HIIT Update 1/2006

Headlines in this issue:

- FOREWORD
- NEW PROJECTS AND GRANTS
- NEW RESEARCH PROGRAMME STRUCTURE OF HIIT
- UNIVERSAL PEER TO PEER SEMINAR
- VIRTUAL WORLDS AND VIRTUAL CONSUMERISM SEMINAR
- SEMINAR ON NEW EVERYDAY INFORMATION SOCIETY
- COLLABORATIVE VIDEO WORKSHOP
- HIIT RETREAT 2006
- SEMINAR ON FUTURE OF EUROPEAN SOCIAL MODELS
- HIIT JOINS THE DIMES CONSORTIUM
- BRU RECEIVES HIGH MARKS IN RESEARCH EVALUATION
- PROFESSOR JUKKA KEMPPINEN RECEIVES TELIASONERA FINLAND AWARD
- SENIOR PERSONNEL NEWS
- FUTURE EVENTS

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FOREWORD

The first half of 2006 has seen important and promising progress in HIIT's work.

The institute has been very successful in new research initiatives, especially EU-funded projects. No less than five new EU-projects have launched or are in the process to be launched soon. These include the Pasion, FUGA, P2P Fusion and CALLAS projects mentioned in this newsletter, and the IPCity project already mentioned in the previous issue. Also the Trustworthy Internet initiative, selected by TEKES to receive strategic research funding for next 3 years, is an important landmark for HIIT. All in all, the project portfolio of the institute is stronger than ever.

Equally important is the progress that has been made in implementing HIIT's strategy for 2006-2008 as defined by HIIT Board in 2005. The objective of the strategy is to join the present two units from 1.1.2009. To make this possible, convergence in all areas of the operative, administration, and management processes of the units is necessary precondition. During the first half of 2006, the senior researchers of both units of HIIT have designed a new research programme structure that now covers the whole institute. This structure was formally confirmed by the HIIT Board, and is in effect from 1.6.2006. The full implementation of these decisions should facilitate future growth of the institute by providing an improved basis for preparation of new research initiatives and also inclusion of new research groups.

As already commented in the Foreword of HIIT Update 1/2005 a year ago, the Finnish science and innovation policies have been under considerable scrutiny that only seems to have intensified during the recent months. HIIT has positioned itself prominently in this discussion as a multidisciplinary research institute in modern Information Technology and a central node in a competence cluster that can address the future challenges.

During the first months of 2006, HIIT had the opportunity to express its views in this regard in a report on the future information society commissioned by the Finnish Ministry of Communications and Transportation. This document offers a blueprint for future research lines that should be implemented in order to pave the path for an efficient information society that also embodies the human values according to the tradition of Nordic societies. The imminent Finnish presidency of the European Union will provide opportunities for expanding the scope of this work also to European level as part of the Seventh Framework Programme currently being developed.

With all these developments and opportunities, HIIT is in excellent position to continue progress towards its mission of becoming an internationally leading research institution in information technology, with high scientific, industrial and societal impact.

Helsinki 9 June 2006

Martti Mäntylä
Director of Research, Professor

Päivi Saarinen
Planning Officer

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NEW PROJECTS AND GRANTS

TRUSTWORTHY INTERNET

The Finnish National Technology Agency TEKES has granted on 14.3.2006 funding of 1.8 million Euro for 3 years 2006-2008 to establish an excellence group Trustworthy Internet at the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT), the Telecommunications and Multimedia Laboratory (TML) at the Helsinki University of Technology, and the Computer Science Department (TKTL) at the University of Helsinki. The project is one of the four strategic research projects of the national GIGA research program for which TEKES has granted 100% funding.

The main objective of the project is to study the trust provisioning in the Internet. As changing the current Internet infrastructure is difficult, the project will explore the use of overlay networks to build and manage trust relationships between service providers and customers over networks. The project will proceed along research lines of overlay access, application integration, identity management, trust and session management, overlay scalability, and measurements. The project has excellent international connections to academic institutions around the globe: ICSI, Berkeley; Tsinghua, China; IIT Kanpur, India; RWTH, Germany; SICS, Sweden; USP, Brazil; CERN, Switzerland; Petrozavodsk State University, Russia.

The project will employ six full-time researchers at various stages of their postgraduate studies, as well as a postdoctoral scientist. The team will be located at the HIIT premises in Helsinki, Ruoholahti. The researchers are expected to actively publish in international forums and produce several dissertations during the project. An advisory board from the industry will follow the progress of the project. At the moment CSC, Defence Forces, Elisa, Ericsson, F-Secure, Karila A. & E., Nokia, Secgo, SSH, StoneSoft, TietoEnator, and TeliaSonera have joined the board.

Research Director, Professor Martti Mäntylä is the responsible leader and Doc. Andrei Gurtov the leading scientist of the project. The scientific board of the project includes Professor Antti Ylä-Jääski from TML, Professor Kimmo Raatikainen from TKTL, Adjunct Professor Arto Karila from HIIT and TML, and Adjunct Professor Pekka Nikander from Ericsson NomadicLab and HIIT. For more information, contact Doc. Gurtov at mailto:Andrei.Gurtov(a)hiit.fi.

NORDICHIP

The Nordunet3 Programme accepted on 22.5.2006 the project proposal NordicHIP, originally submitted in response to the programme's October 2005 call for applications. NordicHIP is a joint project by the Swedish Institute of Computer Science, HIIT and the TML laboratory at TKK. Its objective is to deepen the collaboration in research and development of Host Identity Protocol (HIP) and related Internet infrastructure components between HIIT, TKK and SICS.

HIP and the related architecture form a proposal to change the TCP/IP stack to better support mobility and multi-homing. Adopting the identifier-locator split provided by HIP may prove to be a fundamental component of the next-generation Internet. The IETF working group on HIP is currently finalising the HIP base specifications. HIP is studied by multiple research organisations worldwide and is adopted as an architectural component in the EU Ambient Networks project and in a Layered Naming Internet Architecture by MIT. Both HUT and SICS have been key contributors to HIP research and standardisation efforts.

Nordunet3 is a joint program of the Joint Committee of the Nordic Natural Science Research Councils (NOS-N), NordForsk, the Nordic Council of Ministers, and NORDUnet A/S. NordicHIP is one of six projects selected for funding from 24 project applications. The selection was made by the Nordunet3 Steering Committee based on recommendations from an international panel of referees. The project is led by Doc. Andrei Gurtov. For more information, please contact him at mailto:Andrei.Gurtov(a)hiit.fi.

PASION

The contract negotiations of the project Psychologically Augmented Social Interaction Over Networks submitted to the 4th Call of Applications of EU's IST programme were concluded successfully in early 2006 and the project was launched. The project will study the user of an innovative shared virtual environment for conveying the social, non-verbal and contextual information required for effective communication especially in collaborative work environments. The consortium implementing the project includes 17 partners from Europe. For more information, please contact Dr. Timo Saari at mailto:Timo.Saari(a)hiit.fi.

FUGA

The project FUGA - The fun of gaming: Measuring the human experience of media enjoyment was submitted to the NEST programme of the 6th Framework Programme of EU. After clearing technical evaluation and contract negotiations, the project was launched in April, 2006. The main objective of FUGA is to create novel methods and improve existing measures in order to examine how the different dimensions of Computer Game Experience can be assessed comprehensively with high temporal resolution. FUGA will employ a broad variety of innovative techniques based on (a) psychophysiological recordings, (b) functional magnetic resonance imagining (fMRI), (c) eye movement recordings, (d) the so-called (online) implicit association test, and (e) tracking of behavioural indicators of emotion and motivation. An important objective of FUGA is to establish the construct validity, reliability, and predictive validity of the different Game Experience measures. A further objective is to develop a prototype of an emotionally adaptive game. For more information, please contact Dr. Niklas Ravaja at mailto:Niklas.Ravaja(a)hkkk.fi.

P2P FUSION

The project Peer-to-peer Fusion (P2P Fusion) concluded its negotiations successfully and was launched in the beginning of June. The P2P-FUSION project addresses the current difficulties in the legal creative reuse of audio and video media in the Internet environment. It aims to create an open, accessible, legal and economically efficient environment for creative audiovisual cultural activities that can also be based on the work of others and materials from cultural institutions, through built-in, easy-to-use support for suitable licensing schemes. The consortium consists of 7 partners from Finland, Hungary and the Netherlands. The project is co-ordinated by TAIK. For more information contact Kari-Hans Kommonen at TAIK, mailto:khk(a)uiah.fi

CALLAS

The project proposal Conveying Affectiveness in Leading-edge Living Adaptive Systems (CALLAS) was originally submitted in response to the 5th call of applications of the IST programme of the EU's 6th Framework Programme. After clearing the technical evaluation with high marks, the project enterted project negotiations with the European Commission. The negotiations are likely be concluded in the next few weeks. The project will study and develop multimodal affective interfaces in art and entertainment applications. These interfaces should support interaction with new media installations (Digital Arts, Digital Theatre, Interactive TV …) based on emotional models. As an integrated project, CALLAS will advance the state-of-the-art of affective interfaces both in terms of input processing and output/presentation; offer a software methodology for the development of Multimodal Interfaces that should make their development accessible to a wider constituency; and validate its development methodology through several research prototypes. The project will be implemented by a consortium with 19 partners. For more information, please contact Dr. Giulio Jacucci at mailto:Giulio.Jacucci(a)hiit.fi.

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NEW RESEARCH PROGRAMME STRUCTURE OF HIIT

A major milestone in the implementation of HIIT's strategy was reached on 11.5.2006 when the HIIT Board accepted the new research programme structure of HIIT that had been under preparation since the HIIT Retreat 2005. The Board also accepted the draft versions of HIIT's vision and mission statements.

The new programmes cover the activities of both units of HIIT, the ARU and the BRU. Thus the administrative division of the institute will be pushed to the background, and ceases to define the research content. The programmes are defined by their missions, stemming from the overall HIIT mission. Each programme is directed by a professor-level senior researcher. The HIIT research directors and the programme directors form a Management Board for the day-to-day joint managerial issues of the programmes, such as allocating projects to programmes and distributing HIIT base funding to the programmes. The current Industrial Advisory Board will be dissolved. Instead, each programme will have an Advisory Group consisting of industry representatives and senior researchers external to HIIT. With these changes, HIIT aims at a more transparent structure that will facilitate inclusion of new research groups and preparation of joint research initiatives with research partners.

The draft vision and mission as accepted by the Board are as follows:

HIIT vision (draft): Ubiquitous and mobile computation, communication and digital media bridge people, things and places; interweave with complex phenomena involving individuals, communities, businesses, environment, sciences and society; and produce vast amounts of data.

HIIT research mission (draft): Recognised as an internationally leading research institute in its field, HIIT's research aims at high scientific, industrial and societal impact based on deep understanding of the developments and phenomena related to modern information technology and their implications on novel theories, technologies and applications.

The new programmes, their missions, and their current senior researchers are as follows:

Algorithmic Data Analysis (ADA)

Mission: Develop useful algorithmic data analysis methods for other sciences and for industry. This work involves both basic research in computer science and applied work on problems arising from applications.

Director: Academy Professor Heikki Mannila

Other senior researchers (currently): Prof. Esko Ukkonen, Prof. Jaakko Hollmen, Prof. Juho Rousu, Prof. Hannu Toivonen, Doc. Patrik Floréen, Doc. Aristides Gionis, Doc. Kjell Lemström, Dr Juha Kärkkäinen.

Future Internet (FI)

Mission: Enhance Internet infrastructure to enable efficient, secure and trusted always-on connectivity.

Director: Prof. Kimmo Raatikainen

Other senior researchers (currently): Doc. Patrik Floréen, Doc. Andrei Gurtov, Dr Ken Rimey, Dr Sasu Tarkoma.

Network Society (NS)

Mission: Human-centric development of ubiquitous information and communication technology, which is based on deep understanding of needs and practices of our everyday life and our social relations in a network society.

Director: Dr Marko Turpeinen

Other senior researchers (currently): Prof. Martti Mäntylä, Prof. Pekka Himanen, Prof. Jukka Kemppinen, Dr Timo Saari, Dr Giulio Jacucci, Dr Olli Pitkänen, Dr Perttu Virtanen.

Probabilistic Adaptive Systems (PAS)

Mission: Study and further develop the theory of sophisticated probabilistic models and explore their applications for solving problems appearing in complex real-world stochastic systems.

Director: Prof. Petri Myllymäki

Other senior researchers (currently): Doc. Wray Buntine, Doc. Aapo Hyvärinen, HIIT Fellow Dr Jorma Rissanen

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UNIVERSAL PEER TO PEER SEMINAR

Representatives of the Peer to Peer Universal Computing Consortium (PUCC) from Japan visited HIIT on 16.12.2005 at 9.30-15.30. A seminar highlighting relevant ongoing work was held in HIIT premises at the High Tech Center Helsinki, 6th floor. For seminar presentations, please see www-old.hiit.fi/events/seminar16122005.htm.

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VIRTUAL WORLDS AND VIRTUAL CONSUMERISM SEMINAR

HIIT's MC2 project organised a special interest group session on 12.1.2006 on Virtual worlds and virtual consumerism: the buying and selling of game objects and other virtual assets and services for real money. Programme and materials are available in WWW at www-old.hiit.fi/events/vc-120106.html.

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SEMINAR ON NEW EVERYDAY INFORMATION SOCIETY

HIIT held a seminar on 1.3.2006 on New Everyday Information Society (Uusi arjen tietoyhteiskunta) related to a study on the influence of new information and communications technology on society awarded to a HIIT-led consortium by the Ministry of Communications and Transportation. Programme and materials are available through the seminar WWW page.

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COLLABORATIVE VIDEO WORKSHOP

The Collaborative Video Workshop by Erik Blankinship from MIT Medialab was held at HIIT on 31.5.2006. The workshop looked into the tools and concepts for remixing video content.

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HIIT RETREAT 2006

The annual HIIT Retreat event was held in Haukilammen toimintakeskus on 22.-23.5.2006. The prime topic discussed was be the new research programme structure of HIIT, its content and its implications to the operations of HIIT. Event materials are available in www.hiit.fi/events/retreat/retreat2006.html.

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SEMINAR ON FUTURE OF EUROPEAN SOCIAL MODELS

HIIT's Global Network Society project and the Policy Network co-arranged the seminar Future of European Social Models: Is it a tragedy play or a success story? in the Kolumbus auditorium at HTC Helsinki on June 5, 2006. Speakers of the event included Professor Anthony Giddens, Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, and Professor Pekka Himanen. Some 200 people were in attendance.

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HIIT JOINS THE DIMES CONSORTIUM

HIIT has been accepted as the member of the DIMES ry consortium in its board meeting on 16.1.2006. For the mission and activities of DIMES, please refer to http://www.dimes.fi. HIIT plans to contribute actively to the work of DIMES, especially in the preparation of research initiatives for EU's 7th Framework Programme.

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BRU RECEIVES HIGH MARKS IN RESEARCH EVALUATION

The international evaluation of the quality of research at the University of Helsinki was completed and the evaluation report published on 1.3.2006. The evaluation reports can be found at http://www.helsinki.fi/research2005/english/results.html. The Basic Research Unit of HIIT, as well as the entire Department of Computer Science, was awarded the best grade 7/7. According to the evaluation, "The unit can without hesitation be declared leading in its chosen area of research. It has a strong international colour."

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PROFESSOR JUKKA KEMPPINEN RECEIVES TELIASONERA FINLAND AWARD

The Research and Training Foundation of TeliaSonera Finland Oyj has granted an award for merit of EUR 10,000 to Professor Jukka Kemppinen. Professor Kemppinen serves as Professor of Business Law at the Lappeenranta University of Technology, Principal Scientist at the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT), Docent of Jurisprudence at Helsinki University Faculty of Law, and Docent of History of Civilizations at Turku University. Previously he served as a judge for a long time, particularly in cases related to intellectual property rights and communications, last as Justice at the Helsinki Court of Appeals. His most recent book "Digitaaliongelma" has recently been published in the publication series of Lappeenranta University.

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SENIOR PERSONNEL NEWS

M.Sc. Petri Martikainen has been nominated as the Research Manager of HIIT from 6.2.2006. His mission to contribute to the planning, preparation and implementation of research initiatives and applications in co-operation with the Research Directors and Research Programme Directors of HIIT. This includes especially research strategy planning and implementation, networking with key stakeholders, and innovation management. Prior to HIIT, he has worked in several management positions in international IT-companies, most lately as CEO of Sofia Digital. During the initial launch stage of HIIT in 1999-2000, he worked HIIT as research coordinator.

HIIT researcher Olli Pitkänen defended his doctoral thesis Legal Challenges to Future Information Businesses in the public dissertation at the Helsinki University of Technology on 3.3.2006. The opponents were Professors Olli Martikainen and Jukka Mähönen and the custos Professor Martti Mäntylä.

HIIT researcher Sasu Tarkoma defended his doctoral thesis Efficient Content-based Routing, Mobility-aware Topologies, and Temporal Subspace Matching in the Faculty of Science at the University of Helsinki on 29.4.2006. The opponent was Professor Luís Rodrigues, Universidade de Lisboa and the custos Professor Kimmo Raatikainen.

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FUTURE EVENTS

17.-18.6.2006: The European Network of Excellence PASCAL, the University of Helsinki, Helsinki University of Technology and HIIT will co-arrange the seminar Probabilistic Modeling and Machine Learning in Structural and Systems Biology in Gustavelund, Tuusula. See http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/group/bioinfo/events/pmsb06/.

6.-8.7.2006: The IIIA - 2006: International Workshop on Intelligent Information Access will take place in the Marina Congress Center, Helsinki. HIIT is one of the co-sponsors of the event. See http://cosco.hiit.fi/search/IIIA2006/.

19.9.2006, 10:00-12:00: HIIT Board meeting, Department of Computer Science, University of Helsinki, Kumpula.

29.10.-2.11.2006: Naming and Addressing for Next-Generation Internetworks, Schloss Dagstuhl. HIIT's Senior Research Scientist, Doc. Andrei Gurtov is co-chairing the event. For more information, see http://www.dagstuhl.de/06441/.