PENN RESEARCHERS WIN $2.2 MILLION FOR EFFORTS
TO BOOST RELIABILITY OF COMPUTERS EMBEDDED IN DEVICES OF ALL
TYPES
PHILADELPHIA - Computer scientists at the University of Pennsylvania
have received a $2,184,300 grant to boost the reliability
of the specialized miniature computers found in electronic
devices all around us. The award, from the federal government's
Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration (DARPA),
will support the researchers' work over the next three years.
"These embedded computers are everywhere, from toasters
to cellular phones to airplanes," says lead investigator
Insup Lee, Ph.D., Penn professor of computer and information
science. "There are many more of them than there are
of us, and they are growing in number and complexity all the
time."
Since tiny embedded computers can literally make the difference
between life and death, their reliability is crucial. They
underpin most of the modern medical devices that hospital
patients depend on - equipment like heart-lung machines, defibrillators,
dialysis machines and imaging devices from mammography machines
to MRIs.
New automobiles can house a dozen small computers, each regulating
key functions such as antilock braking systems and engine
performance. Air traffic control systems and the machinery
that monitors nuclear reactors are rife with the specialized
processors. Indeed, much of last year's concern about the
"Y2K bug" was grounded in uncertainty over what
might happen to the computers found not on our desktops but
in the many electronic devices that surround us.
"As embedded computers grow more complex and powerful,
the number of bugs that might affect them also grows,"
Dr. Lee says. "Moreover, with embedded systems becoming
increasingly networked, the failure of one can cause many
others to fall like dominoes."
The work of embedded computers is complicated because most
operate very rapidly in response to continuously changing
input. Computer scientists have traditionally worked with
discrete changes, while continuous changes have been within
the scope of control theory. Featuring discrete control and
working in a continuously changing environment, embedded computers
lie on the boundary between the two disciplines.
Dr. Lee and other Penn researchers will build upon recent
results from computer science and control theory to develop
new models to better predict how embedded processors might
respond under such multifaceted circumstances.
Dr. Lee's colleagues on the DARPA grant include Rajeev Alur,
Ph.D., associate professor of computer and information science;
Vijay Kumar, Ph.D., professor of mechanical engineering and
applied mechanics and deputy dean of Penn's School of Engineering
and Applied Science; George Pappas, Ph.D., assistant professor
of electrical engineering; and Oleg Sokolsky, Ph.D., research
associate in computer and information science.
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