ERCIM News 83

Image ERCIM News 83 cover page

October 2010
Special theme:
Cloud Computing
This issue in pdf
(64 pages; 17 Mb)
Next issue
July 2013
Next special theme:
Intelligent Cars
Call for the next issue
Get the latest issue to your desktop
RSS Feed

R&D and Technology Transfer

Buiding Discrete Spacetimes by Simple Deterministic Computations

by Tommaso Bolognesi

The Computational Universe conjecture relates complexity in physics with emergence in computation. Our current research efforts are meant to put the surprisingly powerful notion of (computational) emergence at the service of recent quantum gravity theories, with special attention to the Causal Set Programme, which assumes causality among events as the most fundamental structure of spacetime, and causal sets as the most appropriate way to describe it.

Read more: Buiding Discrete Spacetimes by Simple Deterministic Computations

Improving the Security of Infrastructure Software using Coccinelle

by Julia Lawall, René Rydhof Hansen, Nicolas Palix and Gilles Muller

Finding and fixing programming errors in deployed software is often a slow, painstaking, and expensive process. In order to minimise this problem, static analysis is increasingly being adopted as a way to find programming errors before the software application is released. Coccinelle is a program matching and transfor-mation tool that makes it easy for developers to express static analysis-based software defect-finding rules and scan software source code for potential defects.

Read more: Improving the Security of Infrastructure Software using Coccinelle

Teaching Traffic Lights to Manage Themselves … and Protect the Environment

by Dirk Helbing and Stefan Lämmer

Adaptive techniques can modernize traffic control, saving fuel, reducing travel times and emissions, and doing it all without limiting drivers’ mobility. This approach promises to save driving time and benefit the environment at the same time.

Read more: Teaching Traffic Lights to Manage Themselves … and Protect the Environment

A New Approach to the Planning Process makes Huge Savings for the Railway Sector

by Malin Forsgren and Martin Aronsson

The new planning process, developed by SICS, is called Successive Allocation, and the general principle governing it is the separation of the train plan into two parts: (i) The service that Trafikverket (the Swedish Transport Administration) commits to deliver to its customers (the operators), and (ii) Production plans containing the details of how Trafikverket will deliver what has been promised. The latter is significantly improved by applying elements of lean production and just-in-time.

Read more: A New Approach to the Planning Process makes Huge Savings for the Railway Sector

Fast Search in Distributed Video Archives

by Stephan Veigl, Hartwig Fronthaler and Bernhard Strobl

Exciting perspectives are emerging in the field of visual surveillance. Due to the rapidly growing number of cameras and volume of video data, there is an increasing need for a method that enables quick pinpointing of significant data within the “sea” of irrelevance.

Read more: Fast Search in Distributed Video Archives

Meeting Food Quality and Safety Requirements with Active and Intelligent Packaging Techniques

by Elisabeth Ilie-Zudor, Marcell Szathmári, Zsolt Kemény

In numerous regions worldwide customers’ expectations and legislations requirements regarding food quality and safety are changing. Customers now turn more and more towards fresh food with little intervention in its raw materials, while legislation regarding tracking of perishable products along the entire supply chain becomes more rigorous. These changes pose an increasing challenge both for the food and packaging industries.

Read more: Meeting Food Quality and Safety Requirements with Active and Intelligent Packaging Techniques