Dr. Maozhen Li

Dept. of Electronic & Computer Engineering

Brunel University

Kinston Lane

Uxbridge

Middlesex

UB8 3PH

Tel: +44 (0) 1895 274000-2834(O)

Fax: +44 (0) 1895 258728

Email: Maozhen.Li@brunel.ac.uk

 

 

 

Personal Information

 

Date of Birth:      May 25, 1968

Place of Birth:     Shandong Province, P.R.China

Citizenship:          P.R.China

Marital Status:     Married

Recreation:          Badminton, Table Tennis, Music.


Education Background

 

Ph.D., Software Engineering, July 1997.

Institute of Software

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Beijing, P.R.China.

Thesis: An Agent Based Software Architecture for Multimodal User Interface Design

MSc., Image Processing, April 1994.

Department of Computer Science

North China Institute of Technology

Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province,  P.R.China.

Thesis: The Design and Implementation of a Locomotive Meter Automation Reading System

BSc. Software Technology, July 1991. 

Department of Computer Science

North China Institute of Technology

Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province,  P.R.China.

Thesis: Data Communications among Multiple Processors


Professional Experience and Qualification

 

 

Lecturer, Feb. 2002 -present

Dept. of Electronic and Computer Engineering

Brunel University, UK.

 

Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Jan. 1999-Jan. 2003

Dept. of Computer Science, Cardiff University

Cardiff, UK.

Visiting Researcher, Aug. 2000-Oct. 2000

Computer Science and Mathematics Division

Oak Ridge National Laboratory, TN, USA.

Software Engineer, July 1997-Dec. 1998

Software Research Center, Chinese Central Bank

Beijing, P.R.China.

Research Assistant, Sep. 1994-July 1997

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Beijing, P.R.China.

Part Time Lecturer, Sep. 1995-Oct. 1996

Microsoft Institute of Technology

Beijing, P.R.China.

 

Program Committees:

1.      2nd   International Conference on Information Reuse and Integration held in Honolulu, Hawaii, November 2000.

2.      3rd   International Conference on Information Reuse and Integration to be held in Las Vegas, November 2001.


 

Research Experience

 

1. Multi-Agent Systems for Active Maps supported by EPSRC, Jan. 2001-Jan. 2003

Description:

This project will explore software agent technologies to create novel forms of active map for web based map information retrieval and map generalization. Such an active map can respond helpfully to direct manipulation of the displayed map symbols, exhibit intelligence with regard to knowledge of concepts and context of individual map features and classes of feature, guide the user to relevant related information within the map space and within the information space, modify its map symbols, icons and text dynamically to assist in focusing on particular type of information and particular geographical locations. This active map will be associated with different agents-representing geographical phenomena, capable of communicating with the map user, visualized by symbolic or iconic representations that adapted to the scale and purpose of the map, and the knowledgeable of their ontology, their spatial context and application specific procedures that might be applied to them. A web based on line map will be implemented for public access.

 

As a main member in our research group, my work focuses on the software architecture design of the multi-agent system, agent communication and ontology based information retrieval.

 

Research Issues:

Agent Oriented Software Engineering

Web Technologies

Data Visualization

Ontology Based Information Retrieval

Map Generalization

 

Implementation:

Windows 98/NT, Sun Solaris 2.7, Java 2(mainly on Applet, AWT, Servlet, RMI, JDBC), FIPA OS 2.0 for Agent Development, XML4J, GML, SVG.

2. A Middleware Design for High Performance Distributed Computing supported by EPSRC, Jan. 1999-Jan. 2001

Description:

This project makes use of CORBA and Java technologies to construct a generic component based middleware for high performance parallel and distributed computing. The middleware provides a user-friendly environment, allowing more rapid prototyping of ideas and higher research productivity. There are two main parts in the framework, Visual Programming Composition Environment (VCPE) and Intelligent Resource Broker (IRB). In the VPCE, a user can visually construct an application from software components. After the user constructs an application, the VPCE will generate a task graph and then submit the task graph to the IRB. Based on computational resources available in a distributed computing environment, the IRB will schedule the tasks to different resources to achieve high performance. Each component is a CORBA object and is defined in XML. It can be a parallel code using parallel libraries like MPI or a sequential code. Components are independent of locations, platforms and programming languages. A component can be created from scratch or automatically wrapped from legacy codes through a Wrapper Generator provided by the middleware. Base on the middleware, one applications for molecular dynamic simulation has been implemented.

This project is a joint project involving Dept. of Computer Science, Cardiff University and Dept. of Electronics and Computing Science, University of Southampton. As a main member in Cardiff research group, my work focuses on the software reuse, component based software engineering and the implementation of a Wrapper Generator used to automatically wrap legacy codes as Java/CORBA components.

Research Issues:

Component Based Software Engineering

Software Reuse

Visual Programming

Distributed Object Technologies                        

Component Interaction

Parallel CORBA Objects

 

Implementation:

Windows 95/98/NT, Sun Solaris 2.7, Java 2 (mainly on Applet, AWT, RMI, JDBC, JNI), VisiBroker for Java 4.0 (a CORBA product), XML4J (an XML parser from IBM), MPICH 1.2.0 ( an MPI implementation from Argonne National Laboratory).

3. Multimodal User Interface (MMI) Research and Applications supported by National Science Foundation of China, Sep. 1995-July 1997

Description:

A user interface (UI) is a channel for the communications between a user and a computer system. UI plays an important role in the success of a computer system. A lot of work has been done on the intuition and efficiency of human computer interaction. From command line UI to WIMP (Window, Icon, Metaphor and Pointing) UI, the output bandwidth from a computer to a user has been greatly increased. Multimedia information can be easily presented to a user. However, the input bandwidth from a user to a computer system has changed little. How to increase the input bandwidth allowing a user to interact with a computer with multiple modalities like voice, gesture and 3-D devices is the main goal of the research on multimodal user interface (MMI). The main problem is how to integrate supplemental information from each modality and capture the user's interactive intention. A task oriented interactive model has been presented and integration rules have been constructed. Software agent technologies have been adopted and each modality has an agent to perform tasks. A 3D user interface to support intuitive and direct 3D manipulations for CAD applications has been implemented.

As a main member in the research group, my work focused on the software architecture design, agent interaction and multimodal information fusion mechanisms based on a task oriented interactive model. Based on the research achievements on MMI, we have established a research link between our research group and Microsoft Research Inst. in Beijing.

 

Research Issues:

Software Architecture for MMI

Software Agent Technology

Human Computer Interaction

Multimodal Information Fusion

Task Oriented Interactive Model

MMI Evaluation Model

 

Implementation:

Windows 95/NT, Visual C++.

4. Network Application Integration Environment (NAIE) supported by National Science Foundation of China, Sep. 1994-Aug. 1995

Description:

NAIE is a middleware that can integrate different network environments such as TCP/IP, Novell Netware. The motivation of NAIE is to hide the complexity of different network environments and provide a uniform interface for network application integrations.

As a coordinator of the project, my work focused on the data communication and the high level descriptions of network resources.

 

Research Issues:

Network and Distributed Systems

System Integration

Data Communication

 

Implementation:

Windows 95/NT, Novell Netware, Visual C++, TCP/IP.

5. An Agent Based Cooperative Editing System (ABCE) supported by Youth Science Foundation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sep. 1994-Aug. 1995

Description:

ABCE is an agent based distributed system for people in different locations to edit a book or a paper simultaneously. The motivation of ABCE is to improve the editing efficiency and productivity and reduce cost for traveling. Each user has different roles in the system. A floor control policy has been presented for the user role control. We give a locking mechanism for users to share resources in a distributed environment. In addition, multiple user interfaces have been implemented in which each user can view the actions from other users. The ABCE can be easily extended to support cooperative environments for industrial product manufactures.

As a coordinator of the project, my work focused on the distributed resources sharing technology and multiple user interface design.

 

Research Issues:

Distributed Resources Sharing Technology

Multiple User Interfaces Design

Floor Control Policy on CSCW

Software Agent Technology

 

Implementation:

Windows 95/NT, Visual C++, TCP/IP.

6. Locomotive Meter Automation Reading System (LMAR) supported by Research Science Foundation of Shanxi Province, Sep. 1992-April 1994

Description:

LMAR is a system for automatically reading locomotive meters to adjust meters that become imprecise after a long time of running. Image processing technology is used to implement the system. We compare a tested meter image with a standard image and check the difference that should be within a certain limit.

I implemented the system independently as my MSc. thesis and the system has been put in use by Shanxi Province Transportation Agency.

Research Issues:

Image Processing

 

Implementation:

Windows 95/NT, Visual C, TCP/IP, ODBC, SQL Server.


 

Teaching Experience

June 1992-July 1993

Part Time Lecturer on C Programming and Software Engineering

Dept. of Computer Science

North China Inst. of Technology.

 

 

Sep. 1995-July 1996

Part Time Lecturer on Windows Programming

Microsoft Inst. of Technology in Beijing.


 

Supervision Experience

Sep. 1992-July. 1993

Supervised four undergraduate students theses

Dept. of Computer Science

North China Inst. of Technology.

 

Sep. 1995-July 1996

Supervised two graduate students theses

Inst. of Software

Chinese Academy of Sciences.

 

Jan 1999-Jan 2001

Provided technical support for two Ph.D. students in our research group

Dept. of Computer Science

Cardiff University.


 

Research Interests

 

Distributed Object Computing

Software Agent Technology

Web Technologies

Component Based Software Engineering

Human Computer Interaction

Computer Supported for Cooperative Work

Software Reuse

Image Processing


 

Teaching Interests

 

Network and Distributed Systems

Object Oriented Programming Methods

Software Engineering

Java/CORBA Programming

Parallel Computing (MPI/PVM)

Human Computer Interaction

Computer Supported for Cooperative Work (CSCW)

Operating Systems and Database Management

 


 

 

Programming Skills

 

Operating Systems: Sun Solaris 2.7, Windows 95/98/NT

Database Systems: Informix, Oracle

Programming Languages: PASCAL, FORTRAN, C/C++, Java

Web Technologies: Java Applet, CGI/Perl, XML

Distributed Object Technologies: CORBA, DCOM, JINI.

Parallel Library: MPI /PVM


 

Publications

 

Journal Papers:

 

1.      Maozhen Li, O.F.Rana, David.W.Walker. Wrapping MPI-Based Legacy Codes as Java/CORBA  Components, to appear in International Journal of Future Generation Computer System (FGCS),  September 2001.

 

2.      David.W.Walker, M. Li, O.F.Rana, M. S. Shields, and Y. Huang. The Software Architecture of a Distributed Problem-Solving Environment, International Journal of Concurrency: Practice and Experience, Vol. 12, No. 15, pages 1455-1480, December 2000.

 

3.      M. S. Shields, O.F.Rana, David.W.Walker and Maozhen Li. A Java/CORBA based Visual

Program Composition Environment, International Journal of Concurrency: Practice and Experience, Vol. 12, Issue 8, pages 687-704, 2000.
 

4.      Li Maozhen, Dai Guozhong, Dong Shihai. The Software Architecture Model and Integrated Algorithm for Multimodal User Interface Design. Journal of Computer, Vol.21, No.2, P111-118, Feb. 1998.

 

5.      Li Maozhen, Dai Guozhong, Dong Shihai. Key technologies for Multimodal User Interface. Journal of Computer Science, Vol.11, P1-6, August 1996.

 

6.      Li Maozhen, Zhang Gao, Dai Guozhong. A Task-Oriented Integration Model for Multimodal User Interface. Journal of Software, Vol.9, No.3, 1998.

 

7.       Zhang Gao, Li Maozhen, Dai Guozhong. The Study on Distributed Multimodal User Interfaces. Journal of Software, Vol.9, 1998.

 

 

Conference Papers:

 

1.      M. Li, O.R.Rana, M.S.Shields and D.W.Walker. A Wrapper Generator for Wrapping High Performance Legacy Codes as Java/CORBA Components, in Proceedings of the IEEE/ACM SC2000 Conference held in Dallas, TX, USA, November 10-12, 2000.

 

2.      Maozhen Li, Omer.R.Rana and David.W.Walker. An XML-Based Component Model for Wrapping Legacy Codes as Java/ CORBA Components, in Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference/Exhibition on High Performance Computing in Asia-Pacific Region (HPC-ASIA 2000), published by IEEE Computer Society, held in Beijing, China, pages 507-512, May 2000.

 

3.      Maozhen Li, Omer.R.Rana, Matthew Shields and David.W.Walker. Automating Component Integration in a Distributed Problem Solving Environment, in Workshop on Active Middleware Services at the Ninth IEEE International Symposium on High Performance Distributed Computing (HPDC9), Pittsburgh, USA, August 2000. Kluwer Academic.

 

4.      Maozhen Li, O.F.Rana, David.W.Walker. CB-PSE: A Component-Based Problem Solving Environment, in Proceedings of the ISCA 1st International Conference on Information Reuse and Integration (IRI-99), Atlanta Georgia, USA, November 4-6, 1999, PP7-10.

 

5.      Omer F. Rana, Maozhen Li, Matthew S. Shields, David W. Walker, David Golby. Implementing Problem Solving Environments for Computational Science, Euro-Par 2000, Germany.

 

6.      O.F.Rana, Maozhen Li, David.W.Walker, Matthew Shields. An XML Based Component Model for Generating Scientific Applications and Perform Large Scale Simulations in a Meta-Computing Environment, in Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Generative and Component Based Software Engineering. Erfurt, Germany, September 28-30, 1999.

 

7.      Omer F. Rana, David W. Walker, Maozhen Li, Steven Lynden and Mike Ward. PADDMAS: Parallel and Distributed Data Mining Application Suite, in Proceedings of International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS/SPDP), Cancun, Mexico, May 2000. IEEE Computer Society Press.

 

8.      Li Maozhen, Zhang Gao, Dai Guozhong. A Primitive Based Architecture for Multimodal  User Interface (PBM_MMI), IEEE ICIPS97, P858-862.

 

9.      Zhang Gao, Li Maozhen, Dai Guozhong. The Study and Application of a Distributed Multimodal User Interface, P255-262, CSCWID'97.

 

10.   Li Maozhen, Zhang Gao, Dai Guozhong. A Primitive Based model for Multimodal User Interface (PBM_MMI), 5th international Conference on CAD&CG 97;P24~29.

 

11.   Li Maozhen, Liao Weidong, Liu Xingkun. The Design and Implementation of ABCE: an Agent Based Cooperative Editing System, in Proceedings of the International workshop on CSCW in Design, held in Beijing, May, 1996.