Center Publications, Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications
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- CESCA Newsletter : April 2014Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications (Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications, 2014-04)Dr. Chao Wang and his Ph.D. student, Hassan Eldib, received the Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Formal Methods in Computer Aided Design (FMCAD) in November 2013 for a paper titled “An SMT based method for optimizing arithmetic computations in embedded software code.” FMCAD 2013 is a leading conference on the theory and applications of formal methods in hardware and system verification, providing a forum to researchers in academia and industry for presenting and discussing groundbreaking methods, technologies, theoretical results, and tools for reasoning formally about computing systems. According to the FMCAD 2013 Best Paper Committee, Eldib and Wang’s work “tackles a very interesting problem, namely the optimization of control software manipulating fixed-point integer data, and presents an innovative and scalable solution based on the use of SMT solvers and inductive synthesis procedures” and is “an important step towards the design of better embedded software.”
- CESCA Newsletter : October 2015Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications (Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications, 2015-10)CESCA is now on Twitter. If you have a twitter account, we invite you to follow us! If do you do not have a twitter account, you may still view our news feeds on twitter.com/vt_cesca . We plan to make regular updates on twitter. However, we will still send out regular newsletters at a lower frequency. In this newsletter, you will find some of the new projects that have started, as well as the achievements and placement of our students, whom we are both proud and fortunate to have the opportunity to work with. We hope you enjoy the newsletter and we always welcome your comments as we attempt to improve on communicating with you.
- CESCA Newsletter : October 2014Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications (Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications, 2014-10)Dr. Haibo Zeng has joined the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as an assistant professor. Zeng will work with the department’s Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications. His research interests include design methodology, analysis and optimization for embedded systems, real-time systems, and cyber physical systems. Zeng has co-authored two books, “Embedded Systems Development–From Functional Models to Implementations,” and “Understanding and Using the Controller Area Network Communication Protocol: Theory and Practice,” and has co-authored 17 peer-reviewed articles. He has more than 30 conference publications and earned three best paper citations, two at the IEEE Symposium on Industrial Embedded Systems in 2009 and 2011, and one at the Euromicro Conference on Real-Time Systems in 2013. He served as editor for two special IEEE publications: “System Level Design of Automotive Electronics/Software” in 2012 and “Automotive Embedded Systems” in 2010. Zeng earned his Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley. He previously served as an assistant professor at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, from 2011 - 2014 and was a researcher and then a senior researcher at General Motors from 2008 - 2011.
- CESCA Newsletter : September 2009Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications (Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications, 2009-09)Within a short few months since our inaugural newsletter, several research grants have been awarded to CESCA members. The hard work of all CESCA members has laid the foundation for these new projects. Many of the projects are interdisciplinary in nature, combining expertise of various faculty members and talents of research students. These range from merging FPGAs with network simulation to sub-threshold circuits and physically unclonable functions. These exciting, new endeavors not only push the research envelope, but also serve as tremendous educational opportunities to students involved. This issue of the newsletter describes the new projects, as well as many other activities engaged by CESCA members. These include not only conference travel, but the summer often provides great opportunities for internships. We had more than a dozen students taking on summer internships this year! We also celebrate those students who have reached a milestone in their academic career and successfully defended their dissertations and/or theses. They continue to serve as ambassadors for CESCA, applying the knowledge acquired during their years here.
- CESCA Newsletter : September 2010Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications (Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications, 2010-09)A new academic year is upon us, and we are at full steam through the fall 2010 semester. Soon the picturesque yellow, red, green foliage will show up on the mountains around Blacksburg. As I was pondering what to write in my very first column as the new CESCA director, such matters descended upon my mind. Since its very inception in 2003, Prof. Dong Ha bravely, valiantly, and judiciously led CESCA as the director, and more recently made strong efforts to reinvigorate CESCA into a cohesive but diversified portfolio of expertise in research. His efforts to inculcate a sense of community among the CESCA members – faculty and students alike - has made CESCA a great place to work, and a great source of support for its members, in terms of various resources. Prof. Ha, not only impregnated the CESCA vision with community based striving for excellence, but also financially supported CESCA through its various ups and downs. Today, I can proudly say that I have taken the torch from his hand to take it to higher grounds, and I hope to accomplish it with the support of you – all the CESCA faculty and students. When we founded CESCA in 2003, we did not have the mature integrative vision that we have today. So I ask you all to join me in thanking Prof. Dong Ha for his contributions, and his insistence to make CESCA what it is today, and his vision for even better tomorrow. Prof. Ha will remain in charge of the corporate affiliate program, the website and publicity of CESCA, while I will struggle with other mundane issues of directorship.
- CESCA Newsletter : October 2012Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications (Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications, 2012-10)The projects carried out by CESCA Faculty and their students represent a valuable resource of intellectual property. CESCA has a model in place that helps industry to benefit from this knowhow and these results - CESCA's Industry Affiliate Program (IAP). The objective of CESCA's IAP is to provide industrial partners with privileged access to our results including graduating students, faculty know-how, and project intellectual-property. We offer three specific benefits for IAP members. First, an IAP member may engage CESCA in directed research, by initiating collaboration around a specific research problem. Second, an IAP member may team up with CESCA Faculty to write proposals for government funding (such as SBIR). Third, an IAP member may engage CESCA Faculty in one-on-one consulting, providing external expert advice on specific research problems. In addition to the above mentioned benefits, IAP members of CESCA also get early access to CESCA's major product - graduating students. Our graduating students are experts in the research topic of their advisor. By working with CESCA Faculty through the IAP program, affiliates will get in touch with students early-on. In return for these benefits, CESCA affiliate members contribute a yearly membership fee. There are two levels of membership. The basic IAP costs $10K per year, and includes the above benefits apart from directed research. The extended IAP costs $40K per year, and includes support of a graduate student specifically assigned to support the affiliate member in directed research. Full details of the CESCA Affiliate Program may be found at the CESCA website, through the URL http://www.cesca.centers.vt.edu/Affiliate/index.html. Questions and requests for further information may be directed to Patrick Schaumont (schaum@vt.edu).
- CESCA Newsletter : January 2010Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications (Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications, 2010-01)New projects ranging from new evolutionary design of routing algorithms, to secure embedded systems, to fingerprint sufficiency assessment, in addition to several other new projects, have been awarded during the fall semester of 2009. Many of these projects are highly interdisciplinary, which taps into the synergy and expertise of CESCA faculty and student members. The research endeavors are periodically disseminated in scholarly journals and conference proceedings. Among the many papers published during fall 2009, a best paper award on energy harvesting deserves celebration. The high quality papers published by CESCA researchers continue to build strength into the research group. This issue of the CESCA newsletter will feature the new projects awarded, as well as describing a few other activities. We also celebrate those students who graduated in fall 2009.
- CESCA Newsletter : April 2009Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications (Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications, 2009-04)Congratulations on the inaugural issue of the CESCA newsletter! A handful of faculty members scrambled together and proposed a research group in the summer of 2003 to be a part of the College’s then new research center, ICTAS (Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science). The proposal was successful, and CESCA was born in October 2003. Since then, CESCA has grown in size. Five new members, Profs Chao Huang, Leyla Nazhandali, Jung-Min Park, Patrick Schaumont, and Yaling Yang, have joined CESCA; meanwhile the founding four members, Profs. Lynn Abbott, Michael Hsiao, Sandeep Shukla, and myself, have added a few more grey hairs here and there. The faculty members of CESCA have been active in their research since the inception of the research group. For example, five of its members are awardees of the NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award, which recognizes junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research and education. Then, why should we go through the trouble of initiating with new CESCA activities such as the publication of newsletters, renovation of CESCA web pages, and writing joint proposals? The main driving force behind those activities was (and probably “is”) the ECE department. The Department wanted the ECE faculty to form large research units and go after large research projects. Large projects, not only bring in more revenue to the Department, but enhance visibility of the Department and hence improve the department ranking. The Department’s demand necessitated the CESCA faculty to collaborate further in research.
- CESCA Newsletter : February 2013Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications (Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications, 2013-02)On 15 March 2013, the Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications is organizing a public event to present its ongoing research projects.. The theme of the symposium is Embedded Security. During the one-day symposium, CESCA faculty will present a review of their ongoing research projects. Several project demonstrators will be on display. In the afternoon, a series of tutorials will introduce hot topics in embedded security. The event is supported by Virginia Tech National Capital Region. Registration, which includes lunch and refreshments, is free of charge.
- CESCA Newsletter : March 2012Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications (Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications, 2012-03)Two CESCA members, Dr. Chao Wang and Dr. Yaling Yang, have received Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awards from the National Science Foundation. These prestigious awards are given to creative junior faculty who are likely to become academic leaders of the future.
- CESCA Newsletter : September 2013Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications (Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications, 2013-10)Dr. Chao Wang received the prestigious Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Program (YIP) award in May 2013. The title of his proposal is “Automated Software Model Generation for Identifying and Mitigating Concurrency Vulnerabilities.” The YIP award seeks to identify and support faculty members who are early in their careers and who show exceptional promise for doing creative research. The award is extremely competitive -- ONR made only 16 awards in 2013. The three-year $510,000 grant will support Dr. Wang develop new methods and software tools for improving the reliability and security of concurrent software running on multicore computers.
- CESCA Newsletter : May 2010Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications (Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications, 2010-05)The Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications (CESCA) held its annual workshop titled “CESCA Day” at the Owens Banquet Hall in Blacksburg, Va., on May 6, 2010! Events included keynote, tutorials, poster sessions, and a student panel. A post workshop anonymous survey filled out online by CESCA students showed that the workshop was considered extremely favorably by students. Details on this successful CESCA Day are included in this newsletter. CESCA continues to attract research funding. During the spring semester, several new projects were awarded. The product of CESCA’s research in terms of publications continues to be strong. One paper won the best paper award! Several students graduated over the past few months. This issue of the CESCA newsletter will feature the inaugural CESCA Day, the new projects awarded, the best paper award, as well as describing other activities.
- CESCA Newsletter : January 2011Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications (Virginia Tech. Center for Embedded Systems for Critical Applications, 2011-01)In today’s day and age, cyber space provides us with a platform for almost real-time, communication and dissemination of information. Since the last newsletter was published, CESCA has created a Facebook group to create a social network among CESCA faculty, students, and alumni and friends of CESCA. We also created a LinkedIn group for the upkeep of the professional contact information of alumni and friends of CESCA. CESCA website is also going through a revamp under the guidance of Prof. Dong Ha. These three avenues, we believe, would keep us and our supporters and sponsors adequately informed on a regular basis. Like any other print media, all of us who are creating publicity materials, are facing this dilemma about how to balance between the print media, and the cyber based media. Thus the decision by the CESCA faculty was to not do away with the printed newsletter but to reduce the frequency to twice a year, while making CESCA website, Facebook and LinkedIn forums more active. As we are seeing a mass protest and related changes in the political landscapes in the North Africa and Middle East, which are being said to be at least in part helped by the social media, we believe that the social media does bring about a change in the information dissemination arena. From a top down dissemination as is done by a newsletter, we can allow all participants to update news, upload interesting video, link interesting technology news, etc., in these newly formed cyber social groups for CESCA. I invite any interested reader of this newsletter to look us up on face book, and linked in, and join these groups – and use them as relevant information sharing venues, recruiting portal, and networking opportunities.