Report Concerning the Visit of
IEEE Computer Society Chapter Tutorial Speaker
Prof. Dr. Bart M. ter Haar Romeny
to Malaysia
Description
The motivation for this visit is the existence of groups working on a same topic
(Multiscale Image Analysis) in both Malaysia and The Netherlands, and the desire to 1)
strengthen the group in Malaysia; 2) open new perspectives within this group; 3)
strengthen the Digital Image Processing community in Malaysia.
The visit was organised as a long visit with several events to address different groups
and communities with various geographical locations (Kuala Lumpur and surroundings
and Penang) and interests (Digital Image Processing, Biomedical Imaging, and
Mathematics).
Practically, the visit included five main event:
1) A one-day seminar in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in Penang on Friday 16
August 2002. Intended audience was the Digital Image Processing community in and
around Penang Island.
2) A five-day lecture series with title "Multiscale Image Analysis: Theory and
Applications" in Multimedia University (MMU) in Cyberjaya from Monday 19 to
Friday 23 August 2002, including 3 lectures every morning from 9.00 am to 12.00
pm, and a 3-hour lab session in the afternoon from 2.00 pm (2.30 pm on Friday) to
5.00 pm. Intended audience was the Digital Image Processing community in and
around Kuala Lumpur. The lectures were transmitted via teleconferencing facilities to
the facilities in Penang (USM) and in Melaka (MMU). The title of the individual
lectures were:
1. Introduction to the course, notion of scale, physics of observation
2. A multi-scale approach from first principles
3. Introduction to Mathematica I
4. The Gaussian kernel and its properties
5. A close look at Gaussian derivatives
6. Introduction to Mathematica II
7. The differential structure of images
8. Differential invariants and how to construct them
9. Second and higher order invariants, biomedical image analysis applications
10. Front-End Vision I: the working of human visual perception
11. Front-End Vision II
12. Deblurring Gaussian blur
13. Detection of multi-scale optic flow from image sequences; multi-scale color
invariants
14. Geometry-Driven Diffusion: edge preserving smoothing
15. The deep structure of images
3) A 2-hour seminar with title "Modern Computer Vision and Visualization Techniques
for Biomedical Imaging" in Multimedia University (MMU) in Cyberjaya on
Wednesday 21 August 2002, 7.30 pm - 22.00 pm (including a break). Intended
audience was both the Digital Image Processing and the Biomedical Imaging
community in and around Kuala Lumpur.
4) A series of study discussions with the scale space group at MMU in Cyberjaya from
Monday 26 to Wednesday 28 August 2002.
5) A seminar with title "Multiscale Computer Vision Techniques in Relation to
Biological Vision" at the Annual Meeting of the Malaysian Mathematical Sciences
Society in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in Bangi on Thursday 29 August
2002. Intended audience was the Mathematical community in and around Kuala
Lumpur.
Organization
The local organization in Malaysia was done by:
Assoc Prof. Dr. Mandava Rajeswari, School of Computer Science, USM
(mandava@cs.usm.my) for the first event;
- Dr. Michel Bister, Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Engineering (FOE) of MMU and
supervisor of the scale space group (michel.bister@mmu.edu.my) for the second,
third and fourth event;
- Assoc Prof Dr Maslina Darus, Honorary Secretary, Malaysian Mathematical Sciences
Society, UKM (maslina@pkrisc.cc.ukm.my) for the fifth event.
USM sponsored the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Penang and back, as well as
accommodation in Penang.
In preparation the series of events at MMU, flyers as attached were sent out to an
extensive mailing list as attached. Labs were prepared based on the Mathematica
notebooks forming the core of the new interactive book by Prof. Romeny entitled "FrontEnd Vision and Multiscale Image Analysis" (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002).
Several staff of MMU (Mr. Pechin Lo Chien Pau, Mr. R. Logeswaran, Mr. Hezerul
Abdul Karim) prepared to assist Prof. Romeny in supervising the lab sessions.
Multimedia University provided a VIP apartment free of charge for Prof. Romeny.
Lectures were organized in the best equipped lecture hall with large seating capacity and
videoconferencing facilities. MMU's Centre for Information Technology Services (CITS)
gave full support for the teleconferencing link, and two labs (Multimedia Computing Lab
and Microprocessor Lab), equipped with a total of 80 computers, were made available for
the lab sessions.
Wolfram Research, Inc., via its Dutch and Malaysian representatives (CANdiensten
and Solutions Research Centre Sdn Bhd), gave full support to the event by providing a
network license for 80 machines as well as a password for individual access password.
Multimedia Research Labs Sdn Bhd gave full access to its Multimedia Conferencing
System (MCS) for the videoconferencing of the lecture series.
The organiser and the students from the scale space group of MMU provided
hospitality for Prof. Romeny by taking care of his meals at different locations in and
around the campus and Kuala Lumpur. Refreshments were provided during the break at
the third event (seminar at MMU). For the second event (lecture series), copies of the
lecture notes of Prof. Romeny were made available to the participants for a modest
contribution. The participation in this event, as well as in all the other events, was
completely free of charge.
-
The Malaysian Mathematical Sciences Society sponsored Prof. Romeny's stay in
Equatorial Hotel in Bangi.
Response
The response to the advertisement has been excellent. Some 90+ researchers of 9
Malaysian universities have registered for either the second or the third event, in addition
to 30+ participants at the first event and 30+ participants at the 5th event. The universities
involved were:
- Multimedia University (MMU),
- Universiti Malaya (UM),
- Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM),
- Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM),
- Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM),
- Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM),
- Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM),
- Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN),
- International Islamic University (IIU).
Most of the groups active in the field of Digital Image Processing in Malaysia were
represented. The participation was very good, and the audience displayed an unusual
attention. Participation in the lab session was excellent, and the amount of progress
realised within one week, taking into account the unfamiliar programming environment
(Mathematica) was excellent. The atmosphere during the lectures and labs can only be
accurately rendered with a few pictures as included below.
Lectures:
Breaks:
Lab sessions:
Group picture:
Quality
The quality of the lectures was excellent. The technical content took the audience
gradually through the different mathematical, biophysical and practical aspects of
multiscale image analysis. The teaching skills of Prof. Romeny are exceptional, and he
was able to captivate his audience throughout the lecture series.
The lab session brought a valuable added value to the lectures by allowing the
participants to experiment, first with the new programming environment, then with the
concepts themselves, as all the lectures AND experiments were based in interactive
Notebooks in Mathematica. This made the material very lively and easy to experiment
with. Moreover, the attention of Prof. Romeny for the participants was constant, and he
explained the difficult concepts with infinite patience.
The seminar was on such a level that, following it, several requests were received for
him to present it again at other nearby universities (UM, UPM).
Impact
The visit of Prof. Romeny to Malaysia has had a profound influence on the Digital
Image Processing community in Malaysia. New perspectives were opened, and old
problems were seen under a new light. The exchange of ideas was extremely rich, and all
the researchers involved in the fourth event benefited immensely from the input of Prof.
Romeny for their work.
As a results of the lecture series, researchers of different universities have gotten to
know and appreciate each other, resulting in a greater sense of community. Several ideas
for common project were considered and will have to be followed up.
The visit contributed to disseminating new ideas in the community and to strengthen
the field of Digital Image Processing in Malaysia