Malena Mesarina

Perturbative time and frequency allocations for RFID reader networks

RFID reader networks often have to operate in frequency and time constrained regimes. One approach to the allocation of frequency and time to various readers in such regimes is to perturb the network slightly so as to ease the constraints. We investigate how to perform these perturbations in a manner that is profitable from time and frequency allocation point of view.

Optimal scheduling for networks of RFID readers

Devising switching schemes for networks of colliding and correlated RFID readers is a core challenge in the deployment of RFID networks. We derive optimal scheduling schemes for readers in RFID networks in four cases of practical importance. Most other cases can be reduced to a combination of these basic cases.

A Self-Configuring Sensing System for Data Centers

Wiring sensors in a data center is extremely expensive in comparison to the wiring of computing equipment. This is due to the central architecture of traditional sensing systems, which requires long wires to be connected between racks and a central box. In addition, a re-layout of the racks after the sensor wires are deployed is practically impossible. We propose using a wireless self-configuring network of smart sensing nodes to alleviate these problems. We explore how to design the sensor control software to be self-reconfiguring when nodes relocate. The software is divided in three layers: network organization, data aggregation and visualization. In this paper, we identify several insights into the thermal monitoring requirements, design issues and initial design solutions for these layers.

Evaluating a Personal Communication Tool: Sidebar

By more closely integrating email with the web we aim to bring organization to email and more collaboration to the web. To this end we developed the Sidebar, a web-browser plug which displays email messages which link to the currently displayed URL. We conducted longitudinal studies on two versions of Sidebar to observe the usage of Sidebar and determine if it improves communications productivity. We found that providing an email summary in Sidebar resulted in raised awareness of the email collaborations, increased serendipitous discovery of information, and resulted in higher reported communication productivity. This paper summarizes Sidebars operation, describes the user studies, and presents conclusions.

A management and performance framework for semantic web servers

The unification of Semantic Web query languages under the SPARQL standard and the development of commercial-quality implementations are encouraging industries to use semantic technologies for managing information. Current implementations, however, lack the performance monitoring and management services that the industry expects. In this paper, we present a performance and management framework interface to a generic SPARQL web server. We leverage existing standards for instrumentation to make the system ready-to-manage through existing monitoring applications, and we provide a performance framework which has the distinct feature of providing measurement results through the same SPARQL interface used to query data, eliminating the need for special interfaces.

eduPAL: An Online Service to Create, Manage and Evaluate Educational Projects

In this paper we describe an online service that allows students to create research-based projects assignments very easily from different sources (desktop, laptop, mobile devices) and in different formats (text, still images, audio, video, annotated media). It also provides features to allow students to not only manage projects collaboratively, but also provides customizable templates to automatically generate well-paginated reports with several layout options. In addition, it allows teachers to automatically create project assignments as templates, and uses the class roster to allow the teacher to assign the projects to individual or groups of students, and monitor the progress and assignment status for any student or group of students in real time. The service uses a combination of natural language processing algorithms and data analytics to provide semi-automatic tracking, evaluation and dynamic visualization of the students’ progress in projects assignments over time.

Automating server tracking for data centers

Asset management in state of the art data centers is still a manual process. An automated system to track the location of servers and create a real-time inventory would not only improve operations management but also reduce operational costs. This demo shows a novel application of location aware wireless networks, RFID technology and visualization software integrated in end-to-end system to track servers in a data center.