Keynote speakers

Prof. dr. Dejan Vukobratović

University of Novi Sad, Serbia
  • 5G IoT: Pushing the Reliability and Delay Limits of Wireless Technology for Future Cyber-Physical Systems

5G technology aims to revolutionize mobile communications systems by extending their service from traditional human-operated devices to billions of new autonomous devices in the context of 5G Internet of Things. This will create exciting new 5G ecosystem with services and applications that are much beyond current technology, and whose technology requirements span across much wider range compared to traditional cellular system. Stretching the limits in one direction, 5G will need to offer unprecedented levels of reliability and delay yet unachievable with today's wireless technology. Such an ultra-reliable and ultra-low-delay cellular service targets to reliably close the response loop in monitoring and control of cyber-physical systems at the millisecond levels, with applications ranging from connected vehicles, remote surgery, gaming or smart power grids. In this talk, we discuss 5G radio access and core network technologies capable of achieving requirements of future connected mission-critical cyber-physical systems.

Dejan Vukobratovic received Dipl.-Ing, Mr.-Ing. and Dr.-Ing. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Novi Sad, Serbia, in 2001, 2005 and 2008, respectively. Since 2009, he was an Assistant Professor, and since 2014, he is an Associate Professor with the Department of Power, Electronics and Communication Engineering, University of Novi Sad. During 2009 and 2010, he was on leave as a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellow at the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. From 2011-2014, his research at the University of Novi Sad was supported in part by Marie Curie European Reintegration Grant. His research group was involved in FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IRSES project "QoSTREAM" (2012-2016), and is involved in FP7-PEOPLE-2013-ITN project "ADVANTAGE" (2014-2018), and H2020-PEOPLE-2015-RISE project "SENSIBLE" (2017-2021). His research spans the fields of coding and information theory, communication theory, multimedia communications and wireless communication systems.

Radovan Sernec

EIMV – Elektroinštitut Milan Vidmar, LJubljana, Slovenia
  • Dense smart grid security potential issues: Evaluation based on known vulnerabilities

Communications technologies are required asset for establishing smart grids, but effective information security is the absolute necesity for operational and safe smart grids. Future dense smart grids consist of a network of flexibility nodes (DG from renewables, prosumers), smart meters and distribution grid technical locations (substations, protection, relays). Each of these is a potential security penetration point. A review of recent SCADA, industrial and grid security vulnerabilities is presented. Analogy in what-if scenario of similar vulnerabilities shows possible targets and implications on reference smart grid network. Discussion of security recommendations from NIST, IEC, Industry 4.0 and EC in smart grid realm shows that only their strict enforcement can make grids safer.

Radovan Sernec (PhD), joined Electric Power System Control and Operation department at EIMV in 2016 as a consultant and researcher on smart grids, communication technologies and EU H2020 projects. His background spans more than 20 years of industrial experience in the fields of process automation, ICT and innovation management.

Andrej Souvent

EIMV – Elektroinštitut Milan Vidmar, LJubljana, Slovenia
  • Information systems integration in the concept of smart grid

In the concept of smart grid information exchange between different systems, both within companies and with external partners, is of key importance. An effective integration of technical IT systems requires in addition to interoperability at the level of communication protocols also interoperability at the semantic level, an appropriate integration architecture and a standardisation framework. Without this, the concept of smart grid cannot be effectively implemented. Although the standardisation framework is already available, the implementation of semantic technologies for systems integration in the power utility companies is new to these companies. Extensive development, implementation and organisational efforts will be required. Key issues of information systems integration within the scope of smart grid will be presents, as well integration concepts for most common use cases.

Andrej Souvent has been with Milan Vidmar Electric Power Research Institute since 2007. Currently he is head of the Electric Power System Control and Operation department. Andrej has over 20 years of experience in IT and OT, primarily in the area of power system applications. He holds Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Ljubljana. His research is focused on smart grids technologies and solutions, especially on related operational technologies and systems integration. He is a member of IEEE, CIGRE and IEC.

Migdat Hodzic

International University of Sarajevo
  • Human - Machine Information Fusion

Humans and machines require common and mutual understanding together with a shared perception to maximize decision related benefits of the human-machine combined team. Often machines integrate (fuse) hard data from multiple sensors and sources, obtained possible at different times using various probabilistic approaches to obtain meaningful information. This is considered probabilistic data fusion. The main idea is to associate different pieces of data based on the likelihood that they represent the same or related events, situations, people, and object. Following probabilistic data fusion process, one of the human’s key roles is to act as a hybrid computer, supporting automated reasoning techniques by using visual and audio pattern recognition and semantic reasoning which produces soft (possibilistic) data. Hence, a complete data fusion and decision making system is composed of computers (machines) which combine data from multiple sources (sensors), plus Machine_Human interface to present the combined and any additional information, and a human operator who views and interprets hard machine data, and then produces and encodes his own soft (possibly linguistic) data to make some decision. The machine represents the data in some optimal probabilistic way enabling the human to generate necessary soft data to make effective decisions. This process optimizes human- machine team and it should produce some measurable benefits for the joint team. The overall goal in this research work is to develop an innovative probabilistic-possibilistic theory and methodology, which is scalable and effective approach for (i) Interface design that incorporates the understanding of how both machines and humans fuse soft and hard data and information, and (ii) Forming a shared perception and understanding of the environment between the human and the machine, which supports human decisions and reduces human soft errors and minimizes any security related issues in the process. To accomplish these tasks we develop new probabilistic (hard) and possibilistic (soft) data fusion idea, which in its core has an ability to uncertainty align various data, hard to soft, and soft to hard followed by proper data filtering to improve the overall data reliability, before machine aided human makes a decision.

Prof. Dr. Migdat Hodzic joined International University of Sarajevo in 2013 as a Visiting Professor from Santa Clara Universirty in USA. His expertise spans more than 30 years of international academic and industrial experience in the areas of control theory, stochastic processes and related subjects with applications in both defense and commercial areas.

David Vaglia

2015‐2016 IAS Distinguished Lecturer Westinghouse Electric Co. Chair, IAS/PES Chapters
  • Nuclear Energy – What Happened At Fukushima

This presentation covers the history and background necessary to understand what happened at the nuclear power plants at Fukushima Daiichi. It reviews the sequence of events, starting before the earthquake, when the tsunami struck the plant sites, and in the following days. Also presented are the status of the plants today, ongoing work, and the probable future of the plants. Lastly, the impact on the Japanese nuclear industry, the economy in general, and the probable future energy options are presented.

David Vaglia has his roots in the energy engineering. He began his career in the coal mining industry, working as an applications engineer in power distribution, and electric train haulage systems, both above and below ground. He has also worked in the renewable energy sector, investigating new concept wind generation applications and solar thermal systems. Mr. Vaglia transitioned to instrumentation and control working with supervisory control and data acquisition systems, and then to the Man-Machine Interface design of nuclear power plant control rooms. Mr. Vaglia has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Bachelor of Arts in General Arts and Sciences, both from the Pennsylvania State University, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh. He is a registered Professional Engineer working in the state of Pennsylvania. Mr. Vaglia has been an active in the IEEE for nearly 40 years. He is a Senior member serving the Pittsburgh Section (Region 2) in various capacities. Mr. Vaglia’s volunteer positions have included Section Awards Chair, Treasurer, and Section Chair. In the IAS-PES Pittsburgh Joint Chapter, he has served as Secretary, Treasurer, and Chair. He has also served as the General Chair of the 2008 PES Annual Meeting. Mr. Vaglia is presently Chair of the joint chapter of the IAS and PES, Pittsburgh Section.

Seudin Kasumović

BICOM SYSTEMS
  • Effective Unified Communications Security

A Unified communications (UC) business system combines VoIP, video, text messaging, screen (or desktop) sharing, document sharing, and presence together into one unified system. UC presents unique security challenges because it brings together number technologies. As UC business has become more and more accessible from the public Internet, the security threat has increased. In many ways it’s possible to attack business communications. Companies must be worth to protect their UC as they are vital to business operations.

MS. Seudin Kasumovic received his Masters degree from the University of Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 2000. He has been working as teaching assistant in the Faculty of Electical Engineering until 2007. He has been with Bicom since 2007 where he works on development of Realt-time communication software. Currently he is team leader on project for developing IP Multimedia Subsystems components. Primary fields of interest include functional programming, software defined networks and network function virtualisation.