50,
2005.
[8] A. Tversky and D. Kahneman,
“Advances in prospect theory:
c u m u l a t i v e r e p r e s e n t a t i o n o f
uncertainty”, J. Risk Uncertainty, 5(4),
pp 297–323, 1992.
[9] J. von Neumann, O. Morgenstern,
Theory of games and economic
behavior, Princeton Univ. Press,
Princeton, NJ, 1944.
[10] G. Wu and R. Gonzalez, “Curvature
of the probability weighting function”,
Manage. Sci., 42, pp 1676-1690, 1996.
[11] Lotfi A. Zadeh, “Toward a perception
based theory of probabilistic reasoning
with imprecise probabilities”, J.
Statistical Planning and Inference, 105,
pp 233-264, 2002.
FL offers several unique features that make it a particularly good
choice for many control problems.
1. It is inherently robust since it does not require precise, noise-
free inputs and can be programmed to fail safely if a feedback
sensor quits or is destroyed. The output control is a smooth
control function despite a wide range of input variations.
2. Since the FL controller processes user-defi ned rules governing
the target control system, it can be modifi ed and tweaked
easily to improve or drastically alter system performance. New
sensors can easily be incorporated into the system simply by
generating appropriate governing rules.
3. FL is not limited to a few feedback inputs and one or two
control outputs, nor is it necessary to measure or compute
rate-of-change parameters in order for it to be implemented.
Any sensor data that provides some indication of a system’s
actions and reactions is suffi cient. This allows the sensors to
be inexpensive and imprecise thus keeping the overall system
cost and complexity low.
4. Because of the rule-based operation, any reasonable number
of inputs can be processed (1-8 or more) and numerous
outputs (1-4 or more) generated, although defi ning the rule
base quickly becomes complex if too many inputs and outputs
are chosen for a single implementation since rules defi ning
their interrelations must also be defi ned. It would be better to
break the control system into smaller chunks and use several
smaller FL controllers distributed on the system, each with
more limited responsibilities.
5. FL can control nonlinear systems that would be diffi cult or
impossible to model mathematically. This opens doors for
control systems that would normally be deemed unfeasible for
automation.
Why Use Fuzzy Logic [FL]?[Excerpted from: Web Based Tutorial - Steven D. Kaehler, Fuzzy Logic - An Introduction - Part 2, http://www.seattlerobotics.org/encoder/mar98/fuz/fl _part2.html]
13CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
Fourteen years after the publishing of Zadeh’s
pioneer fuzzy sets theory, fi rst fuzzy logic based
industrial application was put into operation at a
rotary kiln by FLS Automation in 1979 in Denmark1.
Research and development divisions of various
industries have investigated the applications of fuzzy
logic control (FLC) in their respective control systems
around the globe. However, at a commercial level the
industrial response was quite contradictory between
the eastern and the western hemispheres of the world
till early 90’s. The Japanese industry on one side has
fi led more than one thousand patents and implements
it from home appliances such as washing machines
refrigerators, air conditioners, vacuum cleaners, rice
cookers etc. to the control of famous Japanese Bullet
train with a turnover of billions of dollars through
the sale of these fuzzy logic control based products
to consumers throughout the world. In the western
world especially in US, inspite of the origin country
of fuzzy logic theory, commercial level research has
not started until the last decade. A major reason could
be the lack of exposure of engineers to fuzzy theory
at the academic curriculum level which leads to lack
of understanding and believe in the effi ciency of the
fuzzy theory. Secondly, most if not all the application
have not involved the replacement of a standard
type controller (PID, PI, PD) but, rather than multi-
variable supervisory control. However, as the research
related to fuzzy systems is getting mature, the general
prospective is being changed. An industrial road map
of fuzzy logic control can be summarized as2:
1965 Seminal paper “Fuzzy Logic” by Prof. Lotfi
Zadeh
1970 1st application of Fuzzy Logic in control
(FLC) Engineering in Europe
1975 Intro of Fuzzy Logic in Japan
1980 Empirical Verifi cation of Fuzzy Logic in
Europe
1985 Broad application of FL in Japan
1990 Broad application of FL in Europe
1995 Broad application of FL in US
2000 FL becomes a standard technology and is
also applied in data and sensor signal analysis.
According to an application based study by IEEE2
(1996) about 1100 successful fuzzy logic applications
have been published. Nearly all of these applications
use a multi-variable supervisory control ranging from
embedded control (28%), Industrial automation
(62%) to Process control (10%). Results of a
questionnaire administered to 311 individuals reveal
nearly 90% agree that fuzzy logic has improved design
time by 50% and 97.5% responded that fuzzy logic
would be benefi cial to use in their future applications.
Now days, Fuzzy logic is used extensively as
the backbone of many control systems. Researchers
have used fuzzy logic controllers in order to reduce
the computational burden of the control scheme
and provide a higher level of abstraction to their
controllers. However, the computational burden
does not allow the controller to be used easily in a
real time implementation. Another key limitation is
that it is diffi cult to optimize a system that has two
or more variables, such as mileage and emissions, as
this leads to more than one set of rules. Researchers
have used rule based fuzzy logic where it makes use of
fuzzy logic to operate the Internal combustion engine
(ICE) as close to the most effi cient point given the ICE
speed.
Maximum advantage of using Fuzzy Logic can
be seen when using it for adaptive control strategies.
Fuzzy logic when applied to an industrial controller
helps to fi ne tune a PID controller, without the
operator having any a priori knowledge of the system
to be controlled.
An adaptive controller implemented using fuzzy
logic will understand the average behavior of the
respective driver and will optimize itself for these
situations3. Such controllers have been developed by
utilizing a module that would extract information about
the drive cycle and then decide the type of driving that
was taking place at each moment (aggressive, normal,
etc). Based on this information, the algorithm would
change the set of rules used by the main controller.
Fuzzy logic is ideal for non-linear time varying
systems such as a Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle(PHEV)
drive train as they are robust, adaptable to variations,
and easily adjustable. Fuzzy logic controllers reduce
the computational burden and provide a higher level of
abstraction to the controllers that strive to maximize
mileage, electric range and lower emissions.
THEME ARTICLE
Industrial think tank’s approach towards Fuzzy LogicMohammad Saad Alam
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Saginaw Valley State University, University Center,
MI-48710, USA. Email: [email protected]
14CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
In the automotive industry, fuzzy logic
has been successfully applied for cruise
control, operation of power electric steering
and electronic variance orifi ce for power
steering fl uid. Fuzzy logic has also been
used in production for throttle control and
also in various functions of anti-lock braking
systems, as well as active and semi-active
suspension control. It has been used in
the automotive HVAC systems as well.
Research is also going on in the area of
Autonomous Vehicle Control using Fuzzy
Logic at automotive industry’s research labs.
Some of the patents fi led for the automotive
applications are:
1. Method and Control System for
Controlling an Automotive HVAC
System to Prevent Fogging, US Patent
5,516,041 1996
2. Method and control system for
adaptively controlling an automotive
HVAC system, Leighton I. Davis et al,
Patent number: 5579994
3. Method and system for modifying a
linear control algorithm which controls
an automotive HVAC system, Leighton
I. Davis et al, Patent number: 5549152
4. Apparatus for controlling a suspension
system disposed between a wheel and
and the body of an automotive vehicle...
Andre Titli et al, Patent number:
5483450
5. Method and system for controlling
an automotive HVAC system to
prevent formation of cabin thermal
stratifi cation, Gerhard Allan Dage et al,
Patent number: 5755378
6. Method and system using fuzzy logic
for controlling a CVT transmission,
Masao Adachi et al, Patent number:
5558596
7. Fuzzy logic device for automatic sound
control, Jean-Philippe Boyer, Patent
number: 5844992
8. Control system for an automotive
vehicle having apparatus for predicting
the Driving Environment of the
Vehicle...Junichi Ishii et al, Patent
number: 5410477
In the emerging area of hybrid, electric
and plug-in hybrid electric vehicular
systems, two critical issues facing the
high voltage battery systems are precise
estimation of the state of the charge of
the battery and balancing of cell voltage in
some advance batteries. Incredible amount
of researches both in the academic as well
as industrial arena is in progress for the
intelligent battery management using fuzzy
logic and neural networks.
In today’s world, the impact of even the
slightest effi ciency improvement plays a key
role in industry, especially the automotive
industry. Fuzzy logic will allow controllers
to be signifi cantly more effi cient and this
improvement will out-weight the added
complexity (vs a deterministic approach)
and cost of its implementation.
References:
1. Jens Jorgen Ostergaard, “ High Level
Process control in the Cement Industry
by Fuzzy logic,” Fuzzy logic Advances
and Applications, World Scientific
Publishing Company, ISBN: 981-02-
3825-8
2. Constantin von Altrock , “Industrial
A p p l i c a t i o n o f F u z z y L o g i c
Control ”,Inform Software Corporation.
Oak Brook, IL
3. E. B. Smith* and R. Langari, “Fuzzy
Multi-Objective Decision Making for
Navigation and Motion Control in
Mobile Robotics,” International Journal
of Intelligent and Fuzzy Systems, Vol.
14, No. 2, pp. 95-108, March 2004
Mohammad Saad Alam received his Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from Aligarh Muslim University, India, in 2003 & Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USA in 2005 and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Tennessee Tech University, USA in 2009. He persuaded his post doctoral research as product and development engineer in hybrid and electric vehicle development division of Chrysler Group LLC, USA till August 2010. Currently he is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Saginaw Valley State University, University Center, MI, USA. Dr. Alam’s current teaching and research interests include Alternative energy, Intelligent control of hybrid energy systems, Energy harvesting from environmentally friendly sources such as wind, solar, ocean, geothermal, biomass and agricultural wastes. Energy storage systems such as advanced batteries, ultra capacitors and flywheels, CHP, Hybrid, electric, plug-in hybrid electric and fuel cell vehicles, Distributed generation systems, Stand alone and grid-connected power systems, Smart grid, Energy systems auditing, economic analysis and management.
About the Author
Fuzzy Logic in Home Appliances
Fuzzy logic is used in many appliances and electronics to improve efficiency, conserve energy and make them perform better overall. Washing machines are one of the best examples of how fuzzy logic can make processes more efficient and effective.
Fuzzy logic is making its way to other home appliances. Dishwashers can use fuzzy logic much like a washing machine, determining how much water pressure and detergent will be needed to effectively clean the dishes. It may be used in air conditioners as well, helping cut down energy costs substantially. It is even used in cameras and camcorders to help detect faces and edges, creating clearer and crisper images devoid of common problems like red eye.
15CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
Introduction
In real life, interpretation of linguistic knowledge
is a crucial aspect of all working systems. Fuzzy
computing is a powerful mathematical tool to formally
represent and reason with perceptive information.
The strength of Fuzzy computing relies on their
twofold identity: on one hand they are able to handle
linguistic concepts; on the other hand, their universal
approximations are able to perform non linear
mappings between inputs and outputs. In this article,
basic fuzzy methodology for computing of linguistic
knowledge is presented.
Background
A vast amount of information in human
communication involves natural terms which are
often vague and imprecise. This necessitates the
need of linguistic variable which provides systematic
mean for an approximate characterization of
complex phenomena defi ned in natural terms. Fuzzy
logic provides a foundation for the development of
new tools for dealing with natural languages and
knowledge representation and it is one of appropriate
tool to process linguistic variables. A linguistic variable
is defi ned as a variable whose values are sentences
in a natural or artifi cial language. Fuzzy Logic [1] is
acknowledged by its well known fl air for linguistic
concept modeling. Zadeh [2] further extended his
work and applied it to outline a new approach for the
analysis of complex systems and decision process. It
uses the “linguistic” variables in place of numerical
variables, where the relations between variables are
characterized by fuzzy conditional statements and
fuzzy algorithms. The semantic expressivity of fuzzy
Logic (FL), using linguistic variables [3] and linguistic
rules [4], is quite close to expert natural language.
It is observed that linguistic fuzzy knowledge-based
systems, linguistic preparation of information and
linguistic inference procedures are based on the
notion of a linguistic variable [3]. However, the
great utility of linguistic variables is that they can
be modifi ed via linguistic hedges applied to primary
terms [5]. The linguistic hedges can be associated
with certain functions. Hence Fuzzy Computing
can handle qualitative values instead of quantitative
values. It can defi ne knowledge in linguistic variables,
instead of the classical numeric variables, and can
perform computing with these variables, using fuzzy
rules, simulating in a certain way the human reasoning
processes.
Methodology
Each word x in a natural language L may be viewed
as a summarized description of fuzzy subset M(x) of a
universe of discourse (U), with M(x) representing the
meaning of x. In this sense the language as a whole
may be regarded as a system for assigning atomic and
composite labels (i.e. words phrases and sentences)
to the fuzzy subset of U. For example if the meaning
of noun height is fuzzy subset of M(height) and the
meaning of adjective tall is a fuzzy subset M(tall);
then meaning of the noun phrase tall height is given
by intersection of M(height) and M(tall).
Representations of a Linguistic Variable
According to Zadeh [1] (also [6] and [7]), the
defi nition of a linguistic variable can be expressed by
the quintuple: <x_name, L(X), X, G, M> where,
x_name – the name of the linguistic variable, e.g.,
‘temperature’;
X – the universe of discourse, the domain of the
examined variable, e.g. X = [-40, 40] R;
L(X) – the set of linguistic values (terms) that x
_name takes, e.g. L(X) = {low, middle, high};
G – A syntactic rule for generating the names LX
from the term-set L(X);
M – A semantic function that assigns to each
linguistic value LX a fuzzy meaning
M (LX), as a fuzzy subset of X, e.g.:
Procedure to compute linguistic knowledge
Step1: Defi ne fuzzy set on linguistic variables which
enables its values qualitatively in form of linguistic
term. The linguistic term is used to express concept
and knowledge in human communication.
Step2: Calculate numerical value of each linguistic
variable using membership function which describes
it quantitatively.
Step3: Defi ne term set which is set of values in form of
THEME ARTICLE
Computing Linguistic Knowledge using Fuzzy TheoryBindu Garg
School of Computer Engineering, ITM University, HUDA Sector 23-A Gurgaon - 122017. India
Email: [email protected]
16CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
words or sentences
Step4: Defi ne fuzzy variable on each value
of term set.
Step5: Defi ne base variable as universe of
discourse on all fuzzy variables in term set
Step6: Perform characterization of simple
relation between fuzzy variables by
conditional statements: relation between
two fuzzy variables x and y in form of “IF A
then B”
Step7: Compute fuzzifi ed output
Step8: Defuzzifi cation of fuzzy in crisp
output
Linguistic variable � Fuzzy variable � base variable� Fuzzy Rules� Fuzzy�Crisp value
Conclusion
Computing of linguistic knowledge
using fuzzy is strictly mathematical
framework in which vague conceptual
phenomena can be precisely and rigorously
studied. Human information processing
is mainly based on linguistic knowledge.
This article presents basic procedure for
comuting of linguistic knowledge. So the
main advantage of using linguistic terms
even with vague ranges is the intuitive
interpretability of linguistic rules.
Future work
There are still several challenging
problem dealing with linguistic knowledge
like learning paradigm. The fuzzy system
together with learning algorithm in
dealing with real world problem should be
investigated.
References
[1] L. A. Zadeh, “Fuzzy sets,” Information
and Control, vol. 8, pp. 338–353, 1965.
[2] L. A. Zadeh, Outline of a new approach
to the analysis of complex systems and
decision processes, IEEE Transactions
on Systems, Man and Cybernetics
SMC-3, 28-44, 1973.
[3] L. A. Zadeh, “The concept of a
linguistic variable and its application to
approximate reasoning,” Parts I, II, and
III. Information Sciences, vol. 8, 8, 9, pp.
199–249, 301–357, 43–80, 1975
[4] E. H. Mamdani, “Application of fuzzy
logic to approximate reasoning using
linguistic systems,” IEEE Trans. on
Computers, vol. 26(12), pp. 1182–1191,
1977.
[5] B o u c h o n - M e u n i e r , B . L A F O R I A ,
Linguistic hedges and fuzzy logic, IEEE
International Conference on Fuzzy
Systems, 1992. pp- 247 – 254
[6] 2. Nakoula S., Galichet S., Foulloy
L.: Identification of Linguistic Fuzzy
Models Based on Learning, In:
Hellendoorn H., Driankov D. (eds):
Fuzzy Model Identifi cation; Selected
Approaches. Springer-Verlag, Berlin
Heidelberg (1997) 281-319.
[7] 8. Kacprzyk J.: Fuzzy Sets in System
Analysis (in Polish). PWN, Warsaw
(1986).
Workshop on
Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing C-DAC Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, December 01-04, 2010
http://bidw.cdacmumbai.in
About Workshop
Workshop on Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing
intents to provide a comprehensive overview in the fi eld of
Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing with hands-on
practical experience on tools like Weka, Mondrian and Kettle.
The workshop will also provide an opportunity for interactions
among the participants from different academic institutions,
research organizations and industry practitioners in India. We
plan to invite distinguished researchers and professionals to
give keynote lectures in emerging Business Intelligence and
Data Warehousing technologies.
Proposed Structure of Workshop
• Invited talks covering current trends, specifi c challenges,
Technologies etc in BIDW
• Hands-on sessions on BIDW tools
Registration Details
Registration opens on: 11th October 2010
Last Date: 15th November 2010
Fee:
Participants 4 Day 2 Day Early Bird
Professionals INR 8000 INR 4000 INR 7000
Students INR 6000 INR 3000 INR 5000
CSI Members INR 6000 INR 3000 INR 5000
All payments should be made by a Demand Draft drawn in
favour of “C-DAC Mumbai” payable at Mumbai. For online
Registration & other details please visit workshop website :
http://bidw.cdacmumbai.in
Contact:
BIDW Secretariat, CDAC
Raintree Marg, Sector 7, CBD Belapur,
Navi Mumbai 400 614, Maharashtra, INDIA
Telephone:+91-22-27565303/04/05
Fax: +91-22-27565004
Email: [email protected]
The Internet is based on a layered, end-to-end model that allows people at each level of the network to innovate free of any central control. By placing intelligence at the edges rather than control in the middle of the network, the Internet has created a platform for innovation.
- Vinton Cerf
The Internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn’t understand, the largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had.
- Eric Schmidt
17CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
Originally, the word computing was synonymous
with counting and reckoning, and a computer was an
expert at calculation. In the 1950s with the advent of
the (electronic) computer, the meaning of the word
computing was broadened to include the operation
and use of these machines, the processes carried out
within the computer hardware itself, and the theoretical
concepts governing them. These theoretical concepts
fi nd their roots in the Turing machine [1], that is,
a conceptual computing device that was devised
by Alan Turing, the great British logician, in the mid
1930s. In essence, Turing showed that computation is
a process of symbol manipulation, since his machine
is dully processing symbols that are printed on a tape.
More specifi cally, a Turing machine consists of paper
tape divided into cells and a scanning head that moves
across the tape and can read and write symbols on
each cell. At any given moment, a machine is in a
state. Depending on the state the machine is and the
contents of the cell that is currently being scanned by
the scanning head, the machine enters a new state
and either replaces the contents of the cell or moves
to the cell that is either to the left or to the right of
the cell being scanned. At each moment, the machine
consults the controlling device to determine what to
do next. By using a technique, which was developed
by Kurt Gödel, the famous Austrian mathematician,
Turing had shown that it is possible to “construct”
a universal machine, which would take as input the
specifi cation of a machine together with its input, that
is capable of solving a great number of problems. The
importance of this universal machine is so great that
some thinkers claim that modern computers are in
fact realizations of it. However, this claim is clearly
an exaggeration as modern computers are able to
interact whereas Turing machines do not interact
with their environment.
Despite the fact that the Turing machine is not
the only model of computation, still it is the most
widely known model. There are other models that
equally interesting. For example, P systems [2], which
have been proposed by Gheorghe P un, is a model of
computation inspired by the way living cells function.
Basically, a P system is structure that consists of nested,
porous membranes that contain indistinguishable
copies of objects. Attached to each compartment is
a set of rewrite rules, that is, equations that roughly
specify how the contents of a compartment should be
modifi ed (strictly speaking, a rewrite rule is a method
to transform a character string into a new one; for
example, the Unix sed utility is a program that allows
users to implement simple rewrite rules). In particular,
such rules may specify that copies of certain objects
should be deleted or moved to another compartment
or that copies of objects should be introduced from
outside or be created out of thin air. Rules are applied
in parallel in such a way that only optimal output is
generated. When there is no more activity, the result
of the computation is equal to the number of (copies
of the) objects found in a designated compartment—
the output compartment. P systems operate in a
massively parallel way while they can interact with
their environment.
A basic assumption of both Turing machines and
P systems is that all operations are exact. In different
words, vagueness is taken seriously into account. It is
true that there are probabilistic versions of both Turing
machines and P systems, but this is not the kind of
vagueness that offers a new insight. On the other had,
although fuzziness is basic expression of vagueness,
still its use in models of computation is largely ignored
by most computers scientists. But what exactly is
fuzziness?
THEME ARTICLE
Computing in a Fuzzy EnvironmentApostolos Syropoulos
366, 28th October Str., GR-671 00 Xanthi, GREECE. Email: [email protected]
Web-page at http://obelix.ee.duth.gr/~apostolo
Fuzzy set theory is a mathematical theory about vagueness, which is a fundamental propery of this world. Some believe that fuziness is a just one facet of vagueness, but some other believe that it is the only expression of vagueness. Despite of this, most models of computation ignore vagueness and “exist” in an exact and defectless world. And this assumption has affected the way real computers are being built. By introducing fuzziness to models of computation, one aims to develop models of computation that are closer to reality. The text that follows is a brief survey of some fuzzy models of computation.
18CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
Fuzzy set theory was developed by
Lotfi A. Zadeh [3] who had the ingenious
idea to defi ne an extension of the notion of
a set where elements belong to a degree. In
particular, given a collection of objects, one
can assign a membership degree, which is
usually a number greater or equal to zero
or less than or equal to one, to each object
to form a fuzzy subset of this collection. As
a concrete example, consider a group of
people. Then we can form the fuzzy subset
of tall people of this group. Depending on
the height of the people and our knowledge
of the height of people, in general, one can
form this fuzzy subset. In the most general
case, one can argue that the membership
degrees are not algorithmic in nature. On
the contrary, one could say that they are
based on the subjective judgement of some
expert.
Fuzzy sets have been successfully
used in various applications and that is
why they are particularly “popular” among
engineers. However, not everyone shares
this enthusiasm. Indeed, there are many
thinkers who believe that statements like
Serena is tall to a degree of 0.70 are basically
elementary mistakes of logic. These thinkers
propose that statements like this can be
rephrased as Serena is 70% tall and in this
case the statement is either true or false
In the fi rst statement we actually say that
Serena is tall and the truth degree of this
statement is 0.70, where 1 denotes absolute
truth. The interesting thing is that one can
use statements like this in (fuzzy) inference
rules to make deductions, something not
possible with the exact statement above. In
other words, the real difference between the
two approaches is in the denotation of the
two statements.
Zadeh believes that probability
theory and fuzzy set theory are rather
complementary in that one can use fuzzy
sets in cases where probability theory is
not useful and vice versa. Others believe
that fuzzy set theory is more fundamental
than probability theory and randomness.
Interestingly, the recent proof of the “Free
Will Theorem” by John Horton Conway
and Simon Kochen has revealed that [I]
f experimenters have a certain property, then
spin 1 particles have exactly the same property.
Since this property for experimenters is an
instance of what is usually called “free will” we
fi nd it appropriate to use the same term also
for particles [4, p. 1444]. Interestingly, they
derived their result without using probability
theory or randomness, while they conclude
that randomness is not needed. But this
does not exclude vagueness as a property
of this world, thus, fuzziness can be used to
reason about vague things. These remarks
make it clear that models of computation
based on fuzzy set theory are closer to reality
than anything else. In the rest of this article,
I will briefl y present fuzzy Turing machines
and fuzzy P systems, which are the most
promising models of fuzzy computation.
Fuzzy Turing Machines Eugene S.
Santos [5] is the fi rst researcher who
formalized fuzzy Turing machines. However,
it was Zadeh that spoke fi rst about fuzzy
algorithms [6]. In the most general case,
a fuzzy Turing machine is one where the
transition from one confi guration (i.e.,
the state the machine is together with the
information regarding the cell that is being
scanned and the information contained in
the cell) to another confi guration (i.e., the
new state that the machine enters, what has
been written in the cell and which direction
the scanning head has moved) is associated
with truth degree. In the end, a fuzzy Turing
machine computes a result with some
plausibility degree. The important question
concerning fuzzy Turing machines is whether
they can solve problems that their non-
fuzzy counterparts cannot. Indeed, there are
problems that cannot be solved using Turing
machines. For example, due to Turing’s work
on the halting problem, we know that when
a program gets stalled, a computer program
cannot say whether it has entered an infi nite
loop or not. Now, Jiří Wiedermann [7],
has shown that fuzzy Turing machines can
solve problems that cannot be solved by
an ordinary Turing machine. In particular,
it seems that fuzzy Turing machines can
decide whether problems like Goldbach's
conjecture is true or not. This conjecture
asks whether every even integer greater
than 2 is a Goldbach number, that is, a
number that can be expressed as the sum
of two primes. Naturally, one may ask why
we do not use them to solve such problems.
The answer is very simple: we need to
program the machine to solve the problem!
Thus, what Wiedermann claims is that
we can program the machine to solve the
problem but he does not offer a solution to
any particular problem. Stricktly speaking,
Wiedermann claims that fuzzy Turing
machines are actually hypermachines [8],
that is, machines that can solve problems no
Turing machine can solve.
Fuzzy P Systems Since vagueness is
basic property of our world, it makes sense
to expect biological systems to be vague.
Thus, a fuzzy version of P systems is model
of computation that is closer to reality.
Fuzzy P systems have been introduced
by this author [9]. In order to explain how
these systems operate, it is necessary to say
a few things about fuzzy multisets and fuzzy
rewrite rules.
A multiset [10] is as generalization
of the concept of a set. While ordinary
sets contain different elements, a multiset
contains copies of different elements. For
example, {1,1,2,2,2,3,4,4,,4} is a multiset
that contains two copies of “1,” three copies
of “2,” one copy of “3,” and three copies of
“4.” Typically, it is assumed that the number
of copies is fi nite. Fuzzy multisets have been
introduced by Ronald R. Yager [12]. In fact
they are generalization of both ordinary
sets and multisets—different number of
copies of elements may belong to different
degrees. This means, that it is possible to
have three copies of element “x” where
each of them belongs to the set with degree
0.62 and seven copies of “x” that belong
to the set with degree 0.81! Although this
may seem weird, still it is quite possible to
fi nd real world examples where this makes
sense. Nevertheless, for our purpose we
need a restricted form of fuzzy multisets,
that I have coined mutli-fuzzy sets, where it
is possible to have only one set of copies
for each element that, naturally, belong
to the set to a degree. Usually, the term
cardinality refers to the number of elements
of some set. In the case of a multi-fuzzy set,
the cardinality is the sum of all element
occurrences, where for each element the
occurrence is the product of the number of
copies of this element times its membership
degree. Now, a fuzzy rewrite rule is one that
it is possible (not probable!) to transform
a character string into another one with a
specifi c plausibility degree.
Suppose that we have a membrane
structure and each compartment is
populated with a multi-fuzzy set. In
addition, assume that each compartment is
associated with a fi nite number of multiset
rewriting rules. Assume that the degree
to which the n copies of a belong to a
designated compartment A is i; also the
degree to which the m copies of a belong
to a designated compartment B is j. If there
is a rule that moves as from A to B, then,
after using this rule, the degree to which
the compartment B will contain a multi-
fuzzy set with n + m copies of as will be
equal to max{i, j} (i.e., we sum up the two
multi-fuzzy sets). In the end, the result of
the computation is equal to the cardinality
of the output compartment. P systems with
fuzzy data produce, in general, real positive
numbers and so, unexpectedly, extend their
computational power.
The following picture depicts a simple
example of P system with fuzzy data:
19CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
This P system contains n objects in
compartment 1, which will be transferred
into compartment 2. The cardinality of the
multi-fuzzy set contained in compartment
2 is equal to n/m. Thus, the result of this
particular computation is a positive rational
number. However, there is nothing that
prevents one from computing any real
number, if we assume that objects may
have real numbers as membership degrees.
Indeed, the following theorem makes this
explicit:
Theorem. P systems with fuzzy data can
compute any positive real number.
By replacing the ordinary rewrite rules
with fuzzy rewrite rules, a result is computed
with some plausibility degree and this
makes things even more interesting. The
computational power of these machines is
an open problem.
Given a fuzzy set and element may
belong to it with degree μ while it does
not belong to the set with degree that is
equal to 1-μ. Krassimir T. Atanassov [13]
has proposed an interesting extension to
fuzzy sets: sets where the non-membership
degree is an “arbitrary” number ν such
that 0 < μ + ν < 1. These structures are
known as intuitionistic fuzzy sets, but the
term intuitionistic is a misnomer since
these structures have nothing to do with
intuitionistic mathematics. Clearly, one
can defi ne the corresponding extension of
multi-fuzzy sets and show their properties
(see [14] for details). This author has
defi ned P systems that are populated with
“intuitionistic” multi-fuzzy sets [15]. It is
possible to go further in the generalization
ladder to defi ne really general multi-fuzzy
sets and fuzzy P systems (see [17] for more
details).
Apart from fuzzy models of
computation, one can defi ne fuzzy models
of concurrency that better explain what
happens in reality. For example, processes in
a system can be modeled by fuzzy multisets,
where the membership degree denotes the
degree to which a process is similar to a
prototype process that consumes minimal
resources. Next, one can defi ne fuzzy
evolution rules that “specify” how a system
evolves (see [18] a presentation of this
idea).
Epilogue Despite its age, the fi eld of
fuzzy computing is relatively immature
since many ideas have been developed the
last few years. This means that students
and researchers who are looking for a new
exciting research should consider doing a
research project in fuzzy computing!
References [1] Turing, A. M. On Computable
Numbers, with an application to the
Entscheidungsproblem. Proceedings of
the London Mathematical Society 42
(1936), 230–265.
[2] Păun, G. Membrane Computing: An
Introduction. Springer-Verlag, Berlin,
2002.
[3] Zadeh, L. A. Fuzzy Sets. Information and
Control 8 (1965), 338–353.
[4] Connway, J. H., and Kochen, S. The Free
Will Theorem. Foundations of Physics
36, 10 (2006), 1441–1473.
[5] Santos, E. S. Fuzzy Algorithms.
Information and Control 17 (1970),
326–339.
[6] Zadeh, L. A. Fuzzy Algorithms.
Information and Control 12 (1968),
94–102.
[7] Wiedermann, J. Characterizing the
super-Turing computing power and
efficiency of classical fuzzy Turing
machines. Theoretical Computer
Science 317 (2004), 61–69.
[8] Syropoulos, A. Hypercomputation:
Computing Beyond the Church-Turing
Barrier. Springer New York, Inc.,
Secaucus, NJ, USA, 2008.
[9] Syropoulos, A. Fuzzifying P Systems.
The Computer Journal 49, 5 (2006),
619–628.
[10] Syropoulos, A. Mathematics of
Multisets. In Calude et al. [10], pages
347–358.
[11] Cristian S. Calude, Gheorghe P un,
Grzegorz Rozenberg, and Arto Salomaa,
editors. Multiset Processing, number
2235 in Lecture Notes in Computer
Science, Berlin, 2001. Springer-Verlag.
[12] Yager, R. R. On the theory of bags. Int.
J. General Systems, 13 (1986), 23–37.
[13] Atanassov, K. T. Intuitionistic fuzzy sets.
Fuzzy sets and Systems 20, 1 (1986),
87–96.
[14] Syropoulos, A. On Nonsymmetric
Multi-Fuzzy Sets. Critical Review
IV(2010), 35–41.
[15] Syropoulos, A. Intuitionistic Fuzzy P
Systems, submitted for publication
2010.
[16] Syropoulos, A. On Generalized Fuzzy
Multisets and their Use in Computation,
submitted for publication 2010.
[17] Syropoulos, A. On Generalized Fuzzy
Multisets and their Use in Computation.
A preliminary version is available form
http://ppage.psystems.eu/index.php/
Papers
[18] Syropoulos, A. Fuzzy Chemical Abstract
Machines, arXiv:0903.3513v1 [cs.FL],
2009.
20CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
HR COLUMN
Pragmatics of “Hire-Fire” in IndiaHastha Krishnan
Director & President, Ma Foi Randstad, No. 49, Cathedral Road, Chennai - 600 086, India.
E-mail: [email protected]
For the Indian industry, in particular the software
industry and other service providers, it is a critical need
to possess the fl exibility and freedom of hiring the best
of human resources and fi ring the non performers.
While we justify the forced exit of employees who
are either not performing or causing disciplinary
issues, we also need to ensure that employees work
with independence in a secure environment without
having to worry about how the land lies the next
day at work. HR in India is yet uncomfortable with
issuing the pink slip. Terminations due to HR issues
or work based problems are few and far between. The
recession period did witness the fastest fi ring exercise
because organizations had to downsize to survive.
However, downsizing was euphemistically termed as
right sizing, which in a way was right too. Companies
realized that the elegance of employee engagement
did not focus on care and concern alone; it has to
focus on talent optimization and performance levels.
To achieve this, pruning in terms of removing those
who did not meet performance expectations and
those who professed a negative and diffi dent attitude
was unavoidable. The worry was – will fi ring send the
right signal to employees about survival of the best
or will it upset the applecart and cause insecurity
across the workforce? Absence of a viable and clearly
evolved exit policy at times prevents Corporates from
trimming the employee base.
The Indian industry works on the emotional
bond more than the legal boundaries. Retrenchment
or layoffs, therefore, are tantamount to breakdown
of trust and faith between the management and the
member. Though the Industrial Disputes Act (IDA)
provides for temporary as well as permanent reduction
of workforce based on business needs, termination
policies lack clarity. Private organizations draw up
their own human resource policies based on legalities
of employer-employee relationships. However,
organizations are reluctant to be transparent about
the reasons behind fi ring. Most often, the process
is done subtly and sensitively so that the rest of the
organization does not speculate on the root cause
of termination. Several organizations seek voluntary
separation as the only method of shedding excessive
manpower. Forced exits convey certain callousness
on the part of the management and this can, if wrongly
perceived, cause damage to the organization’s image.
But, terminating an employee because of indiscipline,
ethical issues or continued bad performance is a
requirement if the organization promotes employee
growth and development. Focus on the ones that
contribute is far more productive than futile efforts to
retain non performing resources. As a policy, this will
send a healthy signal that the organization not only
rewards performance but also penalizes the lack of it.
The Indian IT industry does not consider itself part
of the industrial establishment, lest it should adhere
to the stringent norms of the hire and fi re policy. The
business in software is deeply dynamic and hence
most medium sized companies face ups and downs
depending on the projects on hand and in the pipeline.
At times, even with confi rmed assignments, delay in
project launch can cause fi nancial crisis. Therefore
IT companies hire just-in-time and on contract basis
at least in the fi rst year of engagement. Termination
of contract can be on a minimum notice period or
compensation in lieu of notice period.
The Western world handles hiring and fi ring as
a way of life. Temping is therefore fairly common as
people pick up jobs that come their way. Long term job
security, employee loyalty are all things of past. There
is no mix between work and life and people handle both
aspects with equanimity. Job benefi ts are far more
important than career prospects. The transition from
steady jobs to available and short term assignments
is slowly happening in India. Flexi staffi ng, interim
management positions and assignment based job
opportunities fi nd many a taker, who is looking to
add value to his experience and in the meanwhile, be
employed.
Temp staffi ng is a growing trend and India
is catching up fast. The IT industry has found the
solution now to the expensive bench policy. Software
organizations can augment their employee base
during the peak period of a project life cycle and
maintain a core employee strength during the lean
phases. This workforce fl exibility has helped in dealing
with the changes in the market and customer needs,
and the available talent pool. Of course, freshers
benefi t largely from temp staffi ng as they are provided
short term job opportunities which will lend them the
work experience that is so essential while seeking
permanent positions in large organizations.
The recent recession has driven home
21CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
HASTHA KRISHNAN currently heads the Executive Search business of Ma Foi Randstad. In the past 16 years,
she has held a number of key positions within the organization and was heading Ma Foi’s Europe operations. In
addition to heading Executive Search business, she is also responsible for the International Key Accounts. Prior
to joining Ma Foi, Hastha was a freelance market research consultant for eight years.
About the Author
the advantages of maintaining a lean
organization. Several corporates were stuck
between a bloated workforce on the one
hand, and less or virtually no business on
the other. Human Resource department
was faced with the traumatic task of letting
go of unproductive workforce, who in turn
resisted the move and became diffi dent.
Wage bills were brought down and with
that came the need to continuously deal
with complacency amongst the employees
with regard to growth and development.
Organizations have realized that right
sizing is the best way to go. Effective and
productive employee strength will help
focus on profi ts and in times of economic
downturn, maintain the head above water.
There is no midway to maintain a lean
employee base. To do this, organizations
must be fair and objective to employees
across levels. It is unhealthy to adopt
the easier path of retrenchment by fi ring
the junior workers alone. The payroll will
yet be heavy as the middle management
strength is maintained and the work output
not assessed to help take fi ring decisions.
It is not uncommon for the employers
to feel guilty about the pink slip process
for managers. Although there are no soft
options to handle the painful procedure
of retrenching unproductive managers,
it will do well to keep in mind that for an
organization to be knocked into shape and
fi tness, the fl ab has to be removed where
ever it has been spotted.
Outplacement as an alternative has
been adopted by many companies as
this minimizes the perceived insensitivity
and does not spill too much bad blood.
Employees who have been exited are
transitioned into new jobs available in
the market through placement agencies.
Retraining and orientation is provided by the
former employer to upskill the individuals so
that they qualify for employment in other
organizations. In addition, the placement
consultancies which help fi nd jobs are
also adept at counselling and providing
psychological support to the candidates.
As a move from such reactive measures
to proactive management, organizations
are implementing robust methods to pin
point poor performers and identify and
nurture employees who are contributing
to the business growth. A simple but
effective HR technique is the traffi c signal
method. The employees are forced ranked
into 3 bands. The super performers and
consistent achievers come under green
and the organization resolves to go all out
to retain these people. Under amber, are
those who are good to have in the system;
they show consistency although have no
spectacular achievements to their credit.
Objective would be to explore how they can
be groomed to become high performers.
The organization is aware that as long as
they are in the team, they are good even
if they do not demonstrate potential for
growth. The reds are probably the result
of hiring mistakes, bad management or
negative attitude. They are trouble makers,
de-motivators and, if not let go of at the
earliest, can prove to be the nemesis of the
organization. To keep the 3 bands active and
updated, sound performance management
systems, monthly review meetings,
constant monitoring and regular feedback
from customers need to be managed by
the business and HR bosses. Training and
performance improvement measures will
bridge any gaps that get noticed between
expected and achieved results.
While we say that non performers are
identifi ed and let go of, we fail to see that
most often performance lacks because the
employee is not the right fi t for the job. This
fi tment of mapping the responsibilities to the
individual’s competencies is done during the
job interview. Interviewers need to look for
behavioral indicators that demonstrate the
presence of the skills required to perform the
job. An interview, if not handled well can give
room for two types of errors – not identifying
the right candidate and the more serious
error of choosing the wrong candidate. The
loss is notional in the former but irreversible
in the latter. It is only now that Corporate
India is moving out of the fatalistic stance
about hiring. A star performer is not a boon
to the company nor is a bad employee a
curse. If the recruitment process is robust
and the candidate assessed clearly on what
is expected of him/her, hiring becomes a
scientifi c exercise and does not depend on
individual decisions.
Diligent recruitment processes, clear
performance metrics and healthy employee
engagement render the management of
people and business effective, progressive
and profi table.
HumorHelpdesk : Sir, you need to add 10GB space to your HD
Customer : Could you please tell where I can download that?
Unix is user friendly...its just selective about who its friends are to err is human...to really foul up requires the root password.
You have successfully hacked in, Welcome to the FBI mainframes.
22CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
IDEAS & OPINIONS
Teaching Information Systems: The Generation GapNilay M Yajnik
Professor and Chairman - Information Systems Area, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies,
Juhu Vile Parle Scheme, Vile Parle (West),. Mumbai 400 056, India.
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
I attended the Computer Society of India Annual
Convention in Chennai in the year 2000. I remember one
of the keynote speeches at this Convention was given by
Dr. Natarajan, who was the then Director of the Indian
Institute of Technology Madras (Chennai).I remember
Dr. Natarajan started by saying that the generation of
today has never seen a typewriter, never seen a steam
engine locomotive train, hardly sends conventional
letters and thinks that a response to an email in a day is
much too long! I remember after I heard Dr. Natarajan’s
speech I started to refl ect on my own experiences.
I graduated in Instrumentation Engineering from
the Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani
(BITS Pilani) in 1983. When I joined BITS Pilani in 1978
the Indian IT industry , as it is known today , had hardly
been born. And yet we had a course called “Introduction
to Microprocessors” where we studied the Intel 8085
and then the 8086. My Professor Dr. A P Mathur ‘s book
(which became a standard text book in almost all major
engineering colleges later) was class tested on my batch.
In 2008 , exactly 30 years later , I went to BITS Pilani to
deliver a guest lecture – and it was in the same classroom
that Prof Mathur taught me! In 1978 there was no STD
facility in Pilani so we as students had to book a call at
the campus post offi ce. But when I talked to the students
I became aware and conscious of the fact that these
students were the Internet, Google and Smartphone
generation – something which I had never heard of or
imagined in 1978.Such a huge gap in just 30 years!
Then in 1986, after three years of industry
experience I went back to study to complete my Masters
in Management Studies from the University of Mumbai
(through NMIMS).And now as I teach my students of
MBA in the same Institute. I keep thinking of life as a
student and now as a Professor. In 1986 the difference
between me and my Professors with respect to our
usage of various tools was not much. My project work
for my MBA was done on a typewriter and so was theirs
when they were students. I had been through the pain
of usage of the conventional telephone and so had
they. I had traveled in steam engine trains and so had
they. My interface with the outside world was through
letters sent through the post offi ce and so was theirs.
However, as Dr. Natarajan had mentioned, my own
students have never seen or used these tools. So the gap
between me and my students is much wider than the
gap between me and my Professors. I think this is one
of the biggest challenges that we , especially Information
Systems teachers face today. While the basic concepts in
Information Systems remain the same , the applications
of IS change very rapidly. As an example just some 2 to 3
years ago I used to talk about how extended ERP systems
enable shopping to be done through laptops. And now
there is a report that the smartphones will overtake
laptops in just 2 years! The SDLC concepts remain
unchanged but the new focus is on requirements analysis
.While my Professors at the MBA level focused more on
EDP and MIS in the mid 1980’s I have to focus more on
strategy and implementation of strategy in my IS classes
today.
So if I have to teach IS to Generation Next, I have
to necessarily be Generation Next ++. Therefore as
IS teachers it becomes even more challenging. This
challenge was not so acute in my Professors’ time.
Therefore we IS teachers should remain contemporary
and continuously upgrade our skills with an element
of “paranoia.”. As Andy Grove of Intel had said once
“Only the Paranoid Survive.” So we Information Systems
teachers must update our knowledge of the latest in
technology and its applications with a healthy “paranoia”.
Only then will we be able to keep up and do justice to our
students – the Generation Next.
The Higher Education Forum of India has awarded Dr. Nilay M Yajnik “Outstanding Contribution to the Teaching Profession”. This award was presented to Dr. Nilay Yajnik on Teacher’s Day , September 5th 2010 at the worldwide headquarters of Zensar Ltd. in Pune.The Higher Education Forum of India is one of India’s largest and most prestigious associations for Teachers and Academics involved in the field of higher education. The association has around 2,200 members from all over India and a few from abroad as well. Many of India’s top policy makers in the field of higher education are associated with this Forum.
23CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
SPECIAL SECTION
Welcome to CSI 2010M D Agrawal
Vice President & President – Elect, Computer Society of India, BPCL Quarters, Flat No. 21, Near Asian Heart
Hospital, Bandra Kurla Compelx, Mumbai 400051. Email : [email protected]
Dear Colleagues & Friends,
On behalf of the CSI Executive committee and
Organizing committee, I extend a warm welcome to
CSI 2010, the 45th Annual National Convention to be
held from 25-27th November, 2010 at Mumbai.
The theme for this year’s Convention is
“Technologies for the Next decade” and it is designed
to cover various aspects of current and future
Trends of ICT and related areas. Preparations for this
Convention are in advanced stage.
Organizing such a mega event demands lot of
meticulous planning. We are thankful to Mumbai
Chapter Management committee and Organizing
Committee Chair Shri. Rajiv Gerela for their tireless
efforts.
Dr. Atanu took up the key role of Program
committee chairman and Dr. Chandwani assisted as
program committee Co-chair. Program committee
decided that CSI 2010 shall present foresight vision
on various aspects of ICT, ESPECIALLY FUTURIST
DEVELOPMENTS FOR NEXT DECADE and their key
deliverables to business and society. Since Internet
(i) is bringing paradigm shift in IT solutions and
infrastructure, a well thought 8 TRACK PROGRAM
was designed covering sub themes of New ‘I’
ARCHITECURE under cloud computing , Internet
based ‘I’SOLUTIONS, Infrastructure challenges under
‘I’CONNECT, ENTERPRISE SOLITIONS, ICT role for
societal transformation and role of ‘I’ENTERPRENEUR
for growth of IT . Special sessions are planned for
deliberations on new RESEARCH in ICT, Education
& Research. A team of high profi le veterans from IIT
Mumbai, Prof. Umesh Bellur, Prof. Anirudh Joshi, Prof.
Abhay Karanidikar and Leading CIOs of Mumbai have
extended their valuable help to derive and design the
program structure. With their involvement, so far, 60
senior SPEAKERS have signed up for CSI 2010. The list
will be published shortly. The Conference committee
appreciate timely help from Prof. N L Sarda
for pursuading his colleagues from IIT , Mumbai
for taking Lead Role as Track Chairs.
Thanks are due to our Conference Chair, Shri
Mahalingam for his moral support and valuable
Guidance time to time. Convention preparation has
received a good care and support from President Prof
Thrimurthy and from all EXECOM members and HQ
staff.
With the help of our CSI fellows, Dr. Bagga
and Mr. M R Datar, few sessions are also lined up
under e-governance track, where deliberations will
be carried out on UID project. Presentation of CSI
Nihilent E-governance awards will be a part of
convention program, showcasing CSI leadership
for E-governance initiatives of various government
agencies, state governments and central ministries.
CSI has a rich tradition of recognizing
outstanding contributions of members for driving
key activities and technical programs throughout the
year. CSI also recognizes Key achievers instrumental
in development & deployment of ICT solutions in
different domains, through CSI IT excellence awards.
Thanks to HQ & Education Directorate staff, all
Chapter Chairmen and Shri. Anil Srivastava for their
efforts.
Despite high cost of logistics and 5-star hotel
expenses, Convention registration fees have been
kept within affordable limits to delegates, with special
concessions to CSI members and Academicians.
I am sure, CSI 2010 will offer an excellent
learning opportunity for participants - CEOs, CIOs,
CSI Members, senior offi cers from state, central
government and organizations, Academicians, CXOs,
IT Managers, Corporate staff and others. It is also
expected to open up new avenues for thought in
Partnership & branding to IT companies and corporate
companies.
The Rich cultural heritage of Mumbai and the
unequalled ambience of Hotel Taj Lands End, with
proximity to a beautiful beach - Band Stand at Bandra
East of Mumbai will surely offer a pleasant and
memorable experience to participants.
The event will be a good occasion to the
diversifi ed CSI family to come together at one
forum besides providing an opportunity to show case
the rich heritage of CSI and network with peers and
friends.
For full details, please visit the convention web
site www.csi-2010.org.
So grab the opportunity and Register for it today.
Warm regards.
M D Agrawal
Conference Ambassador
24CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
The year 2010, marks the dawn of a new
decade and hope - introducing us to radically new
opportunities, trends, technologies, challenges
and ever growing base of demanding tech savvy
consumers. The 45th Annual national convention
organized by Computer Society of India during 25-27
November’2010, defi nes a roadmap for the strategic
deployment of New Technologies for the Next
Decade. New Technologies for the Next Decade
will impact the business, society and our country in
this internet age to align with the iGeneration to be
popularly called iGen. iGen is leading and is redefi ning
the way we do business, collaborate and interact with
each other in a synergetic convergence environment. This will create signifi cant impact in the societal
aspects.
In recent times there are landmark enhancements
in computing science, software development
architecture and in telecommunication spheres.
These enhancements have created signifi cant impact
in solution approaches, solution architecture, service
model, reachability and device fl exibilities to meet the
need of true user groups of urban and rural India. The
effective and innovative usage of these enhancements
and solution approaches can benefi t the society at
large for its inclusive growth.
Today IT is being viewed as the fi fth utility
service. The recent few years witnessed a paradigm
shift in the way parallel and distributed systems have
evolved. In parallel computing environments there
is signifi cant evolution from single CPU systems
to Multi CPU, Symmetric processing to Multi-core
system. System software also enhanced to support
this parallel computing environment. Further, there
can be challenging environment co-existing with
CPU and GPU. In distributed computing environment,
there is signifi cant evolution from distributed system
to cluster system to Grid Computing. Further it has
enhanced to Cloud Computing. The Cloud Computing
has provided an environment which is primarily a
distributed system with central management to
provide Green, Economical, fl exible, on-demand
capabilities to support IaaS, PaaS, SaaS and many
more. Economies of scale have driven “cloud
computing” to the forefront where computing and
software is served as a utility much like power. This
has created a challenging environment for solution
provider and application architect. In system design
architecture there had been signifi cant evolution
from monolithic system to structure programming
to client/server system to n-tier system to object-
oriented system to component based system. Today
is the era of service– oriented system. This has given
new dimension to the system which is fl exible, loosely
coupled, collaborative and agile. The system can
be built for change rather than performance only.
The Governance concept especially IT Governance
and SOA Governance has become more and more
important in this loosely coupled, fl exible and
collaborative environment. The signifi cant aspect
of Service-Oriented System is its distributiveness.
Hence the strong thread between multi-core, Cloud
Computing and SOA is the ‘Distributed System’.
Further, this synergetic environment not only create
huge amount of data but also access large data size on
the fl y. Real data management is the need of the day
starting from data fabric to predictive support. These
aspects have provided the creative and innovative
environment for solution architect, solution provider,
IT Researcher and IT Educationists.
In telecommunication domain, wireless networks
are rapidly becoming a part of our everyday life. The
widespread availability of miniature wireless devices
such as PDAs, cellular phones, pocket PCs, and
sensors are one step towards making the vision of
anywhere, anytime pervasive access and computing
a reality. Cellular 2G/3G networks are true examples
of such mobile communication systems. Convergence
is redefi ning the boundaries of data, voice and
video services. The evolution of 2G technologies
to 3G and 4G poses interesting technological
and business challenges, as the deployment of
broadband networks grows aggressively. As
multiple technologies such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi,
SPECIAL SECTION
The CSI Annual Convention’2010– OverviewAtanu Rakshit
Chairman, Program Committee, Deputy Director, International Institute of Information Technology, B-9,
Nalanda Apartments, Niligiri Lane, Baner Road, Aundh, Pune 411 007. Email: [email protected]
25CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
WiMAX are deployed, service providers
are focusing on revenue enhancement
opportunities by offering Multiplay and
other applications over broadband wired and
wireless networks. The great success of the
Internet and wireless communications has
opened a new vista for future all-IP wireless
applications, driven by increasing
demand for packet data services in
worldwide 2.5G and 3G networks. It
has been envisioned that the future
wireless systems will be operating
based mainly on burst data services
carrying multimedia contents, including
voice, data, image and video. Such
increasing demand for multimedia
communication drives the development
of consumer and enterprise markets
as well as the evolution of wireless
technologies. The support of
multimedia is believed to be one of the
pre-requisites to guarantee the success
of the IMS based next generation
wireless networks. The emerging 4G
technologies like LTE-Advanced and IEEE
802.11m WiMAX, the cognitive radio, and
Femtocells are going to change complete
paradigm of the wireless communication
and access.
In the fi eld of Computing and ICT,
India’s success has been phenomenal to
come in the frontline, yet it is not at the
number one position. Reason- India has
been able to produce great developers but
not good problem solvers (researchers)
and Architect. Only few leading E&R
Institutions have been able to produce
good researchers and technologists, yet
the efforts are needed to contribute in the
world class Computing & ICT Education
and relevant research. The IT Education in
India demands strong re-look the way is
being delivered. The subject’s relevance,
the accurate and detailed content, effective
delivery with proper balancing between
science, engineering and technology can
make the system more meaningful and
productive in current context. Can India be
Research Led Country in near future? The
answer lies how effectively we create the
right environment and encourage research
and its patenting. The researcher must
address holistically the science, engineering
and technology aspect. Today the solutions
are to be more fl exible, collaborative and
agile in nature. There is need for effective
customization to suit the requirement.
Further these solutions must address the
people at large for the cohesive growth.
E-Governance is one of the potential options.
E-Governance is the delivery of government
services and information to the public using
electronic medium. It is an effort to make
the government SMART (Simple, Moral,
Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent),
using Information and Communication
Technology (ICT). Further as a country
we must encourage the entrepreneurship
skill. 80% of institutions in the West,
entrepreneurship are institutionalized and
in India, there was a yawning gap. Very few
selective universities/institutes have an
entrepreneurial chair. In effect, the system
of education lacked “entrepreneurial” spirit
in general.
iGen has given pre-dominant
importance to discuss these above
mentioned enhancements and their
implication in research, education and
innovative & meaningful solutions. It will also
discuss how best we can leverage emerging
Information Technology advancements
to consolidate and continuously improve
India’s position to become a super power
to create Global impact. iGen presents the
economic scenario and the growth patterns
that are likely to fan out in the country against
the backdrop of emerging technologies
and empowered businesses from current
Architecture to future need, Impact of
social Media in our lives, inventive usage
of effective and newer solution architecture
and approaches, emerging trends of new
age devices to access solutions, leverage
the new 3G/4G connectivity options to
Connect with large audiences with wire
or wireless scenarios. The signifi cant
synergetic convergence impact will create
the true solution which not only helps
the society in general but also the rural
India in particular. – iGen addresses it all.
To critically address the above
mentioned areas the whole iGen concepts
decompose into multiple components
namely – Workshops, Technology Tracks,
Education and Research, E-Governance,
Paper presentation and Student Convention.
An enlighten list of national and international
speaker from leading industries, academia
and research organization will drive these
components to achieve the overall objective
of the convention. The Workshop provides
in-depth knowledge in four most upcoming
areas – namely – Cloud Computing,
Predictive Business, Mobile Technology
specifi cally the Android and 3G/4G
technologies. The technology Tracks
comprise of eight different and distinct
focuses of today and tomorrow’s need.
These tracks are namely – iArchitecture
with special focus on Cloud Computing,
iEnterprise – focuses on technologies and
the solution for enterprise and extended
enterprise with integration/middleware,
iSociety – focuses the IT enabled services
society at large for varied user groups
and for varied application scenarios.,
iEntrepreneur – create knowledge resource
for upcoming entrepreneur with real
practioners, iResearch – focuses on research
work going on in these said technologies
around the world. Applied research to
create innovative solutions for various
solution suited for the need of the country,
iExcellence – Champion’s Perspective - This
track will provide the platform to present
best three IT Award live project winner from
each of the fi ve categories to showcase
their work, iConnect- focuses primarily on
telecommunication technology including
3G/4G, device convergence, collaboration
and iSolution – focuses on various solution
frame work, middleware and approaches
to built solution of varied need . Each track
will be led by track chair(s) and have set
of eminent speakers to address various
aspects within the defi ned focus area. The
Education and Research event will address
the present scenarios, its lacuna and the
holistic methodology to take it to the next
level to meet the requirement of the future.
CSI has invited research papers for the
convention and few selected papers will be
presented during the convention. CSI the
only national society in IT for professional,
researchers and students feel the need to
educate and guide the students for their
excellence through Student Convention.
iGen gives a heads-up on what’s
practical today, and what’s most likely
tomorrow. Learn from special focus sessions
that provide a realistic perspective on future.
Listen to leading national and international
senior industry practioners, academicians
and Researchers deliberate on long-term
strategies for building a robust environment
for effi cient iGen deployment in alignment
with business and societal needs.
The Internet is clearly about more than sports scores and email now. It’s a place where we can conduct our democracy and get very large amounts of data to very large numbers of people.
- Frank James
CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010 26
CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010 27
28CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
CSI-Nihilent e-Governance Awards 2009-10Awards of Excellence
State Category Gujarat
Department Category Directorate of Settlement & Land Records – Goa
District Category Shahid Bhagat Singh Nagar, Punjab & Jhansi, UP (Joint Winners)
Project Category - G2C MP Online, MP
Project Category - G2G Integrated Finance & Forest Works Management,MP
Project Category - G2B e-Tax Administration – Kerala
Appreciation Awards
Department Category Sales Tax Department, Maharashtra
District Category Gwalior, MP
Project Category - G2C CHOICE, Chhattisgarh
Special Jury AwardsDepartment Category Department of Prisons, Goa
Project Category - G2G NCAOR, Goa - Ministry of Earth Sciences
Special Recognition Awards - Specifi c Areas
Public Distribution Department of Food & Civil Supplies, UP
Law & Judiciary Computerization of Himachal Pradesh Police, HP
Environment Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gujarat
Research CSIR, Government of India
Piyush Gupta G P Sahu Ashok Agarwal & R K Bagga
Convener Co-convener Chairs, SIGeGov
29CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
1. Introduction
India is a country of 1.2 billion people, having 29
states, 6 union territories and 22 offi cial languages.
E-governance in such a big country is a challenging
task in itself. The main objective of E-governance is
to establish citizen centric transparent mechanism
to provide easy and reliable access of its services
to citizens and stakeholders [1]. This objective has
been articulated in the Vision Statement of National
e-governace plan “Make all Government services accessible to the
common man in his locality, through common service
delivery outlets, and ensure effi ciency, transparency, and
reliability of such services at affordable costs to realise the
basic needs of the common man”.
Presently, all the government departments are
creating their own infrastructure to deliver e-services
to the citizen by computerizing and automating their
offi ce procedures. This requires large investment
in the infrastructure, its maintenance and continual
upgradation, which leaves little time and money for
improvement in the delivery of e-services. It has been
reported that only 15% of the computing capacity in
most of the government departments is utilized. The
IT infrastructure created in this manner is too complex,
diffi cult to sustain and expensive which require better
management to bring down the costs.
Cloud computing is an emerging technology [2-6]
which can play a vital role in effective implementation
of e-governance at a lower cost. Today’s dynamic
environment of changing needs require on-demand
location independent computing services which include
software, platforms, and scalable infrastructure. The
cloud computing can provide such an environment
for optimum utilization of resources. It will minimize
the duplication of efforts through centralization and
standardization in ICT setup and reduce the overall
cost to a great extent. The energy requirement to run
cloud-based infrastructure is also signifi cantly lower as
compared to conventional IT set-up for e-governance,
making it environment friendly and green technology.
Cloud computing will also improve the information
sharing among different government agencies with
similar platforms being in use.
This paper systematically describes the
importance of e-governance and the role of cloud
computing in providing better services to the citizens
and stake holders. The world scenario of cloud
computing and initiatives taken by other countries are
briefl y summarized. In the last section of this paper, the
benefi ts of shifting e-governance applications to cloud
computing are discussed, primarily in Indian context.
ARTICLE
Cloud computing-Resource management for effective E-governanceSavita Bhatnagar
Scientist-D, National Informatics Centre, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Government
of India Email: [email protected]
The rapid progress in information technology and availability of telecommunication services at low cost has broadened the use of internet for multiple applications. Over the past few years, the government functioning has also evolved from person dependent manual work culture to an IT enabled intelligent system where the routine jobs are computerized and human intervention is required to bring in an improvement in the system. The government has recognized the potential of IT for improving the efficiency of its functioning, bringing transparency in the system and providing easy access of information and services to its citizens. Considering the diversity and size of our country, it is imperative to believe that such projects are big in nature and require huge infrastructure at multiple locations, which is expensive and require proper IT management. Cloud computing is expected to be an economically viable alternative to conventional methodology for implementation of e-governance projects, without compromising the quality of services. This article highlights the key features of cloud computing which are likely to play significant role in the Indian e-governance initiatives.
30CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
2. E-governanceTill few years back, the delivery of
services by various government departments
was slow and time consuming. This
scenario changed with the advancement
of technology and use of computers in
government departments. The Information
and communication technology (ICT) has
played a major role in bringing this paradigm
shift. Alongside, the rising awareness
among citizens about their rights, demand
for transparency in government functioning
and access to information has helped in
shaping the e-governance needs. E-governance is the application of
Information & communication Technology
(ICT) to provide and improve the
government services, transactions and
interactions with citizens, businesses, and
other arms of government. UNESCO defi nes
e-governance as [7]
“Governance refers to the exercise
of political, economic and administrative
authority in the management of country’s
affairs, including citizen’s articulation of their
interests and exercise of their legal rights and
obligations. E-governance may be understood
as the performance of this governance via the
electronic medium in order to facilitate an
effi cient, speedy and transparent process of
disseminating information to the public, and
other agencies, and for performing government
administration activities”
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, former President
of India, has visualized e-governance in
Indian context to mean:
“A transparent smart e-governance with
seamless access, secure and authentic fl ow
of information crossing the interdepartmental
barrier and providing a fair and unbiased
services to the citizen.”
Types of E-governance
On the basis of interactions between
government and different stake holders as
shown in fi g. 1, the e-governance can be
divided into following groups
Government - to - Government (G2G):
Restructuring the government processes
and it’s functioning to increase the fl ow
of information and services within and
between various government institutions.
This interaction leads to a network of
all government offi ces and can be both
horizontal i.e. between different government
agencies and, vertical i.e. between national,
provincial and local government bodies.
The hexagonal cells in fi g. 1 represent
individual government department which
are networked to other departments.
Government - to - Business (G2B):
The interaction of government with various
businesses in term of policy enforcement,
contract management, procurement
of goods and services etc. It creates a
transparent business environment and
reduces operational cost. It also helps in
creating a business friendly government
which can react quickly to the needs of
enterprises under adverse conditions.
Government - to - Citizen (G2C): It
provides the interface between government
and citizens for effi cient delivery of large
range of public services, easy access to
information and participation of citizens
in government functioning. It makes the
government citizen-friendly.
Government - to - Employee (G2E):
Government is the biggest employer and like
any other organization it has to interact with
its employees and look after their welfare.
The G2B, G2C and G2E is a two way
communication process which require
government at its core and others as
benefi ciary on the periphery, as shown in
fi g. 1.
Fig.1: Type of interactions in e-governance
The Indian initiative
The Government of India has launched
the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP)
with the intent to support the growth of
e-governance within the country.
The government of India took a major
step towards adoption of e-governance
procedures by enacting “Information
Technology (IT) Act, 2000”. This act
provide legal framework to facilitate
electronic transactions and recognizes
electronic contracts, prevents computer
crimes, and make electronic fi ling possible.
The Act came into force on 17 October
2000 [8]. It constituted National Taskforce
for Information Technology and Software
Development. It also created center for
e-governance to act as a nodal agency
and provide general information on
e-governance, take national and international
initiatives, and formulate IT policies for use
by various central and state government
departments. At present, almost all the
government ministries and associated
departments have their institutional web
sites, which provide information to the
public regarding their objectives, policies
and decisions, contact persons etc. Within
the organizational structure also, the cause
of e-governance in being promoted through
automation and computerization of offi ce
procedures and adoption of electronic
mode of communication. A majority of
government projects and schemes require
inter government departmental cooperation
and data sharing for decision making.
Challenges with Traditional Infrastructure
In the present scenario, the
e-governance initiatives are taken by
organizations and government departments
in isolation and scattered pattern.
This model involves computerization
of departmental work, creation and
maintenance of infrastructure, access to
information for public through web site
and online applications etc. This model has
worked very well but lacks an integrated
approach towards e-governance. It is facing
the following challenges.
Duplication of data and efforts:
Information available with one department
is not easily accessible from the other
department. This is due to the lack of
standardization and uniformity in platform,
data and software. Instead of sharing the
data, departments go for creation of their
own data leading to duplication of work
and efforts. For example, issuance of birth
and death certifi cate, Ration card, passport,
driving license, voter’s identity card etc.
require collection of similar personalized
information from public. At present, this
work is carried out by individual government
departments, leading to duplication of
efforts and data.
Underutilization of resources:
The demand for Government to Citizen
Services varies from time to time. The ICT
infrastructure is created to coup up with the
maximum demand. In such cases, the high
capacity resources remain underutilized
for most of the time except short durations
when their availability is justifi able. In
addition, similar software solutions are
required by government departments for
their offi ce related work. Hosting these
software’s require huge investment in
paying license fee, setting up server and
desktop processing power for individual
employee, which remains underutilized. Scalability : Traditional Infrastructure
is not easy to scale. It requires certain
minimum time to upgrade the software and
hardware to meet additional requirements.
This process also leaves some of the
hardware and software redundant.
High maintenance : Government
department are spending a lot of money
on maintaining the ICT Infrastructure. This
includes the cost of annual maintenance,
31CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
uninterrupted power supply, air-conditioning
requirements and cost of manpower
deputed to manage ICT infrastructure.
Security: It is diffi cult to ensure
adequate physical security of computing
equipments and data centers in distributed
environment. Preventing unauthorized
access to ICT infrastructure is a challenging
task, including cyber attacks.
Disaster Recovery: Disaster recovery
need the data and applications to be
redundant at disaster recovery (DR) site so
that in case of any disaster at primary site,
the data and application can be accessed
from the DR Site on a short notice of time.
Maintaining DR is expensive in distributed
infrastructure and often given low priority.
Escalating energy consumption:
Requirement of power and cooling needs
for data centers is increasing day by day. It
has been reported that the cost of energy
consumption has gone up by 800 percent
since 1996 and increasing further [9].
3. Cloud computing
Cloud computing is a model generally
defi ned as the clusters of scalable and
virtualized resources like distributed
computers, storage, system software etc.
which makes use of internet to provide on-
demand services to the user. The National
Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) has described it as [10]
“Cloud computing is a model for enabling
convenient, on-demand network access to
a shared pool of confi gurable computing
resources that can be rapidly provisioned and
released with minimal management effort
or service provider interaction. This cloud
model promotes availability and is composed
of fi ve essential characteristics: on-demand
self-service, broad network access, resource
pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured
service.”
In cloud computing model user
requires the internet enabled devices like
desktop, smart phone etc to access the
cloud computing services. The service
provider is required to maintain various
computers, servers, data storage system
and high-speed network etc. to provide the
computing service, as shown in fi g. 2. There
are mainly three types of cloud services [11]
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS):
Computing resources like server, storage,
CPU, network etc. are provided as a service
on demand. Here, the consumer shares the
cloud infrastructure but does not manage
or controls it, making it appears like a
virtual machine to deploy and run arbitrary
software. He has limited control over
operating system, storage and deployed
applications.
Platform as a Service (Paas):
Computational resources via a platform
upon which applications and service can be
developed and hosted. Some of the standard
platforms are operating system, data base,
queuing services and middleware services
etc.
Software as a service (Saas): Provides
on demand use of application softwares
running on cloud infrastructure. For
example, Google docs is a kind of SaaS
provided through internet, wherein the user
can prepare documents without keeping
any code on the client machine.
There are three type of clouds namely
public, private and hybrid. When the cloud
is owned by a single organization for its
internal use, it is called a private cloud.
It is run by organization itself or can be
outsourced to third party. Public clouds
are owned by other organizations that can
provide the cloud services to many clients
using the same cloud resources. Hybrid
clouds are mix of private and public clouds
wherein an organization hosts the secure
and critical applications on private cloud and
not so critical information and processing on
public cloud.
Essential Features of the Cloud computing
On-demand self-service: A consumer
can access or use the cloud computing
services as and when needed without any
help or interaction with the cloud services
provider. Easy–to- use intuitive interface
enables him to select services as per
requirement. The web based email is one
such service.
Virtualization: It is an important
characteristic of the cloud. User accesses
the computing services without being aware
about the complexity of the infrastructure.
Virtual resources are assigned to the
services and need not to be bound to one
physical resource. Moving virtual resources
from one physical resource to another does
not affect the user.
Access from anywhere : Cloud
computing is a network based service. This
makes accessibility to the cloud services
location independent. The only prerequisite
is the use of standard internet-enabled
devices like low cost desktop computers,
mobile handsets etc at client side with high
speed network.
Resource pooling : The availability of
uninterrupted quality services at customer
site requires good planning and resource
management by the service provider. In
cloud computing, resources are pooled to
accomplish the demand of all the consumers
using a multi-tenant model, with different
physical and virtual resources dynamically
assigned and reassigned according to
consumer demand. Consumers use the
resources like storage, processing, memory,
network bandwidth, and virtual machines as
per their need.
Rapid elasticity : A consumer can
purchase computing power and other
available services as per need without
worrying about investing in additional
resources at site. The service provider on
the other hand can monitor the usage of
its resources in a dynamically changing
scenario. Additional resources can be added
or arranged in case of increase in demand
and similarly, scaled down or leased to third
party when not in use.
Measured Services : The usage of cloud
computing services is measurable. Based on
usage, Cloud services are controlled and
metered per client on daily, weekly, monthly,
and annual basis. This measurement is used
for billing, resource optimization, capacity
planning and other task by the service
provider. The consumers are charged on the
basis of actual usage of a combination of
computing services, bandwidth and storage
etc.
4. Cloud Computing for E-governance
Is it necessary to make use of
cloud computing for e-governance just
because it is one of the most talked about Fig.2: Cloud computing model
32CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
topic in computing or, does it have any
real advantage over other conventional
methods? Certainly, technological benefi ts
and cost advantage together make it an
attractive and viable technology. Cloud
computing is beginning to spread its roots
in government departments due to inbuilt
features like scalability, virtualization, rapid
elasticity, pay as per usages, on-demand
access to software, storage, network and
other platform services. The governments
across the world have understood
the importance of cloud computing in
e-governance and, many countries have
already taken a lead by rolling out plans to
use clouds for e-governance.
The analyst fi rm Gartner has predicted
that cloud computing will be the top most
technology area IT should concentrate in the
year 2010 [12]. Now many countries have
already started using cloud computing for
e-governance.
Japanese government has undertaken
a major initiative to bring all the government
ministries under cloud computing, known
as “Kasumigaseki cloud” [13] and is likely
to be completed by 2015.According to
Japan’s ministry of internal affairs and
communication (MIC), it will have benefi ts
like integrated and consolidated hardware,
shared platform services and security. It
will greatly reduce the government’s effort
in terms of electronic government-related
development work and operating cost.
The United Kingdom government
has considered creation of “G-Cloud”,
government wide cloud computing network,
a strategic priority. The Digital Britain
report prepared by Department of Business
Innovation and Skills and the Department
of Culture, Media and Sports outlined the
benefi ts of cloud and supported this national
initiative. According to UK government,
there are six initiatives under this plan such
as standardize and simplify the desktop;
standardize networks; rationalize data
center estate; deliver on open source, open
standards and reuse strategy; green IT; &
information security and assurance [14].
United States government has also
started efforts for shifting IT to the cloud
across the US federal government. This
includes efforts in the General services
Administration (GSA), National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA),
Department of the Interior, Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS),
Census Bureau and White House. The Chief
Information Offi cer of United States of
America, Vivek Kundra believes that cloud
computing represents a “tectonic shift” in
computing. It requires in change of mindset
and operation. He has also predicted that
the “cloud will do for government what the
Internet did in 90’s [15].
The worldwide cloud based services
revenue is expected to grow with time,
as shown in fi g. 3 based on data reported
in Gartner study [16]. The Gartner has
predicted that by 2012, 20% of leading
cloud aggregators in the market will be
represented by India-centric IT services
companies [17].
Creation of National and State level
data centers, extension of high bandwidth
network connectivity up to block level,
national e-governance service delivery
gateway etc. are some of the major steps
taken in India towards the cloud computing.
India is a developing country with
limited resources at its disposal. Its vast
geographical expanse, economic disparity
among urban and rural population and
infrastructural problems make it essential
that the benefi ts of e-governance reach the
majority at affordable cost. The mode and
means of citizen-government interaction
should be attractive, easy to operate and
should not pose a mental block to its
people. A carefully planned cloud based
nationwide e-governance architecture, use
of cheap electronic gadgets for citizen-
government interaction, distributed but
centrally monitored data processing, and
use of powerful data mining techniques can
be crucial elements for the success of these
initiatives.
Benefi ts of Cloud computing for
Government
Cost Reduction: High capacity and
high computing power hardware at the
client site is replaced by cloud computing
based systems. It reduces the cost of capital
investment on one side and maintenance as
well as running cost on the other. Ideally,
an inexpensive computer with just enough
processing power to run an application
and connect to cloud system is required
at client site. Cloud turns the CapEx
(Capital expenditure) to OpEx (operating
expenditure). The government agencies can
access the computing services (storage,
platform, software, desktop PC etc) as per
their requirement. Infrastructure at remote
site minimizes the expenditure on software
licenses and power consumption.
Darrell M. West, Vice president and
Director of Governance studies at Brookings
has reported cost saving estimates from
various sources [18]. The cost saving
analysis based on his report is shown in
fi g. 4. A minumum 40% cost reduction is
estimated in almost all the cases.
Scalability on demand: In traditional
architecture, scaling involves procurement,
deployment and confi guration of hardware
and software according to changing needs,
which can be a time consuming process.
Government departments generally
create infrastructure to meet peak traffi c
requirement to avoid procurement
related delays. However, this leads to
the underutilization of resources in non-
peak period. For example, CBSE and
State boards declare their results online
and require fast resources for a limited
Fig. 3: Growth in cloud computing services revenue Fig. 4: Cost saving estimates
33CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
period of time. If created locally, they
remain largely underutilized. Similarly,
almost all the educational institutions in
the country required huge resources for
online admission procedure of students
for limited duration. Cloud computing
can meet the time varying demand and
provide an effi cient and low cost solution
to their requirement. The cloud computing
architecture is designed in such a way that
additional resources can be added any time.
Effectively, the size of cloud architecture
can be scaled up or down. Internally, the
resources are shared by user organizations
and their distribution is determined by
individuals need. This provides elasticity
within the system wherein the user always
gets his requirements fulfi lled.
Intelligent government : In
conventional mechanism of e-governance,
the data remains largely unutilized except
preparation of few departmental reports.
Cloud based e-governance model has
centrally monitored data centers containing
vital information about various government
departments. This includes the real time
and the historic data. Through data mining
techniques, huge amount of data centrally
available with the government can be used
to extract useful information for preparing
better government policies, defi ning long
term strategy and intelligent mechanism of
self correction.
As an example the “Right to Information
Act (RTI) of Government of India empowers
its citizens to seek information from
various government departments. It has
two major effects, bringing transparency
in the system and, strict adherence to
government guidelines so that individuals
do not suffer. The monitoring is largely done
by its citizen’s trough RTI. In the intelligent
form of e-governance, such an act can assist
government in monitoring and identifying
the loopholes in the system as a whole
thereby, providing it with a mechanism to
evolve policies for self correction.
High Availability and disaster
Management: Disaster is inevitable and it
is often unpredictable. It can be a natural
disaster such as earth quake, Typhoon,
fl ood, landslide etc or can be due to human
error like fi re etc. Any disaster leads to loss of
life and property. In e-governance, security
and safety of electronic data is of prime
importance. Disaster management involves
the off-site replication of data and system,
which is expensive. Retaining data and
transaction trail for long time is important
for certain departments. For example, land
records system has more than a century’s
worth of mutation information which is of
prime importance. Disaster management is
an integral part of cloud based architecture
which provides data protection and fault
tolerance to the client as part of its services.
Internally, cloud service providers replicate
their data at multiple locations, so loss of
one data centers due to any disaster does
not lead to loss of information for its client.
Easy to Implement: Implementation of
e-governance application at one location,
as in the case of cloud based architecture is
easier compared to similar application being
implemented at multiple sites. The later calls
upon need to have uniform infrastructure
at all sites which is expensive and may not
be available in certain instances, even if
available, it may lead to inconsistency due
to variation in versions of softwares.
Migration to new technology: In a
dynamic environment, the government
policies of various ministries change from
time to time requiring appropriate changes
in e-government applications. Sometimes it
may require migration to new technology.
In the distributed ICT setup, migration
is a challenging task which requires
implementation at site, often at multiple
locations. Comparatively, migration to new
technology is relatively easier and faster in
case of cloud based architecture because
changes at one location alone ensure
migration to new applications by its users.
Go green: Traditional infrastructure
require hundreds of personal computers,
a number of sophisticated servers,
printers, scanners, digitizers etc in a single
organization. It consumes electricity
during operation and also for maintaining
environmental conditions, at least in the
server rooms. The distributed ICT setup
in various government departments is not
good for the environment as we tend to
consume more and more natural resources
with time and, also generate harmful
gases. It also generates huge stockpile of
obsolete hardware waste that need to be
destroyed safely over the years. The cloud
computing architecture optimizes utilization
of resources thereby, ensuring lower
consumption of electricity, less emission of
harmful gases and lower stockpile of waste
hardware.
Benefi ts of Cloud computing for Citizen &
Business
Citizen centric: For achieving optimal
benefi ts of e-governance, a citizen-centric
approach to service delivery is essential. In
this approach, the focus is on the citizen and
the objective is to build a system that delivers
services, which fulfi ll citizens’ requirements.
The co-ordination and interoperability
among various government departments is
essential here. For this, cloud architecture
can have an important role by providing a
shared and common infrastructure to the
various government departments. A model
for future cloud computing based on citizen
centric e-governance architecture is shown
in fi g. 5.
Fig.5: Citizen centric e-governance
E-services at affordable cost:
Telecommunication revolution in India
has signifi cantly reduced telecom tariffs in
recent years and benefi ted its people due
to affordable costs. Internet has also gained
popularity due to these developments.
Availability of technology and ICT to citizens
for accessing the e-services at lower cost is
very important and a major challenge for
the success of e-governance in developing
country like India. Cloud computing reduces
the need of high capacity and high computing
power hardware at the citizen and business
site and makes them free from being tied to
desk top computers and specifi c geographic
locations. For example, some companies
have recently introduced cloud PCs and low
cost laptops. The use of cheap laptops and
widely used electronic devices like mobile
phones, smart phones, notebook etc. to
access computing power and e-services
can benefi t people. A wider reach of
e-governance through such practices will
ensure success of these initiatives.
Conclusion
On-demand self service, network
access, location independent resource
pooling, rapid elasticity and measured
services are some of the attractive features
of cloud computing for e-governance. The
latest developments in this fi eld indicate
that governments around the world will
make extensive use of this technology.
Cloud computing can shift the focus of
government department from infrastructure
setup and its maintenance to improving their
e-services. The citizen centric approach
of government will also bring it closer to
people.
It is generally debated that use of
cloud computing will cut down government
expenditure on e-governance. The author is
of the opinion that shifting of government
functioning to cloud computing will
have several long lasting benefi ts, both
for the government and its citizens. The
most important of all will be the two
way interaction between citizens and
government leading to an intelligent mode
of governance where better policies will
34CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
evolve out of this mutual interaction and
centralized processing.
References
1. Parminder Jeet Singh,
“Recommendation for Meaningful and
successful e-Governance in India”, June
2008. http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca/dspace/
bitstream/10625/41790/1/129466.
2. H. Gilbert Miller and John Veiga,
“Cloud computing: Will commodity
services benefi t users long term”, IEEE
IT Professional, pp 57-59, November/
December 2009.
3. Marios D. Dikaiakos, George Pallis,
Dimitrios Katsaros, Pankaj Mehra and
Athena Vakali, “Cloud computing,
Distributed internet computing for IT
and scientifi c research”, IEEE Internet
computing, pp 10-13, September/
October 2009
4. JohnViega, “Cloud computing and the
common man”, IEEE Computer, pp
106-108, August 2009.
5. Robert W. Lucky, “Cloud computing”,
IEEE Spectrum, pp 27, May 2009.
6. Michael Armbrust, Armando Fox, Rean
Griffi th, Anthony D. Joseph, Randy Katz,
Andy Konwinski, Gunho Lee, David
Patterson, Ariel Rabkin, Ion Stoica,
and Matii Zaharia, “Above the clouds:
A Berkeley view of cloud computing”,
http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/
TechRpts/2009/EECS-2009-28.pdf
7. http://portal .unesco.org/ci/en/
e v . p h p - U R L _ I D = 4 4 0 4 & U R L _
DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.
html
8. http://www.mit.gov.in/content/e-
governance
9. http://www.ibm.com/common/
ssi/fcgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=SA
&subtype=WH&appname=STGE_DI_
CC_USEN&htmlfi d=DIW03004USEN
&attachment=DIW03004USEN.PDF
10. http://www.princeton.edu/~ddix/
cloud-computing.html
11. Robert L. Grossman, “The case for
cloud computing”, IEEE IT Professional,
pp 23-27, March/April 2009.
12. http://www.cloudave.com/link/
gartner-says-cloud-computing-is-the-
top-technology-trend-in-2010
13. http://www.soumu.go. jp/main_
sosiki/joho_tsusin/eng/Releases/
Topics/pdf/090406_1.pdf
14. http://www.cloudbook.net/ukcloud-
gov
15. http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/
ng_20090422_7939.php
16. http://www.gartner.com/it/page.
jsp?id=920712
17. http://www.gartner.com/it/page.
jsp?id=1278413 18. http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/
Files/rc/papers/2010/0407_cloud_
computing_west/0407_cloud_computing_
west.pdf
27th CSI National Student ConventionOrganised by
CSI ITM Student Branch & CSI Gwalior ChapterHosted by
ITM Universe, GwaliorAnnouncement and fi rst call for papers
Aims and Objectives :
As he world readies itself for the second wave of Information & Communication Technology, industry and society are preparing to embrace a technology that is more penetrative, more inclusive, more enhancing than anything we have seen. To meet the challenge of incorporating these new technologies in India, ITM Universe has the privilege of hosting the 27th National Student Convention, which will be held from 9th to 12th March, 2011. Researchers, Business executives, Entgrepreneurs and Students from across the Country will get unprecedented opportunities to share a platform, to discuss and future trends in Technology.
Dates : March 09 - 12, 2011 Venue : Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya Seminar Hall, VSB Block
Key Features :
Technical Paper Presentation, Student Events, Workshops, Expert Lectures (Bilingual - English & Hindi)
Themes and suggestions for the convention are invited from all CSI members with an objective of
development and deployment of technology for social cause.
The contribution and suggestions may please be mailed to:[email protected], [email protected]
For latest updates and more details please visit : www.itmuniverse.in/csi11/27csinsc.html
ITM Universe Campus - Opp. Sithouli Railway Station, NH-75, Jhansi Road, Gwalior, Tel.: 0751-2432977 Ext.223
35CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
A decade ago, Internet came to town...and
changed our lives forever. It changed the way we
communicated, the way be marketed and the way
we interacted with information. Web 2.0 is the like
the second coming of the Internet...and it is going
to change our lives once again, and have more far-
reaching implications than we could ever imagine. If
Web 1.0 was driven by the PC and the worldwide web,
Web 2.0 will be driven by Social Networking Sites
(SNS) and the proliferation of smart phones.
Social Media Will Increase Honesty Quotient
One huge shift that we see on account of social
networking sites, will be an overall shift towards more
honesty in general human behaviour. In the good old
times, when we lived in villages, it was diffi cult for
someone to cheat another person....simply because
everyone knew everyone. In a megapolis like Mumbai,
where neighbours are strangers, it is very easy to get
away with fraud and deceit. But Social Networks are
again making us a village ...where lot of people know a
lot of people...and that is going to force more discipline
and honesty.
In any society there will be honest people and there will
be dishonest people. If we do a plot of honesty levels on
the x-axis and number of people on the y-axis. We will
see a bell curve emerge. Extreme ends of the bell curve
will represent very honest people and very dishonest
people. It is our contention that the middle portion of
the bell curve will move more towards honesty...thanks
to SNS.
Here is an example to substantiate our argument :
Fudging of resumes is known to be routine
practice. Besides fudging names of places where one
has worked and the duration of work, candidates also
routinely keep 3-4 “versions” of their resume ready.
Depending on the job opening, a particular version is
put out. Hence a person will have one version of the
resume which brings him out as a branding expert
(to be used for Brand Manager openings) while there
is another version which talks about his expertise in
setting up sales and distribution networks (to be used
for VP-sales kind of openings). Now both of these are
actually 2 different job profi les which require 2 different
sets of experiences and skills. Now with something like
LinkedIn, the “fl exibility” of having multiple versions of
“myself” is lost...there has to be one and only one me!
I need to be on LinkedIn (that is where people will fi nd
me) and I need to be myself (else I will get caught).
24x7xEverywhere
Once upon a time life used to be 8x5 ...eight hours
a day for 5 days a week. For some it would be 8x6, 9x6
or some such combination.
Then Internet came along...and life became
24x7. Internet gurus taught us how our ecommerce
store could continue ringing in revenues even while
we slept...and with 24x7 revenues, came the need for
24x7 customer service. On the other hand, our bosses
gave us laptops with data cards...and we became
24x7 corporate slaves. The concept of time changed
completely. It was no longer neatly bracketed into silos
(time to work, time to play, time to sleep, and time to
do nothing) ... it became one long line...with anything
happening anytime.
We warned; all this is set to change, again. For
good or for worse we don’t know, but it is going to
change be sure. This is how:
� If I need to get my Dell laptop repaired, I need to
either look up their manual for a 1.800 number
so that I can call them, or I need to logon to their
website, pull out a custserv email id and write
them a mail, or I need to fi ll in a form on their
website giving details of the complaint. Right? ...
Wrong! No need to do this anymore!
� Now all you need to do is logon to twitter and
send out a tweet “Having problems with my
#Dell laptop. Need help”. Chances are that a Dell
representative who is continuously monitoring
twitter for tweets with references to Dell, will
send you a @message offering help. Chances also
are that a Lenovo representative (who is tracking
competition) will also send you a @message
ARTICLE
Social Media Mega TrendsHareesh Tibrewala
Joint CEO, Social Wavelength, 604, Raikar Chambers, Station Road, Govandi (E), Mumbai 400088, India
E-mail: [email protected]
“Blogger, Wordpress, YouTube,
DailyMotion, Twitter, Digg,
Delicious, StumbleUpon, MySpace,
Facebook, LinkedIn, Orkut.....there
are tools and there are tools. Some
may just be the fl avor of the day.
What is not a fad is people’s
participation in Social Media... that
ishere to stay.. and GROW.”
- Social Wavelength Wisdom
Nugget
36CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010
offering help, even though you are Dell
customer (hoping that Lenovo scores
some brownie points with you for
helping you out).
The point is that as a consumer, I no
longer need a “defi nitive” address (phone
number, email id, website URL etc.) to
reach out to a brand. I can just tweet into
cyberspace (even without knowing Dells
twitter handle). It is like standing on top of
my building’s roof and shouting that I am
a Dell customer and I need help... and my
expectation is that Dell will hear me and
respond!
Social Media will create a huge jump
in consumers’ expectations of service levels
from a brand. He no longer needs to reach
out to the brand. It is his expectation that
he can just shout out anytime and from
anyplace... and that the onus of listening to
him and seeking him out lies on the brand.
Brands now need to be truly omnipresent.
Welcome to the new reality: 24x7x
Everywhere.
Changing Role of a Brand Manager
Once upon a time, not so long ago,
brand managers sat in ivory towers and
commanded ad agencies at their disposal
to go forth and conquer the market. Armed
with massive buying power, agencies
would unleash a communication wave on
the consumer. Totally brainwashed by this
“awesome” power, the consumer would
meekly submit and faithfully pick up the
brand from the store shelves. Average
products backed by money power had
a better chance of success than good
products with limited budgets. Marketing
was not about creating good products but
about brainwashing the consumer into
submission.
Not so any more. Social Media is going
to democratise the market place with the
power shifting from the brand owner to
the consumer of the brand. After all, in
classical marketing parlance, a brand is
what “the consumer makes it out to be”!
Here are some of the signifi cant shifts that
we foresee, both within the organisation and
in the market place:
� The walls that separate customer
service, sales, marketing and branding
will disappear. Once upon a time
“a customer-service” problem was
exactly that, the problem of “a
customer”. Today, one dissatisfi ed
customer can group other dissatisfi ed
customers on a social networking site
and cause considerable damage to a
brands reputation. A customer service
problem is no longer a case to be dealt
in isolation; it can snowball into a brand
reputation issue.
� In the era of mass communication, the
brand manager decided the brands
positioning. In a world powered by
Social Media, consumers will decide the
brands positioning. Brand managers
will need to be attentive to consumer
chatter and use that information to
ascertain how the consumer is thinking
of his brand. He will have the choice
of accepting that positioning, or going
back and modifying the product, to try
to establish another positioning. Sheer
money power will not be enough to
establish a brands positioning.
� One of the most used cliché by a
CMO is “We make products that our
customers want”. Fact of life is that a
company actually makes products that
it knows how to make and hopes that
customers will want it. Social Media
will bring consumers closer to the
product creation cycle and products
will actually be made (either by
choice or perforce) which are closer to
consumer expectations.
� The role of brand manager will become
more like that of an air traffi c controller.
He will no longer be a “commander”.
He will be more like a “navigator”. With
his eyes fi rmly glued to the brand radar
he will be closely watching the currents
created on account of brand activities
(ATL, BTL, Digital marketing, Social
Media Marketing) as well customer
service issues, PR crises etc, happening
across the geographical spread of the
brand. And it will be his job to guide
the brand carefully through these
currents, trying to avoid turbulence
and air-pockets but at the same time
enhancing the impact of favourable
currents. This role will require 24x7
vigilance and ability to take very sharp
calls.
Hareesh is a bachelor of engineering from VJTI, University of Mumbai and a Master of Science from the University of Southern California,
USA. He has been trained in Business Strategy Planning at AKZO-Nobel, Germany. He started his career as a partner with IFCM Counsellors,
a human asset management company. In 1997, he co-founded Homeindia.com, one of India’s fi rst e-commerce sites. Hareesh is a serial
entrepreneur and Social Wavelength is his third such venture. Hareesh has also been a visiting faculty at the University of Mumbai. He
has been past President of the otary Club of Mumbai, Sea Pearl, as well as the founder & co-chairperson of the expert committee on
information technology at the Indian Merchants Chamber. Hareesh is an accomplished orator and has been invited to address national and
international conferences on subjects pertaining to branding, entrepreneurship and technology.
The above article has been excerpted from a white paper “Social Media MegaTrends”, authored by Hareesh Tibrewala, Jt. CEO Social
Wavelength. A free copy of the white paper can be downloaded from http://www.socialwavelength.com/white-papers.php.
Call for Volunteers to Serve on Editorial Boards of CSI PublicationsWith an objective of strengthening CSI Periodicals and other publication activities, the Computer Society
of India is inviting volunteer services of its senior members and ICT domain experts across India who
have keen interests in taking up editorial assignments at various levels. The distinguished members with
proven research and publication credentials will be considered for positions such as Hon. Chief Editors,
Associate Editors and Members of Editorial Boards based on the profi les and experience. The CSI Chapters and
members are requested to help identify such volunteers from the respective regions and organizations. The nominations
(including self-nominations) of volunteers may please sent to [email protected] on or before 10th December 2010.
About the Author
ers and
he nominations
er 2010.
CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010 37
Focusing on the challenges and issues for building
a new spectrum of human – computer interface
prevalent in Mobile Computing, this Divisional
Conference on Mobile Computing was organized
during 11-12, August 2010 at Chennai. DCMC-
2000 was organised by the Dept. of CSE & TIFAC
CORE at Velammal Engineering College, Chennai in
association with the Computer Society of India Div IV
on Communications & Chennai Chapter.
For the call for papers announcement made in
the month of Mar 2010, 57 papers were received and
based on a review process by a team comprising of
Dr. Subramanya Rao from CTS, Dr. Bhagya Veni from
College of Engineering, Guindy and Mr. Madhusudana
Rao of C-DAC Chennai, eight papers focusing on
the theme of the conference were short listed for
presentation. The selected papers were authored
by faculty members from institutions like College of
Engineering, Guindy, Pondicherry Engineering College,
Oxford College of Engineering , Bangalore etc. These
papers were presented during the conference in three
technical paper presentation sessions.
The inaugural session of the conference took place
on 11th Aug 2010. Mr. R. Srinivasan, CEO, OneView
Systems, Trivandruam and the past chairman of
CSI Trivandrum inaugurated the conference and
delivered the inaugural keynote address on the
topic “Network Aware Mobile Applications” and
highlighted the features of pervasive computing in
the domain of Network aware mobile applications.
Mr. H.R. Mohan, Chairman, Div IV, CSI released the
conference proceedings and spoke on the trends in
mobile computing and the need for conferences like
this to discuss and deliberate on the various issues.
About the Conference, Prof. B. Venkatalakshmi,
Chief Coordinator, TIFAC-CORE, VEC welcomed the
gathering and briefed on the conference.
Followed the inaugural keynote address, Mr.
V. S. Raghunathan, Sr. technical Director, National
Informatics Center, in his talk, explained the various
mobile user interfaces and interaction models. In
the afternoon session, Prof. Dr. Ramarao from SRM
University enriched the audience with an exposure of
millimeter wave’s impact on Sensor Networks.
The second day of DCMC-2910 started with a
technical talk in which Mr. T. S. Rangarajan, Principal
Consultant, TCS, informed the participants about
Future Store based on RFID Systems. In the panel
session, the panelists, Mr. S. Ramanathan, RVP-7,
CSI, Mr. Madhusudana Rao of C-DAC Chennai, and
Dr. Subramaniya Rao from CTS debated on whether
Personal Computers will be replaced with Handheld
Mobile Devices.
During the valedictory session, the CSI Regional
Vice President Mr. S Ramanathan, addressed the
gathering and distributed the certifi cate of participation.
The two days sessions of the conference provided
an overview and helped the faculty and students to
visualize the future real time mobile applications.
About 30 faculty members from various institutions
and about 40 students from the college were benefi ted
out of this conference as participants.
A REPORT
Report on Divisional Conference on Mobile Computing (DCMC-2010)Report prepared by Prof. B. Venkatalakshmi, Chief Coordinator, TIFAC-CORE, VEC &
Mr. H R Mohan, Chairman, Div IV, CSI.
CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010 38
NCCSE-2011 aims to provide participants with an
opportunity to experience the latest trends in the area of
Computational Science and Engineering. Eminent speakers
from well known academic/industry/ research institutions
have graciously consented to deliver keynote addresses.
Further, NCCSE-2011 will be a forum for research scholars
from different parts of the country and provide an opportunity
to present and share their novel research ideas, in relation
to the conference theme areas .We invite scholarly original
research papers for presentation in NCCSE-2011. The papers
should be sent in IEEE format (both in doc and pdf fi le formats)
by 30th Dec 2010.
The theme areas of the conference include, but not
limited to, the following:
Algorithms; Artifi cial Intelligence; Software Engineering;
Distributed System; Bioinformatics and Computational
Biology; High Performance Computing; Computational
Intelligence; Signal and Image Processing; Information
Retrieval; Knowledge Data Engineering; Computer Graphics;
Virtual Reality; Multimedia; Computer Networks; Neural
Networks; Computer Security; Pattern Recognition; Computer
Vision; Programming Languages; Robotics and Automation;
Security & Cryptography; Data Compression; Data Mining;
Data Warehousing
Theoretical Computer Science
The conference proceedings will be published by Rajagiri
College of Social Sciences with the ISBN 978-81-907044-1-
0. The papers may pl. be sent to Ms. Jaya Vijayan at the Email:
[email protected] / [email protected] by
30th Dec 2010.
Registration fee: Rs. 1000/- for Academicians /
Professionals and Rs. 500/- for Students
For additional details, pl contact: Dr. P. X. Joseph,
Conference Convener, Prof. & HOD, Department of
Computer Science, Rajagiri College of Social Sciences. Rajagiri
P.O, Kalamassery, Cochin - 683104, Kerala, India. Phone: Ph:
0484- 2555564, Email: [email protected] or visit the
website at: www.rajagiri.edu
Contacts:
Ms. Mini Ulanat Mr. S P Soman Mr. H R Mohan Dr. P X JosephConf. Coordinator Chairman, Cochin Chapter Chairman, Div. II Conference Convener
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
CALL FOR PAPERS & PARTICIPATION
NCCSE-2011Second National Conference on Computational Science and Engineering – 4-5, February, 2011Organized by Dept. of Computer Science & CSI Student Branch Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, Cochin
In association with Computer Society of India, Div. IV on Communications and Cochin Chapter
At the outset, on the request of huge number of authors, it
is clarifi ed that the Last Date for Paper Submission is 30th
November, 2010, even if the extended abstract has not been
submitted in advance. Submission of Extended Abstract was
not a pre-condition to submit full paper.
It gives us immense pleasure to inform you that encouraged
by the resounding success met with the previous editions of
INDIAComs since its inception in 2007, we hereby announce
INDIACom-2011; 5th National Conference on “Computing For
Nation Development” during 10th - 11th March, 2011 jointly
with Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi, IEEE
Computer Society Delhi Section, ISTE Delhi Section, IETE
Delhi Centre, JJ Tibrewala University, Rajasthan and BVP
CSI Students’ Branch. It will be followed by NSC-2011; 4th
National Students’ Convention on 12th March, 2011, on the
same theme.
The INDIACom-2011 will feature regular paper presentation
sessions, invited talks, key note addresses, panel discussions
and poster exhibitions.
Like previous editions of Conference Proceedings, for
INDIACom-2011 also, we will publish the refereed Pre-
Conference Proceedings (with ISSN and ISBN serials), both
Hard and Soft Copies.
It is to further inform you that out of the papers being presented
in INDIACom-2011, best papers from each track having scored
04 or more points on a 05 points scale, will be considered for
publication in the bi-annual BVICAM’s International Journal
of Information Technology (BIJIT) having ISSN 0973 - 5658.
We hereby issue CALL FOR PAPERS for INDIACom-2011 and
NSC-2011. Like earlier, let us together make this event a mega
event of the country. Pl. note to submit the papers (Abstract
as well as Full paper) in proper template, which is available on
the website under download section.
Please note that like previous years, this year also, the paper
submission procedure is online. All the authors need to fi rst
register (which is Free), if not already registered so far, at
our website www.bvicam.ac.in/indiacom and then submit
the paper online at the same site. Detailed guidelines and
Registration procedure is available at our website.
For registration, you have to click on Membership. After
obtaining the Membership, you have to click on Submit Paper.
The soft copies of the information brochure and registration
forms can be downloaded from our website http://www.
bvicam.ac.in/indiacom/Downloads.asp.
You are requested to kindly give it wide publicity among
the peer professionals, staff members and students of your
organization. Please feel free to contact us for further details
Important dates are as under:-
Submission of
Full Paper
30.11.2010 Paper Acceptance
Notifi cation
11.12.2010
Other details may be obtained from our portal at www.
bvicam.ac.in/indiacom.
INDIACom - 20115th National Conference on “Computing For Nation Development”During 10th - 11th March, 2011 and NSC - 2011; 4th National Students’ Convention on 12th March, 2011.
CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010 39
SIG REPORT
SIG on e-Governance for the year 2009-2010Report by - Dr Ashok Agarwal (upto 15 June 2010), Maj. Gen. R K Bagga (after 15 June 2010),
Convenor [http://www.csi-india.org/web/csi/csi-sig-egov]
a) Publications
All publications of SIGeGOV are available online (www.csisigegov.org) including
¬ eGovernance Case Studies Edited by Dr Ashok Agarwal
¬ Compendium of eGovernance Initiatives in India Part I & Part II Edited by Dr. R K Bagga & Piyush Gupta
¬ Transforming Government - E-governance Initiatives in India – Edited by Dr. R K Bagga & Piyush Gupta
¬ Critical Issues on eGovernance a document based on Issue Process based Methodology was created and shared with all stake holdets
. This has been put up on the web site: www.csi-sigegov.org
b) Seminars /Conferences/Lectures
a. Knowledge Sharing Summit held from 5 to 6 June 2010 at Hyderabad.
b. 4th International Conference on eGovernance (ICEG) 28-29 April held at IIM, Bangalore.
c. Knowledge Sharing Summit held from 5 to 6 June 2010 at Bhopal.
Full reports published in CSI Communications as well as major International and National publications including CTO Forum, 2010.
c) Education/Research
¬ Curriculum Development on e-Governance: A core course structure was created for offering an elective at various institutions. This
was also shared with CSI HO and other institutions.
(Team: Mr. Mohan Datar coordinated the efforts and Prof. Nityesh Bhatt, Prof. DVR. Vithal, Prof. M P Gupta, Dr. VP. Gulati, Prof. ML. Sai
Kumar; Mr. Piyush Gupta and Dr Ashok Agarwal)
Computer Society of India
AGM NoticeThe 46th Annual General Meeting of the Computer Society of India will be held at 02.30 p.m. on Thursday
25th November, 2010 at Hotel Taj Lands End, Bandra, Mumbai.
A G E N D A
Item 1 : To Confi rm the minutes of the 45th Annual General Meeting held on 9th October, 2009 at VITS,
Hotel, Balewadi, Pune.
Item 2 : To receive and adopt the Annual Report for the Financial Year 2009-10.
Item 3 : To receive and adopt the Audited Accounts for the Financial year 2009-10.
Item 4 : To Appoint the Auditors for FY 2010-11 and to fi x their remuneration.
Item 5 : To ratify the establishment of Student Branches approved during year 2009-10.
Item 6 : To consider and approve the incorporation of a separate Society or Section 25 Company for publication
of CSI Transactions on ICT
Item 7 : Any other business with the permission of the Chair.
H R Vishwakarma
Hon. Secretary, CSI October 28, 2010
CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010 40
The SEARCC International School’s Software competition 2010 (ISSC 2010) was held at RMD Engineering
College, Chennai between 22nd October and 24th October 2010. Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan (ROC)
were represented by one team each whereas India & Sri Lanka deputed two teams for the Competition. Mr Yasa
Karunaratne, Secretary General, SEARCC was the chief guest at the event.
The following team took complete responsibility for organizing and conducting the fi nal competitions:
Event Chair - Dr. R. M. Suresh, Vice Principal, RMD Engineering College, (Vice Chairman, Chennai Chapter)
Organizing Chair - Mr. S. Ramasamy, Past Chairman CSI Chennai Chapter and Tamil Nadu State Students’
Coordinator
Programme Chair - Prof. P Kumar, Dept of IT, Rajalakshmi Engineering College & Hon. Secretary, Chennai Chapter
Complete hosting by way of transportation, accommodation and boarding were provided by RMD Engineering
College. To ensure cultural integration across teams, a site seeing trip to Marina beach, for all the team members
and chaperons was organised on 22nd October 2010.
The trial competition was held on 23rd October 2010 where all the 7 teams participated. All the participating
teams had a very good learning experience at the trial competition. The fi nals started at 9.30 a.m. on 24th October
2010 and lasted for two hours as scheduled. Software displaying minute to minute position of all the teams was
very handy for review by the participants and their anxious chaperons. This time CSI had provided the services of a
Chinese translator for the Taiwan team. Dr. O.S. Srivastava, Vallabh Vidhya Nagar, Dr. Rajasekhar R Kurra, Principal,
K.L. College of Engineering, Vaddeswaram, A.P. and Mr. H R Mohan – Chairman, Div. IV were the judges. The judges
were assisted by Mr Bhuvaneswaran, Rajalakshmi Engineering College. The following teams secured positions as
below:
Team Rank
Taiwan (ROC) First
Sri Lanka Second
New Zealand* Third
* New Zealand, India – A and India-B all had the same total score and were tied for the third position. Judges resolved
the tie as per the rules, in favour of New Zealand.
The awards function was organised on 24th October 2010 evening. Mr. Yasa Karunaratne, Secretary General,
SEARCC, Prof. P. Thrimurthy, President, CSI, the organisers, the judges and all team members with their chaperons
and managers attended. The FC Kohli Challenge Trophy and SEARCC Rolling Trophy were given away to the Taiwan
team. The second prize was given away to Sri Lanka while the third prize went to New Zealand. Mr Yasa gave away
the above prizes and addressed the gathering. He thanked India and Prof Thrimurthy for readily hosting the 2010
event.
Prof. Thrimurthy gave away participation certifi cates to all other students and honoured the chaperons with mementos.
The president also honoured the judges, organizing team and the RMD Engineering College management and staff.
In his address, he emphasized the importance of adherence to the spirit of the competitions and thanked the hosts,
organizers and visiting dignitaries that included Dr T.V. Gopal, Chair-Division II and Dr Sakthivel, Chairman, CSI
Chennai Chapter. He also honoured RMK group of Institutions and Rajalakshmi Engineering College with Flexi-board
certifi cations for their support. Compliments were also paid to M/S Polaris Software Lab, our Silver sponsors of
National competitions.
Dr. R M Suresh spoke at length on behalf of RMD Engineering College and proposed the vote of thanks. He also
distributed mementos from the college to each and everyone, who was a part of the event. The function came to a
conclusion with the National Anthem.
A report on SEARCC International Schools’ Software Competition (ISSC) 2010Report prepared by Wg. Cmdr. Murugesan, Director [Education], CSI
A REPORT
CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010 41
About the convention:
Technological advancements in IT in the past decade
have proven to contribute to nation’s development. With
the recent debacle of IT all over the world, a technological
advancement is needed along with the consideration of
social issues. Techno-progressivism for Renaissance of
IT sector in India marks the beginning of a new era of
development. This will turn out to be a colossal affair
where many native intellectuals can participate. The
CSI has understood the need for motivating the young
intellectuals throughout the country regarding their
pivotal role towards the renaissance of IT. This is a step
for budding intellectuals to bloom a brighter tomorrow.
The State Student Convention (SSC-10) gives the
opportunity to interact with other students from all over
the state and thus share ideas and gain technological
awareness.
The major domains under the convention are:
1. Soft Computing
2. Data mining
3. Swarm Intelligence
4. Grid Computing
5. Cloud Computing
6. Web Technologies
7. Advances in Networks & Security
8. Any other contemporary technologies
Features of the Convention:
1. Paper presentation
2. Poster presentation
3. Robotics
4. Video about Technology
5. Spot Events-
Open mind: Finish a set of tasks using open
source software and Sudoku
6. Dream Big- Present Innovative ideas about
technology.
7. Project demo
Registration Details:
All engineering, MCA and MBA students can participate
NON-CSI members : Rs.300
CSI members : Rs.200
The amount should be paid in the form of Cash/DD in
favor of CSI AP state student convention -2010
Each paper/poster can have a maximum of 3 authors.
Every author has to register separately.
Registration fee includes Convention lunch and kit.
Note : Limited accommodation available on advance
request.
Important dates:
Submission of full papers/ : Nov 15th, 2010.
poster/project synopsis/
Dream Big
Intimation of Confi rmation : Nov 25th, 2010.
Last Date of Registration : Nov 30th, 2010.
Convention Date : 10-11th December 2010
Venue :
Anil Neerukonda Institute of Technology and Sciences
Sangivalasa - 531 162, Bheemunipatnam Mandal,
Visakhapatnam Dt.
For details regarding registration contact
• K Bhargav Reddy – 09703172138
• V Sarva Rayudu – 09030678858
• V Venu Madhavan – 09494573035
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.anits.edu.in/ssc10
1st AP State Students CSI Convention10th and 11th December, 2010
Organized by CSI Visakhapatnam Chapter
Hosted by Department of CSE, IT, & MCA, Anil Neerukonda Institute of Technology and Sciences, Visakhapatnam
(Affl iated to AU, Approved by AICTE & Accredited by NBA)
Theme: “Technoprogressivism for Renaissance of IT in India”
CALL FOR PAPERS
CSI Apex CommitteeChairman : Shri Umesh Chandra
Director (Operations), Vizag Steel.
Vice Chairman : Shri A P Choudhary
Director (Projects), Vizag Steel
Secretary : Shri Paramata Satyanarayana
Sr Manager (IT), Vizag Steel
Treasurer: Shri C K Padhi
AGM(IT), Vizag Steel
Organizing Committee:Chairman: Prof. V S R K Prasad
principal, ANITS
Conveners: Prof. S C Satapathy
H.O.D, C.S.E, ANITS.
Prof. Ch. Suresh
HOD, IT, ANITS.
Co- Convener: Mrs. Ch. Sita Kameshwari
HOD, MCA, ANITS
Program Committee: Chairman: Dr. K. Thammireddy
HOD, CSE, VIGNAN
Convener: Shri B Tirimula Rao
ANITS
Co- Convener: Shri M. James Stephen
IT, ANITS
Members: Shri Soumya Ranjan Mishra
CSE, ANITS
CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010 42
A two-day workshop was organized by the Department
of Computer Science and Information Technology,
Sagar Institute of Research & Technology, Bhopal,
on above topic in collaboration with CSI, CSI Bhopal
Chapter, CSI student branches and industries NETLINK
and ISC software. It was attended by students of
computer science having done one semester course on
Software Engineering.
Inaugural Session
At the inaugural session, Mr. A.N. Singh, retired IG
Police, MP Govt and Chairman Board of Governors,
Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal
was the Chief Guest. He shared his views for extensive
use of computers in Police Department, especially for
crime detection and reduction. Software used for the
purpose should be very sound and fool proof and hence
testing is very important for such critical software.
The Guest of Honour, Dr. R.P. Singh, Director Maulana
Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal and
present Chairman, CSI Bhopal Chapter, spoke about
the role of bodies like CSI and IETE in nation building by
way of providing skill training to youths in the areas that
are not included in their curriculum but needed by the
industry. This will enhance employability of students.
The Special Guest, Shri Puneet Sharma, Vice President
NETLINK described global scenario of software
industry and said that the bad phase is almost over. He
said that many jobs are likely to come up in the industry
and emphasized that software developer and software
tester as a career are equally rewarding.
The Sagar Group of Institutions, Chairman Er. Sanjeev
Agrawal welcomed all the guests and participants
of the workshop on the campus of SGI. He said that
the workshop will be very useful to students as three
experts from the industry will guide them.
Dr. M. Kumar, workshop convener briefed about the
workshop and thanked students for overwhelming
response as 180 students from 26 engineering colleges
of Bhopal registered in the workshop. The vote of thanks
were proposed by Ms Megha Kamble, HOD, CSE, SIRT.
Technical Session
The workshop was divided in six sessions and experts
from Industry and Academics guided the participants.
First Industry Session
Mr. Sandesh Shetty, Manager Software Quality
Assurance of NETLINK software told participants
about SDLC and how quality is looked into at each
stage. He spoke about various testing tools used in his
organization and briefl y explained how to use them. He
also explained the test automation of test cases based
on risk analysis. He made the session interactive and
answered large number of queries of students.
Second Industry Session
Mr. Puneet Sharma, Vice President, NETLINK software
spoke about global scenario of the software industry
Workshop on “Software Testing – Tools and Practices in Industry”, October 8-9, 2010A report prepared by workshop convener Dr. M Kumar, Prof & Dean, Computer Science, SIRT,Bhopal
A REPORT
1
2
3
1. (LtoR) Dr. S H Agrawal, Dr. R P Singh, Er. Sanjeev Agrawal, Mr. A N Singh, Mr. Puneet Sharma, Dr. S C Bhageria, Dr. M. Kumar
2. Mr. A N Singh, Chief Guest addressing the gathering
3. Mr. Puneet Sharma, Vice President NetLINK addressing the gathering
CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010 43
in general and told students that the recession is slowly improving
and new jobs are forthcoming for good students. He emphasized on
understanding business processes as they are the key for producing
good quality software. He also talked about business intelligence
through Data Warehouse and its testing.
Third Industry Session
Mr. Vikas Sidhwani, Software Quality Assurance Manager, ISC
Software, Pvt. Ltd, Bhopal told students how SQA is applied in his
industry. He also emphasized role of CMM/SEI in assuring quality.
He also told students about several testing tools that are being used
in his software development company at different stages of SDLC.
The session was very interactive for students and they clarifi ed many
myths about software testing.
First Academic Session
Dr. M. Kumar, Professor and Dean Computer Science and
Engineering, SIRT, Bhopal spoke on Website testing, He explained
that Website testing is different than the testing of conventional
software due to obvious differences of Web-applications like short
release cycles, constantly changing technologies, possible huge
number of users, inability to control user running environment, 24
hours availability of Websites. Thus, our testing efforts must focus
on the following: functionality, usability, navigation, forms and page
content. He explained how test cases should be generated in each
of above and what are various open source software available for
testing. He demonstrated how link testing should be performed using
some of the open source software. He also highlighted how database
testing should be performed.
Second and Third Academic Sessions
Two sessions were taken by Dr. Deepak Tomar, Associate Professor
of Computer Science and Engineering, Maulana Azad National
Institute of Technology, Bhopal. He discussed various issues of cyber
security and website security. He told about various log fi les where
user’s data is stored on the server and if these fi les can be secured
then cyber crimes can be prevented. He emphasized that there is a
need to secure user’s data whenever it is sent through some URL
as it is completely visible. One way could be to encrypt the user
information. The session was completely interactive and students
learnt many things about cyber security and website security.
Valedictory Function
The Valedictory function began with the welcome address by Dr. S.C.
Bhageria, Director of SIRT, Bhopal. He expressed his satisfaction over
excellent conduct of workshop.
The convener of workshop Dr M Kumar presented two- day
workshop report detailing out the resource persons who made
their presentation on the assigned date and topic. He expressed his
gratitude to the Directors of 26 institutes of Bhopal who sent their
participants for the workshop.
Dr. Anshul Kumar, Global CEO, NETLINK Software, the Chief Guest
of the function, expressed his satisfaction the way workshop was
conducted and hoped that the deliberations enriched knowledge
of students. He further said that such workshop/seminars should
be regular feature as students get chance to interact with industry
persons who are involved in software testing/development. He
distributed certifi cates to the participants.
The vote of thanks were proposed by Ms Ritu Shrivastava, HOD, IT,
SIRTS.
Jayshree Dhere is a software consultant, an IT
security professional and an ISO27001 Lead
Auditor. She has worked in software technology
and information systems areas. She has carried
out various information systems audit &
assurance assignments for companies in BFSI
and manufacturing sectors and helped companies implement
information security policies and procedures commensurate
with ISO27001. She has played roles in different capacities in
conducting a variety of software projects in India and abroad.
She has worked on various platforms ranging from mainframe
computers to e-business infrastructures such as dot net and Java.
She has also been instrumental in helping organisations achieve
capability maturity levels as per CMMI standards. She brings with
her an experience of over 24 years.
Jayshree has also been involved in teaching assignments. She
was involved in courses conducted by BITS Pilani to teach
subjects like Computer Networks, Object-Oriented Analysis &
Design and Software Architectures to M.S. (Software Technology
and Telecommunication) aspirants, from renowned software
companies like Patni Computer Systems and Tech Mahindra. She
has also conducted corporate training in areas of software process
and agile methods. She was involved in technology upgrade
program for senior managers of a renowned software company.
She is currently teaching ‘IT Strategy and Business Dynamics of IT
Industry’ to management students of Mumbai University.
She has been a managing committee member of ISACA, Mumbai
Chapter for 6 years. During this tenure she handled various
portfolios such as CISA Coordinator, Newsletter Editor, Web
Master and Membership Director. She wrote various articles on
subjects such as ‘Enterprise Architecture’, ‘Critical Chain Project
Management’, ‘Service Oriented Architecture’, ‘IT Strategy’ etc.
She also contributed to ‘Computer Interface’ column of BCAS
Journal (Bombay Chartered Accountants Society Journal) for
2 years. Her paper on ‘Women and Information Security’ was
read in the international conference of TWOWS (Third World
Organization for Women in Science) in 2005. She is a life member
of CSI since 1986.
Jayshree did her master’s degree in Physics with distinction and
pursued her post-graduation in Software Technology from NCST
(National Centre for Software Technology, Mumbai). She won
the Comstruct award in software technology for her rank-holding
performance. She is also a Certifi ed Information Systems Auditor
(CISA) from ISACA, USA.
Mrs. Jayshree Ashok Dhere
Welcome to Resident Editor for CSI Communications
CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010 44
About IC-CANA 2011:
“IC-CANA” is a forum for the presentation of Technological advances and research results in the fi elds of Computer
Architecture, Networking and Applications. IC-CANA 2011 will bring together leading engineers and scientists in
Computer Architecture, Network Technology and Application domains from around the world.
Benefi ts of the Conference include:
Keep up-to-date on the latest advances in the fi eld, present your research within a unique forum, Collaborate with
experts from around the world.
Call for Papers:
Authors are requested to submit their original work in the areas of “Computer Architecture”, “Networking” and
“Applications Development”.
Formatting:
Each paper is limited to 5 pages normally. Additional pages will be charged. Please follow the IEEE two- column
format.
Formatting Instructions:
• 8.5” x 11”, Two-column format (Doc, Latex, pdf)
All selected papers will be published in the Conference Proceedings. Apart from this, the Best Papers will be
published in the fi rst issue of NMAMIT Annual Research Journal.
Papers need to be submitted to the following e-mail address: [email protected] or [email protected]
While sending the mail the subject line should be Paper Submission_ICCANA
Important Dates:
Full Paper Submission Deadline: November 30th 2010 (extended date)
Author Notifi cation: December 6th 2010 (extended date)
Author Registration: Before December 15, 2010
Final Camera-Ready & Copyright Form Submission: Before December 15, 2010
Pre conference Tutorial (3 parallel full day tutorials): January 7th 2011
Conference Date: January 8th 2011
For details contact:
Program Chair: Dr. Niranjan N Chiplunkar, CSI Division V (E&R) Chair: Dr. Swarnalatha R. Rao
For further details: See the Conference website www.iccana.com
Technical Sponsors Academic Sponsors Industry Sponsors
International Conference on Computer Architecture, Networking & Applications 7th & 8th Jan, 2011 at NMAMIT, India
Jointly organized by CSI-Division V(Education & Research) and NMAMIT, NITTE
CALL FOR PAPERS & PARTICIPATION
CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010 45
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ExecCom Transacts
CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010 46
1. Calls for Participation: The CSI Chapters and Student Branches
are requested to motivate members from the respective
regions/institutions to actively participate in the upcoming
national/international events such as: CSI-2010: 45th Annual
Convention (25-27 November, Mumbai), ITD-2010 (2-3
December, Bangalore), COMAD-2010 (8-10 December, Nagpur),
ConfER-2011 (23-24 January, Allahabad), CONSEG-2011 (17-19
February, Bangalore), EAIT-2011 (18-19, February, Kolkata), ISEC-
2011 (23-24 February, 27th NSC (9-12 March, Gwalior).
2. CSI Elections 2011-12/2011-13: There has been a concern about
inadequate turn out of members in the elections for last several
years, presumably communications not reaching them. In order
to ensure the correctness of the members’ contact details, the
HQ has deployed exclusive tele-callers for reaching out to the
members and updating the membership database. It is our
earnest request to all CSI voting members to cast their votes
as a matter their right and duty. The CSI objectives can be
realized only through active participation and collective wisdom
of its members in various programmes and organizational
development activities at the national, regional and chapter levels.
3. New Premises for Headquarters in Mumbai: In order to expand
CSI programmes and operations meeting the aspirations of the
members and stakeholder, a decision has been taken to acquire
new premises for CSI Headquarters in Mumbai. The new premises
of 507 Sq. Mtrs. Area for CSI HQ will be at Samruddhi Venture
Park, MIDC Building in Andheri, Mumbai. The locational advantage
is with respect to the proximity of ICT Sector organisations and
similar bodies like NASSCOM and Media Labs.
4. Proposal for CSI Research Institute: The CSI has been in the fore
front of promoting ICT Education and Research since its inception.
With the high-end research work and KPO opportunities coming
up rapidly, there is an urgent to augment the efforts of academia
and research organizations at the national level. With the above
back-drop, a committee has been constituted to prepare a
comprehensive proposal for CSI Research Institute. The proposal
shall especially include the aspects of sustainability and viability
of such an institute with a focus on long-term and strategic ICT
research needs.
5. Special Drive for Enrolling PG Scholars as CSI Associate
Members: With a view to create next-generation membership
base of CSI and mentor the young researchers, a special drive
for enrolling postgraduate scholars (include research scholars)
as CSI Associate member has been proposed across India. These
associate members and new college graduates joining CSI will
be assigned mentors from the vast pool of senior members of
CSI. These new members will also have an opportunity to work/
interact with the IFIP TC Representatives and Hon. Research
Directors nominated by the CSI President as well as join/form
CSI Special Interest Groups in emerging technological domains.
These members will also be encouraged to contribute technical
papers, articles, case studies and project outcomes in various CSI
Publications.
6. A Roadmap for CSI National/International Events: With an
objective of long-term planning and optimizing resources, a
roadmap for National/International events hosted/sponsored/
supported by CSI is under consideration. As such, the host
chapters have been identifi ed for several events e.g. CSI Annual
Conventions-2011 (Ahmedabad), 2012 (Kolkata), 2013 (New
Delhi) and 2014 (Hyderabad). The other tentative events/
hosts under consideration include: SEARCC-2011 (Mumbai),
COMNET-2011 (Udaipur), the 28th NSC (Goa), IFIP SEC 2013
(Bangalore), CONSEG-2013 (Indore).
7. Call for Proposals to Host Regional/Divisional/SIG Events:
The proposals are invited from the potential host chapters/
organizations to host Regional/Divisional/SIG events. The
regional and Divisional/SIG events are hosted to cater to the needs
of specifi c geographical regions and to disseminate technological
developments respectively. The expected outcomes of these
events will include publication of proceedings for academic/
research purposes, formation of special interest groups and task
forces, submission of recommendations to Government and
other policy making organizations. The proposals and specifi c
suggestions may please be sent to the respective RVPs/Divisional
Chairpersons/SIG Conveners. A few of CSI Chapters located in
large Indian states are exploring to host CSI State IT Conventions
to meet the state-specifi c needs.
8. Proposal for Recognizing CSI Student Branches: There have been
suggestions from members to harness the potential of CSI Student
Branches and Member Institutions on long-term and on-going
basis such as:
(i) Special Recognition and Visibility: Based on the
membership profi le and strength, the student
branches may be categorized appropriately as “A”,
”B”, “C” and “O” Student Branches and be listed on the CSI
website thus providing them special recognition and visibility.
The CSI Service awards may be considered for each category
of student branches similar to CSI Chapters.
(ii) Long-term and Strategic Relationship: The student branches
and member institutions having proven capabilities and
credentials may be considered for long-term and strategic
collaboration such as– CSI Education Provider, CSI
Research Centre and CSI Strategic Partner. The objective
of collaborations may encompass a broader spectrum and
meeting the national/regional needs of the society.
(iii) Career Guidance and Counselling: The student branches
desirous of establishing career guidance and counselling
cells on collaborative basis may be assisted in their efforts
enhancing employability. The project internships and in-plant
training opportunities may be provided by the prospective
employers and leading organizations through these cells.
There are also suggestions to revive/revitalize the efforts
towards conducting employability tests at various levels.
9. CSI Golden Jubilee: The professional societies such as CSI follow
a paradigm of Innovate-Associate-Resonate-Communicate cycle
for serving the members and larger interests of inclusive growth. It
is a matter of great pride that CSI has achieved several of the tasks
as envisaged by its founders and leaders. As we approach the
Golden Jubilee of CSI, the members across nation are requested to
share the achievements and contributions of CSI and its chapters,
student branches and members at large. The above contributions
will augment the on-going efforts of compiling the History of
Computing in India and Role of CSI.
10. Publication of Proceedings of CSI Events: An overwhelming
majority of members are for strengthening CSI Publications. While
there are hectic efforts towards the enhancing the productivity,
quality and reach of CSI periodicals, there is also strong need
to publish proceedings of CSI events. These proceedings are
an important source of information to academia and research
organizations apart from being the most important vehicle of
enhancing visibility of CSI and its programmes at the national/
international level. A few proposals have already been received
from members for such publications. There is also a suggestion
to publish CSI Research Digests twice in an academic year,
incorporating highlights and important outcomes of the CSI events
across the Nation.
Prof. H.R. Vishwakarma
Hon. Secretary, Computer Society of India
CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010 47
CCooiimmbatorree
Chapter NewsPlease check detailed news at:
http://www.csi-india.org/web/csi/chapternews-november2010
SPEAKER(S) TOPIC AND GIST
AHMEDABAD
Prof. P. Thrimurthy, President, CSI
Mr. Pratap Jain, Mr. Bharat Patel and Mr. Nilesh Mody
(Offi ce bearers of the chapter)
25th July, 2010 : “Annual Convention of the Chapter”
This was organized to celebrate the occasion of 50th anniversary of Gujarat state
(Golden Jubilee Celebration ‘Swarnim Gujarat’)
ALLAHABAD
Mrs. Shailaja Gupta (Past Chairperson CSI Allahabad)
Mr. M. N. Tripathi, M/s ITI Limited, Naini, Allahabad
M N Tripathi, Manager ITI Naini unit, Allahabad, presenting the
Lecture
10th October, 2010 : “Telecom Scenario in India”
Mrs. Gupta spoke about current and future telecom market, about mobile
communication, and 3G services and also introduced the topic of Next Generation
Network. Regulatory issues involved in NGN were also touched upon.
Mr. Tripathi gave detailed presentation on Optical communication technology
such as Pulse Code Modulation, PDH, SDH and DWDM. Optical communication
media properties, parameters such as polarized mode and chromatic dispersion,
optical power budget were also explained.
COIMBATORE
Mr. M K Anand and Mr. K Gangadharan, Directors,
Maptech Infosoft, Chennai.
8th Sep.2010 : “Use of IT: Effi ciency vs Effectiveness”
DEHRADUN
Mr. Vivekananda Venugopal, Vice President & General
Manager, Hitachi Data System
Dehradun : Chief Guest ED-HOI (KDMIPE, ONGC) inaugurating
the IT Quest Track-1 (Inter School Quiz Competition 2010)
Two track four session- parallel event “Storage Solution for Cloud Computing”
The speaker delivered a technology presentation on storage solution for Cloud
Computing, one of the emerging technologies, which is going to change the
technological landscape of all organizations.
RANCHI
Inter School IT Quiz Competition in pgoress.
26th Aug. 2010 to 4th Sep. 2010 and 21st Sep. 2010 to 30th Sep. 2010. :
“Training Courses of AutoCAD”
These were held for executives of MECON Ltd.
1st Oct. 2010 to 3rd Oct. 2010 : “Inter School IT Quiz Competition”
The quiz was conducted in two categories – Senior and Junior students of Class
XI & XII were in Senior while students of Class VIII to X were in Junior Category.
SRIJI – ONGOLE
Mrs. G Jyothi, Mrs. U. Koumudi, Ms. A. Bindu and Miss.
B. Madhavi
Mrs. G. Jyothi explaining the features of SaaS
4th Sep. 2010 : “Software as a Service”
The seminar focused on all the benefi ts of implementing software as a service
(SaaS) based applications in recession scenario.
TIRUCHIRAPALLI
Mr. S Venkata-subramanian, Associate Professor,
M/s Saranathan College of Engg., Tiriuchirapalli
Speaker Mr. S Venkatasubramanian delivering the lecture on
Tecnologies at Software Industries
24th Aug. 2010 : “Technologies at Software Industries ”
The IT industry uses various modern state-of-art technologies for the development
of software. For developing software with quality, the industry must use a process.
Now-a-days the industry mostly uses agile software development methodology,
whereby the software can be developed more quickly without compromising the
quality. There are several agile methodologies available such as Scrum, Feature
driven development, extreme programming, etc., and industry can choose one
according to the one that suits the best.
Regarding the coding technologies, two major technologies such as dotnet
and J2EE are playing the centre stage. Both technologies can be used for the
enterprise application development. A comparison of the two technologies was
also discussed in the lecture.
Also, an outline about web2.0 and cloud computing paradigms was discussed to
give an insight to the audience about how a budding entrepreneur can start an IT
fi rm without any big personal investment by using cloud services.
UDAIPUR
Dr Martin Howarth, Head of Department Engineering
and Mathematics, Sheffi eld Hallam University, U.K.
26th – 28th Oct. 2010 : Workshop on Networked Mobile Wireless Robotics
“Robotics and Automation”
The speaker gave the keynote speech on technologies and various projects on
Robotics and automation like Distributed Human-Robot System for Chemical
Incident Management. He said a large nanotechnology research programme on
Nanorobotics - technologies for simultaneous multidimensional imaging and
manipulation of nano-objects is going on in Howarth, Sheffi eld Hallam University.
The integration of different technologies to act as simultaneous real-time nanoscale
“eyes” and “hands”, including the advanced nanorobotics, high-resolution ion/
electron microscopy, image processing/vision control and sophisticated sensors,
will lead to the ability to manipulate matter at the scale of atoms or molecules.
The Nanorobotics programme will thus allow unique experiments to be carried
out on the manipulation and observation of the smallest quantities of materials,
including research into nanoscale electronic, magnetic and electromechanical
devices, manipulation of fullerenes and nanoparticles, nanoscale friction and
wear, biomaterials, and systems for carrying out quantum information processing.
“Robotic System Safeguards Employees’ Health”
The speaker informed that the automation and robotic system enable human-
beings to execute work in very dangerous places and they also preserve their
health. According to him, there are extreme temperature sites in which man
cannot work but a robot can do so. The creation of these technologies not
only secures the quality of services and fi nished products, but also ensures the
quality of workers’ living standards. Dr. Hawarth says the aim is to develop
automated systems to a level where operator stress is reduced at the same time
as productivity is lifted.
Dr. S S Rathore, Chairman, IEI, ULC “Robot Miners of the Future”
Advanced robotics is making many mining jobs more effi cient and less dangerous
said the speaker. Mining robotics is tipped to have wide application, particularly in
the automation of potentially dangerous work such as rock-breaking, rock-bolting
in unstable geology and hole-drilling and charging. Automation, mining companies
are hoping their machines will run more effi ciently and with less downtime.
Dr. Martin Hawarth, Sheffi eld Hallam University, U.K. “Robotic System Safeguards Employees’ Health”
The speaker informed that the automation and robotic system enable human-
beings to execute work in very dangerous places and they also preserve their
health. According to him, there are extreme temperature sites in which man
cannot work but a robot can do so. The creation of these technologies not
only secures the quality of services and fi nished products, but also ensures the
quality of workers’ living standards. Dr. Hawarth says the aim is to develop
automated systems to a level where operator stress is reduced at the same time
as productivity is lifted.
Dr. S S Rathore, Chairman, IEI, ULC “Robot Miners of the Future”
Advanced robotics is making many mining jobs more effi cient and less dangerous
said the speaker. Mining robotics is tipped to have wide application, particularly in
the automation of potentially dangerous work such as rock-breaking, rock-bolting
in unstable geology and hole-drilling and charging. Automation, mining companies
are hoping their machines will run more effi ciently and with less downtime.
Entire new continents can emerge from the ocean in the time it takes for a Web page to show up on your screen. Contrary to what you may have heard, the Internet does not operate at the speed of light; it operates at the speed of the Department of Motor Vehicles.
- Dave Barry, Dave Barry in Cyberspace
The ‘Net is a waste of time, and that’s exactly what’s right about it.- William Gibson
CSI COMMUNICATIONS | NOVEMBER 2010 50
Published by Suchit Gogwekar for Computer Society of India at 122, TV Indl. Estate, S K Ahire Marg, Worli, Mumbai-400 030 • Tel.: 022-249 34776
and Website : www.csi-india.org • Email : [email protected] and printed by him at GP Offset Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai 400 059.
Licenced to Registered with Registrar of News Papers If undelivered return to :
Post Without Prepayment for India - RNI 31668/78 CSI, 122, TV Indl. Estate,
MR/TECH/WPP 241/WEST/09-11 Regd. No. MH/MR/WEST-76-2009-11 Mumbai - 400 030
Student BranchesPlease check detailed news at:
http://www.csi-india.org/web/csi/chapternews-november2010
SPEAKER(S) TOPIC AND GIST
DIMAT, REGION IV SIRT, BHOPAL
8th to 10th Oct.2010 :
3-days workshop on Robotics.
Staff and resource persons from the VLSI & Embedded
Systems Lab of DIMAT and from Mechanical, EEE/ETC
& CSE/IT/MCA Departments
Robotic Workshop in progress
8th and 9th Oct. 2010:
Workshop on “SOFTWARE TESTING – TOOLS AND PRACTICES IN INDUSTRY”
A detailed report on this Workshop may please be found elsewhere in this issue.
UPES, DEHRADUN
Mr. Vinod K. Taneja
Lighting of Lamp during the Inauguration (L to R) Mr. Vinay Avasthi,
Mr. Vinod Kumar Taneja, DGM NIC, Prof. G C Tiwari, Pro Vice
Chancellor, UPES, Prof. Durgesh Pant, Mr. Polash Bora
1st Oct. 2010 :
Inauguration of student branch was organized at the University of Petroleum &
Energy Studies, Dehradun.
The speaker addressed the students and emphasized the role of CSI in career
building of students. There was also a presentation given by him on “Cloud
Computing”, which enhanced the knowledge of students on the topic.
Later a quiz competition “TRIPOD” was conducted.
Counsellors of Student Branches are requested to immediately update their records with
Wg Cdr M MurugesanDirector-Education, Computer Society of India, National Headquarters, CIT Campus, 4th Cross Road, Taramani, Chennai 600113
Ph: +91-44-2254 1102/1103/2874; Fax: +91-44-2254 1143. e-mail: [email protected]. Web: www.csi-india.org
Please note that reports from the Student Branches without the approval of the CSI Director-Education will not be published.
– Gopal T V, Honorary Chief Editor