[TYPES/announce] CFP Workshop on Combining Theory and Systems Building in Pervasive Computing

[Thomas Hildebrandt]

NEWS: Journal Special Issue & Extension to the Paper Submission Deadline



International Workshop on Combining Theory and Systems Building in 
			Pervasive Computing

	
	http://www.smartlab.cis.strath.ac.uk/CTSB 


		A Workshop of PERVASIVE 2006
		http://www.pervasive2006.org 

			Dublin, Ireland
			May 7th, 2006



Problem Space

This workshop seeks to promote a combined systems building and theory approach in 
pervasive computing research, by bringing together researchers of the two, currently 
largely separate, communities, with the aim to share their experiences from work 
where this approach was followed, but more importantly to identify key areas within 
which this approach could be further nurtured and grown.

Most of the pervasive computing research to date has focused on systems building 
with little attention paid to theoretical foundations of the models on top of which 
systems are built. Although it can be argued that this has traditionally been the case 
for systems research more generally, we believe that the particular characteristics of 
pervasive computing give cause to question the wisdom of this approach. The 
pervasive computing vision of computational capability deeply embedded into the 
physical environment means that system failures have the potential to cause serious 
disruption to human activities, or even endanger human lives. Moreover, the large 
scale and worldwide deployment of pervasive computing systems mean that it would 
be difficult to locally contain these effects. In this context, prudence would suggest 
that research prototypes should not leave the laboratory, until certain guarantees about 
their safe operation and deployment can be offered. We believe that this is exactly 
where theoretical tools can be utilised to great effect. 

Despite recent advances in theoretical research, like the development of calculi, logics 
and verification techniques for the analysis of security, communication and 
networking protocols; for the modelling and verification of resource usage guarantees 
by computational entities; and the modelling of context, a lot of work still remains to 
be done. The theoretical tools required by pervasive computing are still in the early 
stages of the development. As a result, we believe that we have currently reached a 
stage where a combined theory and systems building approach is the only sensible 
way of pushing pervasive computing research forward. 

In order to promote the combined research approach advocated above, and to explore 
ways in which it can be developed, this workshop focuses both on system models and 
semantics for pervasive computing. Consequently, the workshop seeks papers on the 
areas, but not limited to, listed below:

1.Pervasive computing systems models that would be usefully informed by 
  further theoretical  development for
	Context-awareness
	Self-management
	Privacy, Security and Trust
 
2.Pervasive computing formal models that may benefit systems development 
  and/or themselves by being tested in real systems scenarios, including calculi, 
  logics, semantic models, type systems and verification techniques for 
	Context-aware and mobile computation
	Privacy, Security and Trust

3. Case studies of pervasive computing formally informed systems models
4. Experience reports from pervasive computing projects that followed the 
   combined research approach


Organising Committee

Dan Chalmers, University of Sussex, UK
Simon Dobson, University College Dublin, Ireland
Thomas Hildebrandt, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Julian Rathke, University of Sussex, UK
Sotirios Terzis, University of Strathclyde, UK  [chair]


Submission

The workshop format will be focused around submission of position papers of no less 
than 6 and no more than 8 pages. Please submit your papers by email to 
Sotirios.Terzis (at) cis.strath.ac.uk in PS or PDF using the Springer LNCS 
Proceedings format 
(http://www.springer.com/sgw/cda/frontpage/0,11855,5-164-2-72376-0,00.html).

Papers are solicited that either present particular formal or systems models that could 
stimulate the development of a combined theory and systems building research 
approach; present formally informed systems models as case studies on how the 
combined research approach could be realised; or report on the lessons drawn from 
research projects where the combined research approach was followed. 
Approximately two thirds of the workshop will be devoted to the presentation and 
discussion of these papers, while the remaining third of the time will be devoted to the 
design of a research roadmap for the closer integration of theory and systems building 
research in pervasive computing. 

Papers will be reviewed by at least 2 members of the programme committee which 
includes both researchers with systems building and theory background. The review 
process will be based upon identifying the relevance and potential of the paper to 
contribute in the identification of key areas for the development of the combined 
research approach and to stimulate discussion.

A Pervasive 2006 workshop proceedings volume that would include all accepted 
papers is currently in negotiation.

Appropriate publication of extended versions of workshop submissions and the 
summary of the workshop discussion is also being investigated.


Journal Special Issue 

The authors of the best submissions, as nominated by the workshop programme committee, will
be invited to submit for review extended versions of their papers for a special issue of 
the Computer Journal (http://comjnl.oxfordjournals.org/).


Important Dates

Workshop papers submission: February 12th, 2006 (extended)
Workshop paper notification of acceptance: March 15th, 2006
Workshop papers camera-ready: March 24th, 2006
Workshop date: May 7th, 2006


Programme Committee

Christian Becker, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Michele Bugliesi, University Ca Foscari, Venice, Italy
Michael Butler, University of Southampton, UK
Roy Campbell, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, US
Dan Chalmers, University of Sussex, UK
Simon Dobson, University College Dublin, Ireland
Kurt Geihs, University of Kassel, Germany
Karen Henricksen, University of Queensland and NICTA, Australia
Thomas Hildebrandt, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Valerie Issarny, INRIA, France
Jens B. Jørgensen, University of Aarhus, Denmark
Christine Julien, University of Texas at Austin, US
Aaron Quigley, University College Dublin, Ireland
Fabio Martinelli, IIT, CNR, Italy
Robin Milner, Cambridge University, UK
Julian Rathke, University of Sussex, UK
Arne Skou, Aalborg University, Denmark
Sotirios Terzis, University of Strathclyde, UK