Research Statement Julio Calvo

11/20/2014

Introduction
My work has spanned a seeming widely diverse set of topics, covering computer vision, fluo-
rescence phenomena modeling and advanced control techniques. Although these topics seem
completely disjoint, my research is aimed at a formal study of applied problems with selected
areas of interest. Specifically, I am focused on developing robust and efficient algorithms tar-
geted at specific problem domains, while maintaining a broad scope of applicability.

Computer Vision
Previous work and results
In the last decade, we have witnessed a more user-centered implementation of computer sci-
ence research. Ambient Intelligence (AmI) is a new paradigm that promotes the advancement
of science and technology to build smart environments. AmI proponents advocate an invisible
technological support layer of information processing to improve the quality of life in public
and private spaces. Thereby, computer vision deals with this kind of subjects, dedicated to in-
terpret image sequences and concentrated in research on the evaluating of behavior recognition.
My research focused on motion analysis: human actions identification and classification.
The method I proposed is composed of series of features over time. A good feature extraction
from digital images is an essential part in order to be successful. Features can be obtained from
processed blob in many ways. A blob is a region of a digital image in which some properties are
constant or vary within a prescribed range of values. For this case, I selected simple information
like blob width and height, and I registered blob shape and position changes by means of
Kalman filter. The Kalman filter is a set of mathematical equations that provides an efficient
computational (recursive) means to estimate the state of a process, in a way that minimizes the
mean of the squared error. The filter is very powerful in several aspects: it supports estimations
of past, present, and even future states, and it can do so even when the precise nature of the
modeled system is unknown.
I concluded to use these equations in order to provide features such as blob velocity in
x and y axes, blob characteristics and blob identification. Blob features are then linked to a
symbol sequence vector (SSV) that is composed of numbers. I decided to define five basic
human actions: standing, walking, running, sitting and lying. One set of correlatives numbers,
codebook, per human action was also specified. The main idea I came up with was to carry
out action recognition using a sliding window, with a variable width (W), to measure distances
between the extracted blob features in the SSV and codebooks. Besides, the system is able to
predict next action in relation to the position of the sliding window and the prevailing action.
That is, current system situation provides information to narrow the range of possible future
movements. Two simplified models of the system operation are showed in Fig. 1.
In summary, the algorithm I designed is divided in four main parts: features extraction from
images, features mapping, current state behavior recognition and next state behavior prediction.
The system is suited to identify and predict a series of actions in an outside background that
can be changeable.

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 (a) General operating diagram of the algorithm (b) Action recognition using the sliding window

Figure 1

This work was published in [1] and funded by the Spanish Social Elderly Institute (IMSERSO)
in order to encourage a faster assistance for accidents or falls in old’s people homes.

Ongoing actions and future work

Computer vision and in a broader aspect, artificial intelligence (AI), are both an endless source
of possibilities to improve some aspects of our daily life. This research contributed to extend
my intellectual background in AI methods and tools, which I have been using in distant areas
such as understanding forest fire with evolutionary computation as shown in [2], or performance
improvement in control systems loops using genetic algorithms, explained in next section.
Several researchers in the computer vision community have exploited knowledge about
the human body to generate approximate reconstructions of human movement. I believe the
recognition and prediction method developed in my work could be adapted to provide robust
motion reconstruction directly from video, with applications to surveillance and gesture-based
user interfaces.

Fluorescence phenomena modeling

Previous work and results
Cosmic rays can be studied indirectly by detecting the billions of high-energy particles they
produce in interactions with the Earth’s atmosphere. The Pierre Auger Observatory, where I
have collaborated as a shifter in order to understand detection techniques, is a hybrid detector,
employing two independent methods to identify and study high-energy cosmic rays. One tech-
nique recognizes the high energy particles which arrive at Earth. The second detection method
observes the trail of nitrogen fluorescence and tracks the development of air showers by mea-
suring the brightness of the emitted light. The term fluorescence refers to the process by which
atoms absorb photons of one wavelength and emits photons at a longer wavelength. A common
application of this effect is in nearly every household around the world: fluorescent lights.
The main objective of my research was to decrease the uncertainty in the determination of
the energy of the primary cosmic rays. Based on previous experiments for measurement of flu-
orescence [3], I decided to carry out a computational model aiming to measure emission of light
in changing environments. My conviction was that Monte-Carlo methods were suitable for this
kind of problems. These methods provide approximate solutions to a variety of mathematical
problems enabling the realization of computational simulations with samples of pseudorandom
numbers; that is why I used Geant4, a toolkit for the simulation of the passage of particles

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through matter. An image of the system I mocked-up can be seen in Fig. 2, which shows a
chamber imitating variable atmospheric conditions and a photomultiplier tube. Red line repre-
sents the photon beam that generates scintillation light, green line. The principle of operation
is based on luminescent materials, when struck by an incoming particle, absorb its energy and
scintillate. As it can seen in [4], the result of my work has contributed to the Extreme Universe
Space Observatory on-board Japanese Experiment Module (JEM-EUSO).

Figure 2: Simulated scintillation light

Advanced control techniques

Previous work
Fusion energy offers a vast, new source of energy with plentiful fuels. It is inherently safe since
any malfunction results in a rapid shutdown. On the way to fusion there are several milestones
such as evaluating possible materials that can be used in the first nuclear fusion reactor, to be
erected in the near future. That is the aim of the Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator (LIPAc),
which is being built in Japan. It comprises a succession of devices and systems that focus and
accelerate a deuterium beam to 9MeV of energy with a current of 125mA, see Fig. 3.

Figure 3: General scheme of LIPAc

My PhD thesis focuses on the design and development of the LIPAc low level radio-
frequency (LLRF) control system, which is now one of the most decisive parts of the instal-
lation. At the same time it concentrates and elaborates the flow of information required to

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guarantee a stable operation and provides the interface with the operators who need to config-
ure the system parameters. It also develops a very specific and critical function, interacting
directly with the accelerating cavities and with other subsystems. In short, the LLRF control
system resulting from my research is capable to work in a real-time automatically closed cycle,
bypassing the operator if needed. One particular problem I have tackled is the design of a spe-
cific computer architecture to fit in the LLRF system with a distributed environment. To that
end, I have attained a novel algorithm using control software for experimental physics (EPICS).
These fulfillments are partially published in [5] and [6].
For the beam instrumentation and for the medium energy line of the accelerator, I have re-
searched on different techniques to model the interaction between controllers and complex high
level applications, see references [7] and [8]. As shown in Fig. 4, each accelerator subsystem
can be considered as a separate entity with a specific behavior; however, all subsystems are
interconnected at various levels, sharing process variables (PVs).

Figure 4: Distributed control architecture for LIPAc

Ongoing actions and future work

Right now I am temporally working for LIPAc in Japan, until December 2014, testing the in-
jector control system and the low energy beam line. On the other hand, I am improving the
performance and reliability of the LLRF control system using techniques based on computa-
tional intelligence such as genetic algorithms. I am applying these procedures over the behavior
of the LLRF control system PID loop. Input parameters of the loop are being treated as input
population, which is being programmed in Python. Right now, I am trying to find the opti-
mal fitness function that matches properly with the target loop behavior, trying also different
crossing and mutation parameters. Loop settings are now configured manually. The automatic
and intelligent adjustment must be carried out to avoid human operator mistakes on such a
significant operation.
I am particularly interested in developing advanced control techniques, algorithms and ar-
chitectures in the areas of intelligent control and motion control in distributed environments.
Specifically, I am about to start to develop motion control for a movable plunger within LIPAc.
This attainment is mandatory in order to achieve a mechanical tuning, i.e., reaching a proper
resonance frequency by changing the shape of the cavity, once the beam is injected.

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 Another medium-term challenging issue is the management of data in distributed environ-
ments such as particle accelerators. This topic includes the handling of large amounts of in-
formation from each subsystem, post-mortem analysis or beam diagnostics data extraction and
study. This target is absolutely exciting; it gives me the chance to creatively merge different
computational aspects and techniques, one of the most beautiful peculiarity of the computer
science research.

Remarks
Regardless of the specific topic, my work has consistently used a combination of science and
engineering grounded on theoretical foundations. With the target of impacting the practice
of computer science, my work requires design, experimentation, quantitative and qualitative
algorithm evaluation, analytic modeling and simulation.
Turning to the engineering side, a computation based systems researcher should not only
be able to design, but more importantly for a researcher, should be able to identify the potential
utility resulting from his or her work and, therefore, a potential source of funds. A second
benefit of identifying usefulness arises because as a human endeavor, computer science research
does not exist in a vacuum, it must justify its existence offering a return to society, helping
ourselves to live better and to know more about us and our world.

References
[1] J. Calvo, M. A. Patricio, C. Cuvillo and L. Usero. Context Information for Human Behavior Anal-
ysis and Prediction. Nature Inspired Problem-Solving Methods in Knowledge Engineering, 2007. Springer
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-540-73055-2 26

[2] L. Usero, A. Arroyo and J. Calvo. Context Information for Understanding Forest Fire Using Evolu-
tionary Computation. Nature Inspired Problem-Solving Methods in Knowledge Engineering, 2007. Springer
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-73055-2 29

[3] G. Lefeuvre, P. Gorodetzky, J. Dolbeau, T.Patzak, P. Salin. Absolute measurement of the nitrogen fluorescence yield in air
between 300 and 430 nm.. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers,
Detectors and Associated Equipment, Elsevier, 2007, 578, pp.78-87.

[4] Thomas Mernik, Dmitry Naumov, Andrea Santangelo, Kenji Shinozaki, Francesco Fenu, Julio Calvo, Sylvie Dagoret-
Campagne, Gustavo Medina-Tanco, Hiroko Miyamo, Daniel Supanitsky and Jacek Szabelski on behalf of the JEM-EUSO
collaboration. Reconstruction of Extreme Energy Cosmic Ray Events Observed by JEM-EUSO in the ESAF Framework.
Proceedings of the 31st ICRC, LODZ, 2009

[5] J. Calvo, Mark Rivers, M.A Patricio, Angel Ibarra. IFMIF LLRF Control System Architecture Based on EPICS. Proceed-
ings of ICALEPCS, 2011, Grenoble, France. http://accelconf.web.cern.ch/accelconf/icalepcs2011/papers/mopms009.pdf

[6] J. Calvo, Mark L. Rivers, Miguel A. Patricio and A. Ibarra. EPICS Based Low-Level Radio Frequency Control System
in LIPAc. Journal of Fusion Engineering and Design. Volume 87, Issue 11, November 2012, Pages 1872-1879, ISSN
0920-3796.

[7] I. Podadera, J. Calvo, J.M. Carmona, A. Ibarra, D. Iglesias, A. Lara, C. Oliver and F. Toral. The
Medium Energy Beam Transport Line (MEBT) of IFMIF/EVEDA LIPAc. In proceeding of: IPAC, 2011.
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/233832425.

[8] E. Bargall, G. Martnez, J. M. Arroyo, J. Abal, P.-Y. Beauvais, R. Gobin, F. Orsini,M. Weber, I. Podadera, D. Regidor, J.
Calvo, A. Giralt, J. Dies, C. Tapia, A. De Blas, A. Ibarra and J. Moll. RAMI analyses of the IFMIF accelerator facility and
first availability allocation between systems. Journal of Fusion Engineering and Design. Volume 88, Issues 9-10, October
2013, Pages 2728-2731, ISSN 0920-3796. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0920379612004772