Laboratories

Optical Communications Systems and Networks Laboratory
Its capabilities are making it one of the most advanced laboratories in Europe and its value exceeds the 2.5Μ€. The lab test bed can be used to evaluate the performance of telecommunications systems that support transmission distances up to 10,000km with a total capacity of up to 1.2Tbit/s(1200000Mbit/s or 20 million times higher than a simple dial-up connection). The laboratory facilities are used for educational purposes and assist AIT’s research associated with systems supporting advanced and demanding applications.

Autonomic and Intelligent Systems Laboratory
(Smart Room)
A smart room infrastructure comprising cameras, microphone, microphone-arrays, controlling workstations, along with a companion middleware infrastructure enabling continuous monitoring of the room as well as processing of the sensor data. The room is under construction. The floor plan and some pictures from this smart room follow.
The goal of this laboratory is to promote understanding, education and research in the areas of Autonomic and Intelligent Systems which combine: self-management regardless of device (PC, PDA, distributed system), multimedia and multimodal human-machine interaction, context aware middleware, novel applications, and intelligent, self- managed networks. The laboratory aims to extend research performed in other Autonomic Systems (like the Grid) and take steps towards what the European Commission calls "Ambient intelligence" as an extension and improvement of "Ubiquitous Computing". This technological direction puts humans at the centre of a self-managed, multimedia and multimodal computing infrastructure that aims at satisfying human needs for work, pleasure and improved quality of living, without requiring special training or knowledge. The laboratory will comprise the following elements (ordered or shipped):

• NIST Mark III: 64 channel microphone array
• 4 inverted T-shaped SHURE microphone clusters
• Four fixed cameras:
• Active camera with pan, tilt and zoom (PTZ camera)
• Panoramic (or fish-eye) surveillance camera
• Processors: 6 dual Zeon 3 GHz, 2 Gb PCs
• Firewire cables & repeaters
• Stereo camera
• Camera synchronization (genlocking) unit

Software that is currently installed, configured, used in this laboratory includes software for distributed multimedia streaming (e.g., NIST SmartFlow) and a host of state of the art perceptual technologies. Examples of such technologies are audio- visual speech recognition, gesture recognition, automatic classification of documents, and context aware working spaces.

Broadband Wireless and Sensor Networks Laboratory
Short-Range Wireless (SRW) communication systems and networks is a focal point of AIT's research. In addition to the extensive R&D work in the field, the B-WiSE group has established a state-of-the-art integrated wireless systems laboratory comprising several WLAN, Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs) and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) to facilitate its study and system level evaluation of secure, broadband  wirele  ss and sensor networks. In support of its research in the area of sensor networking, the B-WiSE group has deployed an extensive network of indoor sensors including a multitude of custom-made and COTS type of sensors (Berkeley Motes, Bluetooth, Zigbee nodes, etc).
Specific research activities in the above fields include: secure multimedia transmission over ad-hoc and mesh networks; co-existence, interoperability and interworking issues in the presence of multiple heterogeneous networks; distributed signal processing algorithms and simulation tools for energy-efficient wireless sensor networks.

Innovation Management Laboratory
The Innovation Management Lab (IML) aims to nurture a new generation of innovators by promoting curricula designed to teach creativity, strategic management of innovation and entrepreneurship. An integral part of the Management of Business, Innovation and Technology (MBIT) program at the Athens Information technology (AIT), the IML lab is designed to provide support, advice and guidance to the business research community while facilitating interaction between academics and research sponsors, but also the greater local and regional business communities.
Further enhancing the overall focus of the MBIT program on the management of radical innovation and the formation of corporate strategy and strategic positioning of ICT companies, the Innovation Management Lab's research and teaching interests center on the development and commercialization of technological and business model innovation. We teach processes that can assist any organization in being more innovative in all aspects of its business resulting in significant performance improvement. Specific areas of focus include developing organizational capabilities and finding new markets for new technologies.
Equipped with a host of Innovation Management software tools the IML Lab serves as an experimental center dedicated to the establishment and enhancement of innovative cultures in organizations throughout the world. Thus, functioning as a connecting link between industrial companies, institutions, educational organizations and individuals concerned with conceptual questions pertaining to organization and processing of innovation knowledge. Ultimately, becoming the foremost business association of leaders in research and development (R&D) working together to enhance the effectiveness of technological innovation in the ICT industry.
The lab consists of 20 PCs with installed software tools, necessary to support the instruction of relevant courses.

Software Systems and Web Technologies (SSWT) Laboratory
The SSWT lab is equipped with high-end multiprocessor PCs and Sun Ultra workstations. It is dedicated to the study, design and development of software systems, distributed operating systems and middleware, programming languages and formal methods, web services and service-oriented architecture, and semantic web applications. E-Learning content management and delivery applications are currently under development.
The SSWT lab comprises high-end windows PCs, Linux PCs and Sun Ultra Workstations. In addition, the SSWT lab operates a Web Server for the development and dissemination needs of the lab’s involvement in European and Greek Government funded research projects (http://palantir.ait.gr). It is envisaged that additional equipment will be acquired within 2005 in terms of Satellite connectivity (VSAT) and Knowledge-based Software Infrastructure to support research and development work in the areas of E-Learning over Satellite and E-Business. Distributed operating systems are also under deployment for experimentation in the Lab, while content management systems and distributed information retrieval prototypes are being deployed.

The Cryptography & Information Security Laboratory
The lab for Cryptography and Information Security provides a facility for R&D in Information and Systems security. The lab was founded with the following in mind:

• Demonstrate various key technologies (smart cards, biometrics, sensor networks, RFIDs, etc.)
• Help educate IT engineers in security infrastructures for personal communications, e-commerce and the Internet
• Provide services to high-technology companies.

Research in the lab mainly falls within the framework of applications of cryptography in networking and e-commerce in order to guarantee:

• Fast, low-power, and user-friendly solutions for deployment in consumer markets, e.g., the development of smart credit cards, RFID/sensor protocols, etc.
• Advanced solutions for better and longer-term security, e.g., protocols based on elliptic curves and ciphers.

The lab is used for both educational and professional purposes and is equipped with state of art of workstations attached with smart cards for development of encryption algorithms, cryptographic protocols and end-to-end secure solutions.