Mohammad Sameer Sunhaloo

A Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Container Tracking System for Port Louis Harbor: The Case of Mauritius

Everyday millions of containers circle the globe an d 250, 000, 000 container movements are performed around the globe yearly through 220 ports. Approximately 2% of in-transit containers are physically inspected, while empty containers are ra rely inspected. A serious container event could trigger a worldwide massive port shutdown. Government security officials recognize container shipments as one of the world’s greatest sec urity threats which press for dramatic improvements in air and maritime security. Port Authorities are striving to increase efficienc y through effective supply chain management, while focus is being placed on control, visibility and security. This paper is based mostly on the possible implementation of an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) based container tracking system for Port Louis harbor. RFID will enable the identification of containers over long distances and in demanding environments such as the port area. This will help in real-time identification and tracking of containers, reaching new lev els of traceability and control. Companies will know at any point in time, where the ir assets are and all movements at key locations will be recorded for eventual streamlining an d optimizations. These will lead to a reduced capital costs and significant overall savings in th e long run for Port Louis harbor. The implementation of this system however relies on a solid col laborative network to link the various stakeholders of Port Louis harbor, by taking into consid erations the specificities of Mauritius which is strategically positioned in the Indian Ocean. SWOT Analysis and survey has been used for this study. Taking into consideration the benefits and constraints, recommendations were made as to the approach to adopt for its implementation. In the light of this research work, it was consider ed important to implement an RFID based solution in the port, after various RFID systems at int ernational levels were studied and compared. The automated tracking and identification system wi ll no doubt constitute another building block towards achieving the vision of turning Port Louis harbor into a maritime and logistics hub in the region.

The Application of Design Patterns to Develop Games for Mobile Devices using Java 2 Micro Edition

In this paper, we demonstrate the use of design patterns to develop games for mobile devices on the J2ME platform. We believe that the proposed idea will help J2ME game developers to write better re-usable code faster. We consider a single player Sudoku board game which is based on the model-view-controller architecture. The view is configured with a Game Controller Choice pattern so that different controllers can be selected. The view and the model implement the Game State Observer pattern. The Canvas drawing logic is created using the Drawing Template pattern, which ensures reusability of the board size computation as well as provides a means for the programmer to implement game specific drawing functionalities. A generic undo method is provided using the Game Memento pattern. Setting of the current display is achieved through the Change Screen pattern. We note that the use of patterns in the Sudoku game makes it possible to cater for changes without breaking up the overall architecture of the game. By considering a downgraded version of the standard Soduko game, we show that patterns allow modifications to be made without opening up too many classes. We also show how the proposed design of the Sudoku game facilitates the design of other games.

An Interactive E-Learning Tool for Kids in Mauritius

In this paper, we give an overview of an interactiv e e-learning tool which we have developed for kids aged from eight to eleven years old in Mauritius. By developing this software, we aim at promoting self learning and developing information and communication technology skills among the youngsters in Mauritius. The e-learning tool d eveloped is based mainly on the science curricula covered at upper primary and lower secondary le vels, in the Mauritian schools and colleges respectively. Our software does not intend to rend er obsolete or replace the existing pedagogical approaches. On the other hand, it will complement the existing teaching and learning methods.

A meshless method for Asian style options pricing under the Merton jump-diffusion model

In this paper, we consider the partial integro-differential equation arising when a stock follows a Poisson distributed jump process, for the pricing of Asian options. We make use of the meshless radial basis functions with differential quadrature for approximating the spatial derivatives and demonstrate that the algorithm performs effectively well as compared to the commonly employed finite difference approximations. We also employ Strang splitting with the exponential time integration technique to improve temporal efficiency. Throughout the numerical experiments covered in the paper, we show how the proposed scheme can be efficiently employed for the pricing of American style Asian options under both the Black–Scholes and the Merton jump-diffusion models.

Numerical simulations of microwave heating of liquids: enhancements using Krylov subspace methods

In this paper, we compare the performances of three iterative solvers for large sparse linear systems arising in the numerical computations of incompressible Navier-Stokes (NS) equations. These equations are employed mainly in the simulation of microwave heating of liquids. The emphasis of this work is on the application of Krylov projection techniques such as Generalized Minimal Residual (GMRES) to solve the Pressure Poisson Equations that result from discretisation of the NS equations. The performance of the GMRES method is compared with the traditional Gauss-Seidel (GS) and point successive over relaxation (PSOR) techniques through their application to simulate the dynamics of water housed inside a vertical cylindrical vessel which is subjected to microwave radiation. It is found that as the mesh size increases, GMRES gives the fastest convergence rate in terms of computational times and number of iterations.

Skew-Hermitian based iterations for nine-point approximations of convection-diffusion problems

We study skew-Hermitian based splitting methods for the iterative solution of nonsymmetric linear systems arising from high-order compact (HOC) approximations of two-dimensional convection-diffusion problems. Such discretisations lead to nine-point system matrices with block-tridiagonal structures. The nonsymmetric discretisation matrix for a constant-coefficient grid-aligned flow problem is shown to be positive definite and thus Hermitian and skew-Hermitian splitting (HSS) methods can be considered for the solution of the corresponding linear system. For the solution of this linear system using the HSS iteration, we derive an analytical expression for the optimal value for the upper bound of the contraction factor. Comparison of the HSS iteration with triangular and skew-Hermitian splitting (TSS) methods and their corresponding block variants (BTSS) are carried out for various test problems. Cpu timings for the different splitting methods using experimentally determined optimal acceleration parameters are also given. Our results show that the combination of high-order compact discretisations and skew-Hermitian based iterative methods for solving the corresponding linear systems provide efficient procedures for approximating the solutions of two-dimensional convection-diffusion equations.

On block-circulant preconditioners for high-order compact approximations of convection-diffusion problems

We study some properties of block-circulant preconditioners for high-order compact approximations of convection-diffusion problems. For two-dimensional problems, the approximation gives rise to a nine-point discretisation matrix and in three dimensions, we obtain a nineteen-point matrix. We derive analytical expressions for the eigenvalues of the block-circulant preconditioner and this allows us to establish the invertibility of the preconditioner in both two and three dimensions. The eigenspectra of the preconditioned matrix in the two-dimensional case is described for different test cases. Our numerical results indicate that the block-circulant preconditioning leads to significant reduction in iteration counts and comparisons between the high-order compact and upwind discretisations are carried out. For the unpreconditioned systems, we observe fewer iteration counts for the HOC discretisation but for the preconditioned systems, we find similar iteration counts for both finite difference approximations of constant-coefficient two-dimensional convection-diffusion problems.

Using Generalized HSS Method for Solving Linear Systems Arising From a Fourth‐Order Discretisation of a Model Convection‐Diffusion Equation

In this paper, we review two methods namely the Hermitian and skew Hermitian (HSS) iterative method and the generalised HSS method to solve a model two dimensional convection diffusion equation. We have used a fourth‐order discretisation scheme and obtained a nine‐point linear system. Since the coefficient matrix for this model is positive definite, the use of HSS based methods is therefore appropriate. We show that the choice of the splitting matrix as an approximation of the main block diagonal of the coefficient matrix is indeed effective in reducing the number of iterations required for convergence.

Analysis of a Semi‐Circulant Preconditioner for a High‐Order Compact Approximation of a Convection‐Diffusion Model Problem

We present an analysis of a semi‐circulant preconditioner for a high‐order compact discretization of a two‐dimensional convection‐diffusion equation with grid‐aligned flow. We show that the eigenvalues of the preconditioned matrix lie in two intervals on the left and right side of unity.

Hermitian and Skew-Hermitian splitting methods for streamline upwind Petrov-Galerkin approximations of a grid-aligned flow problem

In this paper, we study the convergence of two-step iterative methods based on Hermitian and skew-Hermitian splitting of the coefficient matrix for solving the linear systems obtained from the bilinear finite element discretisation of a model two-dimensional convection-diffusion problem. Analytic expressions for the optimal convergence factors are derived. The inexact and preconditioned versions of the methods have been analyzed via an extensive set of computational experiments.