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Speakers:   Professor Torleiv Klove (Bergen University and HKUST)
            Professor Raymond Yeung (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Topics:     Please see below
Date:       Thursday, December 12, 2002
Time:       15:45pm - 18:00pm
Venue:      Room 1401 (near lift 25/26)

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Title:    "Error-correction capability of codes beyond half the minimum
           distance"

Speaker:  Prof. Torleiv Klove,
          Department of Computer Science, HKUST, Hong Kong
          Department of Informatics, University of Bergen, Norway

Time:     15:45pm - 16:45pm, December 12, 2002

Venue:    Room 1401 (near lift 25/26), HKUST


Abstract:

Consider maximum likelihood error correction on the binary symmetric channel.
If we want a good linear code of length n and dimension k, the rule of thumb
is choose a code with largest possible minimum distance, and if the are more
than one, choose one with fewest codewords of minimum weight. We will take a
closer look at this rule of thumb, and also consider other more precise
measures.


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Biography:

Torleiv Klove received the Cand. Mag., Cand. Real., and Dr. Philos.
degrees from the University of Bergen, Norway, in 1966, 1967, and 1971,
respectively.

He was senior lecturer in mathematics 1971-1982, and is professor of
informatics at the University of Bergen since 1982.

He was visiting colleague at Atlas Computer Laboratory, England (one year
1968/69) and Cambridge University (one semester 1969). During the academic
years 1975/76, 1981/82 and 1990/91 he spent sabbaticals at the University
of Hawaii at Manoa. The academic year 2001/2002 he was visiting professor
at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the fall semester 2002 he is
visiting professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

His research interests include coding theory (error-correcting codes,
error-detecting codes, codes and cryptography), combinatorics, and number
theory. He is coauthor of the book Error Detecting Codes, (Kluwer 1995).

He was Associate Editor for Coding Theory for IEEE Transactions on
Information Theory (1996-99), and he is presently (2001-2003) Member of
the Board of Governors of the IEEE Information Theory Society.

He was recently named IEEE Fellow (effective 1 January 2003) "For
contributions to coding theory and error-detecting codes".


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Title:   "Entropy, Information Inequalities, and Groups"

Speaker: Professor Raymond Yeung
         Department of Information Engineering
         The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Time:     17:00pm - 18:00pm,  December 12, 2002

Venue:    Room 1401 (near lift 25/26), HKUST


Abstract:

There has been significant progress in the study of entropy functions and
information inequalities in the past 10 years. The set-theoretic structure
of Shannon's information measures has been established, and machine-proving
of most information inequalities known to date (Shannon-type inequalities)
has become possible. Most importantly, the recent discovery of a few
so-called non-Shannon-type inequalities reveals the existence of information
inequalities which cannot be proved by techniques known during the first 50
years of information theory. In this talk, we explain the essence of this
fundamental subject, and discuss their implications in information theory,
probability theory, and group theory.



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Biography:

Raymond W. Yeung received the B.S., M.Eng., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical
engineering from Cornell University in 1984, 1985, and 1988, respectively.
He joined the Performance Analysis Department at AT&T Bell Laboratories,
Holmdel, in 1988. Since 1991, he has been with the Department of Information
Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he is now a Professor
and Director of the Internet Engineering Programme. He has held visiting
positions at Cornell University, Nankai University, and the University of
Bielefeld.

His main research interest is information theory, and he is the author
of the book entitled "A First Course in Information Engineering" (Kluwer
Academic Plenum, 2002). He has been a Consultant in a project of Jet
Propulsion Laboratory for salvaging the malfunctioning Galileo Spacecraft.
He was a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Information Theory
Society from 1999 to 2001.  He is currently an Editor-at-Large of a new
international journal entitled {\em Communications in Information and
Systems}, and will be an Associate Editor for Shannon Theory of "IEEE
Transactions on Information Theory" starting Jan 2003.  He was a winner
of the Croucher Award for 2000/2001.  He is a Fellow of the Hong Kong
Institute of Engineers, and he has been elected IEEE Fellow for 2003.



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