Machine learning and cross-modal technologies for access and retrieval
12-17 June 2006, San Vincenzo, Italy

Call for Participation

Presentation

About one hundred European universities and research centres have been involved in the last few years in projects funded by EU addressing multimedia data analysis, computer vision and object recognition, multimedia management in large audio and video collections. Presently, two Network of Excellence of the sixth EU Framework Program, namely DELOS and MUSCLE, are addressing these subjects: the former, working in new generations of digital libraries, has a specific work package devoted to audio, video and non traditional objects digital libraries; the latter has many work packages oriented to exploiting machine learning for multimedia data retrieval and for cross-media analysis.

The Summer School on "Multimedia Digital Libraries, Machine learning and cross-modal technologies for access and retrieval" has been jointly organized by those two Networks, and will be held in San Vincenzo, Italy (about 50 Km South of Pisa), from 12 to 17 June 2006.

The aim of the school is to promote advanced experiences and implementations and, more in general, to improve knowledge in these fields. The school will be open to researchers and practitioners who are interested in audio-visual and multimedia digital libraries and in advanced solutions and technologies for their implementation. It will also contribute to establish a common vision of the future ICT technologies for digital libraries, and ultimately will represent a significant opportunity to exchange experiences, to share common problems and to start new joint activities. No specific prerequisites are required, but it is recommended that participants have experience in using information management systems dealing with multimedia data.

Technologies for multimedia digital libraries span over many disciplines: information systems, knowledge representation, computer vision, audio and image processing, compression and storage, machine learning and information retrieval, multimedia data mining, cross-media analysis, user interfaces and interoperability. On these topics, the School program has planned highly qualified lectures given by international researchers, addressing theoretical approaches and practical solutions.

School Programme

This one-week intensive school will consist of eight half-day lectures and one half-day dedicated to BOF (Birds of a Feather) sessions, i.e., discussions in smaller groups on specific topics of common interest, with the participation of the lecturers. The morning half-day lectures will begin at 9:00 and end at 12:00, with a coffee break during the morning. The afternoon lectures will begin at 15:30 and end at 18:30, with a coffee break in the afternoon. The programme of the School is shown below.

Programme

Monday,
12 June 2006
08:30 -0 9:00

Presentation of the School

 Alberto Del Bimbo (University of Firenze, Florence, Italy)
Nozha Boujemaa (INRIA, Rocquencourt, France)
09:00 - 12:00 Introduction to Multimedia Digital Libraries James Wang (Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA)
12:30 - 15:30 Lunch  
15:30 - 18:30 Multimedia Representation Standards Fernando Pereira (Instituto Superiore Tècnico, Lisboa, Portugal)
EVENING Poster/demo session  
Tuesday,
13 June 2006
09:00 - 12:00 Feature Extraction and Content Description I Nicu Sebe (University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
12:00 - 15:30 Lunch  
15:30 - 18:30 Feature extraction and Content Description II Milind Naphade (IBM T J Watson Research Center, Yorktown, USA)
EVENING Social Dinner  
Wednesday,
14 June 2006
09:00 - 12:00 Cross-Modal Analysis Alex Hauptmann (Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA)
12:00 - 15:30 Lunch  
15:30 - 18:30 Birds of a feather (BOF) Sessions  
Thursday,
15 June 2006
09:00 - 12:00 Machine Learning for Access and Retrieval I Padraig Cunningham (Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland)
12:00 - 15:30 Lunch  
15:30 - 18:30 Machine Learning for Access and Retrieval II Jia Li (Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA)
Friday,
16 June 2006
09:00 - 12:00 Evaluation and Benchmarking Alan Smeaton (Dublin University, Dublin, Ireland)
12:00 - 15:30 Lunch  
15:30 - 18:30 Final Examination (voluntary)  

School Chairs

Nozha Boujemaa - INRIA Roquencourt, France
Rita Cucchiara - University of Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy
Alberto Del Bimbo - University of Florence, Italy
Eric Pauwels - CWI Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Local Organizers

Marco Bertini - University of Florence, Italy (bertini@dsi.unifi.it)
Diego Mencarelli - University of Florence, Italy (mencarelli@micc.unifi.it)
Walter Nunziati - University of Florence, Italy (mencarelli@micc.unifi.it)
Costantino Grana - University of Modena, Italy (grana.costantino@unimo.it)

School Secretariat

Francesca Borri - ISTI - CNR, Pisa, Italy, (francesca.borri@isti.cnr.it)

Website Management:

INRIA Roquencourt, France

Sponsors

DELOS NoE
MUSCLE Noe
GIRPR (Italian Chapter of International Association for Pattern Recognition)
Fondazione per il Rinascimento Digitale, Italy
Comune di S.Vincenzo, Italy

 

Location and dates

San Vincenzo, Italy, 12-17 June 2006

Venue

San Vincenzo Harbour Tower

REGISTRATION

For university students, PhD students and young researchers supported only by a research grant, the registration fee is waived (covered by DELOS) and attendance to the school is free. A letter of recommendation from the University or the research organization is required. The number of free places is limited and will be granted under a first come, first served policy.

For other attendants the registration fees are as follows:
Early registration (before 20 May 2006) 400€
Regular registration (after 20 May 2006) 500€

The course fee includes:

  • lectures
  • lunches and coffee breaks
  • social dinner

The course fee does not include:

  • accommodation
  • transport
  • dinners (except for the social dinner)

San Vincenzo

a coastal town on the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea, is one of the best-equipped tourist centres of the Etruscan Coast. It has an excellent harbour, with more than three hundred boat spaces. Its beach of fine white sand runs for ten kilometres, surrounded by thick Mediterranean woods that reach directly to the sea. For over 90 uninterrupted kilometres, clear water shading from emerald green to deepest blue washes the coast, the water quality and services provided by the coastal resorts have been awarded the European Union's Blue Flag.

School venue

The Palace of culture and the Communal Library, with a recently restored wide conference room, host meetings, expositions and cultural events all year round. The school will be located in the Tower, built in 1406 A.D. from the Republic of Pisa as a coastal Tower.

It can be easily reached from Pisa and Florence by car (Rosignano exit of A12 motorway, hence following the Aurelia highway) and by train (San Vincenzo train station on the Italian Railroad line Modane - Turin - Genova - Pisa - Rome). The "Galileo Galilei" International Airport of Pisa is only 50 kilometers away.

In the neighbourhood

Very close to S. Vincenzo are the promontory of Populonia and the splendid gulf of Baratti, surrounded by an important archaeological area dated from the Etruscan age. San Vincenzo is only a few kilometres away from old villages and medieval towns such as Suvereto, Sassetta, Campiglia Marittima, Bolgheri, Catagneto Carducci, Volterra, San Gimignano and Siena. Pisa and Florence are also just around the corner. San Vincenzo is also a few minutes away from the island of Elba and is in front of the island of Capraia. From the harbour depart tours on sea routes of very interesting landscapes (http://www.costadeglietruschi.it/).