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About the Contributors

Mahbubur Rahman Syed is currently a professor of Information Systems and Technology at Minnesota State University, Mankato (MSU), USA. He has about 25 years of experience in teaching, in industry,inresearchandinacademic leadership inthe field ofcomputerscience, engineering,information technology and systems. Earlier he worked in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the North Dakota State University in USA, in the School of Computing and Information Technology at Monash University in Australia, in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in Bangladesh, and Ganz Electric Works in Hungary. He was a founding member of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at BUET and served as Head of this Department during 1986-92. He served as the General Secretary of Bangladesh Computer Society and also as the General Secretary of BUET Teacher’s Association. He received the UNESCO/ROSTSCA’ 85 award for South and Central Asia region in the field of Informatics and Computer Applications in Scientific Research. He won several other awards. He has co-edited several books in the area of e-commerce, software agents, distance education, multimedia systems and networking. He has more than 100 papers published in journals and conference proceedings. He has been serving in different roles such as co-editor-in chief, associate editor, editorial review committee, member of several international journals. Dr. Syed has been involved in international professional activities including organizing conferences and serving as conference and program committee chair.

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Kikuo Asai received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering and electronics from Nagoya University, Japan in 1998. He joined the National Institute of Multimedia Education in 1996. He was a visiting scientist at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2000 and at the University of Alberta in 2002–2003, respectively. He is currently an associate professor at the Open University of Japan. He has been engaged in research and development of human computer interaction, virtual reality, and multimedia systems. He is a member of IEICE, IEEJ, and VRSJ. (as of April 2009)

Leonard Barolli received BE and PhD degrees from Tirana University and Yamagata University in 1989 and 1997, respectively. From April 1997 to March 1999, he was a JSPS Post Doctor Fellow Researcher at Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Yamagata University. From April 1999 to March 2002, he worked as a Research Associate at the Department of Public Policy and Social Studies, Yamagata University. From April 2002 to March 2003, he was an Assistant Professor at Department of Computer Science, Saitama Institute of Technology (SIT). From April 2003 to March 2005, he was an

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About the Contributors

Associate Professor and presently is a Full Professor at Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Fukuoka Institute of Technology (FIT). Dr. Barolli has published more than 250 papers in referred Journals and International Conference proceedings. He has served as a Guest Editor for many International Journals. Dr. Barolli has been General Chair, PC Chair and PC Member of many International Conferences. Dr. Barolli is the Steering Committee Chair of CISIS International Conference and is serving as Steering Committee Member in many International Conferences. He is organizers of many International Workshops. His research interests include network traffic control, fuzzy control, genetic algorithms, agent-based systems, ad-hoc networks and sensor networks, Web-based applications, distance learning systems and P2P systems. He is a member of SOFT, IPSJ, and IEEE.

Yacine Benahmed received his B.Sc. degree in computer science in 2005 and M.S. degree in December 2008 in electrical engineering both from the Université de Moncton. He worked as a research assistant at the Human-Machine Interaction Lab. at the Université de Moncton, Campus de Shippagan since 2005. In 2007, the Université de Moncton granted him a performance scholarship for his outstanding results. His main research interests involve distributed interactive systems, dialogue systems on mobile telecommunications, intelligent agents and pervasive technologies.

Arjan Durresi received his BE, MS and PhD at Polytechnic University of Tirana, Albania in 1986, 1990 and 1993, respectively. He holds a Post-Graduate Degree from Italian Telecommunication Institute, La Sapienza University, Italy in 1991. He also got another PhD degree at Tokyo Denki University, Japan in 2006. Presently, he is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, Indiana. In the recent past, he also held roles as Associate Professor at Louisiana State University, Research Scientist of Computer Science and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The Ohio State University. Dr. Durresi serves as Area Editor of Ad Hoc Networks Journal. He is on Editorial Boards of many International Journals. He has been a Guest Editor for many Special Issues. He was Program Co-Chair of the AINA-2006. He is organizing many International Workshops. He has authored more than 50 papers in Journals and more than 80 in Conference Proceedings. Dr. Durresi’s research interest include: network architectures, heterogeneous wirelessadhocandsensornetworks,security,QoSroutingprotocols,trafficmanagement,gridcomputing, optical and satellite networks, multimedia networking, and bioinformatics.

José Antonio Gómez-Tejedor received the B.Sc and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from the Universidad de Valencia (UV) in 1991 and 1995. He is professor at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV) from 1996. In 1997 he joined the Center of Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, at UPV. His current interests include tissue engineering for cartilage regeneration and central nervous system regeneration. He is also interested in biomedical applications of spider and silkworm silk. He is also interested in learning and applying innovative active methodologies into classroom and e-learning. Dr. Gómez-Tejedor currently teaches physics to first-year undergraduate students.

Morris S. Y. Jong B.Eng. (HKPolyU), M.Sc. (HKU), Ph.D. (Candidate) (CUHK) Instructor, Centre for the Advancement of Information Technology in Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Motivated by his keen interest in education and information technology, Mr. Jong has been teaching teacher education programmes specializing in IT in education, at undergraduate, postgraduate, and master levels, for over 7 years. He became a member of Centre for the Advancement of Information

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About the Contributors

Technology in Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2007. Apart from teaching, Mr. Jong has been active in diverse international, global Chinese, and local scholarly activities which promote the integration of IT into teaching and learning. Besides assisting in the organization of these activities, he has published more 30 international and global Chinese journal and conference papers, given presentations in conferences, as well as invited talks in seminars and scholarly visits. Currently, he is pursuing a PhD degree in the area of computer game-based learning at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Akio Koyama received his BE and PhD degrees from Yamagata University in 1987 and 1998, respectively. From April 1999 to March 2002, he was an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, the University of Aizu. From April 2002 to March 2008, he was an Associate Professor and now is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Engineering, Yamagata University. Dr. Koyama has published about 100 papers in refereed journals and international conference proceedings. Dr. Koyama has been a PC member of many international conferences. His research interests include medical and care communication systems, routing protocols, high-speed network protocols, agent-based systems, distance learning systems and mobile communication systems. He is a member of the IEEE Computer Society, IPSJ and IEICE.

Tang-Ho Lê is currently Full Professor of Université de Moncton, New-Brunswick, Canada. Ph.D. in Computer Science, Université de Montréal (1998). Prof. of Databases, Programming Languages and Software Development courses. Career experiences include: Designer and developer of several software systems:VietVoice(afirstVietnameseVoiceSynthesizer-2004),OCOWS(OnLineCooperativeWorking

System, a Web-based Learning System - 2007), LINC (Learn IN Context, a Collaborative E-learning system - 2004), DKNS Knowledge Management System (2000), SAFARI Intelligent Tutorial System Planning module (1998), Acupuncture Expert System (1993), Geyser On-Screen Help Book (1990), etc. His areas of interest include Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge Management Systems, E-Learning Systems, and Speech Technology, having more than 30 scientific publications.

Fong-Lok Lee B.Sc., Dip.Ed., M.A.(Ed), Ph.D. (CUHK) Director, Centre for the Advancement of Information Technology in Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Apart from being the Centre Director, Professor Lee is also the Programme Director of the Master of Arts Programme in

InformationTechnologyinEducationsince2001and2003,respectively.Hehasfifteenyearsofworking experienceinhisspecialistfield,twenty-twoyearsofteachingexperienceinlocalsecondaryschoolsand more than eleven years in conducting teacher training courses for local secondary school teachers. He served as a secondary school teacher, extra-curricular activities master and mathematics panel chairman. Presently he is a member of the executive committee of the Global Chinese Association on Computers in Education, co-chief Editor of Global Chinese Journal of Computers in Education; past-president of

Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education; Chair of the HK & Macau Chapter, Global Chinese

Society on Computers in Education. His research interests include Educational Technology Cognitive

Processes, Artificial Intelligence, Mathematics Learning, and Application of Information Technologies in Education.

Jimmy H. M. Lee B.Math., M.Math. (Waterloo), Ph.D. (Victoria) Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Professor Lee read both his BMath (Hons) degree and MMath degree from the University of Waterloo in 1987 and 1988, respectively, and

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About the Contributors

his PhD from the University of Victoria in 1992. Immediately upon graduation, he joined The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on the theory and practice of constraint satisfaction and optimization with applications in scheduling, resource allocation, and combinatorial problems. In recent years, Professor Lee has also been conducting research on novel Web-based learning platforms and the accompanying pedagogies, particularly in the development of educational games. He is currently the Associate Director (Research and Development) of the Centre for the Advancement of Information Technology in Education under the Hong Kong Institute of Educational Research, CUHK. Professor Lee has over 100 refereed technical publications in international journals and conferences, and has obtained over$11millionincompetitiveresearchfunding.HeisontheeditorialboardsoftheJournalofDiscrete

Algorithms, the CONTRAINTS journal, and the Constraint Programming Newsletter. Professor Lee is active in extramural educational activities. He has taught for the Programs for the Gifted and Talented, and was the Chief Examiner of Paper II of the HK A-Level Computer Studies subject from 1995 to 2001. Inspired by his many former good teachers from elementary school to universities, Jimmy’s passion for teaching garnered him the Vice-Chancellor’s Exemplary Teaching Award in 2005, and the Faculty of Engineering Exemplary Teaching Award in 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2003.

Keita Matsuo received his BE from Fukuoka Institute of Technology (FIT), Japan in 1989. From April 1989 to March 1990, he was an Assistant Teacher at Fukuoka Technical High School. From April 1990 to March 2003, he was a Teacher at Tobata Technical High School. From April 2003 to March 2006, he was a Teachers Consultant at Fukuoka Education Center. From April 2007, he is PhD Student at Graduate School of Engineering, FIT. His research interests include distance learning systems, Webbased education system, P2P systems and Internet Applications.

Germán Moltó received the B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV) in 2002 and 2007. In 2002 he joined the Grid and High Performance Computing research group, at UPV. Since 2005, he is also an assistant lecturer at the same university. His current interests include Grid Computing, Service-Oriented Architectures, metascheduling and its usage in different scientific fields, such as biomedical applications and protein design. He is also interested in learning and applying innovative active methodologies into classroom. Since July 2008 he holds a title of Specialist in Universitary Pedagogy after having fulfilled a whole-year specialised course for improving the skills of university teachers. Dr. Moltó currently teaches data structures and algorithms to second-year undergraduate students.

Mehdi Najjar is actually a visiting research scientist at the Canadian Space Agency. He received his

M. Sc. and his Ph. D. in artificial intelligence from the University of Sherbrooke (Canada). His research interests are related to knowledge representation/engineering and to cognitive/computational modelling withinvirtuallearningenvironments.Healsocollaborateswithotherresearchersinthefieldofhumancomputer interaction within intelligent systems, during post-doctoral researches at the University of Moncton and the University of Montreal (Canada). Mehdi Najjar is a senior lecturer at the Computer Science Department of the University of Sherbrooke,

Noritaka Osawa received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in information science from the University of Tokyo in 1983, 1985, and 1988 respectively. After working for a software company, the University of Electro-communications, and the National Institute of Multimedia Education, he now works for Chiba

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About the Contributors

University as a professor. His current research interests include multimedia systems, information visualization, and human-computer interfaces. (as of April 2009)

Douglas O’Shaughnessy has been a professor at INRS-EMT (formerly, INRS-Telecommunications), a constituent of the University of Quebec, in Montreal, Canada, since 1977. He has worked as a in the speechcommunicationfieldformorethan30years.Hisinterestsandresearchincludeautomaticspeech synthesis, analysis, coding, enhancement, and recognition. He was educated at MIT, and is a Fellow of both the Acoustical Society of America and of the IEEE. He is an Associate Editor for the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America and is a member of the IEEE Technical Committee for Speech Processing, and was the General Chair of the 2004 ICASSP. He is the author of the textbook Speech Communications: Human and Machine (2000, IEEE Press). With Li Deng, he co-authored the book Speech Processing: A Dynamic and Optimization-Oriented Approach (Marcel Dekker Inc.).

Sid-Ahmed Selouani received his B. Eng. degree in 1987 and his M.S. degree in 1991 both in electronic engineering from the Algiers University of Technology (U.S.T.H.B). He joined the Communication Langagière et Interaction Personne-Système (CLIPS) Laboratory of Université Joseph Fourier of Grenoble taking part in the Algerian-French double degree program and then he got a Docteur d’État degree in the field of signal processing and artificial intelligence in 2000. From 2000 to 2002 he held a post-doctoral fellowship in the Multimedia Group at the Institut National de Recherche Scientifique

(INRS-Télécommunications) in Montréal. He is currently full professor and responsible of the HumanMachine Interaction Laboratory at the Université de Moncton, Campus de Shippagan. He is also an invited Professor at INRS-Télécommunications. He is a Senior member of IEEE and member of signal processing and computer science societies. His main areas of research include new models in HumanSystem interaction, E-services, mobile communications, ubiquitous systems and assistive technologies by speech-enabled solutions.

Junjie Shang B.Sc. (Peking U), M.Phil. (Peking U), Ph.D. (CUHK) Associate Professor, Department of Educational Technology, Peking University. Professor Shang read both his BSc Degree and MPhil degree from Peking University in 1996 and 1999, respectively, and his PhD from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2007. He is currently an associate professor of the Department of Educational Technology under the Graduate School of Education, Peking University. His research focuses on computer game-based learning and virtual reality in education. Dr. Shang has published more than 35 papers in international and global Chinese journals and conferences.

Tin-Yu Wu is an assistant professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Tamkang University, Taipei, R.O.C. He received his PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from NDHU in 2007. His research interests focus on the next generation Internet protocol, mobile computing and wireless networks.

Fatos Xhafa holds a PhD in Computer Science (1998) from the Department of Languages and Informatics Systems, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain. He was graduated in Mathematics from the Faculty of Natural Sciences (FNS), University of Tirana (UT), Albania, in 1988. During 1989-1993 he was an Assistant Professor at the Department of Applied Mathematics of the FNS, UT (Albania). He joined the Polytechnic University of Catalonia as a Visiting Professor at the Applied Mathematics Department I, and later he entered the Department of Languages and Informatics Systems

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About the Contributors

(LSI) as a PhD student and in 1996 as an Assistant Professor. Currently, he is an Associate Professor at the Department of Languages and Informatics Systems and member of the ALBCOM Research Group He is also a collaborator of the Open University of Catalonia (Barcelona, Spain). His current research interests includeparallel anddistributed algorithms,combinatorialoptimization andapproximation, metaheuristics for complex problems, distributed programming, Grid and P2P computing. He has published in leading international journals and conferences and has served in the Organizing Committees of many conferences and workshops. He is also member of editorial board of several international journals.

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