Towards a Platform for Widespread Embedded Intelligence - ERCIM

ISTI-CNR - Donatella Castelli coordinated the first Digital
Library Reference Model workshop in Frascati, near Rome,
in June. At the workshop, an
invited group of international
experts discussed the digital
library (DL) model proposed
by DELOS, the Network of
Excellence on Digital
Libraries. Despite the large
number of digital library systems
in existence, there is so far
no clear agreement on what
these systems are exactly, nor
what basic functionality they
should provide. This model is a
first attempt at establishing an
abstract DL framework, based
Donatella Castelli.
CWI - Christine Bachoc, Université Bordeaux, and Frank
Vallentin, CWI, have found new upper bounds for 'kissing'
in higher dimensions.
In geometry the kissing
number is the maximum
number of nonoverlapping
unit balls
that can simultaneously
touch a central unit ball.
In two dimensions the
kissing number is six.
This can be seen when
euro coins are grouped
around one central euro
coin (see picture). The
kissing number is only
known for the dimen-
sions 1, 2, 3, 4, 8 and 24. For the dimensions 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10
Bachoc and Vallentin now found sharper upper bounds. The
kissing problem has a rich history. In 1694 Isaac Newton and
David Gregory had a famous discussion about the kissing
number in three dimensions. Gregory thought thirteen balls
could fit while Newton believed the limit was twelve. Only in
1953, Schütte and Van der Waerden proved Newton right.
An article explaining the results is available at
http://arxiv.org/abs/math.MG/0608426.
on a small number of unifying
concepts. It seeks to provide a
common semantics that can be
used across different DL implementations. The workshop
aimed at achieving global consensus on this model. In her
introductory speech, Patricia Manson, Head of the EC unit for
'Technology-Enhanced Learning & Cultural Heritage' said that
she expected that the results of the workshop would impact on
the definition of FP7 research priorities and help to initiate the
relevant political and operational actions needed to deliver the
European Digital Library to European citizens.
Kissing coins.
IN BRIEF
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft - Ulrich Trottenberg took over the
presidency of the 'Fraunhofer Center of Institutes', Schloss
Birlinghoven, on 1st July 2006. The 'center of institutes Schloss
Birlinghoven' gathers all research institutes at the Birlinghoven
campus. With some 500 scientists, it is the largest center for
information technology of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft. During
his presidency Trottenberg
intends to make the leading role
of the institute center more visible.
He is planning to do this
by numerous events/meetings
for industry, research, politics
and the general public.
Ulrich Trottenberg holds the
chair for Applied Mathematics
and Scientific Computing at the
Department for Mathematics at
the University of Cologne. He
also is the head of the
Fraunhofer Institute for
Algorithms and Scientific
Computing (SCAI) and vice
chairman of the Fraunhofer
Research Group for Information
and Communication
Ulrich Trottenberg.
Technology (ICT). In addition he heads the Department of
Simulation and Software Technology of the German
Aerospace Center.
Current research topics of the Fraunhofer Center of Institutes
are the extension of the world-wide web to information technology
services, the handling of the data flood with automatic
extraction of knowledge from data (datamining) and Human-
Machine Interaction.
A team of researchers from the Politecnico di Milano and
CEFREIL Labs, led by Stefano Ceri, won the 2006 Semantic
Web Services Challenge (SWS), organised by Stanford
University. The goal of the SWS Challenge is to develop a
common understanding of various
technologies intended to
facilitate the automation of
mediation, choreography and
discovery for Web Services
using semantic annotations.
The challenge required the
solution of a Web Service
mediation problem and a Web
Service discovery problem.
The implementation presented
by the Italian team was judged
the most complete.
See:
http://deri.stanford.edu/challenge/2006/
Stefano Ceri.
ERCIM News No. 67, October 2006
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