SensorCloud: Towards the Interdisciplinary Development of a Trustworthy Platform for Globally Interconnected Sensors and Actuators

Although Cloud Computing promises to lower IT costs and increase users' productivity in everyday life, the unattractive aspect of this new technology is that the user no longer owns all the devices which process personal data. To lower scepticism, the project SensorCloud investigates techniques to understand and compensate these adoption barriers in a scenario consisting of cloud applications that utilize sensors and actuators placed in private places. This work provides an interdisciplinary overview of the social and technical core research challenges for the trustworthy integration of sensor and actuator devices with the Cloud Computing paradigm. Most importantly, these challenges include i) ease of development, ii) security and privacy, and iii) social dimensions of a cloud-based system which integrates into private life. When these challenges are tackled in the development of future cloud systems, the attractiveness of new use cases in a sensor-enabled world will considerably be increased for users who currently do not trust the Cloud.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, published as technical report of the Department of Computer Science of RWTH Aachen Universit

International Contracting Meets Information Technology: Tales from a Transpacific Seminar

The following account is in essence a personal memoir concerning the first year of what, at the time, was a novel course offering: an international negotiation simulation, conducted transnationally, in which teams of students from the University of Tokyo utilized e-mail, videoconference facilities, and other resources to negotiate a major acquisition agreement with teams of students from the University of Washington. I originally wrote the account in 2001. As of this writing, in early 2005, we have just completed the fifth year of the course; and in the interim, professors at a number of other universities have established courses along similar lines, including the course offering discussed by Kent Anderson in his article in this volume. Rather than attempt to rewrite the following article in its entirety to reflect all of the developments in the intervening four years, I have elected to retain it in its original form, as a contemporary account of the first year of what has proven to be a successful experiment. Where intervening developments warranted inclusion, I have added updates in brackets. In August 2000, I left a professorship at the University of Washington (UW) School of Law to assume the chair in Law and Society at the University of Tokyo (Tokyo Daigaku, hereinafter shortened to Todai) Faculty of Law. Traditionally, when a Jaw faculty in Japan hires a professor laterally from another university, the dean at the new school pays a personal visit to the dean of the prior school, to apologize and to request formal permission to consummate the hire. In my case, that ritual took the form of an exchange of letters between the two deans. In their exchange, Dean Sasaki Takeshi of the Todai Faculty of Law and Dean Roland Hjorth of the UW School of Law both pledged to use my move as an opportunity to expand the already substantial ties between the two schools. As one step in that direction, for my first seminar at Todai I decided to undertake a project that represented a new venture for both schools: a truly transpacific international contracting seminar, offered jointly by the two schools. The centerpiece of the seminar was to be a simulation, in which teams of students from UW and teams of students from Todai would utilize e-mail and interactive video to negotiate and draft a corporate acquisition agreement. I encountered sufficient hurdles and setbacks along the way that, with less than a month to go before the start of the semester, I was ready to throw in the towel. I\u27m thankful I did not do so, for the seminar turned out to be the most exciting and rewarding teaching experience I\u27ve ever had. I offer the following account in the hope others might learn from my experiences with a transpacific seminar

High-Speed Projects in the United States: Identifying the Elements for Success-Part 1, MTI Report 05-01

For almost half a century, high-speed ground transportation (HSGT) has held the promise of fast, convenient, and environmentally sound travel for distances between 40 and 600 miles. While a number of HSGT systems have been developed and deployed in Asia and Europe, none has come close to being implemented in the United States. Yet this is not for lack of trying. There have been several efforts around the country, most of which have failed, some of which are still in the early stages, and a few of which might come to pass. The goal of this study was to identify lessons learned for successfully developing and implementing high-speed rail (HSR) in the United States. Through a broad literature review, interviews, and three specific case studies—Florida, California, and the Pacific Northwest—this study articulates those lessons and presents themes for future consideration

The Bridge Newsletter Spring 2019

-Building better aerogels-Bridge repair needs-Incoming ASCE President speakshttps://scholarsmine.mst.edu/bridge/1000/thumbnail.jp

The Bridge Newsletter Spring 2019

-Building better aerogels-Bridge repair needs-Incoming ASCE President speakshttps://scholarsmine.mst.edu/bridge/1000/thumbnail.jp

Electrical and Computer Engineering Research Report 2008

Department Research New Chair Publications Enterprisehttps://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/ece-annualreports/1005/thumbnail.jp

Impact of China's Accession to the WTO on U.S. Agricultural Exports

China's accession to the WTO has been welcomed by a broad range of U.S. agricultural interests. The WTO agreement will lower tariffs and other barriers, and increase market access, but the actual benefits to U.S. exporters will depend on the competitiveness of U.S. exports with those of other countries and on China's implementation of WTO rules. Analysis by the U.S. Department of Agriculture indicates immediate gains in export sales for U.S. agriculture, gains that will increase over time as market access expands and as Chinese economic growth boosts demand for imported agricultural products. However, some observers express less optimism, indicating that while U.S. exports to China should expand "in theory," in practice exporters will face several hurdles which must be overcome in order to reach the full potential of the Chinese market. This paper adds to USDA and other analyses of China's export potential by discussing the status of China's WTO implementation for agriculture, and provides a qualitative assessment of the potential for U.S. agricultural exports to China over the next few years.International Relations/Trade,

The Cowl - Vol v.82 - n.2 - Sep 14, 2017

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Volume 82, Number 2 - September 14, 2017. 24 pages