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Latest News
Report on the 7th IEEE Inter. Workshop on
Factory Communication Systems - WFCS 2008.
The seventh IEEE International
Workshop on Factory Communication Systems (WFCS 2008) took place in
Dresden, at the Steigenberger Hotel de Saxe, from May 21 to May 23,
2008. Continuing the traditions of the WFCS series, this year’s
workshop put a focus on “Communication in Automation”. WFCS 2008 was
co-sponsored by the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society and TU
Dresden. A few more than 100 attendees were welcomed representing
authors, guests, and industry representatives.
For over a decade there has always been a continual and significant
broadening of the scope of WFCS. Traditionally, industrial
communication systems, building automation systems, as well as
real-time systems and performance analysis are in the focus of WFCS.
Over the years, challenging areas such as industrial wireless
networks, dependability, fault tolerance, safety and security in
industrial networks have been included. Last but not least,
automation-related middleware, distributed application platforms,
and application studies now complete the topics of this workshop.
The scientific program included 14 technical sessions covering the
complete scope of WFCS events. Overall, 57 original technical papers
out of 102 submissions from 158 authors were presented, which
underwent a careful review process carried out by the WFCS 2008
International Program Committee. Besides ten regular sessions
including 37 technical papers, the workshop featured two
work-in-progress sessions including 20 papers focusing on innovative
ideas whose development was still ongoing at the time of writing.
The workshop program also included two keynote presentations:
“Parallels - Communication Challenges and Opportunities In-Vehicle
and in Manufacturing” by Stephen T. Hung from Clemson University,
USA, and “The Power of Visions - Complete Plant Descriptions in a
Neutral Data Format” by Dirk Weidemann from Zühlke, Germany.
As usual for WFCS events, the three-day workshop was preceded by the
Industry Day held on May 20, 2008. The attendees used the
opportunity to learn and discuss the challenges from Industry point
of view with experts from leading companies, including Hirschmann,
Siemens, Weidmüller, Phoenix Contact, and SAP. The Industry Day also
featured a panel discussion “Science meets Industry - Research and
Education Demands”, chaired by Prof. Jürgen Jasperneite from OWL
University of Applied Sciences, Germany.
The welcome reception took the participants a bit away from computer
science in high-level automation towards classical mechanical and
electrical systems – historical cars and locomotives could be
explored in the Dresden Museum of Transportation.
To appreciate better the historical city of Dresden around the newly
rebuild Frauenkirche Church, the attendees had a chance to
participate in a guided walking tour before the conference dinner.
The dinner in the “Blockhaus” was not only a platform for
interesting discussions and social networking while enjoying a nice
buffet, but also offered a spectacular view on the reconstructed
baroque skyline of Dresden, the view Canaletto made famous in his
paintings.
For the first time, two papers were awarded at the dinner. The
traditional Best Paper Award was assigned to the paper “Safe
Deterministic Replay for Stimulating the Clock Synchronization
Algorithm in Time-Triggered Systems” by E. Armengaud, M. Függer, and
A. Steininger, while for the Best Work-in-Progress Paper “Towards
the Powerline Alternative in Automotive Applications” by F. Benzi,
T. Facchinetti, T. Nolte, and L. Almeida was selected.
Certainly Dresden as the conference location for WFCS 2008 provided
an inspiring atmosphere and a great workshop – WFCS 2008 was a must
to attend. See you at WFCS 2010 in Nancy!
Thilo Sauter and Martin Wollschlaeger
WFCS 2008 General Co-Chairmen
Some Photos from the event:
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