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Risk Analysis 2014 Post Conference Report

Oveview

The ninth International Conference on Risk Analysis and Hazard
Mitigation (Risk Analysis 2014) was held in the New Forest, UK, home of
the Wessex Institute. The meeting was chaired by Prof Carlos Brebbia,
Director of WIT, and sponsored by the International Journal of Safety
and Security Engineering.



The series of conferences started in 1998 when the first meeting was
held in Valencia, to be continued in Bologna (2000), Sintra (2002),
Rhodes (2004), Malta (2006), Cephalonia (2008), The Algarve (2010) and
the island of Brac in 2012.



Risk Analysis 2014, like the previous conferences, covered many
aspects of risk management and hazard mitigation, associated with both
natural and anthropogenic hazards.



Current events help to emphasise the importance of the analysed
management of risks to planners and researchers around the world.
Natural hazards such as floods, earthquakes, landslides, fires and
others have always affected human societies. The more recent emergence
of the importance of man-made hazards is a consequence of the rapid
technological advances made in the last few centuries, as well as
demographic changes. The interaction of nature and man-made risks adds
to the complexity of the problems.



Prof Carlos Brebbia opened the conference by welcoming the delegates
in the name of his Institute and explaining the importance of the
conference series amongst the activities of WIT. The objective of the
Institute – Carlos said – is to act as a mechanism for knowledge
transfer across different disciplines at an international level. This
work is carried out through industrial research and development
including the continuous evolution of the original boundary element
codes developed by WIT. This has resulted in a close collaboration
between the Institute and major industrial companies around the world,
focusing on developing software tools serving the energy and aerospace
industry, as well as engineering in general.



Another way in which the Institute disseminates knowledge is through
its publishing programme. This is the responsibility of WIT Press, the
publishers of the conference book. WIT Press has expanded significantly
in the last few years, producing a significant number of books other
than conference proceedings, as well as a growing number of
international journals.



Carlos ended by explaining that the conference programme included a
visit to the Wessex Institute campus where the delegates were invited to
a lamb BBQ. Participants would have the opportunity of knowing more
about the work of WIT as well as seeing the research and residential
facilities available.



The papers presented at the Conference covered a wide variety of
topics related to risk analysis and hazard mitigation. They were
published in Volume 47 of the WIT Transactions on Information and
Communication Technologies. All papers were also archived in the WIT
eLibrary (http://library.witpress.com/), where they are permanently available to the international scientific and engineering community.

 

 Conference Topics

The Conference included a series of excellent presentations in a
variety of topics. They were grouped under the following headings:

• Risk analysis and assessment
• Risk management
• Hazard prevention, management and control
• Vulnerability assessment
• Disaster management
• Emergency management
• Flood hazards
• Safety and security

 

 Invited Presentations

There were four invited lectures delivered by well known specialists, they included:

• “On spatial uncertainty in hazard and risk assessment”, by Andrea Fabbri, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy.
• “Catastrophic oil spill and analysis”, by Zhen-Gang Ji, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, USA.
• “The acceptability of risks from natural disasters”, by Donald J
  Higson, Consultant Engineer, Fellow of the Institute of Engineers,
  Australia.
• “The safety of marine navigation based on a game theory”, by Jozef Lisowski, Gdynia Maritime University, Poland.

 

 Social Occasions

The Conference offered numerous occasions for the delegates to
interact during and outside the formal sessions. In addition to coffee
breaks and complimentary lunches, they were invited to a lunch time BBQ
at the Campus of the Wessex Institute where they had the opportunity of
seeing the work carried out at the Institute and visit some of the
premises. The BBQ provided an occasion of getting to know each other in a
relaxed setting. The weather – up to then unstable - was sunny and warm
for the occasion.



The Conference banquet took place in the unique setting of the
Rhinefield Lodge, an impressive Manor House in the New Forest, now
converted into a luxury hotel.



The guests were able to see some of the main rooms in the building,
including the entrance hall with its hammerbeam roof and its ancient
fireplace - the only remainder of the old hunting lodge; the panelled
dining-room with its wood carving of the battle of Trafalgar, and the
Moorish room, built in a style reminiscent of the Alhambra.



The house, built in 1890 by the Munro-Walker family, resembles a
ScottishCastle from the outside but its rooms combine a wide variety of
styles. It is surrounded by a most beautiful English garden with its
ponds, maze, grass amphitheatre and many interesting shrubs and trees.



Carlos explained to the delegates the history of Rhinefield House and
the Munro-Walker family and thanked them for supporting the meeting.
The menu consisted of lamb, for which Hampshire is renowned, accompanied
by excellent wines. The evening was most enjoyable and the delegates
appreciated the occasion to see different parts of the venue.

 Closing of the Conference

Carlos closed the conference thanking all the delegates for their
presence and hoping that they will be joining other WIT Conferences in
the future. He reminded them that WIT Press is happy to consider books
or articles that they may wish to publish in one of the WIT Journals. He
also hoped that they will be visiting the Ashurst Lodge Campus when
they are in the region.

 Conference Proceedings

The proceedings Risk Analysis 2014 – Risk Analysis IX, 552pp (Print
ISBN: 978-1-84564-792-6; eISBN: 978-1-84564-793-3) are available from
WIT Press. Orders can be placed on the WIT Press web site at
www.witpress.com or by email:
marketing@witpress.com, telephone: +44 (0) 238 029 3223 or fax: +44 (0) 238 029 2853.



Papers from the conference will also be hosted online at the WIT
eLibrary as Volume 47 of WIT Transactions on Information and
Communication Technologies (ISSN: 1746-4463, Digital ISSN 1743-3517).
For more details visit the WIT eLibrary at http://library.witpress.com

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HPSM/OPTI 2014 Post Conference Report

 Overview

The 7^th International Conference on High Performance and
Optimum Design of Structures and Materials (HPSM) recently took place in
Ostend, Belgium. The meeting incorporated the seminar on Optimum Design
in Engineering (OPTI) and was organised by the University of Brussels,
the University of La Coruña and the Wessex Institute.



Some 125 years ago, the Paris World Exhibition of 1889, commemorating
the anniversary of the French Revolution, unveiled the Eiffel Tower,
proof of the new possibilities offered by improved performances of
construction materials and the “natural design” methodology introduced
by Gustave Eiffel. The latter profited from a then dramatic development
of the “mechanics of materials and structures”, as a consequence of new
needs introduced by the industrial revolution. As this change in the
city landscape was obvious in Europe, most towns saw an explosive growth
of its cities; the famous “skyscraper”, so celebrated by Louis
Sullivan, compensated by the lack of space in the cities, was developed
as an answer to “new challenges”, ie the construction in the vertical
direction, and also in the circulation, the latter being solved with the
invention of the elevator by Elisha Otis.



More recently, during the nineties and with the coming change of the
century, the “Millennium” obsession set in, again not in the least in
the world of structural engineering; every significant town in the world
wanted its own landmark construction, commemorating the symbolic date
of 2000.



Those were the years of great creativity and those constructions now
stand as witness of civil and structural engineering skills. They
benefited from an improved technical collaboration between the
designers, the engineers and the constructors, principally due to the
developments in the field of calculation and construction tools, but
also due to the possibility of creating lightweight, high rise and long
span structures.



Another reason for the dramatic changes taking place during the last
twenty years is the evolution in technical awareness, the building team
in its entirety is nowadays convinced that they should be accountable
for the totality of the “design, build, operate, maintain and
permanently recycle components and materials” process in which they
participate.



The construction industry is one of the most significant contributors
to greenhouse gas production, energy consumption – including embedded
energy – and also in waste production. These should be compensated by a
constant search for durability of adapted solutions through the
development of “sustainable design”.



During the whole design and build process, a continuous need is felt
to “optimise” the construction and this process is today present at the
first stage of conceptual design. Important efforts are thus made to
include optimisation techniques during the preliminary design phase.
Additionally, modern tools nowadays also allow for the simulation of the
whole life cycle of a construction.



The HPSM series of conferences originated in Seville in 2002 and
continued in Ancona (2004), Ostend (2006), The Algarve (2008), Tallinn
(2010) and the New Forest, home of the Wessex Institute in 2012. The
Computer Aided Optimum Design in Engineering (OPTI) seminars have an
even older trajectory, they started in Southampton in 1989 and
reconvened thereafter in Boston (1991); Zaragoza (1993); Miami (1995);
Rome (1997); Orlando (1999); Bologna (2001); Detroit (2003); Skiathos
(2005); Myrtle Beach (2007); The Algarve (2009) and the New Forest
(2012).



It was felt appropriate to bring together these two prestigious
meetings to stress the importance of design optimisation to achieve the
best performance of structures and material systems. The first
conference brought together people from academia and industry involved
with design, manufacture, testing and optimisation of challenging
structures and innovative materials using the most up to date
technologies.

 Opening of the Conference

The Conference was opened by Prof Carlos A Brebbia who referred to
the core objective of the Wessex Institute, to act as a link for
transfer of scientific information at an international level.



Carlos explained that evolution of the original research on boundary
elements originated at the Institute, converting the technique into a
tool for industrial use. The resulting computer programmes continue to
be developed as a result of the research being carried out by WIT from
its New Forest campus. This research has led to a series of Boundary
Element Software systems now being applied in the energy and aerospace
industries, amongst others.



The success of WIT industrial R & D activities is matched by the
rapid growth of WIT Press, the publishing arm of the Institute. It
publishes a substantial number of books each year, including those of
the WIT Transactions. In addition, WIT Press has launched five journals
and is planning to increase the number in the near future.



Carlos stressed the importance of the conference programme in terms
of interaction and developing joint research projects. Conference
participants also provide important feedback to WIT which helps to put
together an ever evolving conference programme.



Finally, Carlos mentioned the importance of the Prigogine Medal,
which is given every year to an important scientist whose work has been
influenced by Ilya Prigogine, Nobel Prize Winner for Chemistry.
Prigogine, although born in Russia, was educated and lived all his life
in Belgium. His evolutionary systems theory has profound influence in a
wide variety of sciences, including ecology and many others. He was an
Honorary Chairman of one of WIT’s conferences and upon his death, WIT in
association with the University of Siena, established a medal in his
honour. This year the award will take place at the University of Siena,
honouring a researcher who has been actively involved in studies related
to the nature of water.



Following Carlos’ remarks, Prof Patrick De Wilde, Co-Chairman of the
conference, welcomed the delegates to Ostend, his home town. The town is
renowned for its sandy beaches and attractive buildings developed at
the time of Leopold II who made it his summer holiday location.



Finally, Santiago Hernandez, also Co-Chair of the conference,
explained the importance of the meeting and talked about its history,
particularly that of the OPTI seminars, now incorporated into the HPSM
conference.

 Invited Presentations

A series of invited presentations enhanced the conference series:

• “The application of differential evolution of HVAC optimization”, by Robert Derksen, University of Manitoba, Canada.
• “Atypical design optimisation of structures: case studies”, by Alireza Maheri, Northumbria University, UK.
• “Optimization of steel penstock in a bored tunnel”, by Stojan Kravanja, University of Maribor, Slovenia.
• “Heat transfer analyses of natural fibre composites”, by Hitoshi Takagi, University of Tokushima, Japan.
• “The effect of crystallinity on the mechanical properties of plain
  woven carbon reinforced composites using polypropylene”, by Kenichi
  Takemura, Kanagawa University, Japan.
• “Synergy between structural and architectural engineering: the point
  of view of the structural engineer”, by Patrick De Wilde, Free
  University of Brussels, Belgium.
• “Lightweight transformable structures: materialising the synergy
  between architectural and structural engineering”, by Niels De
  Temmerman, Free University of Brussels, Belgium.
• “Generalization of Michel’s solution of plane problem theory of
  elasticity in polar coordinates in the event of a radially inhomogenous
  body”, by Vladimir Andreev.

 

 Special Seminars

There were two special seminars organised for the conference. The
first of them by Prof Hitoshi Takagi and Tsutao Katayama, the former
from the University of Tokushima and the latter from Doshisha University
in Japan. In addition to Takagi’s paper on “Heat transfer analyses of
natural fibre composites”, the other presentations included:

• Fabrication and material characterisation of carbon nanotube verified polylactides
• Heating of carbon film reinforced thermolistic CRRTP dies using high frequency currents.

The other special session, organised by Kenichi Takemura of Kanagawa
University and Kazuto Tanaka of Doshisha University, Japan, consisted of
a substantial number of papers in addition to Takemura’s own
contribution on the mechanical properties of carbon reinforced
composites. The papers covered the following topics:

• “FEM analysis of a temperature distribution of CFRTP pipe mold with direct resistance heating”
• “CFRTP molding method of the three-dimensional shape by using direct resistance heating to carbon fiber”
• “Effect of the molecular weight of polycarbonate on the impact
  resistance of continuous carbon fiber reinforced polycarbonate
  composites”
• “Evaluation of the interfacial and interlaminar shear strength of
  carbon fiber reinforced polycarbonate made by a unidirectional sheet”
• “High-speed compression molding of continuous carbon fiber reinforced polypropylene”
• “Formability evaluation of carbon fiber NCF by a non-contact 3D
  strain measurement system and the effects of blank folder force on its
  formability”
• “The mode I interlaminar fracture toughness of carbon fiber/epoxy resin composite with freezing after water absorption”

 

 Conference Topics

The rest of the papers were classified into the following topics:

• Material characterisation
• Experiments and numerical analysis
• Composite materials and structures
• Green composites
• Components for automotive applications
• Structural optimisation
• Optimisation problems
• Steel structures
• Timber structures
• Corrosion problems
• Surface modification
• Innovative techniques
• Heritage construction
• Sustainable solutions

 

 Special Seminar

A special feature of the conference was the special seminar arranged
on Wednesday morning with another WIT conference called Mobile,
Adaptable and Rapidly Assembled Structures (MARAS) which highlighted
some of the presentations of interest to both audiences.



Prof Patrick de Wilde introduced the two keynote addresses in this
special session dedicated to bringing together natural and structural
scientists and architects, stressing the importance of interaction and
collaboration.



The first of the talks was given by Prof Lincy Pyl, from the
Department of Mechanics and Material Construction, at the Free
University of Brussels. She is a specialist in numerical modelling and
steel structures. Her talk dealt with the synergy between structural and
architectural engineering from the point of view of the structural
engineer.



Lincy discussed the requirements that both professions ought to
consider for the conceptual design of any building in order to achieve
the best design in terms not only of strength but also the typology most
appropriate to the problem. Lincy showed a number of case studies where
the importance of the collaboration between the structural engineer and
the architect was clearly shown.



The other keynote address was given by Prof Niels De Temmerman, also
from the Free University of Brussels, who also spoke of the need to
collaborate closely across different types of engineering (civil,
structural, mechanical, electrical etc) and the architect. He
particularly referred to the case of transformable structures. There
should be a few component types and sets of mechanics that allow them to
be rapidly deployed. He presented several case studies including some
scissor type structures developed and built by his research group.

 ISAC Dinner

The International Scientific Advisory Committee (ISAC) of the
conference met over dinner to discuss how the meeting can be improved
when it is reconvened in 2016. The dinner took place in a restaurant
offering outstanding Flemish cuisine. The discussion concentrated on new
topics for inclusion in the Call for Papers, in order for the
conference to continue evolving and attracting original contributions. A
few nominations were discussed for new members of the Board, as well as
where to hold the 2016 meeting.



Following the ISAC meeting, Carlos asked for any comments or
suggestions on how to promote the new International Journal of
Computational Methods and Experimental Measurements. The publication
launched in 2013 continues to attract excellent papers and is well
suited as a venue for publication of extended versions of the papers
published at the meeting.

 Social Occasions

The Conference offered many opportunities for delegates to interact
with each other in a fresh environment, including lunches taken
together, in addition to coffee breaks. The location of the hotel facing
the sea on the long Ostend promenade was conducive to strolling
together in a very relaxed manner, characteristic of Ostend. The
excellent quality of the restaurants added to the pleasure and success
of the conference.



Before the Conference banquet, Patrick de Wilde gave a short talk
regarding the history of Ostend, which started as a small fishing
village but rapidly grew in importance because of its excellent port
facilities. Trading was for a long time the main strength of its
economy, which grew to compete with that of the Dutch East India
Company. The highlight of the city’s history was a three years’ long
siege by Spanish forces. Although the city was eventually taken, its
heroic resistance became part of the local folklore. The city suffered
during the two World Wars, due to its strategic importance as a port.
Ostend is now a vibrant seaside resort with many cultural events as well
as renowned beaches. The reputation of Ostend as a holiday resort was
started by Leopold II, King of Belgium and Congo, who built the
promenade, hotel, racecourse and numerous parks during another golden
period of the town’s history. Nowadays, Ostend is once again associated
with charming and relaxing seaside holidays.



The Conference banquet took place in a fort built by Napoleon to
control access to the port of Ostend. The fort has been renovated and
comprises an excellent restaurant with terrace from which it is possible
to have a panoramic view of Ostend. The delegates were welcomed with a
glass of spumante and a taste of the local beer, including the famous
Koite beer originated during the siege of Ostend, when the city was
surrounded by the strong army. The food – as usual in Ostend – was
excellent and accompanied by good wines, resulting in a most happy and
friendly evening. On their way to the Fort and back Anne Marie de Wilde,
Patrick’s wife, described the different sights and some of the local
history.

 Closing of the Conference

The Conference was closed by Carlos who, after thanking the delegates
for having come, expressed his wish that they will continue to
collaborate with WIT in the future and consider visiting the Institute
next time they are in the region. This will allow them to appreciate
better the work carried out by WIT.

 

 Conference Proceedings

The proceedings HPSM 2014 – High Performance and Optimum Design of
Structures and Materials, 704pp (Print ISBN: 978-1-84564-774-2; eISBN:
978-1-84564-775-9) are available from WIT Press. Orders can be placed on
the WIT Press web site at www.witpress.com or by email:
marketing@witpress.com, telephone: +44 (0) 238 029 3223 or fax: +44 (0) 238 029 2853.



Papers from the conference will also be hosted online at the WIT
eLibrary as Volume 137 of WIT Transactions on the Built Environment
(ISSN: 1746-4498, Digital ISSN 1743-3509). For more details visit the
WIT eLibrary at http://library.witpress.com

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Overview

The 10^th International Conference on Advances in Fluid
Mechanics took place in A Coruña, Spain, organised by the Wessex
Institute, represented by Prof Carlos A Brebbia and the University of A
Coruña, represented by Prof Santiago Hernandez, with the collaboration
of Prof Matiur Rahman of Dalhousie University, Canada.



The series started in 1996 when the first conference was held in New
Orleans, followed by Udine (1998); Montreal (2000); Ghent (2002); Lisbon
(2004); Skiathos (2006); The New Forest, home of the Wessex Institute
(2008); The Algarve (2010) and Split (2012).



The field of fluid mechanics has numerous applications and the
conference covers a wide range of topics, including basic formulations
and their computer modelling as well as the relationship between
experimental and analytical results. The emphasis is on new applications
and research currently in progress.



The continuous success of the conference is due to being able to
attract high quality contributions in a variety of new topics and
applications which is represented by the books published since the first
meeting took place in 1996. The papers in these books – like others
presented at Wessex Institute conferences – are part of the WIT
Transactions on Engineering Sciences series and are archived online in
the WIT eLibrary (http://library.witpress.com/), where they are immediately and permanently available to the scientific community.



The Conference was opened by Prof Carlos Brebbia, who explained to
the delegates the importance of the conference programme for the work of
the Wessex Institute, whose aim is for knowledge dissemination at
international level.



The Wessex Institute, Carlos explained, is now nearly 30 years old
and well established, as it provides a mechanism for interaction between
academic researchers and industry. It is well known for its pioneering
work on boundary elements, a technique which gave origin to computer
software codes now used as a tool for the analysis and design of many
engineering systems.



The focus of the Institute activities – Carlos explained – continues
to evolve in response to the needs of engineering sciences. Current
applications include analysis of energy systems and aerospace, amongst
others.



WIT Press is the publishing arm of the Institute which publishes not
only the WIT Transactions containing the conference proceedings but also
a series of other books and journals.



The training and research are carried out at the Institute campus in
the New Forest National Park, near Southampton in England, where WIT has
accommodation for visitors as well as residential researchers. Carlos
ended his presentation by wishing all a very successful conference and
hoping that the delegates will consider visiting the campus next time
they are in the region. This – he said – will allow them to have a
better understanding of the activities of the Wessex Institute.



Prof Santiago Hernandez from the University of A Coruña, spoke
afterwards, explaining the interest of his research group in fluid
mechanics and the types of work they carry out in his laboratory which
they were to visit during the conference. Santiago also mentioned some
of the attractions of the region, hoping that the participants would be
able to visit some of them and learn a bit more about Galicia, a unique
part of Spain with its own culture, language and traditions, many of
them related to its Celtic roots.

 Conference Topics

The conference papers were grouped in a series of topics as follows:

• Fluid structure interaction
• Turbulent flow
• Hydrodynamics
• Heat and mass transfer
• Industrial applications
• Fluid mechanics and heat transfer
• Computer simulation and experiments
• Nano and micro fluids
• Bubble and drop dynamics

 

 Invited Presentations

There were a series of invited presentations which helped to enhance the conference:

• “Applications of 2D URANS in fluid structure interaction problems
  of rectangular cylinders” by Felix Nieto of the University of A Coruña,
  Spain.
• “Turbulence: the covariant structure”, by Trevor Moulden, The University of Tennessee Space Institute, USA.
• “The equatorial meandering of abyssal ocean currents” by Gordon Swaters, University of Alberta, Canada.
• “Differentially heated flow from a rotating sphere” by Chun Ho Leung, University of Toronto, Canada.
• “Assessment of the aerodynamic response of bridge decks by means of
  2D Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes simulations” by Santiago Hernandez,
  University of A Coruña, Spain.

 

 Special Talk

A special talk was given by Prof Hussain Al-Kayiem of the University
of Technology Petronas in Malaysia on the general topic of fluid dynamic
developments through aviation history.



He referred to the interesting history of Abbas Ibn Firnas, the first
man who attempted to fly in the ninth century. He built a glider that
has recently been replicated in the USA. Firnas was from Cordoba, Spain,
then a cultural centre as important as Damascus. He was an astronomer,
musician, mathematician and poet in his 70^th year of age when he flew.



In the XI Century, Elmer in present day Iraq, also tried to fly and
much later Ahmed Celebi in the early 1800s glided from one side to the
other of the Bosphorus, inspired by the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci.



Also in the 19^th century a series of German aviators contributed to the development of gliding.



It was the Wright brothers who set up the fundamentals of modern
aviation, applying scientific principles and developing ways to deal
with control and stability.



Hussain described the tests of these early pioneers who set up the
foundations of modern aviation with numerous illustrations and
photographs.

 Social Occasions

The Conference offered many opportunities for the participants to
interact outside the lecture rooms, through coffee breaks, complimentary
lunches and during the conference banquet, amongst others.



The banquet took place in a restaurant renowned for the quality of
its Galician cuisine. The starter was octopus, before the main course,
consisting of veal marinated in red wine, followed by a dish of
different types of sweets and ice cream.



At the beginning of the dinner Carlos proposed a toast to all
conference participants and, in particular, to his Co-chairs, to whom
the success of the meeting was in great part due. He also explained the
unique culture and traditions of Galicia, derived from its Celtic roots.



At the end of the meal Carlos introduced a Galician musical ensemble.
They played a series of classical pieces from the region to the delight
and surprise of most of the audience. The Galician bagpipes are more
melodious than others and their music is always present at every
celebration or family event.



The International Scientific Advisory Committee of the conference met
over dinner at an excellent restaurant known by the quality of its
local cuisine. The dinner consisted of seafood and fish for which
Galicia is renowned, accompanied by excellent Albarino white wines. The
dinner focused on the topics to be included in 2016, nominations for the
committee and possible locations.

 Special Visit

A special visit was arranged for the delegates to see the
experimental facilities at the School of Engineering, University of A
Coruña. As an introduction, Prof Santiago Hernandez gave a short talk
regarding the laboratories at the School and described the experiments
recently carried out at the aerodynamics wind tunnel.



The visit not only comprised the wind tunnel but also the basin for
coastal and harbour modelling and the laboratory dealing with hydraulics
testing.



The delegates were most interested in the laboratories and in
particular the way in which physical models of some components – such as
bridge deck sections – were used to obtain data for running computer
models of large suspension and cable stayed bridges, amongst others.

 Closing of the Conference

At the end of the conference the delegates were invited to visit the
Historical Town Hall in La Coruña, where they were received in the
Council Chamber by the Lieutenant Major in charge of tourism. She
explained about the origins of the town and its Roman past, including
the Hercules legend which gave rise to the name of the ancient
lighthouse which has become the symbol of the city.



The delegates were shown the different rooms and the unique clock
collection which was the passion of a wealthy citizen, who donated it to
the city afterwards. The town hall building is very much in daily use
and covers a whole side of the Maria Pita town square, one of the nicest
in Europe.



The visit was a most fitting end for a successful and very friendly meeting.

 Conference Proceedings

The proceedings AFM 2014 – Advances in Fluid Mechanics X, 472pp
(Print ISBN: 978-1-84564-790-2; eISBN: 978-1-84564-791-9) are available
from WIT Press. Orders can be placed on the WIT Press web site at
www.witpress.com or by email:
marketing@witpress.com, telephone: +44 (0) 238 029 3223 or fax: +44 (0) 238 029 2853.



Papers from the conference will also be hosted online at the WIT
eLibrary as Volume 82 of WIT Transactions on Engineering Sciences (ISSN:
1746-4471, Digital ISSN 1743-3533). For more details visit the WIT
eLibrary at http://library.witpress.com

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Heat Transfer 2014 Post Conference Report

Overview

The 13^th International Conference on Simulation and
Experiments in Heat and Mass Transfer (Heat Transfer 2014) took place in
A Coruña, Spain organised by Lund University of Technology, Sweden and
Wessex Institute, UK, with the collaboration of the University of A
Coruña.



The Conference Chairmen were Prof Bengt Sunden, from Lund University
and Prof Carlos A Brebbia, Director of the Wessex Institute.



The Conference started in Portsmouth, UK in 1988, followed by Milan
(1992); Southampton (1994); Udine (1996); Krakow (1998); Madrid (2000);
Halkidiki (2002); Lisbon (2004); New Forest, UK, home of the Wessex
Institute (2006); Maribor (2008); Tallinn (2010) and Split (2012).



The objective of the series is to provide a forum for presentation
and discussion of advanced topics, new approaches and applications of
innovative computational methods and experimental measurements in heat
and mass transfer.



Heat transfer topics and related phenomena are commonly of a complex
nature and different mechanisms like heat conduction, convection,
turbulence, thermal radiation and phase change as well as chemical
reactions may occur simultaneously. Typical applications are found in
heat exchanges, gas turbine cooling, turbulent combustion and fires,
fuel cells, batteries, micro- and mini- channels, electronic cooling,
melting and solidification, chemical processing and aerospace
engineering.



Heat transfer may be regarded as an established and mature scientific
discipline, but it plays a major role in new emerging ideas such as
sustainable development and reduction of greenhouse gases as well as for
micro- and nano-scale structures, nano fluids and bio-engineering.
Non-linear phenomena may occur due to temperature dependent
thermophysical properties.



To analyse the thermal process and enable design and optimisation,
advances in computational methods continue to be important as
engineering design and development require reliable and accurate
computational tools to replace or complement expensive and time
consuming experimental trial and error work. Tremendous advancements
have been achieved during recent years due to improved numerical
solution algorithms for non-linear differential equations, turbulence
modelling and the development of computers and computing programmes to
achieve efficient and rapid simulations. Nevertheless, further progress
in computational methods will require developments in theoretical and
predictive procedures in applied research. Accurate experimental
investigations with advanced instrumentation are needed to validate the
numerical calculations.



Many excellent research topics were discussed at the Heat Transfer
2014 conference, during which new applications were presented related to
the use of advanced computational methods and experimental measurements
in heat and mass transfer.



The Conference books containing papers presented at the meeting is
Volume 83 of the series WIT Transactions on Engineering Sciences, which
is widely distributed around the world in digital as well as hard copy
formats. The papers are also permanently archived in the Institute
eLibrary (http://library.witpress.com/), where they are easily accessible to the international community.

 Opening of the Conference

The Conference was opened by Prof Carlos A Brebbia who explained the
work of the Wessex Institute, in particular its objective to act as a
mechanism for knowledge transfer. WIT – Carlos said – carries out this
by a series of activities, including industrial research, publication
and training.



In the field of industrial applications the Institute is renowned
throughout the world because of its pioneering research on boundary
elements. The method is used for the analysis of problems affecting
electric conduction and offshore structures and other situations used in
petroleum engineering. This allows for the design of effective cathodic
protection systems against corrosion. The efficient analysis of these
systems, Carlos explained, has been possible because of the development
of BEM tools.



Fracture mechanics and in particular crack propagation is another
problem in which the Institute has carried out original research using
BEM. The development of meshes that can follow the growth of cracks
allowed for the prediction of the residual life of components with
initial cracks. This has important applications in aerospace
engineering.



The international WIT conference programme is well known. It consists
of 25 or so meetings per year in different locations around the world.
The conferences aim to provide the right environment for the exchange of
scientific knowledge, promoting discussion and allowing for networking.
The conference papers are published in book form and widely distributed
throughout the world.



Training activities, including PhD and Post-doctoral research, takes
place in the Wessex Institute campus located in the New Forest, a
National Park in the South of England. The excellent facilities and the
peaceful environment render the campus an ideal place for research.



Carlos concluded his remarks by thanking the delegates for their
support of WIT conferences and hoping that they will consider visiting
the Institute campus, when convenient. In that way they will be able to
better appreciate the work of the Wessex Institute.

 Keynote Address and Invited Presentations

The keynote address of the conference was delivered by Prof Sunden,
who spoke about “Computational opportunities of energy related transport
processes”. His talk was followed with great interest and gave rise to
numerous questions.



This was followed by an invited presentation by Prof Hussain
Al-Kayiem from Petronas University of Technology in Malaysia. The title
was “Ribbed double pipe heat exchanger experimental analysis”.



Other invited papers were as follows:

• “The thermal performance of thermosyphons employing nanofluids” by
  Matthias Buschmann, The ILK and Technical University, Dresden, Germany.
• “The thermal conductance of collection tubes in geothermal energy systems” by Ramon Frederick, University of Chile, Chile.
• “Quantitative measuring methods applied for the mixing phenomena of
  film cooling” by Kenichiro Takeishi, Osaka University, Japan.

 

 Conference Topics

The papers were arranged in the following topics:

• Heat transfer enhancements
• Heat recovery
• Heat exchanges
• Heat transfer in energy producing devices
• Heat and mass transfer
• Conventional radiation
• Multiphase flow heat transfer
• Modelling and experiments
• Experimental and measuring technologies

 

 Special Talk

A special talk was given by Prof Hussain Al-Kayiem of the University
of Technology Petronas in Malaysia on the general topic of fluid dynamic
developments through aviation history.



He referred to the interesting history of Abbas Ibn Firnas, the first
man who attempted to fly in the ninth century. He built a glider that
has recently been replicated in the USA. Firnas was from Cordoba, Spain,
then a cultural centre as important as Damascus. He was an astronomer,
musician, mathematician and poet in his 70^th year of age when he flew.



In the XI Century, Elmer in present day Iraq, also tried to fly and
much later Ahmed Celebi in the early 1800s glided from one side to the
other of the Bosphorus, inspired by the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci.



Also in the 19^th century a series of German aviators contributed to the development of gliding.



It was the Wright brothers who set up the fundamentals of modern
aviation, applying scientific principles and developing ways to deal
with control and stability.



Hussain described the tests of these early pioneers who set up the
foundations of modern aviation with numerous illustrations and
photographs.

 Social Occasions

The Conference offered the delegates numerous opportunities for
informal discussions outside the sessions, including coffee breaks,
complimentary lunches and the conference banquet.



The banquet took place in a restaurant renowned for the quality of
its Galician cuisine. The starter was octopus, before the main course,
consisting of veal marinated in red wine, followed by a dish of
different types of sweets and ice cream.



At the beginning of the dinner Carlos proposed a toast to all
conference participants and, in particular, to his Co-chairs, to whom
the success of the meeting was in great part due. He also explained the
unique culture and traditions of Galicia, derived from its Celtic roots.



At the end of the meal Carlos introduced a Galician musical ensemble.
They played a series of classical pieces from the region to the delight
and surprise of most of the audience. The Galician bagpipes are more
melodious than others and their music is always present in every
celebration or family events.



The International Scientific Advisory Committee (ISAC) met over
dinner to discuss the progress of the meeting and how to improve it in
2016 when it is to be reconvened. There were a few new topics suggested
as well as new members for the committee. The problems of visa
requirements in certain locations were a deterrent to hold the meeting
there. Some suggested locations were deemed better than others and they
will be investigated by the Conference Division at WIT.

 Conference Proceedings

The proceedings Heat Transfer 2014 – Heat Transfer XIII: Simulation
and Experiments in Heat and Mass Transfer, 548pp (Print ISBN:
978-1-84564-794-0; eISBN: 978-1-84564-795-7) are available from WIT
Press. Orders can be placed on the WIT Press web site at
www.witpress.com or by email:
marketing@witpress.com, telephone: +44 (0) 238 029 3223 or fax: +44 (0) 238 029 2853.



Papers from the conference will also be hosted online at the WIT
eLibrary as Volume 83 of WIT Transactions on Engineering Sciences (ISSN:
1746-4471, Digital ISSN 1743-3533). For more details visit the WIT
eLibrary at http://library.witpress.com

Read More

Porting Your Android Wear Developer Preview Code to the Latest Support Library

Today’s post on #AndroidWear is from +Wayne Piekarski.

Now that the full Android Wear SDK is available, it’s time to port your existing wearable-enabled notification
code from the Developer Preview. In the process, you’ll switch to using
the latest Android support library, and there are some small API
changes that will require you to update your code. This article will
show you how to update my previous code samples that were released
earlier for stacks and pages, which you can use to guide the conversion of your own code as well.

To get started with an existing project in Android Studio, you should update to the 0.8 or later release.
You also need to make sure you’ve downloaded the Google Support Library
version 20 or later from the SDK Manager. Since this is only a
notification-based example, there’s no need to download the full Android
Wear SDK, which is only needed if you want to create an APK to run on
the wearable device.

Unix diff output is used to show the necessary changes in an easy to
understand way. Do not copy the + or - symbols at the start of each
line, and ignore the lines starting with @@ which are used to indicate
the line number that changed. For the curious, I used the following
command to generate the diff output from the last commit in my GIT
repository (the -U1 shows one line of context to keep the output
simple):

git show HEAD -U1

Gradle changes

To add the new support-v4 library, you need to edit your build.gradle file like so:

@@ -24,2 +24,3 @@ dependencies {
     compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:19.+'
+    compile 'com.android.support:support-v4:20.0+'
 }

Make sure you remove the wearable-preview-support.jar that was
provided with the Developer Preview from your libs directory and
build.gradle file, since these features are now in the standard support
library.

Package imports

Since the APIs and package names have changed, the import statements
at the top of MainActivity.java need to be adjusted like this:

@@ -7,3 +7,2 @@ import android.view.MenuItem;
-import android.support.v4.app.NotificationCompat;
 import android.app.Notification;
@@ -13,4 +12,9 @@ import android.graphics.Bitmap;
 import android.graphics.BitmapFactory;
-import android.preview.support.v4.app.NotificationManagerCompat;
-import android.preview.support.wearable.notifications.WearableNotifications;
+import android.support.v4.app.NotificationCompat;
+import android.support.v4.app.NotificationManagerCompat;
+
+// Extra dependencies needed for the pages example
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.List;
+import android.support.v4.app.NotificationCompat.BigTextStyle;

Stacking notifications

Since the preview SDK, we have simplified how notifications are
implemented. The existing NotificationCompat.Builder() was extended to
support groups directly, instead of a separate WearableNotifications
class. The steps are a lot simpler, as can be seen with the following
changes to showStackNotifications():

@@ -63,3 +67,3 @@ public class MainActivity extends ActionBarActivity {
         // Group notification that will be visible on the phone
-    NotificationCompat.Builder builderG = new NotificationCompat.Builder(this)
+    Notification summaryNotification = new NotificationCompat.Builder(this)
             .setContentTitle("2 Pet Notifications")
@@ -67,5 +71,5 @@ public class MainActivity extends ActionBarActivity {
             .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_launcher)
-                .setLargeIcon(bitmapMila);
-    Notification summaryNotification = new WearableNotifications.Builder(builderG)
-            .setGroup(GROUP_KEY_MESSAGES, WearableNotifications.GROUP_ORDER_SUMMARY)
+                .setLargeIcon(bitmapMila)
+            .setGroup(GROUP_KEY_MESSAGES)
+            .setGroupSummary(true)
             .build();
@@ -76,3 +80,3 @@ public class MainActivity extends ActionBarActivity {
             PendingIntent.getActivity(this, notificationId+1, viewIntent1, 0);
-    NotificationCompat.Builder builder1 = new NotificationCompat.Builder(this)
+    Notification notification1 = new NotificationCompat.Builder(this)
             .addAction(R.drawable.ic_action_done, "Treat Fed", viewPendingIntent1)
@@ -81,4 +85,3 @@ public class MainActivity extends ActionBarActivity {
                     + "Can we have steak?")
-                .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_launcher);
-    Notification notification1 = new WearableNotifications.Builder(builder1)
+            .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_launcher)
             .setGroup(GROUP_KEY_MESSAGES)
@@ -89,3 +92,3 @@ public class MainActivity extends ActionBarActivity {
             PendingIntent.getActivity(this, notificationId+2, viewIntent2, 0);
-    NotificationCompat.Builder builder2 = new NotificationCompat.Builder(this)
+    Notification notification2 = new NotificationCompat.Builder(this)
             .addAction(R.drawable.ic_action_done, "Water Filled", viewPendingIntent2)
@@ -93,4 +96,3 @@ public class MainActivity extends ActionBarActivity {
             .setContentText("Can you refill our water bowl?")
-            .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_launcher);
-        Notification notification2 = new WearableNotifications.Builder(builder2)
+            .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_launcher)
             .setGroup(GROUP_KEY_MESSAGES)

Page notifications

Page notifications have also changed to use a WearableExtender() class instead of the WearableNotifications class, as can be seen here in showPageNotifications():

@@ -151,3 +153,3 @@ public class MainActivity extends ActionBarActivity {
             PendingIntent.getActivity(this, notificationId+1, viewIntent1, 0);
-    NotificationCompat.Builder builder1 = new NotificationCompat.Builder(this)
+    Notification notification1 = new NotificationCompat.Builder(this)
             .addAction(R.drawable.ic_action_done, "Returned", viewPendingIntent1)
@@ -155,5 +157,4 @@ public class MainActivity extends ActionBarActivity {
             .setContentText("You have " + numOverdue + " books due at the library")
-            .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_launcher);
-    Notification notification1 = new WearableNotifications.Builder(builder1)
-            .addPages(extras)
+                .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_launcher)
+            .extend(new NotificationCompat.WearableExtender().addPages(extras))
             .build();

Conclusion

If you want to download the final source code of showStackNotifications() and showPageNotifications(), you can download the MainActivity.java file. You can build this file easily by creating a new project in Android Studio, adding the support library, and then copying in this MainActivity.java.

As you can see, porting this previous code over to the latest Android
Wear SDK is really easy! It should take you hardly any time at all to
get your experimental applications ported over and ready for publishing
on the Google Play!

Read More

Google I/O 2014 App Source Code Now Available | Android Developers Blog

Google I/O 2014 App Source Code Now Available | Android Developers Blog

Read More

Learn How UX Design can Make Your App More Successful | Android Developers Blog

Learn How UX Design can Make Your App More Successful | Android Developers Blog

Read More

Material design in the 2014 Google I/O app | Android Developers Blog

Material design in the 2014 Google I/O app | Android Developers Blog

Read More

Powerful New Messaging Features with GCM | Android Developers Blog

Powerful New Messaging Features with GCM | Android Developers Blog

Read More

The Beautiful Design Summer 2014 Collection on Google Play | Android Developers Blog

The Beautiful Design Summer 2014 Collection on Google Play | Android Developers Blog

Read More

Conference Data Sync and GCM in the Google I/O App

Keeping data in sync with the cloud is an important part of many
applications, and the Google I/O App is no exception. To do this, we
leverage the standard Android mechanism for this purpose: a Sync Adapter.
Using a Sync Adapter has many benefits over using a more rudimentary
mechanism such as setting up recurring alarms, because the system
automatically handles the scheduling of Sync Adapters to optimize
battery life.



We store the data in a local SQLite database. However, rather than
having the whole application access that database directly, the
application employs another standard Android mechanism to control and
organize access to that data. This structure is, naturally, a Content Provider.
Only the content provider's implementation has direct access to the
SQLite database. All other parts of the app can only access data through
the Content Resolver. This allows for a very flexible decoupling
between the representation of the data in the database and the more
abstract view of that data that is used throughout the app.



The I/O app maintains with two main kinds of data: conference data
(sessions, speakers, rooms, etc) and user data (the user's personalized
schedule). Conference data is kept up to date with a one-way sync from a
set of JSON files stored in Google Cloud Storage, whereas user data goes through a two-way sync with a file stored in the user's Google Drive AppData folder.

Downloading Conference Data Efficiently

For a conference like Google I/O, conference data can be somewhat
large. It consists of information about all the sessions, rooms,
speakers, map locations, social hashtags, video library items and
others. Downloading the whole data set repeatedly would be wasteful both
in terms of battery and bandwidth, so we adopt a strategy to minimize
the amount of data we download and process.



This strategy is separating the data into several different JSON
files, and having them be referenced by a central master JSON file
called the manifest file. The URL of the manifest file is the only URL that is hard-coded into the app (it is defined by the MANIFEST_URL constant in Config.java). Note that the I/O app uses Google Cloud Storage to store and serve these files, but any robust hosting service accessible via HTTP can be used for the same purpose.



The first part of the sync process is checking if the manifest file
was changed since the app last downloaded it, and processing it only if
it's newer. This logic is implemented by the fetchConfenceDataIfNewer method in RemoteConferenceDataFetcher.

public class RemoteConferenceDataFetcher {
    // (...)
    public String[] fetchConferenceDataIfNewer(String refTimestamp) throws IOException {
        BasicHttpClient httpClient = new BasicHttpClient();
        httpClient.setRequestLogger(mQuietLogger);
        // (...)

        // Only download if data is newer than refTimestamp
        if (!TextUtils.isEmpty(refTimestamp) && TimeUtils
            .isValidFormatForIfModifiedSinceHeader(refTimestamp)) {
                httpClient.addHeader("If-Modified-Since", refTimestamp);
            }
        }

        HttpResponse response = httpClient.get(mManifestUrl, null);
        int status = response.getStatus();
        if (status == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK) {
            // Data modified since we last checked -- process it!
        } else if (status == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_NOT_MODIFIED) {
            // data on the server is not newer than our data - no work to do!
            return null;
        } else {
            // (handle error)
        }
    }
    // (...)
}

Notice that we submit the HTTP If-Modified-Since header
with our request, so that if the manifest hasn't changed since we last
checked it, we will get an HTTP response code of HTTP_NOT_MODIFIED
rather than HTTP_OK, we will react by skipping the download and parsing
process. This means that unless the manifest has changed since we last
saw it, the sync process is very economical: it consists only of a
single HTTP request and a short response.



The manifest file's format is straightforward: it consists of
references to other JSON files that contain the relevant pieces of the
conference data:

{
  "format": "iosched-json-v1",
  "data_files": [
    "past_io_videolibrary_v5.json",
    "experts_v11.json",
    "hashtags_v8.json",
    "blocks_v10.json",
    "map_v11.json",
    "keynote_v10.json",
    "partners_v2.json",
    "session_data_v2.681.json"
  ]
}

The sync process then proceeds to process each of the listed data
files in order. This part is also implemented to be as economical as
possible: if we detect that we already have a cached version of a
specific data file, we skip it entirely and use our local cache instead.
This task is done by the processManifest method.



Then, each JSON file is parsed and the entities present in each one
are accumulated in memory. At the end of this process, the data is
written to the Content Provider.

Issuing Content Provider Operations Efficiently

The conference data sync needs to be efficient not only in the amount
of data it downloads, but also in the amount of operations it performs
on the database. This must be done as economically as possible, so this
step is also optimized: instead of overwriting the whole database with
the new data, the Sync Adapter attempts to preserve the existing
entities and only update the ones that have changed. In our tests, this
optimization step reduced the total sync time from 16 seconds to around 2
seconds on our test devices.



In order to accomplish this important third layer of optimization,
the application needs to know, given an entity in memory and its version
in the Content Provider, whether or not we need to issue content
provider operations to update that entity. Comparing the entity in
memory to the entity in the database field by field is one option, but
is cumbersome and slow, since it would require us to read every field.
Instead, we add a field to each entity called the import hashcode. The
import hashcode is a weak hash value generated from its data. For
example, here is how the import hashcode for a speaker is computed:

public class Speaker {
    public String id;
    public String publicPlusId;
    public String bio;
    public String name;
    public String company;
    public String plusoneUrl;
    public String thumbnailUrl;

    public String getImportHashcode() {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        sb.append("id").append(id == null ? "" : id)
                .append("publicPlusId")
                .append(publicPlusId == null ? "" : publicPlusId)
                .append("bio")
                .append(bio == null ? "" : bio)
                .append("name")
                .append(name == null ? "" : name)
                .append("company")
                .append(company== null ? "" : company)
                .append("plusoneUrl")
                .append(plusoneUrl == null ? "" : plusoneUrl)
                .append("thumbnailUrl")
                .append(thumbnailUrl == null ? "" : thumbnailUrl);
        String result = sb.toString();
        return String.format(Locale.US, "%08x%08x", 
            result.hashCode(), result.length());
    }
}

Every time an entity is updated in the database, its import hashcode
is saved with it as a database column. Later, when we have a candidate
for an updated version of that entity, all we need to do is compute the
import hashcode of the candidate and compare it to the import hashcode
of the entity in the database. If they differ, then we issue Content
Provider operations to update the entity in the database. If they are
the same, we skip that entity. This incremental update logic can be
seen, for example, in the makeContentProviderOperations method of the SpeakersHandler class:

public class SpeakersHandler extends JSONHandler {
    private HashMap mSpeakers = new HashMap();

    // (...)
    @Override
    public void makeContentProviderOperations(ArrayList list) {
        // (...)
        int updatedSpeakers = 0;
        for (Speaker speaker : mSpeakers.values()) {
            String hashCode = speaker.getImportHashcode();
            speakersToKeep.add(speaker.id);

            if (!isIncrementalUpdate || !speakerHashcodes.containsKey(speaker.id) ||
                    !speakerHashcodes.get(speaker.id).equals(hashCode)) {
                // speaker is new/updated, so issue content provider operations
                ++updatedSpeakers;
                boolean isNew = !isIncrementalUpdate || 
                    !speakerHashcodes.containsKey(speaker.id);
                buildSpeaker(isNew, speaker, list);
            }
        }

        // delete obsolete speakers
        int deletedSpeakers = 0;
        if (isIncrementalUpdate) {
            for (String speakerId : speakerHashcodes.keySet()) {
                if (!speakersToKeep.contains(speakerId)) {
                    buildDeleteOperation(speakerId, list);
                    ++deletedSpeakers;
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

The buildSpeaker and buildDeleteOperation
methods (omitted here for brevity) simply build the Content Provider
operations necessary to, respectively, insert/update a speaker or delete
a speaker from the Content Provider. Notice that this approach means we
only issue Content Provider operations to update a speaker if the
import hashcode has changed. We also deal with obsolete speakers, that
is, speakers that were in the database but were not referenced by the
incoming data, and we issue delete operations for those speakers.

Making Sync Robust

The sync adapter in the I/O app is responsible for several tasks,
amongst which are the remote conference data sync, the user schedule
sync and also the user feedback sync. Failures can happen in any of them
because of network conditions and other factors. However, a failure in
one of the tasks should not impact the execution of the other tasks.
This is why we structure the sync process as a series of independent
tasks, each protected by a try/catch block, as can be seen in the performSync method of the SyncHelper class:

// remote sync consists of these operations, which we try one by one (and
// tolerate individual failures on each)
final int OP_REMOTE_SYNC = 0;
final int OP_USER_SCHEDULE_SYNC = 1;
final int OP_USER_FEEDBACK_SYNC = 2;
int[] opsToPerform = userDataOnly ?
        new int[] { OP_USER_SCHEDULE_SYNC } :
        new int[] { OP_REMOTE_SYNC, OP_USER_SCHEDULE_SYNC, OP_USER_FEEDBACK_SYNC};
for (int op : opsToPerform) {
    try {
        switch (op) {
            case OP_REMOTE_SYNC:
                dataChanged |= doRemoteSync();
                break;
            case OP_USER_SCHEDULE_SYNC:
                dataChanged |= doUserScheduleSync(account.name);
                break;
            case OP_USER_FEEDBACK_SYNC:
                doUserFeedbackSync();
                break;
        }
    } catch (AuthException ex) {
        // (... handle auth error...)
    } catch (Throwable throwable) {
        // (... handle other error...)

        // Let system know an exception happened:
        if (syncResult != null && syncResult.stats != null) {
            ++syncResult.stats.numIoExceptions;
        }
    }
}

When one particular part of the sync process fails, we let the system know about it by increasing syncResult.stats.numIoExceptions. This will cause the system to retry the sync at a later time, using exponential backoff.

When Should We Sync? Enter GCM.

It's very important for users to be able to get updates about
conference data in a timely manner, especially during (and in the few
days leading up to) Google I/O. A naïve way to solve this problem is
simply making the app poll the server repeatedly for updates. Naturally,
this causes problems with bandwidth and battery consumption.



To solve this problem in a more elegant way, we use GCM (Google Cloud
Messaging). Whenever there is an update to the data on the server side,
the server sends a GCM message to all registered devices. Upon receipt
of this GCM message, the device performs a sync to download the new
conference data. The GCMIntentService class handles the incoming GCM messages:

Update (23 September 2014): Since this blog post was first published, the GCMBaseIntentService class has been deprecated. Please use the GoogleCloudMessaging API instead.

public class GCMIntentService extends GCMBaseIntentService {
    private static final String TAG = makeLogTag("GCM");

    private static final Map MESSAGE_RECEIVERS;
    static {
        // Known messages and their GCM message receivers
        Map  receivers = new HashMap();
        receivers.put("test", new TestCommand());
        receivers.put("announcement", new AnnouncementCommand());
        receivers.put("sync_schedule", new SyncCommand());
        receivers.put("sync_user", new SyncUserCommand());
        receivers.put("notification", new NotificationCommand());
        MESSAGE_RECEIVERS = Collections.unmodifiableMap(receivers);
    }

    // (...)

    @Override
    protected void onMessage(Context context, Intent intent) {
        String action = intent.getStringExtra("action");
        String extraData = intent.getStringExtra("extraData");
        LOGD(TAG, "Got GCM message, action=" + action + ", extraData=" + extraData);

        if (action == null) {
            LOGE(TAG, "Message received without command action");
            return;
        }

        action = action.toLowerCase();
        GCMCommand command = MESSAGE_RECEIVERS.get(action);
        if (command == null) {
            LOGE(TAG, "Unknown command received: " + action);
        } else {
            command.execute(this, action, extraData);
        }

    }
    // (...)
}

Notice that the onMessage method delivers the message to
the appropriate handler depending on the GCM message's "action" field.
If the action field is "sync_schedule", the application delivers the
message to an instance of the SyncCommand class, which
causes a sync to happen. Incidentally, notice that the implementation of
the SyncCommand class allows the GCM message to specify a jitter
parameter, which causes it to trigger a sync not immediately but at a
random time in the future within the jitter interval. This spreads out
the syncs evenly over a period of time rather than forcing all clients
to sync simultaneously, and thus prevents a sudden peak in requests on
the server side.

Syncing User Data

The I/O app allows the user to build their own personalized schedule
by choosing which sessions they are interested in attending. This data
must be shared across the user's Android devices, and also between the
I/O website and Android. This means this data has to be stored in the
cloud, in the user's Google account. We chose to use the Google Drive AppData folder for this task.



User data is synced to Google Drive by the doUserScheduleSync method of the SyncHelper
class. If you dive into the source code, you will notice that this
method essentially accesses the Google Drive AppData folder through the
Google Drive HTTP API, then reconciles the set of sessions in the data
with the set of sessions starred by the user on the device, and issues
the necessary modifications to the cloud if there are locally updated
sessions.



This means that if the user selects one session on their Android
device and then selects another session on the I/O website, the result
should be that both the Android device and the I/O website will show
that both sessions are in the user's schedule.



Also, whenever the user adds or removes a session on the I/O website,
the data on all their Android devices should be updated, and vice
versa. To accomplish that, the I/O website sends our GCM server a
notification every time the user makes a change to their schedule; the
GCM server, in turn, sends a GCM message to all the devices owned by
that user in order to cause them to sync their user data. The same
mechanism works across the user's devices as well: when one device
updates the data, it issues a GCM message to all other devices.

Conclusion

Serving fresh data is a key component of many Android apps. This
article showed how the I/O app deals with the challenges of keeping the
data up-to-date while minimizing network traffic and database changes,
and also keeping this data in sync across different platforms and
devices through the use of Google Cloud Storage, Google Drive and Google
Cloud Messaging.



By Bruno Oliveira, tech lead of the 2014 Google I/O mobile app

Posted by


Android Developers






at
7:57 AM

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