Gaya Nadarajan

Education

• Ph.D. in Informatics (2010)
University of Edinburgh
Thesis: Semantics and Planning Based Workflow Composition for Video Processing


• MSc. in Artificial Intelligence (2005)
  University of Edinburgh
  MSc Project: Mapping Fundamental Business Process Modelling Language to OWL-S
  
  
• B.A. (Mod) Computer Science (1999)
  Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
  Final Year Project: On-line Handwriting Recognition using Hidden Markov Models
  
  
• Irish Leaving Certificate (1995)
  Institute of Education, Dublin, Ireland
  Courses: Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, English, Accounting
  
  
• Middle Certificate of Education (1993)
  S.M. Convent Bukit Nanas, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  Subjects: Malay, English, Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History, Accounting
  
  

Research

• Present and New Research Interests: Process and Resource Management in Clusters, Workflow Composition Systems, Ontologies, Automated Planning, Video/Image Processing Tools and Techniques, Semantic Grid Services.
• Process and Resource Management in Clusters for Data- and Compute-Intensive Applications
I am exploring means to efficiently process queries on large-scale videos using multi-core high performing machines. The low-level computation modules (jobs) are compute-intensive.
• Ontologies for Describing Fish4Knowledge Domain Information
Ontologies are used for workflow enactment for representation and reasoning. Three ontologies have been designed; Goal, Video Description and Capability. In addition to this, as a step in integrating our work with existing standards in the ontological field, we have interfaced relevant concepts with the UN FAO's network of fisheries ontologies.
• Semantics-Based Workflow Composition for Video Processing
For my PhD, I investigated methods to automate generic video processing tasks for information extraction. Video processing applications are developed from scratch and not reused for multiple tasks due to the difficulty in capturing user requirements accurately. I propose a semantics-based method using ontologies coupled with a planning-enacted workflow engine to tackle this problem. The heuristics used by vision experts are incorporated in a planner that communicates with the ontologies that contain the goals, constraints and domain description supplied by the user to select the sequence of video processing toolset automatically, allowing non-vision experts to conduct video analyses.


• Previous Research Interests: Business Process Modelling Methods, The Semantic Web, Handwriting Recognition.
• Mapping Fundamental Business Process Modelling Language to OWL-S
This work presents an ontology-based conceptual mapping framework that translates a formal and visually rich business process modeling (BPM) language, Fundamental Business Process Modelling Language (FBPML) to a Semantic Web-based language, the Web Services Ontology (OWL-S). The translation aims to narrow the gap between Enterprise Modelling methods and Semantic Web services, thus bringing the two communities closer. Another significant contribution of the translation is that it allows more mature technologies such as BPM methods to be utilised within emerging fields that are constantly evolving, such as the Semantic Web. The framework is divided into a data model translation and a process model translation. An implementation and an evaluation of the process model translation are demonstrated and discussed.
• On-line Handwriting Recognition using Hidden Markov Models
An application was developed using C++ on Unix for a handwriting recognition system giving emphasis to pre-processing and recognition stages. Noise filtering and character segmentation were tasks of the pre-processor. Characters, represented as templates in the form of directed strokes were fed to the recogniser containing a database of characters HMMs. The recognition involved training the HMMs using the Baum-Welch algorithm and the classification using the Forward, Forward-Backward and Viterbi algorithms.

Work Experience

Academic

• Nov 2010 - present
Research Associate, University of Edinburgh
I'm the main researcher in the workflow team of the Fish4Knowledge project (www.fish4knowledge.eu). My aims are to develop the project ontologies and to design the project workflow that executes image processing modules on high performance computing facilities.


• 2004 - 2009
Informatics 1 - Tutor, Lab Demonstrator
Semester 1: Functional Programming (Haskell) and Computation and Logic
Semester 2: Object-Oriented Programming (Java) and Data and Analysis


• 2006 - 2007
Informatics 1b - Teaching Assistant
Data and Analysis: Unstructured Data. Introduction to Human Computer Interaction including system design and evaluation methods. My duties included preparation of tutorials, lab exercises and assignments, answering general queries, preparing, delegating and conducting marking.


• 2006 - present
Software Engineering with Objects and Components - Tutor
Introduction to the design and implementation of software systems using the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and Java.


• 2006 - 2007
Informatics Research Review - Teaching Assistant
I conducted weekly meetings with a group of 3 - 5 students to explore their specific research interests in Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, provided some suggested readings in order to help them prepare a literature review of their selected area.


• 2006 - present
Regular Paper Reviewer for Journals and Conferences
I have reviewed for several journals and conferences such as Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution (JSME), IEEE/ACM International Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology (IAT), IEEE International Symposium on Cluster Computing and the Grid (CCGrid), Euro-Par Conference and International KES Conference on Agents and Multi-agent Systems - Technologies and Applications (KES-AMSTA).


• 2002 - 2004
Teaching Executive, University Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia
Courses lectured: Software Engineering (diploma level), Computer Literacy (foundation level)
Courses tutored: Software Engineering, C Programming, Prolog for Artificial Intelligence, Operating Systems.
Other duties: Diploma level project supervision, Industrial training supervision, Panel evaluator for final project and industrial training presentations, member of Examination Committee.


• Industry
1999 - 2002
Software Engineer, Altion Ltd, Dublin, Ireland
Software development in C, Perl, Java, C++. Project maintenance, testing, debugging, training new staff.


• Voluntary
• 2005 - 2006
Charity Shop Assistant, SANDS Lothian, Edinburgh (Bereavement Support Group)
Cashier, renewing stock, supplying booklets and information to customers if required.


• August - September 2002
IT Educator, Spirasi, Ireland (Humanitarian Organisation for Refugees and Asylum Seekers)
Taught basic computer skills and databases to refugees and asylum seekers.

Publications to Date

• Concetto Spampinato, Yun-Heh Chen-Burger, Gayathri Nadarajan, Robert B. Fisher. "Detecting, Tracking and Counting Fish in Low Quality Unconstrained Underwater Videos". In Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications (VISAPP 08), Portugal, Jan 2008. [pdf]
  
  
• Gayathri Nadarajan. "Planning for Automatic Video Processing using Ontology-Based Workflow" (extended abstract). Student Paper for Doctoral Consortium at the 17th International Conference on Automated Planning & Scheduling (ICAPS 07), Providence, Rhode Island, USA, Sept 2007. [pdf]
  
  
• Gayathri Nadarajan and Arnaud Renouf. "A Modular Approach for Automating Video Analysis". In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Analysis of Images and Patterns (CAIP 07), Vienna, Austria, Aug 2007. [pdf]
  
  
• Gayathri Nadarajan and Yun-Heh Chen-Burger. "Translating a Typical Business Process Modelling Language to a Web Services Ontology through Lightweight Mapping". IET Software (Formerly IEE Proceedings Software), Vol. 1, Issue 1, p.1-17, Feb 2007. [pdf]
  
  
• Gayathri Nadarajan, Yun-Heh Chen-Burger, James Malone. "Semantic Grid Services for Video Analysis." In Proceedings of International Workshop on Service Composition (SERCOMP 06), Hong Kong, Dec 2006. [pdf] [slides]
  
  
• Gayathri Nadarajan, Yun-Heh Chen-Burger, James Malone. "Semantic-Based Workflow Composition for Video Processing in the Grid". In Proceedings of IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence (WI 06), Hong Kong, Dec 2006. [pdf] [slides]
  
  
• Gayathri Nadarajan and Yun-Heh Chen-Burger. "Mapping Fundamental Business Process Modelling Language to OWL-S." In Proceedings of the 4th Hellenic Conference on Artificial Intelligence (SETN 06), Crete, Greece, May 2006. [pdf] [slides]
  
  
• Gayathri Nadarajan and Yun-Heh Chen-Burger. "An Ontology-Based Conceptual Mapping Framework for Translating FBPML to the Web Services Ontology." In Proceedings of the Sixth IEEE International Symposium on Cluster Computing and the Grid (CCGRID 06), Singapore, May 2006. [pdf] [slides]
  
  

Personal Interests