I am at Juilliard School, New York City

Guess what? I am right now at Juilliard School, one of the most prestigious schools of performing arts including dance, vocal, drama, musical instruments, and Jazz. They happen to have 2 recitals this afternoon at 4:00 and 6:00 pm. And they are free to the public.How generous and wonderful!

I am waiting at their cozy lobby to get in the recital on time. Another good thing here is that you enjoy free Wi-Fi access. That is why I am being able to write this blog right now.

about the Juilliard
It is just a building around W 65th Street and Broadway. The inside of the building is as gorgeous as the facade. The recital/concert hall that I am in is called Paul Hall. Very beautiful although it is not a big one. There are of course a few other concert halls inside this building.

I saw a very cozy corner for students. Very relaxing and inviting. Best of all, it provides free Internet access to guests as well as students.

update: I am attending a recital by Conor Hanick, a pianist PhD candidate at Juilliard School. This recital is presented as a partial fulfillment for his PhD. His committee got to be around although I don't know them of course.
He plays Beethoven very well. Good job!



YJ

Phantom of the opera musical moved me so much

I was moved both emotionally and economically (121.5 USD + TAX).

I saw Phantom of the opera last night in the Majestic Theater at Broadway. I am at F row, Seat 111, the best position in the theater. It is just 6 rows away from the Orchesrta and stage. I can clearly see the faces of each characters. Of course, not including the one who wears the mask all the time.

What a breath taking experience. You guys next time visit New York got to see this.

YJ

Flight to Larguadia, New York

We took an airplane US Airways to fly to Laguardia Oct 28 at 4:20. The 1:40 flight that we booked was canceled. So I got some time to take a rest at the Pittsburgh airport.

The plane turned out to arrive some time earlier than 5:53 pm when we finally took off. I missed a musical that I planned soon after I arrived at New York.

When you travel, everything can change any minute. That makes people exciting.

visited the Quality of Life Technology Center, (Gates Center for Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University).

WE visited Carnegie Mellon University on Oct 27, 2009. Talked to their students and asked them a lot of questions. I enjoyed the trip to the lab. We saw research work on activity recognition by Accelerometer or Image Processing. We saw the use of Animation of task motion sequence to help people with TBI get employed. We also saw character recognition by a low cost sound sensor and signal processing algorithms. No matter whether you write one a wall or a window, the system can detect what you just write on the surface. Clever.

We saw a dog in the Quality of Life Tech Center. I supposed it was a guide dog for blind persons. However, it turned out that it is a service dog called Sophie. She can pick up something for her master who is not blind but has mobility impairments. She looks so adorable, cute and gentle. So nice.

We met a student who is a PhD student at U. of Pittsburgh. She brought us to to a Chinese Restaurant. It was an exciting experience to talk to a local and get to know more about the things we want to know.
After the meal, she drove us to see more about CMU and U. of Pittsburgh and finally gave a lift to the hotel we live.
YJ

Ways to increase awareness about accessibility in higher education

To promote inclusion on the campus

• add AT (Assistive Technology) as a core course
• Create an Accessibility and AT program for undergraduates and beyond
• Research focused on AT
• Support students with special needs
• Recruit disabled staff/faculty

We are all on the same boat. Word prediction technology previously developed for the disabled now becomes ubiquitous on almost all mobiles.

album

I am visiting Quality of Life Technology Center, (Gates Center for Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University).

(Letter from ACM ASSETS 2009)
QoLT is a unique partnership between Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. Its mission is to create intelligent systems to give greater independence to older adults and people with disabilities. We are delighted to offer ASSETS attendees the opportunity to see some of their latest exciting projects. Attendees will meet with QoLT researchers over light refreshments generously provided by QoLT.

Homework 10-17-2009

1. Survey the major industry players in cloud computing and propose a taxonomy.
2. Summarize the following paper in 200 words.

Yao-Jen Chang, Hsin-Yu Hsu, Tsen-Yung Wang "Nonprofit Housing Services using Web 2.0 Mapping Tools" WWW 2008, Beijing China. Apr 21-25. pp. 953-957. (EI)

3. Summarize the following paper in 200 words.

Yao-Jen Chang, Tseng-Yun Wang, Shi-Kai Tsai, Yu-Chia Chuang, "Action Science Approach to Experimenting Nonprofit Web 2.0 Services for Employment of Individuals with Mental Impairments" 2007 International Workshop on Social Media Analysis in conjunction with ACM/IEEE Web Intelligence, Fremont, USA, Nov 2~5, 2007. (EI)

Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE)

(news from IEEE)

IEEE Std. 1609.3–2007, released in April

The IEEE Trial-Use Standard for Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE)–Networking Services belongs to a family of standards that will let motor vehicles communicate with each other and with roadside systems so they can access safety and travel information. The standard defines services at the network and transport layers that support wireless connectivity.

WAVE technology—also known as dedicated short-range communications—will allow for new on-the-road applications such as Internet access and ordering goods and services. It will operate in the 5.9-GHz band for intelligent transportation systems, the band authorized by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

Related Research: Yao-Jen Chang, Shan-Yao Wu, Ting-Liang Shih, Intersection Location Service and Performance Comparison of Three Location Service Algorithms for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks in City Environments

Midterm Design Project

"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
- Marie Curie"

Due: Nov. 30, 2009

Design a wireless network that can be fast deployed in an area under disastrous strikes.
Use powerpoint to prepare a 10-minute slide presentation. For the presentation format, here is one.

The issues here are the communication infrastructures in such areas may have been destroyed due to the catastrophy. There may be no infrastructures at all in the first place.

Optical fiber, ADSL and cable modem alike are based on wired technology. Therefore, it is not viable to deploy in a short time, especially in disastrous areas. That's one of the reasons why people turn to wireless technology in such needs.

Therefore, in the design of wireless network, you may want to minimize the use of wired infrastructure.

Hurricane Katrina may be one of the examples where you can find some clues for this project.

Reference:

1. Teaching of Prof Chuah.

2.
Wireless Business News Updates: http://www.wifiplanet.com
Some of the historical events were covered in this online magazine. Such as rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. One article is shown here and more can be found online.

a glimpse ahead, Microsoft's vision 2019

Today I went to the Window 7 launch party in a round table setting at Microsoft Taipei Headquarter. What really interests me is a glimpse ahead, Microsoft's vision 2019. It is not available in a CD but Youtube already has it. I do encourage you to take a look.

Longer version