Dr. Takayoshi Nakai

Professor
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Shizuoka University, Japan

Area of Specialization: Speech Information Processing, Digital Signal Processing

Takayoshi Nakai received the B.E., M.E., and Doctor of Engineering degrees from Shizuoka University, Japan, in 1974, 1976, and 1994, respectively. From 1976 to 1996 he was a Research Associate, from 1996 to 2004 he was an Associate Professor, and since 2004 he has been a Professor at the Faculty of Engineering, Shizuoka University. He has been engaged in research on digital signal processing, speech production model, speech enhancement, and sound absorption.

Title of the Talk: Speech Production for Japanese Voiced Consonants

Abstract: This paper describes observation of speech production for Japanese voiced consonants using waveforms of a small acceleration pick-up and a microphone and MRI movies. It is shown that, for Japanese voiced consonants, buzz bar is radiated from the nostrils, and individual variations of pronounces are large. It is shown that the velum gets loose when buzz bar of initial consonants is uttered.

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Dr. Sisil Kumarawadu

Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering
University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

Sisil Kumarawadu obtained his BSc in Electrical Engineering with First Class Honors in 1996 from the University of Moratuwa. He obtained his MEng in Advanced Systems Control Engineering and PhD in Robotics and Intelligent Systems in 2000 and 2003, respectively, from Saga National University, Japan. From April 2003 to July 2005, he was with the Intelligent Transportation Systems Research Center, NCTU, Taiwan, R.O.C., as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. So far, he has sole-authored 2 books and published 30 technical papers internationally. Over the past years, he has been serving as a Reviewer of highly recognized international journals and transactions such as: IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Systems, IEEE Trans. Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Control and Intelligent Systems Journal-ACTA Press/IASTED, Applied Soft Computing-Elsevier. Over the past 10 years, he has been an International Program Committee (IPC) member of IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, which is widely recognized as the world's leading international conference on System Sciences and Engineering. His notable IPC involvements include: IEEE Int Conf SMC, IEEE Int Conf ICNSC, Indian Int Conf AI, Int Conf ISSNIP, and IEEE ICIAfS.

In 2008, he was biographized in Marquis Who's Who 25th Silver Anniversary Edition of Who's Who in the World®. Prof Kumarawadu is the recipient of Jaycees Top Outstanding Young Persons Award--Academic Leadership and Accomplishments, in 2009, Presidential Awards for Scientific Research Publications, 2007, 2009. His research interests include Intelligent Autonomous Systems, Adaptive Control, Power Systems Stability and Control, AI Applications, and Automated Dialog Systems. He is currently a Professor of Electrical Engineering and has also served as the Director of Engineering Research Unit of University of Moratuwa.

Title of the Talk: Visual Servoing: Perception and Control

Abstract: As a result of Moore’s law, cameras have become cheap sensors for real-time control, and computationally intense control algorithms are now feasible. Today, robotics has become an important aspect in automation in discrete manufacturing industry where robot manipulators are used for grasping objects on conveyor belts and part mating in automated assembly lines. To realize such robotic tasks, machine vision can provide closed-loop position control for a robot end-effector. This is referred to as visual servoing. Other applications of vision-based robot control include teleoperation, object tracking cameras, autonomous vehicle operation on intelligent highways, and even aircraft landing. Visual servoing problem consists of 3 main areas, namely, machine vision, estimation and path-planning, and control. Recent advances such as catadioptric stereo and advanced numerical methods have given rise to notable advances in applications that include high-speed grasping, beating heart surgery, etc. The control component addresses different options available to define a task function, realize control to regulate the error at zero, and the issues related to realizing high-performance visual servo control.

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Dr. D.M.G. Preethichandra

Associate Professor and Discipline Leader
Department of Mechatronics Engineering
Central Queensland University, Australia

Title of the Talk: Nano-Biosensors for biomedical and environmental measurements

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Keikichi Hirose, Ph.D

Professor
Department of Information & Communication Engineering,
Graduate School of Information Science and Technology,
University of Tokyo
Japan

Invited Talk: Realizing Speech Prosody in Current Speech Synthesis Technologies

Abstract: Synthetic speech close to human is now available through waveform concatenation methods. However, the quality is supported by a huge speech corpus, and it is difficult to realize speech with voice qualities/utterance styles not included in the corpus. In order to increase “flexibility” of speech synthesis, the methods handling speech as acoustic parameters need to be improved. HMM-based speech synthesis handles acoustic parameters in statistical basis and can generate speech with new voice qualities/utterance styles only from a limited speech corpus. However, it has an inherent problem for prosody; controlling acoustic parameters frame-by-frame without a viewpoint of wider time-span. Prosodic features are related to words, phrases, sentences, and even paragraphs. Generation process model of fundamental frequency (F0) contours is ideal to represent global features of prosody. It is a command response model, where the commands have clear relations with linguistic and para/non linguistic information conveyed by the utterance.

In this talk, the role of prosody in speech communication is observed and then some of our contributions with the generation process model for HMM-based speech synthesis are introduced.

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Ping WU

Associate Professor
Singapore University of Technology and Design
Singapore

Dr. Ping Wu received a Ph.D degree (Chemical Engineering) from the University of Montreal (Canada) in 1992. He joined the Singapore University of Technology and Design in 2011 as an Associate Professor (with tenure). Dr. Wu has extensive expertise and research experience in computational materials chemistry. His computer modeling work is based on fundamental theory like quantum mechanics, solid state physics and chemical thermodynamics. By modeling he established reaction mechanisms for semiconductors with regards to chemical and physical transport properties. Furthermore, he has also designed and developed semiconductor thin films, nanostructures and devices for energy and environment applications. Accordingly he has published ~200 papers in high impact international refereed journals (like Nature Nanotechnology, Physical Review Letters and Nano Letters) which have so far received over 2700 cross citations, and a few patents. He has been invited on a regular basis to present at major international conferences and symposia. Dr. Wu is also a world expert in thermodynamic modeling. His research interest includes design and development of electronic devices, thermodynamics (theory and practice), interface chemistry, solar energy, environment and biomedical applications.

Title of the Talk: Electronic materials development with the sustainability in mind - using a combined artificial intelligence, first principles modeling and experiment technology

Abstract: The ever increasing demands on solutions for social and economic sustainable development directly challenge today's scientists and engineers to adopt a new R&D paradigm. It is important to incorporate in the innovations the involvement with the industrial, economic, environmental, and social systems. The Entropic Interface Group, in the Singapore University of Technology and Design, aims to meet the above challenges by practicing a combined technology of information engineering, first principles modeling and experiment. In this talk the author will first try to review the current R D practices and identify a few key technology/methodology components that may enable a sustainable society/economy. The talk, then, will cover key knowledge/methods necessary for high quality innovations in a world of sustainable economy and society. And subsequently, the author will highlight a combined approach of experiment, first principles and physics based semi-empirical models aided by data mining techniques in the development of new apatite materials/devices. In addition, electrical conduction limit of BiFeO3 is also predicted and tested experimentally, by using the same approach. Therefore, the author will demonstrate the power of a new R D paradigm via the design of ionic conducting and multiferroic materials, which are crucial for alternative energy, environment, biomedical and other sustainable applications.

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Dr. Norihiko KAMATA

Professor
Graduate School of Science and Engineering
Saitama University, Japan

Norihiko Kamata graduated from Dept. of Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Saitama University in March 1978. He obtained his Master degree of Engineering in March 1980 and Doctorate degree of Engineering in March 1983, respectively, both in the Course of Electronics from the Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo.

From April 1983 to October 1988, he was in the Science and Technical Research Laboratory of NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporations) as a researcher, including his concurrent dispatch period as a head researcher in the national project of Advanced Telecommunications Research (ATR) Institutes. He moved to the Department of Electronics, Faculty of Engineering, Saitama University in November 1988, and serving now as a Professor in the Department of Functional Materials Science. During those years he worked in VTT (National Semiconductor Lab., Espoo, Finland) in 1990 as a guest researcher, and in the Polish-Japanese Institute of Computer Technology (Warsaw, Poland), as a specialist of electronics dispatched by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in 1996 and 1998.

Prof. Kamata developed a quantitative method of characterizing NRR centers named as Two-Wavelength Excited PL (TWEPL), and published many papers including review articles and invited presentations. His works cover the optical characterization, analysis of radiative and NRR processes and optoelectronic device applications ranging from semiconductors, quantum wells, quantum dots, phosphors to organic materials. He was a vice president of the Illuminating Engineering Institute of Japan, a leader of the Frontier Photonics Project and is a head of Next-Generation Organic Photovoltaics Project in Saitama University.

Title of the Talk: Photoluminescence Characterization of Nonradiative Recombination Centers in Light Emitting Materials by Utilizing Below-Gap Excitation

Abstract: Light emission efficiency of materials and devices is determined by the competition between radiative and nonradiative recombination (NRR) processes. The latter takes place mainly via localized NRR centers originating from various kinds of lattice defects. We can compare relative efficiency among samples by conventional photoluminescence (PL) under an above-gap excitation (AGE) light, butit gives us nothing on the truth of NRR centers which determine such efficiency difference. In order to improve the performance of any light emitting devices, it is universal and indispensable for us to understand dominant NRR centers in light emitting materials and eliminate them from crystal growth and fabrication processes. An optical and quantitative characterization of NRR centers became possible by utilizing a below-gap excitation (BGE) light in our scheme of Two-Wavelength Excited PL (TWEPL). Wavelength tuning of the BGE enables us to determine the energy distribution of detected NRR centers, while that of the above-gap excitation (AGE) reveals their spatial distribution. Our experimental studies on GaAs- and GaN-based bulk and quantum well structures are reviewed and an attempt to improve efficiency of LEDs is introduced.

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Dr. Tomokazu Iyoda

Professor
Chemical Resources Laboratory
Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan

Area of Specialization: Molecule Functionalized Material, Nano Functionalized Material, Material Electricity Chemistry

Title of the Talk: Block Copolymer

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Dr. Keiji Nagai

Associate Professor
Chemical Resources Laboratory
Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan

Area of Specialization: Polymer Science Chemistry, Functionalized Material Chemistry, Photochemistry, Nuclear Fusion Science

Title of the Talk: To be published soon

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Dr. Mohammad Abul Fazal Mohammad Ismail

Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Malaya, Malaysia

Area of Specialization: Corrosion, Tribo-Corrosion, Coating, Automotive Materials, Electronic Materials And Renewable Energy

Title of the Talk: Corrosion mechanisms of different metals in palm biodiesel

Abstract: In the present study, corrosion mechanisms of copper and magnesium in palm biodiesel were investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Compositional change of biodiesel due to the exposure of metal surface was also investigated. Depth profile revealed that MgO and Mg(OH)2 were the major corrosion products formed on biodiesel exposed magnesium surface. Corrosion patina on copper is found to be composed of Cu2O, CuO, Cu(OH)2 and CuCO3. A significant corrosion attack was also observed on the biodiesel exposed magnesium surface. An optical and quantitative characterization of NRR centers became possible by utilizing a below-gap excitation (BGE) light in our scheme of Two-Wavelength Excited PL (TWEPL). Wavelength tuning of the BGE enables us to determine the energy distribution of detected NRR centers, while that of the above-gap excitation (AGE) reveals their spatial distribution. Our experimental studies on GaAs- and GaN-based bulk and quantum well structures are reviewed and an attempt to improve efficiency of LEDs is introduced.

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Surendra Kumar Gautam

Department of Chemistry
Tribhuvan University, Nepal

Surendra Kumar Gautam received his B.Sc and M.Sc in Physical Chemistry from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. He has obtained his Ph.D from the School of Materials Science and Technology, IIT, Banaras Hindu University, India. He was the visiting scientist in the Institute of Polymer Research, Germany from Oct 01, 2013 to Jan 30, 2014. He has presented his research findings in many international forums, such as, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced and Scientific Research (JNCASR), India, International Centre for Materials Research (ICMR), University of California, USA, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Singapore National University, etc. Dr. Gautam was the Executive Secretary of Nepal Chemical Society for two terms from 2000 to 2002 and 2002 to 2004. He has been the Vice-President of Nepal Polymer Institute since 2010.

Title of the Talk: Synthesis and microscopic analysis of group II-VI semiconductor nanoparticles

Abstract: Inorganic semiconductor (Group II-VI) nanoparticles such as CdS and ZnS have been a subject of intense study due to extensive range of applications in light emitting diodes (LEDs), blue light emitting lasers, low-voltage electroluminescent, photodetectors, solar cells etc. The properties of such semiconductor nanoparticles are dependent on their crystal structure and size. It is very essential to investigate a synthetic procedure to produce well defined nanocrystals in gram scale. A novel method is developed to synthesize good quality nanosized CdS and ZnS semiconductors in normal laboratory conditions at room temperature. The crystalline structure of those nanocrystallites is well settled with the help of X-ray diffraction (XRD) study by profile refinement techniques using Fullprof; whereas optical absorption spectra are recorded using absorption spectroscopy to study the size quantization effect and blue-shift resulting in the change of band gap with crystalline size. Particle sizes are calculated by Tight Binding (TB) model. The crystalline structure and particle size can be verified by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). An optical and quantitative characterization of NRR centers became possible by utilizing a below-gap excitation (BGE) light in our scheme of Two-Wavelength Excited PL (TWEPL). Wavelength tuning of the BGE enables us to determine the energy distribution of detected NRR centers, while that of the above-gap excitation (AGE) reveals their spatial distribution. Our experimental studies on GaAs- and GaN-based bulk and quantum well structures are reviewed and an attempt to improve efficiency of LEDs is introduced.

Nur Azah Hamzaid, PhD

Department of Biomedical Engineering
University of Malaya, Malaysia

Nur Azah Hamzaid obtained her bachelor in Mechatronics Engineering in 2006 and did her PhD in Rehabilitation Engineering. Now she is a Senior Lecturer at Biomedical Engineering Department, University of Malaya, pioneering one of the FES research groups in Malaysia. Her teaching field is Biomechatronics and Prosthetics & Orthotics which includes FES in Rehabilitation Robotics. She has published about 20 journal papers, a number of conference papers, a book chapter and have filed a few patents. Currently she is supervising 3 PhD students and a few Masters students, while coordinating a number of undergraduate students projects; some scientific research involving patients and some device development in nature.

Title of the Talk: Developing Solutions in Rehabilitation Engineering: Identifying User’s Needs

Abstract: Rehabilitation Engineering may include a wide spectrum of technology: from wheelchairs and walking aids, to the more high-end Biomechatronics and Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES). These developments would be useful if the potential and nature of the technology is realized with the end user in mind from the very beginning. It is crucially important for us Engineers to understand the specific needs of the end users, which may be the patients themselves, their carers or the funding agency. As engineers who are offering solutions in a biomedical field, we have to work closer with people who may not be in the same field, in order to ‘speak their language’ and ‘think like them’. This would ensure that we will not ‘over-engineer’ or offer an unused solution, and it would empower us highly by understanding what the users really need. While some solutions may require high-end technology, some might be simpler and lower in cost. My talk aims to provide this insights into this first step of us contributing to the society in a more meaningful and efficient way.

Prof. Dr. Golam Abu Zakaria

Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Germany

Title of the Talk: The Role of Photovoltaics in the Electrical Power Supply of Bangladesh: Survey of Status Quo and Scenarios of the Future Development

Abstract: The potential of photovoltaics (PV) for electrical power generation in Bangladesh has been investigated. Based on commonly available meteorological data, the insolation onto a solar module in dependence on its azimuth and inclination angle was calculated over the year. The contributions of direct insolation, diffuse insolation and insolation from surface-reflected light (albedo) were taken into account. From these data the energy harvest per year was calculated. It was found that it is strongly increased in comparison to Germany, although monsoon rain strongly reduces direct insolation during the summer months. A potential of PV of 37 GW was estimated based on realistic assumptions. Since PV plays in the status quo of electrical power generation of Bangladesh only a negligible role, based on these findings, an enforced expansion of PV power generation is recommended.

Dr. Sascha Dietrich

Fraunhofer Center for Silicon Photovoltaics, Germany

Title of the Talk: Reliability of Photovoltaic Modules under Harsh Environmental Conditions

Abstract: Within this contribution it will be discussed how to integrate systematic material testing, environmental load simulations into the design process of PV modules. The aim is a lifetime prediction of PV modules for different climates. As an exemplary approach fatigue of copper ribbons will be considered. The results of material testing and finite-element simulation will be utilized in order to compare the influence of day/night temperature differences for two different climate zones on the lifetime of copper ribbon. Furthermore, an example will be introduced how different encapsulant material may influence ribbon fatigue.

Keikichi Hirose, PhD

Professor
Department of Information & Communication Engineering
University of Tokyo, Japan

Area of Specialization: Spoken language information processing including speech prosody, spoken dialogue system, speech synthesis, recognition and related audio signal processing

Keikichi Hirose received his B.E. degree in electrical engineering in 1972, and his Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering in 1977, respectively, from the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. In 1977, he joined the University of Tokyo as a Lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering, and, in 1994, became a Professor in the Dept. of Electronic Engineering. From 1996, he was a Professor at the Graduate School of Engineering, Department of Information and Communication Engineering, the University of Tokyo. On April 1, 1999, he moved to the University’s Graduate School of Frontier Sciences (Department of Frontier Informatics), and again moved to Graduate School of Information Science and Technology (Department of Information and Communication Engineering) on October 1, 2004. From March 1987 to January 1988, he was a Visiting Scientist of the Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, U.S.A. He led a project “Realization of advanced spoken language information processing from prosodic features,” Scientific Research on Priority Areas, Grant in Aid on Scientific Research, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japanese Government. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Acoustical Society of America, the International Speech Communication Association, the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (Fellow), the Acoustical Society of Japan, and other professional organizations. In 2007, 2012, and 2013, he received the Best Paper Awards from the Research Institute of Signal Processing, Japan (RISP).

Title of the Talk: Realizing Speech Prosody in Current Speech Synthesis Technologies

Abstract: Synthetic speech close to human is now available through waveform concatenation methods. However, the quality is supported by a huge speech corpus, and it is difficult to realize speech with voice qualities/utterance styles not included in the corpus. In order to increase “flexibility” of speech synthesis, the methods handling speech as acoustic parameters need to be improved. HMM-based speech synthesis handles acoustic parameters in statistical basis and can generate speech with new voice qualities/utterance styles only from a limited speech corpus. However, it has an inherent problem for prosody; controlling acoustic parameters frame-by-frame without a viewpoint of wider time-span. Prosodic features are related to words, phrases, sentences, and even paragraphs. Generation process model of fundamental frequency (F0) contours is ideal to represent global features of prosody. It is a command response model, where the commands have clear relations with linguistic and para/nonlinguistic information conveyed by the utterance.
In this talk, the role of prosody in speech communication is observed and then some of our contributions with the generation process model for HMM-based speech synthesis are introduced.