1. 27 maj 2013, kl. 13.00 Osquldasväg 10, plan 6
Styrelsesammanträde
27 maj 2013, kl
Osquldasväg 10, plan 6

2. Agenda Approval of today’s agenda Member to check the minutes
Minutes from previous meeting
High-payoff high-risk seed projects [SB]
Information
Workshop and book on future networked systems [SB]
Postdoc Call 2013 [SB]
Status on Industry Internship Program [BW]
Status on Undergrad Summer Program [SB]
Graduate School [SB]
Mobility program [SB]
Distinguished Lecture Series [BW]
Meetings 2013
AOB  

3. 3. Minutes from previous meeting

4. 4. High-Payoff High-risk Seed Projects [SB]
Background: Review 2012 suggested that ACCESS should encourage more high-risk research
Call for ideas: ACCESS Faculty submit project idea, motivate why high risk and high payoff, not more than 500 words
Evaluation: Hearing and pre-selection by EC, decision by Board
Time plan:
Submission deadline: Mar 13
Discussion and EC proposal: May 6
Board decision: May 27
Project start: Jul 2013
Funding: : 500 KSEK per year and project over two years with half-time evaluation, nominally 1 project supported. EC proposal: 2 projects year 1 at 400 KSEK, 1 project year 2 at 400 KSEK
Conflict of interest: EC or Board members cannot apply

5. Proposals Per se privacy-preserving distributed optimization
Carlo Fischione
Shaping up networked systems through controlling their statistical moments
Dimos Dimarogonas and Xiaoming Hu
Cooperative Green Wireless Networks
Ming Xiao
Networked processing for streams of data
György Dan
Sustainable large-scale smartphone-based measurement systems for research impact
Peter Händel
An information theory beyond bits
Tobias Oechtering
Open problems in communication networks and systems
Markus Flierl

6. EC Proposals for Projects to be Supported 2013
Shaping up networked systems through controlling their statistical moments
Dimos Dimarogonas and Xiaoming Hu
An information theory beyond bits
Tobias Oechtering
Funding: 2 projects year 1 at 400 KSEK, 1 project year 2 at 400 KSEK

7. Title: Shaping up networked systems through controlling their statistical moments PI: Dimos Dimarogonas and Xiaoming Hu Abstract: Current modeling and control approaches in networked systems either assume a finite number of agents and local controls, or limiting properties of continuum models as the number of agents goes to infinity. We consider instead here a finite number of agents and define the group’s statistical properties through its moment characteristics. A first problem is how many moments are needed to characterize a specific objective while a second problem involves the design of feedback controllers on the moment dynamics that control the shape of the group. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that such an approach is considered in multi-agent systems, while its potential impact relies on its truly scalable nature. For example, in order to shape the agent group into a polygon of N vertices, only 2N-1 moments need to be controlled, which is far more tractable than designing a control based on all agents' states. The envisioned high payoff of the project relies on the fact that there are no other Seed projects in the same area. At the same time, the suggested problem is completely novel with a high impact in a number of application areas, such as social networks (panic control, crowd evacuation), opinion dynamics, mobile robotic systems, as well as sensor and biological networks. The project is of high risk since the total novelty of the problem is a high risk on its own. In addition, the nonlinear behavior in the microscopic interaction may result in difficulties in reachability while at the same time estimation of moments is required, which may be hard to measure and compute in some applications. The main part of the budget will be dedicated to one postdoc position that will be shared between the two Schools.

8. Title: An Information Theory beyond Bits PI: Tobias Oechtering Abstract: The semantic of a message plays a crucial role in the communication system design such as event-based control, networked control, or (H)ARQ or CSMA protocols. Classical Shannon Information Theory fails to describe the benefits of such systems since it excludes the semantic of messages per se. In this project the goal is to develop a new information theory which takes semantic aspects such as timing, value, and cost of information into account. The theory should be built on the concepts of information and control theory. If we succeed to build a consistent theory, then it will be very useful for future system design at large and is expected to have a huge impact. The funding will be initially used to support the research by the PI (salary, research visit). The feasibility of the endeavor will be constantly checked. In case of a positive development, the funding should be additionally used to support the costs of a Postdoc or a PhD student.

9. Agenda Approval of today’s agenda Member to check the minutes
Minutes from previous meeting
High-payoff high-risk seed projects [SB]
Information
Workshop and book on future networked systems [SB]
Postdoc Call 2013 [SB]
Status on Industry Internship Program [BW]
Status on Undergrad Summer Program [SB]
Graduate School [SB]
Mobility program [SB]
Distinguished Lecture Series [BW]
Meetings 2013
AOB  

10. 5a. Workshop and book on future networked systems [SB]
Objective: Establish future open research problems for ACCESS
Approach: Host a (small) scientific workshop in May 2014 with selected international research leaders. Edit a book based on the event.
Next step: Form an organizing committee

11. 5b. Postdoc Call 2013 [SB]
# applicants > 130 ACCESS faculty nominated 15 candidates EC shortlisted 9 candidates with 4 currently being invited

12. 5c. Status on Industry Internship Program [BW]
ACCESS PhD students have chosen options:
You take a leave from KTH for 2-3 months to work at Ericsson or ABB on a project in the area of ACCESS, but not necessary directly related to your thesis work.
You keep your KTH salary but relocate to Ericsson or ABB for 2-3 months to work on a joint co-sponsored project more directly related to your current research direction.
PhD student responses: 14 answers. Most of them prefer option 1 and suggest summer time or just after the summer. One already had a discussion with Ericsson about option 2.
Next steps

13. 5d. Undergrad Summer Program [SB]
Background: Many of the labs in ACCESS engage talented undergraduate and master students in their research during the summers. This coming summer we plan to organize some joint events for all these students under an ACCESS umbrella.  
Planned events
ACCESS Undergraduate Summer Programme kick-off: June 10th at in lecture room Q2. Introduce ACCESS and lunch is offered to participants.
Joint social activity: Details TBD. The event will be organized around July 1.
Final workshop: August 30th, details TBD. Here the students will present the outcomes of their projects.
ACCESS is responsible for the common costs of these events, but not for student salaries etc.
USP Lead: Henrik Sandberg
Status: 14 participants (12 ACL, 1 LCN, 1 TCS)

14. 5e. Graduate School [MS] Spring 2013
Coverage, Clustering and Classification in Dynamic Systems, study group, C. Beck, UIUC
Advanced performance modeling and analysis, intensive course, M. Telek, TU Budapest
Bayesian networks, preparatory course, T. Koski, KTH
Partially observed Markov decision processes: From filtering to control, intensive course, V. Krishnamurthy, UBC
Fall 2013
Information theoretic security, specialized

15. 5f. Mobility program [SB]
Incoming Maria Papadopouli, U Crete, 2011—2013 (part time) John Baras, UMD, (part time) Carolyn Beck, UIUC, Apr-Jul 2013 Geir Dullerud, UIUC, Apr-Jul 2013 Vikram Krishnamurthy, UBC, Apr-Jun 2013 M. Telek, TU Budapest, May 2013 Outgoing Henrik Sandberg, MIT

16. 5g. Distinguished Lecture Series [BW]
Upcoming 2013
Dr. Laurent Massoulie, Director of the Microsoft Research - Inria Joint Centre, Paris, France , June 4, 2013, at 13:15
Professor Vincent Poor, Princeton Univ. USA, October 24, 2013 at 13:15
ACCESS Special Seminar
May 28: Karl Johan Åström, Lund University, Q2
Past, Spring 2013
Professor David Basin, ETH, Swtizerland, Jan 16, 2013
Professor Marc Mézard, Ecole normale supérieure and LPTMS - Univ. Paris Sud, CNRS, France, April 9, 2013
Professor Janos Sztipanovits, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA, April 19, 2013

17. 6. Meetings 2013 ACCESS Board meetings 2013 13:00-14:30 Mon 4 Feb
13:00-14:30 Mon 27 May
13:00-14:30 Mon 14 Oct

18. 7. AOB