Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor H.J. Siegel Poses Questions of Computer Design
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Dr. Siegel
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Colorado State University professor H.J. Siegel's recent WORLDCOMP tutorial will reach more than just conference participants thanks to Steve Leibson, keynote lecturer and Technology Evangelist for Tensilica, Inc. Siegel's tutorial was the subject of Leibson's Electronic Design News (EDN) article "The Three Questions of Robustness," also cited in the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) TechNews. The tutorial posed questions concerning robust computing systems, those capable of performing critical functions despite system faults and unpredicted circumstances
Titled "Robust Resource Allocation for Heterogeneous Parallel and Distributed Computer Systems," Siegel's tutorial addressed methods of quantifying system robustness and comparing systems objectively. Originated by Siegel and Tony Maciejewski, department head and professor of electrical and computer engineering at CSU, the questions apply to design problems spanning many scientific and engineering fields.
"Siegel's questions give the term 'robustness' meaning and have implications with regard to its potential broad use in all system designs," writes Leibson. "Without such quantification, 'robust' is nothing more than a squishy marketing term."
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Dr. Maciejewski
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Utilizing multiprocessor systems, Siegel exemplified the robustness concepts and models for an audience comprised of engineers, scientists and faculty and graduate students. The three questions posed were: (1) what behavior of the system makes it robust, (2) what uncertainties is the system robust against, and (3) quantitatively, exactly how robust is the system?
Siegel explains, "Our study of robustness started when Professor Maciejewski and I were working on a research contract designing shipboard computing systems for DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), and realized that in the computing literature people used the term 'robustness' without defining or quantifying what they mean by it in the given context. This led us to the development of the 'three robustness questions.' Our robustness research with our Ph.D. students is currently funded by NSF (National Science Foundation)."
Each year, WORLDCOMP brings together researchers in computer science, computer engineering and applied computing for a series of conferences, workshops and symposia. The largest annual gathering of its kind, WORLDCOMP 2007 took place in Las Vegas, Nevada in June.
Dr. Siegel is the George T. Abell Endowed Chair University Distinguished Professor of electrical and computer engineering, and has a joint appointment as professor of computer science. He also serves as director of the CSU Information Science and Technology Center (ISTeC), a university-wide organization for promoting, facilitating, and enhancing CSU's research, education, and outreach activities pertaining to the design and innovative application of computer, communication, and information systems.
To read about the robust computing system research being done by Siegel and his colleagues at CSU, please see www.engr.colostate.edu/~hj/Robust_Papers.pdf
For more information on Dr. Siegel please visit www.engr.colostate.edu/~hj