Date: 2017-10-31
The 2017 Pacific Neighborhood Consortium (PNC) Annual Conference and Joint Meetings will take place at the Magic School of Green Technologies, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan from November 7 to 9. The venue is well-known as the first zero-carbon building in Taiwan. The gathering this year marks the 20th anniversary of the successful transferal of PNC administrative operations to Academia Sinica in 1997. The conference will be chaired by Dr. Chin-shing Huang, Vice President of Academia Sinica. The conference is expected to attract approximately 150 experts and scholars from 10 countries throughout the Pacific Rim region.
The theme of the conference this year is “Data Informed Society” and the meeting has a strong focus on the transformation and advancement of data, digital humanities, and cultural heritage in smart cities. This includes analyzing and interpreting data to generate data informed decisions in order to combat the challenges in today’s society and understand social phenomena effectively. People are connected more than ever before through the digital world, and the conference postulates that the world we live in will transform into smart cities in the pursuit of sustainable development goals.
Six distinguished speakers will deliver keynote speeches at the conference. The first keynote speech entitled “Data-Informed Decision Making in Public Health: Case Study in Tainan” will be delivered by Dr. Huey-Jen Su, President of National Cheng Kung University. Dr. Su is a public health expert on air pollution related health effects, with particular emphasis on the rising global concerns on airborne microbial hazards. She will speak from a public-health standpoint on the importance of data-informed decisions for strengthening disease surveillance and preventing the outbreak of infectious diseases in southern Taiwan. She will argue that the data revolution will greatly improve the point data resolution and timeliness of availability of epidemiological information in the future.
The second keynote speaker, Dr. David S. H. Rosenthal, Founding Chief Scientist of LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) Program at Stanford University Libraries, will give a talk entitled “The Amnesiac Civilization”. The lecture will focus on introducing LOCKSS, a Stanford library program that provides libraries with a tool for the preservation of knowledge in the Web world. Dr. Rosenthal has published extensively on computer graphics, operating systems and he also runs a blog on digital preservation and scholarly communication.
The third keynote speaker, Dr. Yang-Chih Fu, a Research Fellow of Institute of Sociology at Academia Sinica, will analyze and compare data from sampling surveys, contact diaries, and social media to understand social interactions in the 21st century. Dr. Fu focuses his research on urbanism and lifestyles, social network studies, and social media.
The fourth keynote speaker, Prof. Ruth Mostern, Associate Professor in the Department of History and Director of the World History Center at the University of Pittsburgh, will review current research, development and prospects in gazetteer theory, design, and networking in her talk. Prof. Mostern is a specialist in spatial and environmental history focusing on imperial China and the world.
On the third day of the conference, Prof. Min-Fu Hsu, Distinguished Professor of Department of Architecture, National Cheng Kung University, will share experiences of applying 3D digital technologies in the conservation of cultural heritages in Taiwan. Prof. Hsu has been actively involved in the conservation and rehabilitation of domestic architectural heritage along with the scientific application of modern technologies to historic structures.
Finally, Dr. Ling-Jyh Chen, newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of the PNC and Associate Research Fellow of Institute of Information Science at Academia Sinica, will present the development of the AirBox project with a demonstration of data analysis work, and discuss the challenges and opportunities for making sense of Internet of Things in this project. AirBox is a participatory sensing system for PM2.5 monitoring, and the project has deployed more than 2,500 devices in 30 countries. The AirBox project has become the most popular PM2.5 open data portal in the world.
In addition to the keynote sessions, the three-day program will include 21 concurrent sessions. Among topics that will be explored are: digital humanities, cultural heritage, digital libraries and museums, virtual reality, climate change, smart cities, ICT in education and data analytics.
Founded in 1993, the Pacific Neighborhood Consortium (PNC) has been committed to facilitating information exchange among institutions of higher education across the Pacific Rim through computing and communications technology.
Related Websites:
http://www.PNCLink.org
http://www.pnclink.org/pnc2017/
https://www.facebook.com/pnclink.org/
Related Information:
Name: PNC 2017 Annual Conference and Joint Meetings
Time:November 7-9, 2017
Venue: The Magic School of Green Technologies, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
Hosts: National Cheng Kung University
Pacific Neighborhood Consortium
Co-Hosts:
Academia Sinica, Taiwan
Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative, University of California, Berkeley
Ministry of Education, Republic of China (Taiwan)
Ministry of Science and Technology, Republic of China (Taiwan)
Technical Sponsor:
Tainan Chapter of Signal Processing Society, IEEE Tainan Section
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Chang-Hung Chen, Public Affairs Section, Secretariat, Academia Sinica
(02) 2789-8059,changhung@as.edu.tw