Finally I find some free time !!!!

Hi everyone , its Usman.....

Well well, it seems every one likes to travel…. It would be wrong if I said I don’t like traveling but my travels have been more unplanned (sometimes even forced). I was born in Lahore, Pakistan which is a nice cultural / tourist city. But when I was only a couple of months old I was forced to move to the deserts of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. After that my whole life was spent moving, I studied at various schools but the few important (where I spent the most time) were in Lahore, Jeddah and New Jersey. I got an engineering degree form GIK Institute, Pakistan. Then due to the fact that my travels had left me without any experience of Europe I decided to come to France and what better place than the French Riviera. I got a masters degree in Image Processing and Geometry from University of Nice and started my PhD at Eurecom. During this period I traveled extensively in France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Netherland and Belgium. On the research side I have mostly worked on image processing of the face, sometimes working on extracting local facial features for recognition or studying the relationship between the motion of lips and speech, etc. but I won’t go into the details here if you are interested you can get more info on my webpage.

http://www.eurecom.fr/people/saeed.en.htm

for the photos here are some from my travels

http://www.gikialumni.org/doc/portal/gallery/view_pictures.jsp?galleryId=57&galleryCategoryId=14&pageNo=1

and some with friends

http://www.gikialumni.org/doc/portal/gallery/view_pictures.jsp?galleryId=61&galleryCategoryId=1&pageNo=1

See u in Istanbul
Usman

Second Jerome!!!

Hi everybody,

I think I also have to apologize for my name... If it can help, friends use to call me "Jay" (not very original so it may be the case for the other Jérôme too...) so you are welcome to shorten my name too!

What can I say to introduce myself? Let's begin with the serious stuff: I am Belgian but I like to travel (which is a good point because Belgium is so small...). I studied at Faculté Polytechnique de Mons (FPMs, Faculty of Engineering) where I graduated last June (2006). During my studies I had (among others of course...) the opportunity to do a 6-weeks internship in... UPC in Barcelona and I went to Lehigh University (USA, between New-York and Philadelphia) to do my final year Thesis.

I stayed at FPMs to begin a Phd targeting recognition of emotions (and paralinguistics that can help determining the user's emotional state such as laughters or onomatopoeia) in speech. I am involved in a European project called CALLAS, in which I have to give these kind of speech recognition components. CALLAS project is about integrating emotions in "New Media" (new interfaces such as interactive TV, digital theatre, virtual museum tours,...). I mention that because I also have to "advertise" for CALLAS project and community ;-). So you might hear me talk sometimes about CALLAS in Istanbul... Everybody who is interested about CALLAS can of course ask me for details but also go on the website: www.callas-newmedia.eu Do not hesitate to join the community! As you may have remarked, FPMs has always been involved in eNTERFACE workshops and my colleagues did not stop telling me not to miss this opportunity!

OK, it seems you can have an idea about the serious part of my life. For the rest, as I already mentioned I like to travel. A good point is that being a researcher involved in an international project offers travel opportunities (I just went to Athens and Paris...). Apart from that my major interest is sports! I am playing fieldhockey (I know, it is not very well known...) since I was 4. Now I am in a Belgian first division squad. Do not worry I am not paid through hockey! So I spend a lot of time playing hockey but what makes my girlfriend - who you will also see in Istanbul - sometimes angry is that in my spare time I also like to watch sport: soccer, tennis,... My favorite soccer team is of course Barcelona! But OK let's not annoy people who are not avid sports fan right now, I will be glad to talk about that with anybody interested.

I hope this already enables you to know me a little better.

I am sorry I do not have a nice picture right now on my computer but I promise I will do my best to give you one soon.

See you soon,

Jay-rome

First Jérôme :p

Hi, Sorry about my name, I think we will find a way to manage the two Jérômes in the team ^^, to give you more details I will do my best to introduce myself. (Sorry by advance for my English level).

My name is Jérôme (but you already know that) Allasia, I was born in Clamart (near Paris), I lived for many years near Paris (Chatillon, Verrières Le Buisson, Chartre), but also in Toulouse (for four years) where I’ve made my engineer school in computer sciences (ENSEEIHT). I’ve also made a master degree IIH (computer sciences, image, and hypermedia), and since September I’m working for the IRISA in Rennes in Temics team: http://www.irisa.fr/temics/.


Just before my last engineer school year’s (in 2005), I’ve made a gap year to work and travel. I worked for EADS in Toulouse for 6mouth and then fly away to Australia ^^ for 6mouth (in Brisbane), I love traveling and meeting people from other culture/country. Last summer I’ve also made a 3 weeks trip around Europe visiting some friends (in Monaco, Venice, Vienna, Prague, Poznan, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Brussels). Last February, I’ve been in Finland (Turku, Helsinki) but also in Estonia (Tallinn => really beautiful city ^^).

It’s easy to understand how I’m excited about this summer workshop! Working in my domain, with people coming from different culture/country + in Istanbul (I never been there ^^) that just perfect!

That's me :p (guess where ?)

=> Sagrada Família (I love Barcelona ^^ especially because of people ^^, Toulouse - the city where my heart is - is more a spanish city than any other city in France ^^)

We have a team!!!

So yes, this is our team's blog, from people comming from all over Europe... and beyond. A nice "troupe"...


Belgium, France, Pakistan, Romania, Spain, am I missing anyone?


I even have problems to differenciate firstnames from surnames, Dragos is it a name or a surname? We even have two Jerômes... ouff!!! Already complicated.

So I think I will start by introducing myself. My name is Ana, I was born in Barcelona. Since
some time ago Gaudi's city has become a turistic place for me, but I still like calling it home. My adventures in this world of research started when I finished my studies in the Telecom School at the UPC and I moved to the States to work in the US. Then I discovered the pleasure and the privilege of enjoying work and waking up motivated by the challenges the day had prepared for me. I got addicted and I have been doing research since.

After a PhD at Eurecom (Sophia Antipolis - France), some coming and going to Spain (UIB, Mallorca; VicomTech - San Sebastián) I finished back in Sophia Antipolis in the Accenture Technology Labs.

Gaudi's Sagrada Familia (BCN)

Sophia Antipolis

Palma de Mallorca

San Sebastián

Accenture Tech Labs - Sophia

I like my work. I investigate how visual technologies can help the industry, specifically in areas of collaboration and communications, but also in entertainment and education. I like life here, in southern France. It is full of sunny days close to the beach (although today has not stop raining :( ) Who could complain?

I am looking forward to working "côte à côte" with all the team in eNTERFACE.
Am I forgetting something? Ummm. I'll leave some for another post.

Getting ready

eNTERFACE will start in one month and a half...

eNTERACE Workshops are held in Istanbul this summer: http://www.cmpe.boun.edu.tr/enterface07/


The Advanced Multimedia Interfaces for Flexible Communications team is getting formed.

Stay tuned for more.