In New Zealand (NZ), we have a Communications Society (Com- Soc) Chapter that is a joint chapter of the IEEE NZ North, South, and Central Sections. We believe that both ComSoc members and the wider community would benefit from a single joint Chapter. However, last year (2015) was very productive for us in the areas of professional activities and community development programs.
Being a ComSoc chapter chair, Associate Professor Nurul I Sarkar had nominated Professor Ying-Dar Lin (National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan), for an IEEE ComSoc Distinguished Lecturer (DL) tour to NZ. Professor Lin gave three public lectures in three main cities of NZ, Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland, on 17, 20, 25 August, respectively. All three lectures went very well as far as professional development of the members of the society and the wider community is concerned. A brief description of each of the talks is highlighted below.
Professor Lin gave his first DL talk, “Software Defined Networking: The 2nd Wave of Cloud Computing,” at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch on Monday, 17 August. This talk was organized by Professor Harsha Sirisena. Next, Professor Lin gave his lecture “Research Roadmap Driven by Network Benchmarking Lab” in Wellington on Thursday, 20 August. This talk was organized by Dr. Terence Betlehem. The third lecture was held in Auckland on Tuesday, 25 August (see below for more details). The DL talks on some aspects of “Software Defined Networking” are relevant because the NZ Government is encouraging academia-industry collaboration. Most hi-tech companies are small to medium enterprises in NZ; therefore, government initiative and seed funding are important incentives to foster such cooperation.
IEEE DL-NSRG Workshop
In Auckland, the DL lecture was held at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT), Auckland CBD. AUT’s School of Computer and Mathematical Sciences hosted a day-long Network and Security Research Group (NSRG) workshop in conjunction with the IEEE DL program on Tuesday 25 August 2015.
Associate Professor Jairo Gutierrez (Head of Computer Sciences) gave an opening talk and outlined the program for the day. The workshop had three keynote speakers: Professor Ying-Dar Lin (ComSoc DL from National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan), Professor Adnan Al-Anbuky (School of Engineering), and Dr. Alastair Nisbet (School of Computer and Mathematical Sciences). In addition to the keynote session, two regular sessions were chaired by Dr. Sayan Ray (Manukau Institute of Technology) and Dr. Bobby Yang (AUT).
In addition, there was a series of presentations given by DLs, invited speakers, and research students. First, Professor Lin gave his DL talk, “Research Roadmap Benchmarking Lab: Deep Packet Inspection, Traffic Forensics, WLAN/LTE, Embedded Benchmarking, SDN, and Beyond”. The talk focused on aspects of research activities, including product development and testing, third-party testbed, network benchmarking lab (www.nbl.org.tw), and a research roadmap for traffic forensics, WLAN/ LTE, embedded benchmarking, and SDN at the research plane. Some issues and open research areas were discussed.
Professor Al-Anbuky gave his keynote, “Federated Physical Sensor Clouds and Related Cloud Services,” which focused on aspects of the management of physical sensor clouds through the remote cloud computing environment, and research activities at the Sensor Network and Smart Environment lab (http://sense.aut.ac.nz/SeNSe_Lab/). Finally, Dr. Alastair Nisbet gave his keynote talk on “Challenges of Implementing Security in MANETs,” which focused on issues and challenges of implementing security mechanisms in MANETs. The tutorial style presentations helped the audiences understand the technical subjects very well. There was ample opportunity for question and answer and further discussion after the each keynote talk.
Among the other 11 presenters, Shariful Islam (research assistant) talked about “Base Station Congestion Management for Post-Disaster Scenarios”. The remaining 10 Ph.D. students from NSRG gave mini presentations during the day. Despite the busy time of year, approximately 40 people from both within and outside the University attended the event. Having ample opportunity for discussion, people enjoyed networking during lunch breaks. The event was co-sponsored by IEEE and AUT. The organizing chair A/Professor Nurul Sarkar received positive feedback from the participants, indicating that the event was successful.
Dr. Chiaraviglio Gives Invited Talk
Dr. Luca Chiaraviglio (University of Rome Sapienza, Italy) visited Auckland and gave an invited talk at Auckland University of Technology (School of Computer and Mathematical Sciences)) on Thursday, 13 August, 2015. The talk, entitled “From Energy-Aware Networking to Sustainable Networking,” generated much interest among the participants, and was followed by a good discussion. Approximately 16 people attended the talk (mostly staff and students from AUT). Dr. Chiaraviglio also gave another talk, entitled “How to Apply Sustainability in the ICT Sector: The University Role,” at the University level. These events were jointly supported by the AUT Sustainability Taskforce and IEEE NZ North Section. Thanks to Dr. William Liu (AUT) for organizing Dr Chiaraviglio’s trip to NZ.
Professor Kevin Sowerby Organizes IEEE NZ Wireless Workshop
The IEEE NZ ComSoc chapter organized a day-long IEEE NZ Wireless Workshop on Friday, 4 September, 2015 at the University of Auckland, Auckland. This annual event brought together more than 90 engineers, researchers, industrialists, and policy makers working in the field of wireless communications and network technologies. There was a series of talks by speakers from industry, wireless research centers, and academia, with ample opportunity for informal discussion and networking. The presentations covered various topics and provided a forum for experts in the wireless industry and academia to discuss innovative technologies and research currently in progress. This event provided an excellent opportunity for professional development and networking for the members of the community. Thanks to Professor Sowerby (University of Auckland) for organizing this fruitful event.
Conclusion
The IEEE NZ ComSoc DL program and workshops were very useful for the professional development of the members of the wider university community in 2015. We had four good speakers including ComSoc DL Professor Ying-Dar Lin (from Taiwan) who gave public lectures in three main cities of New Zealand. We had ample opportunities for networking and international links/collaboration. The workshops were effective in promoting networking, academia-industry links, and sharing ideas. The DL program was supported by IEEE ComSoc and AUT.
