Events Calendar

Yarta: A Middleware For Managing Mobile Social Ecosystems

Speaker: Animesh Pathak, Ph.D., INRIA, Paris-Rocquencourt

Talk Title: Yarta: A Middleware For Managing Mobile Social Ecosystems

Abstract: With the increased prevalence of advanced mobile devices (the so-called "smart" phones), interest has grown in mobile social ecosystems, where users not only access traditional Web-based social networks using their mobile devices, but are also able to use the context information provided by these devices to further enrich their interactions. In complex mobile social ecosystems of the future the heterogeneity of software platforms on constituent nodes, combined with their intrinsic distributed nature and heterogeneity of representation of data and context raises the need for middleware support for the development of mobile social applications. Owing to the large variety of platforms available for smart phones, as well as the different ways that data and context information is represented, it is natural to think of middleware solutions that the developers of these systems can use while creating their applications.

In this talk, we will present the details of Yarta, a novel middleware designed for mobile social ecosystems (MSE), which takes into account the heterogeneity of both deployment nodes and available data, the intrinsic decentralized nature of mobile social applications, as well as users' privacy concerns. The Yarta core data model is based on RDF, and can be extended for specific social applications. We also discuss the results of performance evaluation of the core Yarta operations on smart phones and laptops, as well as the steps needed for developing new applications using it.

Biography: Animesh Pathak is currently a researcher ("Chargé de Recherche") with the ARLES project-team at INRIA Paris-Rocquencourt. He received his PhD in Computer Engineering from the University of Southern California, USA in 2008; and prior to that, the B.Tech degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, India where he graduated at the head of his class. His current research interests include high-level programming abstractions for sensor networks and emerging trends in mobile social networking.

Host: Professor Viktor K. Prasanna

Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Janice Thompson