Wen's IST590 Blog (Fall 2008)

Doing PhD is not just getting a bit more education; it is a long arduous journey that will profoundly change you in a number of ways.

Ph.D. is a life style:

You will always have endless work to do: 

But, if you love your filed of study, PhD will finally make you brilliant and make a big name is academia.

If you don't enjoy doing research, prepare for the horrible stress and boring study life. And maybe, quit as soon as possible, and find another way to live. 

I read this attractive article "So long, and thanks for the Ph.D.!" a year ago and it really helped me to think about why I was doing Ph.D. here and what was the value for my life. In the first year, graduate study was tough, tiring and boring for me because I have been studying for almost sixteen years. I didn't spend much time thinking why I was doing this until I came to Penn State. At last, I came over all difficulties and decided to complete my graduate study. There is too much to say and thanks to this great article, but now I want to focus what makes me better in this grad school.

Among the three websites suggested for this week, at this moment I found the blog "Grad School Survival" written by Alice most useful. A lot of things happen to others and you never notice until someday you get it. I highly agree with some points raised by the author, especially though my own experience. Hopefully these thoughts along with other wisdom ideas will help me make it though graduate school and move onto a successful career, either in academia or industry. Following are something I find useful from Alice's blog along with my experience.

Health is most important. Eat good, sleep well and relax yourself whenever you need it.

Work efficiently. Try to finish eight hours' work in three hours but of course, do the job well. This is what I learn from Dr. Andrea Tapia in the Graduate Career Workshop.

Keep good relationships with faculty. They are much more experienced than most of us and can always offer good advices. Of course, they will write recommendation letters when you are looking for a job.

Be reasonably ambitious. You should always set a goal (both short-term and long-term). Keep working on where you want to go.

Build social network. If you have chance, go to conference and meet people. Give a good impression to the audience when presenting. The recruiters might be sitting there and you may have surprising opportunities later on.

Be a decent person and do good work. I like this!

Be brave. You suffer travesty in any work as well as graduate study. Just think about good results after you survive and everything will become better.

I have been in State College for almost one and half a year and attended a lot of activities organized by different associations. People in those organizations are all very nice and their activities are really interesting, but I did not and don't plan to join any groups in the future. In my spare time, I would like to hang out with friends, having dinner together or doing some sports.   

LateNight-PennState

Friday night is definitely a good time to relax and have fun and LateNight-PennState is absolutely a good choice. The mission of LateNight-PennState is to make available to students quality late night entertainment during prime social times, namely 9:00pm through 2:00am (Friday and Saturday) and 9:00pm through midnight (Thursday). LateNight provides an alcohol-free environment with opportunities for students to gain experiences in programming, leadership development, and responsible social interaction. We usually play badminton with a bunch of friends there on Friday and sometimes make handicraft products in HUB. 

In addition, I also joined the Friday Dinner and Fellowship organized by International Ministries at PSU and trip to Virginia by the Chinese Student Scholar and Family Ministries. They have great people and nice food!

Dr. David Luckham
Research Professor of Electrical Engineering (Emeritus)
Computer System Lab.
Computer Science Dept. & Electrical Engineering Dept.
School of Engineering
Stanford University

Professor Luckham has held faculty and invited faculty positions in both mathematics and computer science at eight major universities in Europe and the United States including:

• Research Professor of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, 1977-1999
• Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow, Harvard University, 1976
• Senior Research Associate, Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, 1972-1977
• Associate Professor, UCLA Computer Science Department, 1970-1972

He has been an invited lecturer, keynote speaker, panelist, and USA delegate at many international conferences and congresses. Until 1999 he was a member of the Computer Systems Laboratory, Stanford University and directed the Program Analysis and Verification Project. He taught courses on Artifical Intelligence and automated deduction, programming languages and program verification, the Anna verification system, systems prototyping and simulation languages, and Complex Event Processing. He was one of the founders of Rational Software, Inc. in 1981.

In the past he has served on review committees during the DoD Ada Language design competition, and was a Distinguished Reviewer on the DoD Ada9X design project. In 1993-94 he was a member of the TRW Independent Assessment Team tasked with reviewing the FAA's Advanced Automation System for the FAA, and in 1994-96 he was a distinguished reviewer for the DoD High Level Language for modeling and simulation.

He has published four books and over 100 technical papers; two ACM/IEEE Best Paper Awards, several papers are now in historical anthologies and book collections. His latest book is an introduction to complex event processing, "The Power of Events".

Information Source: Complex Event Processing Forum

1.      Information system research (ISR)

Information Systems Research is a journal of INFORMS, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. Information Systems Research is a leading international journal of theory, research, and intellectual development, focused on information systems in organizations, institutions, the economy, and society. ISR has been constantly improving the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) impact factor score and is considered on e of the best journal in IS community.

2. European journal of information systems (EJIS)

The European Journal of Information Systems provides a distinctive European perspective on the theory and practice of information systems for a global audience. This journal encourages first rate research articles by academics, but also case studies and reflective articles by practitioners. It provides a critical view on technology, development, implementation, strategy, management and policy. The impact factor for EJIS is pretty high, although not as decent as ISR. Recently, EJIS has a special issue for RFID - Managing RFID Projects in Organizations. The theme of the special issue will be to discover the challenges faced by organizations in execution of RFID projects. It will address every aspect of RFID project management starting from requirements analysis, to implementation, and maintenance. This is quite relevant to the research in our RFID lab.

3. Information system frontiers

Information Systems Frontiers examines new research and development at the interface of information systems (IS) and information technology (IT) from analytical, behavioral, and technological perspectives. It provides a common forum for both frontline industrial developments as well as pioneering academic research. The journal's multidisciplinary approach draws from such fields as computer science, telecommunications, operations research, economics, and cognitive sciences. Among the emerging areas covered are enterprise modeling and integration, object/web technologies, information economics, IT integrated manufacturing, medical informatics, digital libraries, mobile computing, and electronic commerce. Both the Editorial Advisory Group and the Editorial Board feature outstanding individuals from academia and industry, ensuring that all the multiple frontiers in the IS/IT field are covered.

4.      IEEE on RFID 2009

Having attended 2008 IEEE on RFID in Las Vegas, this year our lab will keep focusing on the 2009 International IEEE Conference on RFID. The conference addresses key topics and issues related to RF-based identification and communication systems, and will feature keynotes, presentations on technology advances and panel discussions on pressing topics. IEEE RFID 2009 is the third annual conference that brings together researchers and practitioners from both academia and industry to share research results and knowledge in the areas of RFID technologies, their supporting large-scale distributed information systems and their applications. Topic areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Antennas & Propagation: Antenna theory and designs, channel measurements and modeling
• Circuits, Devices & Sensors: Low-power circuit designs, integrated sensors, energy harvesting, non-silicon-based structures
• Communication Protocols: Coding, modulation and medium access schemes
• Security & Privacy: Cryptographic protocols and privacy-enhancing techniques
• System Tools: Tools for the design, deployment and evaluation of RFID systems
• RF-based Localization: Novel system approaches, technologies and algorithms
• RFID System Architecture: "RFID middleware", large-scale discovery services
• Policy & Regulatory Issues: Spectral management, privacy issues, co-existence of RFID systems, social implications of RFID technology
• Deployment Issues & Concerns: EMC compatibility, tag recycling, issues in patient safety
• Applications: Reports on the introduction and operational experience of RFID applications

Working on data management issues of RFID application, I am interested in extracting useful information from large amount of RFID data using data mining techniques. As I have mentioned in earlier blogs, the technique for managing tons of data might be different from traditional methods such as active database systems. I highly recommend Complex Event Processing technique that turns database upside down. Basically, it stores the queries (or rules) that express interested event patterns and filters out useless data or events. This might be a hot topic for real-time agile business information systems in the new era. Commercial software is emerging. However, technical issue is only part of the story. I am also touching on the adoption of technology in organizations (e.g. RFID in healthcare). Following are several academic communities that I might be part of someday, hopefullyJ

 

1.      AIS (Association for Information Systems)

The Association for Information Systems (AIS) founded in 1994, is a professional organization whose purpose is to serve as the premier global organization for academics specializing in Information Systems. The need for such an organization was first spelled out in an editorial authored by five past Editor's-in-Chief of the Management Information Systems Quarterly in March of 1993. Bill King, of the University of Pittsburgh, was first among many to play key leadership roles in bringing the association into existence. He served as the first president.

The specific purposes of AIS are to:

• create and maintain a professional identity for IS educators, researchers and professionals, researchers, and educators
• promote communications and interaction among members
• provide a focal point for contact and relations with bodies in government, the private sector, and in education that influence and/or control the nature of information systems
• improve curricula, pedagogy, and other aspects of IS education
• create a vision for the future of the IS field and profession
• create and implement a modern, technologically sophisticated professional society
• establish standards of practice, ethics, and education where appropriate
• include professionals worldwide

To these ends, AIS intends to conduct meetings, to publish books, journals, and other materials; to cooperate with other organizations interested in the advancement and practice of information systems, to stimulate research; to promote high professional standards, and in general, to promote the growth of information systems, and to improve the profession's quality throughout the world.

Of all the research communities within AIS world, IS world Decision Support Systems (DSS) is most attractive to me. The DSS research community is intended to provide a useful starting point for accessing web-based material related to the design, development, evaluation and implementation of DSS. The detailed information can be found here.

2.      INFORMS (The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences)

The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is the largest professional society in the world for professionals in the field of operations research (O.R.). It was established in 1995 with the merger of the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) and The Institute of Management Sciences (TIMS).

The society serves the scientific and professional needs of O.R. educators, investigators, scientists, students, managers, and consultants, as well as the organizations they serve, by such services as publishing 12 scholarly journals that describe the latest O.R. methods and applications and a membership magazine with news from across the profession. The society organizes national and international conferences for academics and professionals, as well as members of the society's special interest groups. The Institute serves as a focal point for O.R. professionals, permitting them to communicate with each other and reach out to other professional societies, as well as the varied clientele of the profession's research and practice.

Operations research is the application of advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions. Since its inception more than 50 years ago, O.R. has contributed billions of dollars in benefits and savings to corporations, government, and the nonprofit sector. 

Because the public is largely unacquainted with the sophisticated techniques used by operations researchers, INFORMS established a public relations department to educate those outside the profession. In 2004, INFORMS introduced the "O.R.: The Science of Better" campaign to improve the visibility, the identity, and the image to key constituencies outside our discipline. The goal of the campaign is to make transparent and understandable the value of the discipline, thereby generating meaningful demand for what we do.

INFORMS publishes 12 scholarly journals, including the flagship journals Operations Research and Management Science, and an online only journal (INFORMS Transactions on Education), as well as a membership magazine (OR/MS Today), student membership magazine (OR/MS Tomorrow), two book series, and INFORMS Cases and Teaching Materials. 

All INFORMS scholarly journals are peer reviewed and 11 are available in print and electronic formats. Regular members may select one journal to receive free in print and/or online formats. Student members may select one journal to receive free online. Online subscriptions include access to current volumes for subscribed journal(s) as well as archived issues for subscribed journal(s). Online subscriptions are accessible during the membership period only.

 

3.      IEEE

A non-profit organization, IEEE is the world's leading professional association for the advancement of technology.

The IEEE name was originally an acronym for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Today, the organization's scope of interest has expanded into so many related fields, that it is simply referred to by the letters I-E-E-E (pronounced Eye-triple-E). Through its global membership, IEEE is a leading authority on areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics among others. Members rely on IEEE as a source of technical and professional information, resources and services. To foster an interest in the engineering profession, IEEE also serves student members in colleges and universities around the world. Other important constituencies include prospective members and organizations that purchase IEEE products and participate in conferences or other IEEE programs.

Mithu Bhattacharya is a fourth year Ph.D. student in IST and co-advised by Dr. Chao-Hsien Chu and Dr. Tracy Mullen. Dr. Chu is my advisor and Dr. Mullen has always been contributing and supportive for my research.

Mithu was advised by Dr. Mary Beth Rosson in her first year doing research in Human-Computer Interaction using quantitative research methodology. They had one paper¹ published in 2007. Then she did not feel so comfortable doing survey and thus redirected her research interest to RFID lab (www.net1.ist.psu.edu/rfid), during which she published two papers. One paper² deals with RFID implementation in retail industry and was published in the proceeding of Decision Science Institute (DSI) Conference. Mithu presented this paper in Phoenix, AZ in 2007. Another paper³, published in IEEE International Conference on RFID, uses content analysis methodology to do a comparative analysis of RFID adoption in retail and manufacturing sectors. She also presented this paper in Vegas, 2008. However, she doesn't come to our weekly meeting in RFID lab this semester, probably because she is very busy or wants to do so some other researches. I guess she will have dissertation proposal defense very soon.

Compared to Mithu, I am doing more technical stuff in RFID application. Interested in how to extract useful information from large volume of RFID data, I started to explore this issue half a year ago and got one paper for this topic accepted by DSI conference. This semester, the data mining course provides me much insight in how to extract useful information for application level usage. However, I believe with the increasing volume of information in future, the traditional database techniques including active database will be outdated because of their incapability to store and process data. New business intelligence techniques such as Complex Event Processing are emerging and will flood the market for real-time business intelligence.

1. Mary Beth Rosson, Hansa Sinha, Mithu Bhattacharya, Dejin Zhao: Design Planning in End-User Web Development. VL/HCC 2007: 189-196.

2. Mithu Bhattacharya, Chao-Hsien Chu, Tracy Mullen. RFID Implementation in Retail Industry: Current Status, Issues, and Challenges, Decision Science Institute (DSI) Conference, Phoenix AZ, 2007.

3. Mithu Bhattacharya, Chao-Hsien Chu, Tracy Mullen. A Comparative Analysis of RFID Adoption in Retail and Manufacturing Sectors. 2008 IEEE International Conference on RFID, Volume 16, Issue 17, April 2008 Page(s):241 - 249.

Dr. Chu's research includes information and cyber security (especially in wireless security, intrusion detection, security and risk management, and cyber forensics), intelligent technologies (expert systems, fuzzy modeling, neural networks, and genetic algorithms) and their applications in communication network design, data mining (e.g., bioinformatics and privacy preserving processing) and manufacturing systems design, supply chain management and integration, and information technology for manufacturing/operations management.

Dr. Chu has published more than 100 refereed articles in top-ranking journals and in proceedings such as IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, Decision Sciences, Decision Support Systems, Electronic Commerce Research, Journal of Operations Management, IIE Transactions, International Journal of Production Research, European Journal of Operational Research, International Industrial Engineering Conference, IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems and many other high-quality of outlets. Besides, he is coauthor of the book PROSIM (http://net1.ist.psu.edu/chu/prosim.htm): A Production Management Simulation by Harper Collins (second edition) and Irwin/McGraw-Hill (third edition).

Chu has taught a large variety of courses across business and information technology fields such as networking and telecommunications, computer and cyber forensics, wireless security, IT and systems integration, intelligent information processing; decision support systems (DSS); object-oriented systems analysis and design; enterprise resources planning (ERP); process reengineering; competitive manufacturing management, strategic quality management, and many others. All the course materials can be found through this link: http://net1.ist.psu.edu/chu/course.htm.

My adviser is Dr. Chao-Hsien Chu, Professor of Information Science and Technology and Affiliate Professor of Management Science and Information Systems in the Penn State University.

He was born and raised in Taiwan and earned his MBA degree from Tatung University and B.E. in Industrial Engineering from Chung Yuan University in Taiwan. After that, he came to the United States to pursue his Ph.D. study in 1980 majoring in Operations Management and Management Information System at Penn State. After graduation, Dr. Chu had been working in industry in New York and as a faculty in Iowa State University. However, he was tired of busy life in big cities and the tornados in Iowa were bothering. Finally, he came back to State College that he always looked forward to live for his life.   

Dr. Chu has a happy family also living in State College. His wife is a nice woman teaching music and prepares lunch for Dr. Chu every day. He has two daughters in colleges, one is studying Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and the other is studying piano at John Hopkins. They occasionally come back to State College and sometimes Dr. Chu drives to their college to see them.

Dr. Chu does not have special hobbies but he enjoys walking a lot. He is very hard working, always staying in his office from 9am to 6pm and sometimes at weekends. Otherwise, he is probably in our lab.

I had a lot of email correspondences with Dr. Chu when I was in China applying for Penn State. He not only provided me with his research interests and papers but also offered much help for my application. After Zang and I came here, he taught us where to eat, how to live and what to do. For me, he is not only an advisor in my research but also a great advisor in life!

Opened in 1999 as one of the pioneers of the I-School community, the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) is Penn State's visionary response to the rapidly growing need in almost every field for leadership in information sciences and related technologies. The foundation of IST is the ITP (Information Technology People) triangle which specifies the interaction and the synergy between the three components - Information, technology and people. The governing idea is that these three components constantly impacts and influences each other during their interaction. IST favors interdisciplinary study and research that integrates traditional disciplines such as computer science, business, psychology and sociology to solve the new emerging problems with the proliferation of the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) today. With a new comprehensive lens, IST fulfills pragmatic requirements to address and resolve issues that need different skills and methodologies to be underpinned. So the strength of IST is in collaboration and openness to leverage from the synergistic approach of diverse perspectives.  

With no separating departments, IST is vaguely structured into several research groups such as Human Computer Interaction, Artificial Intelligence and Informatics, Geographic Information Systems, Cyber Security and Privacy and etc. Faculty with diverse background contributes to one or more research areas and works with other faculty members collaboratively (see table 1). According to the Social Network Analysis project conducted last fall in my IST511 class, IST faculty members work closely with each other in small research groups on interdisciplinary topics and have connection with others in different research groups occasionally on special topics. They solve pragmatic problems effectively. Although different from other colleges with diverse departments specifying branch studies, IST performs very well in this information age without clear structure.

With my background in Software Engineering, I am familiar with technology and deal with information but I have little touch on the people side. IST provides me an excellent environment to do interdisciplinary research. For the technology side, we have a lot of RFID devices such as tags, readers and some middleware in our RFID lab. We also develop some applications to show the RFID technology. For the information side, RFID technology will generate a huge amount of data most of which are meaningless. Thus, extracting meaningful information at the application level for business management is critical in RFID adoption. For the people side, implementation of RFID technology will lead to privacy issues that are uppermost important to customers in supermarkets and patients in hospitals. If these issues are not taken care of, the technology will never come into real life successfully.

Table 1: Faculty Research Areas