W. A. Clarke

Optimal pricing of telecomm services in a developing country: A game theoretical approach

Pricing is an important feature in preventing the misuse of any resource (specifically public resources) in a telecommunication network. The free-rider, tragedy of the anti-commons and tragedy of the commons problems can arise in the provision of public resources, when users of the resource have to contribute towards the cost of production. Selfish users in a group have the tendency to misrepresent preferences, so as to minimize their individual contributions and maximize their utilities, preventing the free rider and tragedy of the commons problems in telecommunications networks is crucial to prolonging the existence of a free or subsidized public resource. In this paper we develop a game theoretical approach to mitigating the free rider and tragedy of the commons problems in telecom networks.

Engineering education, reality TV and ethics

In this paper we consider engineering education as a process that has over many years developed a particular ethical and philosophical framework. These ethical and philosophical frameworks are often dormant and unquestioned. During the development of an innovative reality TV mediated engineering design and test project (the Fuelduel1 project) for undergraduate students ethical issues arose that challenged long-held views on engineering education. This paper discusses the ethical issues that became evident during the course of the Fuelduel project and how these lead to a consideration of the underlying philosophical framework inherent in most engineering education.

Enhancing telecommunications business operations and service level agreements by incorporating operational risk management

In this paper, the need for integrating operational risk management into service level management for telecommunication service providers is discussed, where business operations are predominantly governed by a service level agreement. Operational risks that do or could effect the organization and its ability to comply with service level agreement requirements can then be determined and appropriately managed. Further, service level agreement management and compliance in terms of customer quality of service definitions and metrics can be better defined and monitored, and business operations more effectively aligned to the delivery of customer required services. These needs and benefits also tie in with the fact that enterprise risk management has become mandatory since the introduction of regulatory requirements such as the Sarbanes-Oxley act and Basel II.

Design and implementation of a real-time tracking and telemetry system for a solar car

It is very critical for solar racers to achieve real time tracking of their solar vehicle during any race. The system is made of real time visualisation of the video feedback of the car from the escort vehicle, the location of the car on the maps as it is racing and its velocity. The real time video feedback of the race could be retrieved from the cloud for broadcasting purposes. The main advantage of this system is the wireless link communication which was achieved for distance transmission, coupled to a very reliable and robust desktop application for data sensor display purposes.

The development of a working undergraduate research project - Lessons from the IP challenge

In this paper we describe the development of a unique undergraduate engineering research program that has been run for two years. It has focussed on the proposition that undergraduate students if properly trained and adequately mentored can produce publishable results while still at the undergraduate level. The aims, curriculum development and preliminary results of students that have attended the course are discussed. Proposals for changes during the 2011/2012 IP Challenge (the marketing name for the Image Processing Research Training Course) are also discussed.

Automated surveillance and detection of foreign stationary objects

CCTV systems are frequently monitored manually by a human observer. This human observer is typically responsible for dealing with tens or hundreds of cameras at a time. Potential security threats may easily be missed by the systems human operators due to fatigue or being overwhelmed by the amount of change in the images. The timely detection of security threats is an important attribute for any security system. A robust algorithm for detecting potential threats from a surveillance video is presented.

New results on multiple insertion/deletion correcting codes

In this paper, new results on multiple symbol insertion and/or deletion correcting codes are presented. Firstly, new relationships between codebook properties and the symbol insertion and/or deletion correcting ability of a codebook are established. Secondly, new results on the upper bound of symbol insertion and/or deletion correcting codebook cardinalities are presented.

Comparison of two terrestrial atmospheric turbulence suppression algorithms (March 2007)

This paper describes the problem of capturing video through turbulent atmosphere (also referred to as heat shimmer or heat scintillation) and describes some of the existing methods used in an attempt to counteract the problem. Within this problem of imaging through turbulent atmosphere there is a distinct lack of comparisons between methods and a reliable metric for digital images. This paper contributes through the selection of two algorithms which are implemented, tested and compared, one a power spectrum restoration approach from the early 1990s and a newer image registration and fusion based method. The results show the ability of the old power spectrum method to stabilize the image although local object motion presents a problem, as well as the computational complexity of the image registration method.