Software engineering

Extreme prorgamming (XP) is a agile software development method, which I came across in an undergraduate Software engineering course that I took at Toronto. It didn't make much sense to me, and usually it doesnt make much sense to people who haven't programmed in the real-world for the real-world. All I remember of XP was that it required programmers to program in pairs. But that is probably a lesser important characterisitic of the agile method. Just the fact that two programmers has to sit together and program in XP, probably amused everyone.

XP is a rapid application development methodology, whereby less time is spent on design. This immiediately requires a lot of refactoring (cleaning up) code, which is another important characteristic of XP. So when do we pick XP over other methods? XP is best used for developing systems which require relatively a lesser amount of design time. So for e.g. e-commerce systems built using the Java framework, would require a far less time spent on design, due to the availability of already-built frameworks (such as JavaBeans, etc.). The developers build on top of this framework, which in a way dictates the programmers to follow a certain design rule. I say this from my experience at BEA, where portals developed using BEA's Weblogic Workshop, followed a more-or-less standard design rules set by BEA. These rules were obviously well established, and have known to work, and easy to maintain. The rules could, ofcourse be changed, by re-configuring a few XML files.

XP has become more practical with the advent of Automated refactoring tools. There are tools out there which could pinpoint repeating code, and replace repeating code with a single function. Eclipse and a lot of other IDEs out there are equipped with refactoring tool plugins. More on refactoring tools can be found here.

Deformable models

Last week i came across a very interesting concept in computational vision. Segmentation used to be a very widely researched area in the past, and researchers have come up with some very intuitive ways of segmenting. One of such methods is the Deformable model which is used to segment regions of interest, however, with a-priori information. Deformable models are widely used in face dectection and medical imaging.

A deformable model is first created, so let's say we first create a generic model of the nose of a human being. This generic model represents a much broader class of noses, so somewhat like the maximum shape a nose can take. The deformable model, then using Newton's laws of mechanics, deforms into the candidate nose. Such deformable models are very useful to segment MRI images of the heart, etc. Organs such as the heart, ventricles, aorta, etc. deforms as they pump blood in and out of the heart. Deformable models are able to capture these organs, at any stage of systole/diastole.

Below is an example of a deformable model that "wraps" around an object in an x-ray image.

Deformable models are not only useful for segmentation. One of the widely sought applications of the deformable models include finding abnormalities in organs. So let's say for example, to detect an oversized mycocardium, we could calculate the rate at which the deformable model has deformed around the mycocardium, or the extent to which it had to deform. This measure could give us a very clear indication of an abnormality (if any).

Nobel Laureate 's lecture

Professor Richard Schrock, is this year's nobel prize winner in chemistry. He shares the prize with two other researchers. Schrock, R. who is a professor of chemitsry at MIT was out here at Imperial college to give his first post-nobel lecture. I didn't want to miss out on this rare opportunity to watch a Nobel prize winner on his first post-nobel lecture. The lecture hall was packed, and people had to sit on the stairs to catch a glimpse of the nobel prize winner. I expected to see a lot of professors and members of the academic staff, but was surprised to find out how actually so many students had turned up.

Professor Schrock recieved a standing ovation as he walked into the lecture theatre. It felt like a scene from the movie "A Beautiful Mind" (2001), except that John Nash seemed a bit more "eccentric" and a lot older than Prof. Shrock. Just as all Nobel prize winners do (I am sure) Professor Schrock kissed his wife before getting up on the stage. This reminds me of John Nash's nobel lecture in the movie, where he attributes his nobel prize solely to his wife, which really at that point in the movie seemed very nice and appropriate.

Later that afternoon, I took a few pictures at Imperial, for the first time. This one here is infront of the Tanaka Business school, also more recently, the college's new entrance.




Just recently, I have moved all my public htmls to http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~rkarim . My homepage still remains at http://rashedkarim.com<div style="text-align: justify;">Professor Richard Schrock, is this year's nobel prize winner in <a href="http://nobelprize.org/chemistry/laureates/2005/index.html">chemistry</a>. He shares the prize with two other researchers. Schrock, R. who is a professor of chemitsry at MIT was out here at Imperial college to give his first post-nobel lecture. I didn't want to miss out on this rare opportunity to watch a Nobel prize winner on his first post-nobel lecture. The lecture hall was packed, and people had to sit on the stairs to catch a glimpse of the nobel prize winner. I expected to see a lot of professors and members of the academic staff, but was surprised to find out how actually so many students had turned up. </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Professor Schrock recieved a standing ovation as he walked into the lecture theatre. It felt like a scene from the movie "<span style="font-style: italic;">A Beautiful Mind</span>" (2001), except that John Nash seemed a bit more "eccentric" and a lot older than Prof. Shrock. Just as all Nobel prize winners do (I am sure) Professor Schrock kissed his wife before getting up on the stage. This reminds me of John Nash's nobel lecture in the movie, where he attributes his nobel prize solely to his wife, which really at that point in the movie seemed very nice and appropriate. Later that afternoon, I took a few pictures at Imperial, for the first time. This one here is infront of the Tanaka Business school, also more recently, the college's new entrance. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7497/687/1600/rashed%40Imperial14.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7497/687/200/rashed%40Imperial13.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a> </div>

Distinction in MSc

Yeah .. finally its a dream come true for me, and a milestone in my life.

First day of PhD

Today is officially my first day of PhD research at Imperial college. Imperial college seems like a nice place to study. It occupies *relatively* a lot of land and buildings, compared to other London universities. This is surprising since it is a specialist college (only for science, technology and medicine). I get an office, so does all PhD students. My research is about working on techniques used in augmented reality for cardiac image-guided surgery.

Studying in London - part 1

I have been waiting to write about what it's like to study and live in London, and about the UK education system as a whole. I have been educated in Canada, which runs a university education system pretty much the same as its American counterparts. I will be writing from an international student's viewpoint.

It's difficult to really find a starting point to this discussion. But let's first consider the "study" experience in the UK. The UK education system is pretty much the same as any high-school or grade-school system. Assuming that you went to a school in the UK/Asia, most schools tend to follow the British system. So if you went to a UK university to do your Undergrad from a british school, you would probably have a smooth transition. I say this, since I had a really bad transition when i moved from a british-like highschool to a canadian university (or an American university for the matter). At first I had no idea what "assignments" were. And it took me some time to realize that they carried so much weight. However, the british system does not emphasize that much on assignments. Exams carry a whole lot more weight, though the trend is changing. I have written final exams, here in the UK, that weighed 70%. So I made sure I was in good health on the day of that exam.

Another important difference is the way british universities have tutorials. Canadian universities tend to have tutorials which are like mini-lectures, where a TA comes and solves problems on the board. Here in the UK, less emphasis is placed on tutorial sessions. Computer science programs have "lab hours" where a TAs walk around the Lab to help students, who are solving a given-problem, given to by their lecturer.

The quality of student also varies. I would say Canada has one of the best university regulatory systems in the world. Most of canada's universities are decent, with some universities competing with the world's best. However, this is not the case in the UK/US. Universities in the UK/US range from the most to the least competitive. There are all kinds. The least-competitive universities provide a haven for two types of students - students with bad grades, and students who cannot afford the luxury of a good education. In the UK, education is very expensive and not always can deserving students get a deserving education. I have met very good students, with good grades, who go to low-profile universities.

This is, however, not the case in canada. Students with good grades usually end up in good universities, since the tuition fees does not vary as much. For example, in the UK, Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial and LSE all have tuition fees higher than 15000 pounds a year, whereas London Metropolitan University charges only 7000 pounds a year.