How to Best Automate Intersection Management

Recently there has been increased research interest in developing adaptive control systems for autonomous vehicles. This study presents a comparative evaluation of two distinct approaches to automated intersection management for a multiagent system of autonomous vehicles. The first is a centralized heuristic control approach using an extension of the Autonomous Intersection Management (AIM) system. The second is a decentralized neuro-evolution approach that adapts vehicle controllers so as they collectively navigate intersections. This study tests both approaches for controlling groups of autonomous vehicles on a network of interconnected intersections, without the constraints of traffic lights or stop signals. These task environments thus simulate potential future scenarios where vehicles must drive autonomously without specific road infrastructure constraints. The capability of each approach to appropriately handle various types of interconnected intersections, while maintaining an efficient throughput of vehicles and minimizing delay is tested. Results indicate that neuro-evolution is an effective method for automating collective driving behaviors that are robust across a broad range of road networks, where evolved controllers yield comparable task performance or out-perform an AIM controller

Sharing knowledge without sharing data: on the false choice between the privacy and utility of information

Presentation slides for Azer Bestavros' June 1, 2017 talk at the BU Law School.As part of an ongoing collaboration, the Law School hosted a talk by Azer Bestavros, BU Professor of Computer Science and the Director of the Hariri Institute for Computing. Prof. Bestavros will detailed his groundbreaking research project regarding pay equity. In this project, he and his colleagues conducted a study of more than 170 employers in the Boston area, analyzing and reporting pay equity results without compromising any of the firms' confidentiality. The project - and the methodology - have broad implications well beyond the employment context

Collection and integration of local knowledge and experience through a collective spatial analysis

This article discusses the convenience of adopting an approach of Collective Spatial Analysis in the P/PGIS processes, with the aim of improving the collection and integration of knowledge and local expertise in decision-making, mainly in the fields of planning and adopting territorial policies. Based on empirical evidence, as a result of the review of scientific articles from the Web of Science database, in which it is displayed how the knowledge and experience of people involved in decision-making supported by P/PGIS are collected and used, a prototype of a WEB-GSDSS application has been developed. This prototype allows a group of people to participate anonymously, in an asynchronous and distributed way, in a decision-making process to locate goods, services, or events through the convergence of their views. Via this application, two case studies for planning services in districts of Ecuador and Italy were carried out. Early results suggest that in P/PGIS local and external actors contribute their knowledge and experience to generate information that afterwards is integrated and analysed in the decision-making process. On the other hand, in a Collective Spatial Analysis, these actors analyse and generate information in conjunction with their knowledge and experience during the process of decision-making. We conclude that, although the Collective Spatial Analysis approach presented is in a subjective and initial stage, it does drive improvements in the collection and integration of knowledge and local experience, foremost among them is an interdisciplinary geo-consensusPeer ReviewedPostprint (published version

A New Role for Human Resource Managers: Social Engineering Defense

[Excerpt] The general risk of social engineering attacks to organizations has increased with the rise of digital computing and communications, while for an attacker the risk has decreased. In order to counter the increased risk, organizations should recognize that human resources (HR) professionals have just as much responsibility and capability in preventing this risk as information technology (IT) professionals. Part I of this paper begins by defining social engineering in context and with a brief history pre-digital age attacks. It concludes by showing the intersection of HR and IT through examples of operational attack vectors. In part II, the discussion moves to a series of measures that can be taken to help prevent social engineering attacks

Multi-camera complexity assessment system for assembly line work stations

In the last couple of years, the market demands an increasing number of product variants. This leads to an inevitable rise of the complexity in manufacturing systems. A model to quantify the complexity in a workstation has been developed, but part of the analysis is done manually. Thereto, this paper presents the results of an industrial proof-of-concept in which the possibility of automating the complexity analysis using multi camera video images, was tested

Structuring information work: Ferranti and Martins Bank, 1952-1968

The adoption of large-scale computers by the British retail banks in the 1960s required a first-time dislocation of customer accounting from its confines in the branches, where it had been dealt with by paper-based and mechanized information systems, to a new collective space: the bank computer center. While historians have rightly stressed the continuities between centralized office work, punched-card tabulation and computerization, the shift from decentralized to centralized information work by means of a computer has received little attention. In this article, I examine the case of Ferranti and Martins Bank and employ elements of Anthony Giddens’s structuration theory to highlight the difficulties of transposing old information practices directly onto new computerized information work