Write up about the Conference
The International Zürich Seminar on Communications (IZS) is a biennial conference with technical presentations in the broad area of telecommunications. It serves as an opportunity to learn from and to communicate with leading experts in the areas of in formation theory, coding theory and signal processing. The other specific topics covered are Shannon Theory, cryptography, wireless communications, and network coding. As in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012, roughly half of the presentations are delivered by external session organizers. No parallel sessions are anticipated,and all papers are presented with a wide audience in mind. The IZS is organized by the IEEE Switzerland Chapter on Digital Communications in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZürich).
Feedback on paper presented
The following comments were taken from the referees’ written reports and from the open forum that ensued after the presentation of the paper.
The research paper is in the field of algebraic coding theory which has far-reaching applications in signal processing and in all forms of digital communication including Internet, wireless or space communications, and computer and digital disc technology. It basically applies mathematical methods in the design and analysis of codes and in the recovery of the originally sent information even when that information is garbled in transmission through a communication channel that is susceptible to different kinds of interference. These mathematical codes can detect errors in transmission and correct them so that the original information can still be received correctly at the destination. Specifically, the research uses certain cyclic codes over special types of matrices,and upon application of suitable weight-preserving functions, entirely new codes over a nice class of finite rings with good error-correcting ability are constructed.
The results of the paper are correct and the paper is quite well-written and looks to be a serious study of cyclic codes over certain finite rings.
The authors go to great lengths to establish the homogeneous weight on M_2(F_p), adopting a complicated and unnecessary approach. Infact the weight is easily computed directly from the knowledge of the ideal lattice of this ring and requires no use of characters. Moreover this easy computation is generally known and anyway has appeared in the published literature for M_2(GF(q)).
Overall the results of the paper are of some interest for specialists working in the area of codes over matrix rings.
Future directions of research presented
There was a question on whether the paper dealt with the decoding aspect of the constructed codes, but the Proponent replied that the focus of the paper was on the construction of the matrix codes and their structure. The decoding aspect can be treated in a future research. Further,for practical applications, the challenge is to find matrix codes that meet certain distance bounds.
Potential foreign collaborators
Patrick Solé, Docteur-Ingenieur de l’ ENST, ParisTech – Institut de Sciences, Technologieset Management, Département Communications & Électronique
Other important contacts and insights
Prof. Romar Q. Dela Cruz, Institute of Mathematics, UP Diliman, QuezonCity Prof. Lilibeth Dicuangco, Institute of Mathematics, UP Diliman, QuezonCity
The conference opened up several opportunities for the participants including the widening of the research network to improve interdisciplinary collaboration and exposure to international fora.The financial support that the University gave to this Proponent is a motivation to seek international recognition of his work and to strengthen the UPLB IMSP Research Cluster on Coding Theory and Cryptography.
The paper has been published in the Proceedings of the paper. Please see below the complete citation.
D. Falcunit, Jr. and V. Sison, “Cyclic codes over the matrix ring M_2(F_p) and theirisometric images over F_{p^2}+uF_{p^2}”, Proceedings of the 2014 International Zurich Seminaron Communications, Sorell Hotel Zurichberg, Zurich, Switzerland, pp. 91–96, 26–28 February 2014.
Short write-up of one’s participation (to be used to feature/publicize the grantee’s participation in the conference)
Dr. Virgilio P. Sison, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Director of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Physics, traveled to Zurich, Switzerland on 26-28 February 2014 to present the coding theory paper titled “Cyclic codes over the matrix ring M_2(F_p) and their isometric images over F_{p^2}+uF_{p^2}”, in the International Zurich Seminar on Communications (IZS 2014). He co-authors this paper with Prof. Dixie F. Falcunit, Jr., Assistant Professor of Mathematics in IMSP.
In the most general sense, coding means the transformation of information from one form to another. It was Claude E. Shannon (1916-2001) who, through his 1948 landmark paper “A Mathematical Theory of Communication” planted the seed that brought forth a new branch of mathematics called information theory. The fundamental idea of information theory is that all communication is essentially digital. The problem at hand is that, when information is transmitted from a source to a destination over a noisy communication channel, or when information is stored in a device with unreliable memory, there must be the possibility of recovering the original information even when that information gets corrupted while in transit or while in storage.
As a branch of information theory, “coding theory” has come to mean “the theory of that special kind of coding that permits the correction or detection of errors in the coded data.”
Dr, Sison initiated the creation of the UPLB IMSP Coding Theory and Cryptography Research Cluster in 2005. His initial research dealt specifically with the construction of convolutional codes over the integer ring Z_{p^r} from linear block codes over the Galois ring GR(p^r,m). The distance of the block code provides a lower bound for the free distance of the convolutional code. Dr. Sison has concentrated his research on the derivation of bounds for the distances of convolutional codes and codes over rings. On the side, new structural properties of finite rings, specifically Galois rings and finite Frobenius rings, are determined.
At present, the cluster concentrates on the algebraic properties of block codes and convolutional codes over rings, the construction of convolutional codes from block codes, the derivation of certain distance bounds, and the structural properties of certain finite rings. The cluster also works on DNA coding and sub space codes.
His attendance in this international conference would certainly invigorate the research initiatives of the cluster. As coding theory has direct links in communications engineering, computer science, physics, and specifically signal processing, the applications of Dr. Sison’s work, although mathematical in nature, have clear applications.
