Developing a distributed electronic health-record store for India

The DIGHT project is addressing the problem of building a scalable and highly available information store for the Electronic Health Records (EHRs) of the over one billion citizens of India

Design and management of image processing pipelines within CPS: Acquired experience towards the end of the FitOptiVis ECSEL Project

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are dynamic and reactive systems interacting with processes, environment and, sometimes, humans. They are often distributed with sensors and actuators, characterized for being smart, adaptive, predictive and react in real-time. Indeed, image- and video-processing pipelines are a prime source for environmental information for systems allowing them to take better decisions according to what they see. Therefore, in FitOptiVis, we are developing novel methods and tools to integrate complex image- and video-processing pipelines. FitOptiVis aims to deliver a reference architecture for describing and optimizing quality and resource management for imaging and video pipelines in CPSs both at design- and run-time. The architecture is concretized in low-power, high-performance, smart components, and in methods and tools for combined design-time and run-time multi-objective optimization and adaptation within system and environment constraints

Cyber-security for embedded systems: methodologies, techniques and tools

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

Emerging research directions in computer science : contributions from the young informatics faculty in Karlsruhe

In order to build better human-friendly human-computer interfaces, such interfaces need to be enabled with capabilities to perceive the user, his location, identity, activities and in particular his interaction with others and the machine. Only with these perception capabilities can smart systems ( for example human-friendly robots or smart environments) become posssible. In my research I\u27m thus focusing on the development of novel techniques for the visual perception of humans and their activities, in order to facilitate perceptive multimodal interfaces, humanoid robots and smart environments. My work includes research on person tracking, person identication, recognition of pointing gestures, estimation of head orientation and focus of attention, as well as audio-visual scene and activity analysis. Application areas are humanfriendly humanoid robots, smart environments, content-based image and video analysis, as well as safety- and security-related applications. This article gives a brief overview of my ongoing research activities in these areas

Formal verification of automotive embedded UML designs

Software applications are increasingly dominating safety critical domains. Safety critical domains are domains where the failure of any application could impact human lives. Software application safety has been overlooked for quite some time but more focus and attention is currently directed to this area due to the exponential growth of software embedded applications. Software systems have continuously faced challenges in managing complexity associated with functional growth, flexibility of systems so that they can be easily modified, scalability of solutions across several product lines, quality and reliability of systems, and finally the ability to detect defects early in design phases. AUTOSAR was established to develop open standards to address these challenges. ISO-26262, automotive functional safety standard, aims to ensure functional safety of automotive systems by providing requirements and processes to govern software lifecycle to ensure safety. Each functional system needs to be classified in terms of safety goals, risks and Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL: A, B, C and D) with ASIL D denoting the most stringent safety level. As risk of the system increases, ASIL level increases and the standard mandates more stringent methods to ensure safety. ISO-26262 mandates that ASILs C and D classified systems utilize walkthrough, semi-formal verification, inspection, control flow analysis, data flow analysis, static code analysis and semantic code analysis techniques to verify software unit design and implementation. Ensuring software specification compliance via formal methods has remained an academic endeavor for quite some time. Several factors discourage formal methods adoption in the industry. One major factor is the complexity of using formal methods. Software specification compliance in automotive remains in the bulk heavily dependent on traceability matrix, human based reviews, and testing activities conducted on either actual production software level or simulation level. ISO26262 automotive safety standard recommends, although not strongly, using formal notations in automotive systems that exhibit high risk in case of failure yet the industry still heavily relies on semi-formal notations such as UML. The use of semi-formal notations makes specification compliance still heavily dependent on manual processes and testing efforts. In this research, we propose a framework where UML finite state machines are compiled into formal notations, specification requirements are mapped into formal model theorems and SAT/SMT solvers are utilized to validate implementation compliance to specification. The framework will allow semi-formal verification of AUTOSAR UML designs via an automated formal framework backbone. This semi-formal verification framework will allow automotive software to comply with ISO-26262 ASIL C and D unit design and implementation formal verification guideline. Semi-formal UML finite state machines are automatically compiled into formal notations based on Symbolic Analysis Laboratory formal notation. Requirements are captured in the UML design and compiled automatically into theorems. Model Checkers are run against the compiled formal model and theorems to detect counterexamples that violate the requirements in the UML model. Semi-formal verification of the design allows us to uncover issues that were previously detected in testing and production stages. The methodology is applied on several automotive systems to show how the framework automates the verification of UML based designs, the de-facto standard for automotive systems design, based on an implicit formal methodology while hiding the cons that discouraged the industry from using it. Additionally, the framework automates ISO-26262 system design verification guideline which would otherwise be verified via human error prone approaches

Artificial intelligence and model checking methods for in silico clinical trials

Model-based approaches to safety and efficacy assessment of pharmacological treatments (In Silico Clinical Trials, ISCT) hold the promise to decrease time and cost for the needed experimentations, reduce the need for animal and human testing, and enable personalised medicine, where treatments tailored for each single patient can be designed before being actually administered. Research in Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) is harvesting such promise by developing quantitative mechanistic models of patient physiology and drugs. Depending on many parameters, such models define physiological differences among different individuals and different reactions to drug administrations. Value assignments to model parameters can be regarded as Virtual Patients (VPs). Thus, as in vivo clinical trials test relevant drugs against suitable candidate patients, ISCT simulate effect of relevant drugs against VPs covering possible behaviours that might occur in vivo. Having a population of VPs representative of the whole spectrum of human patient behaviours is a key enabler of ISCT. However, VPH models of practical relevance are typically too complex to be solved analytically or to be formally analysed. Thus, they are usually solved numerically within simulators. In this setting, Artificial Intelligence and Model Checking methods are typically devised. Indeed, a VP coupled together with a pharmacological treatment represents a closed-loop model where the VP plays the role of a physical subsystem and the treatment strategy plays the role of the control software. Systems with this structure are known as Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs). Thus, simulation-based methodologies for CPSs can be employed within personalised medicine in order to compute representative VP populations and to conduct ISCT. In this thesis, we advance the state of the art of simulation-based Artificial Intelligence and Model Checking methods for ISCT in the following directions. First, we present a Statistical Model Checking (SMC) methodology based on hypothesis testing that, given a VPH model as input, computes a population of VPs which is representative (i.e., large enough to represent all relevant phenotypes, with a given degree of statistical confidence) and stratified (i.e., organised as a multi-layer hierarchy of homogeneous sub-groups). Stratification allows ISCT to adaptively focus on specific phenotypes, also supporting prioritisation of patient sub-groups in follow-up in vivo clinical trials. Second, resting on a representative VP population, we design an ISCT aiming at optimising a complex treatment for a patient digital twin, that is the virtual counterpart of that patient physiology defined by means of a set of VPs. Our ISCT employs an intelligent search driving a VPH model simulator to seek the lightest but still effective treatment for the input patient digital twin. Third, to enable interoperability among VPH models defined with different modelling and simulation environments and to increase efficiency of our ISCT, we also design an optimised simulator driver to speed-up backtracking-based search algorithms driving simulators. Finally, we evaluate the effectiveness of our presented methodologies on state-of-the-art use cases and validate our results on retrospective clinical data

Methoden und Beschreibungssprachen zur Modellierung und Verifikation vonSchaltungen und Systemen: MBMV 2015 - Tagungsband, Chemnitz, 03. - 04. März 2015

Der Workshop Methoden und Beschreibungssprachen zur Modellierung und Verifikation von Schaltungen und Systemen (MBMV 2015) findet nun schon zum 18. mal statt. Ausrichter sind in diesem Jahr die Professur Schaltkreis- und Systementwurf der Technischen Universität Chemnitz und das Steinbeis-Forschungszentrum Systementwurf und Test. Der Workshop hat es sich zum Ziel gesetzt, neueste Trends, Ergebnisse und aktuelle Probleme auf dem Gebiet der Methoden zur Modellierung und Verifikation sowie der Beschreibungssprachen digitaler, analoger und Mixed-Signal-Schaltungen zu diskutieren. Er soll somit ein Forum zum Ideenaustausch sein. Weiterhin bietet der Workshop eine Plattform für den Austausch zwischen Forschung und Industrie sowie zur Pflege bestehender und zur Knüpfung neuer Kontakte. Jungen Wissenschaftlern erlaubt er, ihre Ideen und Ansätze einem breiten Publikum aus Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft zu präsentieren und im Rahmen der Veranstaltung auch fundiert zu diskutieren. Sein langjähriges Bestehen hat ihn zu einer festen Größe in vielen Veranstaltungskalendern gemacht. Traditionell sind auch die Treffen der ITGFachgruppen an den Workshop angegliedert. In diesem Jahr nutzen zwei im Rahmen der InnoProfile-Transfer-Initiative durch das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung geförderte Projekte den Workshop, um in zwei eigenen Tracks ihre Forschungsergebnisse einem breiten Publikum zu präsentieren. Vertreter der Projekte Generische Plattform für Systemzuverlässigkeit und Verifikation (GPZV) und GINKO - Generische Infrastruktur zur nahtlosen energetischen Kopplung von Elektrofahrzeugen stellen Teile ihrer gegenwärtigen Arbeiten vor. Dies bereichert denWorkshop durch zusätzliche Themenschwerpunkte und bietet eine wertvolle Ergänzung zu den Beiträgen der Autoren. [... aus dem Vorwort

Turku Centre for Computer Science – Annual Report 2013

Due to a major reform of organization and responsibilities of TUCS, its role, activities, and even structures have been under reconsideration in 2013. The traditional pillar of collaboration at TUCS, doctoral training, was reorganized due to changes at both universities according to the renewed national system for doctoral education. Computer Science and Engineering and Information Systems Science are now accompanied by Mathematics and Statistics in newly established doctoral programs at both University of Turku and &Aring;bo Akademi University. Moreover, both universities granted sufficient resources to their respective programmes for doctoral training in these fields, so that joint activities at TUCS can continue. The outcome of this reorganization has the potential of proving out to be a success in terms of scientific profile as well as the quality and quantity of scientific and educational results.&nbsp; International activities that have been characteristic to TUCS since its inception continue strong. TUCS&rsquo; participation in European collaboration through EIT ICT Labs Master&rsquo;s and Doctoral School is now more active than ever. The new double degree programs at MSc and PhD level between University of Turku and Fudan University in Shaghai, P.R.China were succesfully set up and are&nbsp; now running for their first year. The joint students will add to the already international athmosphere of the ICT House.&nbsp; The four new thematic reseach programmes set up acccording to the decision by the TUCS Board have now established themselves, and a number of events and other activities saw the light in 2013. The TUCS Distinguished Lecture Series managed to gather a large audience with its several prominent speakers. The development of these and other research centre activities continue, and&nbsp; new practices and structures will be initiated to support the tradition of close academic collaboration.&nbsp; The TUCS&rsquo; slogan Where Academic Tradition Meets the Exciting Future has proven true throughout these changes. Despite of the dark clouds on the national and European economic sky, science and higher education in the field have managed to retain all the key ingredients for success. Indeed, the future of ICT and Mathematics in Turku seems exciting.</p

Network Latency and Packet Delay Variation in Cyber-physical Systems

The problem addressed in this paper is the limitation imposed by network elements, especially Ethernet elements, on the real-time performance of time-critical systems. Most current network elements are concerned only with data integrity, connection, and throughput with no mechanism for enforcing temporal semantics. Existing safety-critical applications and other applications in industry require varying degrees of control over system-wide temporal semantics. In addition, there are emerging commercial applications that require or will benefit from tighter enforcement of temporal semantics in network elements than is currently possible. This paper examines these applications and requirements and suggests possible approaches to imposing temporal semantics on networks. Model-based design and simulation is used to evaluate the effects of network limitations on time-critical systems