Executive Department for
Press, Communication and Marketing
Adolf-Reichwein-Straße 2a Gebäude AVZ (Gebäudeteil AR-NA) 57068 Siegen
Phone:    +49 (0)271/740-4915 Fax.:    +49 (0)271/740-4911 E-Mail:  presse@uni-siegen.de
End of Big Data?
International conference CoSeRa: In September, Siegen University will host renowned researchers from all over the world.
After Bonn, Pisa and Aachen, Siegen will be in the focus of many outstanding researchers during a four day period in September. From the 10th to the 13th of the month, Siegen University will welcome renowned scientists from all over the world to the Paul-Bonatz-Straße campus as part of the CoSeRa international conference (Compressed Sensing with Applications in Radar, Multimodal Sensing and Imaging). When talking with organizer Prof. Dr. Otmar Loffeld about CoSeRa, one can easily notice his joyful anticipation. "The response and the pledges of so many renowned colleagues are an honor and recognition for our work," says Loffeld. The theme of the international workshop, which the chairman of the Center for Sensor Systems (ZESS) at the university is so enthusiastic about, is particularly appealing. The CoSeRa conference was launched in 2012, already with the participation of the University of Siegen and, above all, by Prof. Joachim Ender from the Chair of Radio Frequency Sensors and Radar Methods. Everything revolves around the still young procedure of "Compressed Sensing".
Well-known researchers and lecturers of various disciplines such as mathematics and engineering will examine the topic from different perspectives in Siegen. "There is a lot of potential behind it. The classic books on signal processing may need to be rewritten or at least extended in ten years, "says Prof. Loffeld. It's all about getting the big data volumes of the modern world under control. Simplified, "Compressed Sensing" or "Compressive Sensing" is a method of directly gathering information from signals which were already compressed, when they were being captured. We no longer speak of the classic "Analog to Digital Conversion", but of an "Analog to Information Conversion". This refers to the direct extraction of information from analogue data - a new, fascinating and revolutionary paradigm of information retrieval and processing.
An example of a possible application: If a high-resolution photo is shot with a digital camera, huge amounts of data are initially created due to the large number of pixels. The photos are then usually automatically compressed to the usual sizes and formats and stored. However, a large proportion of the so-called raw data is not stored at all, but "thrown away" after compression. The goal of compressed sensing is to not even record this "unnecessary" data and to create a compressed image directly. But digital photography is just one of many uses. It is conceivable, for example in medicine, that X-ray images could be produced with fewer shots in the future, but with the same accuracy, or that the measuring time for CRT and MRI images is reduced.
"At the moment, however, the implementation procedures are still very time-consuming, but perhaps CoSeRa will take us further," hopes Prof. Loffeld. A total of 40 lectures are planned over four days, including Ayush Bandari of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, Yonina Elder of Technicon Haifa, Felix Krahmer of TU Munich and Xiaoxiang Zhu of the German Aerospace Center Munich , Prof. Michael Möller from the host university will open the event on September 10 at 2 pm with an introductory tutorial on reconstructive optimization methods. For Loffeld, the orientation is a kind of scientific "accolade", but also an award for research at the University of Siegen and at ZESS in particular.
Further information and the entire program can be found on the website of ZESS.