EECS UC Berkeley Center for Hybrid and Embedded Software Systems - 2009 Prospectus - C February , 2009 hess

hess Letter from the Directors CHESS was founded in 2002 to build foundational theories and practical tools for systems that combine computation, networking, and physical dynamics. The US National Science Foundation (NSF) provided the seed funding for the fi rst fi ve years under the Information Technology Research (ITR) program. CHESS is now thriving, with a rich portfolio of funded research projects and active collaborations with corporate partners. report is an overview of these projects. In the systems of interest in CHESS, embedded computers and networks monitor and control physical processes in feedback loops where physical processes aff ect computations and vice versa. For the last 30 years or so, computers have been increasingly embedded in stand-alone, self-contained products. We are poised, however, for a revolutionary transformation as these embedded computers become networked. The transformation is analogous to the enormous increment in the utility of personal computers with the advent of the web. Just as personal computers changed from word processors to global communications devices and information portals, embedded computers will change from small self-contained boxes to cyber-physical systems (CPS), which sense, monitor and control our intrinsi-cally distributed human environment. The Berkeley Center for Hybrid and Embedded Software Systems (CHESS) focuses on model-based and tool-supported design methodologies for real-time fault tolerant software on heterogeneous distributed platforms. We are bridging the gap between computer science and systems science by developing the foundations of a modern systems science that is simultaneously computational and physical. This represents a major departure from the current, separated structure of computer science (CS), computer engineering (CE), and electrical engineering (EE): it reintegrates information and physical sciences. The center includes corporate partnerships and conducts a number of funded research projects. It is directed by a board of directors, with day-today operations run by an executive director. Newly opened National Instruments Embedded Systems Design Laboratory, being used in this picture for an undergraduate mechatronics class CHESS leads the way towards a comprehensive undergraduate and graduate curriculum in embedded systems. Supporting this eff ort, CHESS partner National Instruments and its CEO Dr. James Truchard funded a new instructional lab (see pictures on this page) dedicated to teaching embedded systems. Complementing this infrastructure eff ort, we have developed courses that now form the backbone of the embedded systems curriculum at Berkeley.