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Research

Research Interests

• Automation: Home, Building, Office, Industry automation
• Sensor Networks: Application, Query Processing, Security, Localization, Routing,
• Middleware Framework for Smart Environments
• Parallel and Distributed Computing: Parallelization, GRID Computing
• Wireless Communications

Research Statement

I am a graduate student in the department of Computer Science at the University of Manitoba, Canada. I have completed my courses and my CGPA is 4.13 out of 4.5. I am also a Research Assistant at the TRLabs, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. I have completed my undergraduate in Computer Science and Engineering at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), the most prestigious university in Bangladesh.

Computer Science and Engineering is now the most prominent field of study because of its unlimited and diversified potential applicability to make human life easier. It was a fun for me to take my undergraduate degree in Computer Science and Engineering. Besides, only the topmost students of Bangladesh get opportunity to study Computer Science and Engineering at BUET. It is my long cherished goal to continue my higher studies in Computer Science. Several undergraduate courses namely Data Structure, Computer Algorithms, Mathematical Analysis for Computer Science (Probability theory & Queuing Theory), Operating Systems, Databases, Data Communication, Computer Interfacing, Software Development and Computer Networks have provided me immense interest in this field. Besides, I have shown very good performance in these courses. I am particularly got immense pleasure studying Computer Networks and Data Communication courses and decided that I will further concentrate my study in this field.

In my Masters my field of study was also concentrated on the allied fields of Computer Networks: Parallel and Distributed Computing and Mobile Computing, Distributed Databases and Advanced Topics in Scientific and Numerical Computing (Will help in analyzing Computer Networks). I have also shown very good performance in these courses.

As part of my Masters research I have done a wide survey on current researches in Sensor Networks covering many aspects of Sensor Networks. Moreover, I have done a wide survey on data management and query processing issues in Sensor Networks. I have also studied and analyzed the implementation issues of query processing in Sensor Networks. Now, I am working on my thesis. My thesis area is Home Automation Using Sensor Networks. In the project, I have to build a sensor network in Mica2/Mica2Dot platform that will identify the location of home members and track the movement of the home members. Depending on the stable position of the home members different household devices will be operated. Developing an efficient location detection and movement tracking algorithm, routing of the data considering power efficiency, and integrating the application with middleware services are the main issues to address in the project. In the project, we want to use Java JINI/UPnP as the middleware service.

I am particularly interested to do research in the broad area of wireless networks including GSM and GPRS, VoIP for mobile networks, third generation mobile services, Mobile IP, Ad hoc Networks, Bluetooth, Zigbee, and specially Sensor Networks. I am interested in Power Efficiency, Security, Routing, Transport Layer, and Application areas in Sensor Networks. In application area I have done a wide background study and analysis in smart home applications and traffic applications using Sensor Networks. Different issues regarding integration of Sensor Networks with the Internet are also interesting research problems that attract me. Moreover, I am interested in the cross research area relating Sensor Networks and Databases i.e. Data management, aggregation, query processing in both homogeneous and heterogeneous Sensor Networks. In both undergraduate and Masters I have studied courses on Databases that will help me to explore this cross area effectively.

My undergraduate thesis was also regarding to wireless networking: "Study and Simulation of Wireless ATM Networks and its Internetworking Issues". In my undergraduate, I have several courses on Computer Networks and Data Communication. In my Masters, I did one course on Mobile Networking. The course covered issues in different areas of recent mobile networking trends: Basics about propagation of radio waves, Cellular wireless networks, Basics about TDMA and spread spectrum (CDMA), Mobility management, Basics about GSM and GPRS, VoIP for mobile networks, Third generation mobile services, Mobile IP, Wireless LAN technology, IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, Mobile ad hoc networks, and Sensor Networks. I have done a project in nesC and Java in Mica2/Mica2Dot platform regarding Time Synchronization in Sensor Networks.

I have also a strong motivation for Parallel, Distributed, Cluster and GRID Computing. I have done a course on Parallel Computing and enjoyed the subject matter much. The course covered different parallel architectures, parallelization issues in distributed, shared, and hybrid architecture machines, message passing computing and shared memory systems, parallelization aspects of PVM, MPI, OpenMP, Cilk, and Charm++, programming in MPI and OpenMP, designing parallel algorithms, performance and scalability of parallel systems, theoretical models of computations, and multithreaded architectures. I have done two projects on parallelization: A Parallel Random Number Generator for Shared Memory Architecture Machine using OpenMP and A Parallel Implementation of Ant Colony Optimization to the Capacited Vehicle Routing Problem in OpenMP for Shared Memory Architecture Machine. The implementations provided me much insight into parallelization issues.

In Parallel and Distributed Computing, I am specifically interested in the area of study and analysis of the relationship between parallel architectures and parallelization issues, the relationship among parallel algorithms, parallelization issues, and parallel architectures, and in developing an improved efficient parallelization environment. Besides, I am interested in Load Balancing and Task Scheduling in Parallel, Distributed, and Cluster Computing, Scheduling Communications in Cluster Computing, Deadlock Avoidance in Interconnection Networks, Parallel Stochastic Optimization Algorithms, and Deadlock Avoidance in Interconnection Networks.

A Research Proposal _{ideas are parts of my masters thesis project and trlabs project}

Context aware, ubiquitous and pervasive computing are the major trends in today's computer networks research. Rather than having computers which are distinct objects, ubiquitous computing targets to have computing devices embedded in the physical world. The idea behind ubiquitous computing is that embedding computation into the environment would enable people to move around and interact with computers more naturally than they do at present. One of the goals of ubiquitous computing is to enable devices to sense changes in their environments, and then to automatically adapt and act based on these changes, and user preferences. Context aware computing targets to use the surrounding environment and user contexts to automate computing and activities to facilitate user experiences. Among the emerging technologies expected to prevail in the pervasive computing environment of the future are wearable computers, smart homes, and smart buildings. Very recently, advances in hardware for sensor nodes have made wireless sensor networks (WSNs) a promising technology to intelligently sense various user and environmental contexts. This active sensing of the environment will facilitate the creation of new context aware, ubiquitous, and pervasive applications such as, forest fire detection, habitat monitoring, home and industry automation, and military security systems. In home environments, active sensing and advancement in ubiquitous computing will facilitate to create m any new and intelligent context aware ubiquitous applications, such as those for home-security, child and personal care, and the automatic operation of various household devices. The dream of the home automation research is the intelligent automation of the operation of various household devices and appliances, entertainment centers, temperature and lighting control units, and home security systems.

However, the future intelligent smart home requires several components such as: sensing devices, users, and environmental parameters, identification of devices and users, determination of device and user locations, awareness of the functionalities of devices, awareness of user preferences, storage and retrieval systems for sensed data, effective and efficient access of user preferences, interoperability among devices, services, and applications that use different protocols and specifications. In addition, defining and representing the rules for actions such as combining device functionalities to satisfy requests, mapping user preferences into device operation, and providing priorities among users, will form an integral component for future smart homes. Effective execution of the actions according to some defined rules will also be a challenge. Moreover, controlling home applications from remote places through the internet will facilitate many smart home applications such as: caring of child, older , and sick people in homes. My future research will concentrate in effective development of many of these components and integrating the components to work as a whole to provide a true smart home environment.

Location is a very basic, yet critical component in smart home applications. To automate different home activities on user presence and preferences, user locations must be known by the automation systems. Currently, I am working on the effective development of a location sensing service using sensor networks for home automation applications. In my work home residents will carry sensors and there will be some infrastructure sensors in the home. Based on the radio signal strength emitted by the sensors (carried by the home residents), home residents' location will be determined. My future research will be enhancing the location determination service and make it a constant user location tracking service to facilitate home applications. My interest also includes building prototype applications that use location services. Now-a-days, in homes many smart devices (HAVi TV) of different protocols and specifications are used. To provide interoperability among these devices and services, various middleware are used. To make my location service really fruitful in future home applications my concern will also be making location components that will be easily integrated into middleware to be used by other devices and applications.

Storage and retrieval systems for locations can support new kinds of applications, such as locating frequently lost objects, and historical resident location tracking. Hence, my future research will also build an effective location storage and retrieval system. To provide context awareness in home environments, the storage and retrieval system can be accommodated to store many other current and historical context data such as: environment data, preferences of users, device features and functionalities, application priorities, user priorities. Hence, I will also concentrate on building preference database and elaborate querying service to make use of the data in many applications (based on user presence and location the TV in front will turn on and switch to a news channel automatically). Reasoning and mapping context data to actions will also be a part of my work. Different issues regarding integration of home automation applications with the Internet are also interesting research problems that attract me.