FORT COLLINS - Engineering professors at Colorado State University received a $1 million National Science Foundation grant to develop more robust computing and communications systems.

Professors H.J. Siegel, Tony Maciejewski and Arnold Rosenberg will work with a team of graduate and undergraduate students to design models and mathematical and algorithmic tools to derive robust resource management schemes as well as to quantify the probability of system failures. The goal is to eventually overcome the vulnerabilities posed by natural and manmade disasters.

"Uncertainty is the enemy of a robust computer system, but this grant will help us minimize damaging failures and work to build computer systems that perform well through crises," said Maciejewski, head of the Electrical and Computer Engineering department in CSU's College of Engineering, in a prepared statement. "As computer systems become more integrated with everyday life, it's really important that they continue to perform critical functions even when there's an unpredicted circumstance."

The CSU team will collaborate with Longmont-based DigitalGlobe, the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The award is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.