Center for Advance Knowledge enablement

National Science Foundation Industry/University Co-Operative Research Center

The Industry/University Research Collaboration Center for Advanced Knowledge Enablement (CAKE), supported by the NSF and industry members, was established in 2009 and it is presently in Phase III of its operation. The Center enables close and sustained engagement between industry innovators, academic research teams, and government agencies in the areas of big data analytics, artificial intelligence, information technology, multimedia and data mining, and cloud computing. The CAKE members have been large companies such as LexisNexis, JM Family Enterprises, Motorola Mobility, Tecore Networks, Emerson Network Power as well as many small and start-up companies. The FAU CAKE Center has received more than $9 million in federal, state and industry funding. The Center and its laboratories are housed in the Engineering East building at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida.Operational and Research Team

Senior Investigators: Dr. Valentine Aalo, Dr. Ankur Agarwal, Dr. John Bagby, Dr. Ravi Behara, Dr. Ionut Cardei, Dr. Mihaela Cardei, Dr. Taghi Khoshgoftaar, Dr. Imad Mahgoub, Dr. Mehrdad Nojoumian, Dr. Dingding Wang, and Dr. Hill Zhu

About

In 2009 Florida Atlantic University received the National Science Foundation (NSF) award to create the Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) for Advanced Knowledge Enablement (CAKE). In the period from 2009 to 2023 the FAU Center operated as a site of the Florida International University. Starting in 2023, the FAU CAKE Center received the NSF Phase III award and operates as a single site center.

The NSF IUCRC CAKE Center provides a framework for interaction between university faculty and students and industry in the critically important areas of information technology, communications, and computing. In the period from 2009 to present, the FAU Center had 49 industry members and completed 57 applied industry research projects.

The NSF I/UCRC has proven to be a win-win situation both for our university and our industry and government partners. We are thrilled with the opportunity to conduct industrially relevant research, receive additional funding for it, and moreover, benefit from the recognition and prestige of being an NSF research center. Our Center is successfully building a bridge linking academia, industry, and government in a coordinated research initiative, which this region desperately needs. The Center has the critical mass to serve the information technology industry and to help South Florida IT mature into the top tier.

The research focus of the Center is on the field of advanced knowledge enablement with the focus on areas of big data analytics, multimedia and data mining, artificial intelligence, video and multimedia processing, and cloud computing systems, sensors, and networks. These are all synergetic activities needed to complete the applied research projects that we have been conducting in the last 15 years. Research projects are interdisciplinary in their nature with the focus on applications in medical and healthcare, environmental, and mobile, public, and industrial applications. The figure below illustrates the research subareas and related vertical applications.

The FAU research team consists of 15 professors, who were all involved in IUCRC industry projects. They are experts in various subareas of the proposed research. Many high-quality graduate and undergraduate students have been recruited to work on the Center projects.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Download CAKE Executive Summary at /engineering/eecs/pdf/cake-executive-summary.doc

MISSION AND RESEARCH AGENDA

Our Center’s mission is to accomplish the following goals:

• To continuously evolve an understanding of the technology needs of the industry sector through direct contact with industry professionals and related corporations.
• To identify applied research themes that meet the needs of private and public sectors.
• To conduct industry-relevant research.

Our Center research agenda includes the creation of new technologies for various Web-based applications, next generation hardware and software development techniques and tools, mobile and wireless systems and technologies, video compression and communication technologies and systems, networking and communication systems, data mining and machine learning technologies, and various interdisciplinary initiatives and applications including medical systems and healthcare informatics.
Our research is applicable to many fields, including national defense and homeland security, healthcare, biomedical science, environmental science, entertainment, finance, and technology services. Issues of interest to multiple industries are also explored through partnerships and collaborative research.

LABS

The Center projects are conducted in the Engineering East building of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Florida Atlantic University, in which the NSF I/UCRC is housed. The building is built in 2010 and it is LED-certified Platinum green building.

There are nine research and six instructional laboratories located in the Engineering building; several labs are strictly dedicated for the I/UCRC projects. The Cloud Computer system is housed on the first floor, shown in Figure 2, which will be used for developing and testing various software, which will be developed as part of the Center projects

The following research laboratories are used in Phase I for research on Center projects and will continue to be used for Phase II:

• Multimedia Laboratory
• Mobile System Development Laboratory,
• Data Mining and Machine Learning Laboratory, and\
• Networking and Sensors Laboratory.

In last several years, as part of I/UCRC CAKE, we received two NSF MRI awards:

– MRI award to equip the Networking and Sensors Lab (2012),
– MRI award to equip the Data Mining and Machine Learning Laboratory (2014).

In addition, we received in-kind memberships from our industry members:

– Tecore Networks – the equipment for mobile network development and analysis,
– LexisNexis – high-performance cluster  computer system and software for data mining and machine learning applications, and
– Motorola Mobility powered by Google – equipment and devises for mobile system development.