Engineering research team receives $2 million grant

Their work can help improve the way planes fly or how toasters determine when toast is the correct shade of brown. A group of researchers in the Engineering School has received a $2.2 million grant to conduct research on software for hybrid embedded systems from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration, the federal research body that gave birth to the Internet. Hybrid embedded systems are computer components intended for use within various other hardware devices that use both discrete and continuous components. The Penn group is working on a system to reduce the development cost and improve the reliability of such systems. "These small computers are used to control systems and interact with the environment," said Insup Lee, a professor of Computer and Information Science in the Engineering School and lead investigator on the project. "Inside of this is something called embedded software, which runs on these small computers," Lee said. "Building such embedded software is non-trivial, [and] we are trying to help the development of embedded software. "In traditional computer science, we study discrete systems, everything is sort of digitalized. In traditional control theory, people treat systems as continuous domains" where measurements vary smoothly over time, Lee said. Embedded systems can "go into various things that are control computers -- avionic systems, like autopilot and so on, and sensors and actuators -- the fly-by-wire systems of airplanes and automobiles," Lee said. Lee added that embedded systems research could also be used to improve components of equipment as diverse as cardiac pacemakers, toasters, washing machines and even telephones. Also serving as principal investigators on the project are Rajeev Alur, a professor of Computer and Information Science, Vijay Kumar, deputy dean of the Engineering School and a professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Electrical Engineering Professor George Pappas and Oleg Sokolsky, a research associate in Computer and Information Science.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.