Research Overview
Computer Engineering Research at UCSB
CE research lies not only at the interface of computer science and electrical engineering, but increasingly ties computing together with biology, medicine, chemistry, physics, mechanical engineering, and even environmental engineering.
Our research is ideally positioned to help solve societal problems through the construction of practical systems composed of emerging technologies. We live in a time of both opportunity and crisis. Rising carbon emissions and energy costs are a global problem. Aging populations increasingly strain healthcare resources. Computing technologies are at the heart of many potential solutions to these problems. Emerging technologies in nanoscale and bio-compatible materials hold the promise to increase energy-efficiency and revolutionize healthcare. We also see opportunities in massive information gathering and large-scale computing resources to exploit that information.
We must also address, however, increasing challenges to continued scaling of conventional silicon and to maintaining the dramatic performance growth of past computing systems.
CE Areas of Research
- Bioinspired Computing
- Circuit and System Design
- Computer Architecture
- Electronic Design Automation & Testing
- Emerging Technologies for Computing
- Energy-efficient Computing
- Nanotechnology
- Networking
- Operating and Distributed Systems
- Software and Language
Research Spotlight
iTrust Information Distribution, Search and Retrieval System
Professors Louise Moser and Michael Melliar-Smith
The Computer Networks and Distributed Systems Group focuses on a wide range of areas. One current project, funded by NSF, addresses the problem that many Internet applications depend on central servers, which are vulnerable to information filtering and censorship, both by commercial providers and by government agencies.
We are developing the iTrust information distribution, search and retrieval system. The iTrust system contains no centralized search engines and no centralized control. Thus, it is much less vulnerable to information filtering and censorship. The iTrust system can be used in social networks, in particular social networks oriented towards social change.
The iTrust system is completely decentralized and distributed, and works as follows (select each figure for zoom view):
- A source node that has a document to share distributes metadata for the document to randomly selected nodes in the network.
- A requesting (searching) node that desires information distributes keywords for that information to randomly selected nodes in the network. One of the nodes receives both the metadata and the keywords, and an encounter (match) occurs.
- The matching node reports the match to the requesting node, along with the address of the source node. The requesting node then retrieves the document from the source node using that address.
Two prototype versions of iTrust have been developed:
- iTrust over HTTP for the Internet
- iTrust over SMS for Android mobile phones.
A third version of iTrust is being designed for ad-hoc networks of mobile phones or other devices that can communicate via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi Direct. That version of iTrust will allow continued operation even if the base stations are disabled.
See the iTrust website for more information.
Research News
The biosensor designed by Banerjee and Ph.D. student Deblina Sarkar has potential to detect biomolecules at ultra-low concentrations, from instant point-of-care disease diagnostics, to detection of trace substances for forensics and security.
Two of CS Professor Rich Wolski's research papers among ACM HPDC's "20 best papers in the last 20 years"
The published papers are "Forecasting Network Performance to Support Dynamic Scheduling Using the Network Weather Service" and "Scheduling from the Perspective of the Application"
Faculty Research Profile: Dr. Tim Sherwood
- Hometown: San Diego, CA
- Ph.D.: UC San Diego, Computer Science and Engineering
- Lab / Group: ArchLab
Tell us about your research:
My current research focus is on hardware / software system design under strict efficiency, safety, or security requirements. Systems responsible for controlling aircraft, regulating access to very sensitive data, and implanted in our medical devices, all deserve a level of assurance far beyond the norm. Creating these systems today is an incredibly expensive operation both in terms of time and money; and even assessing the assurance of the resulting system can cost upwards of $10,000 per line of code.
How and why did you get into your area of research and what do you find particularly rewarding about your research?:
Originally I fell into research by accident. I was an undergraduate looking for something productive to do over the summer and I started working with Fred Chong long before we were able to steal him away to UCSB. From that earliest experience I was hooked, it was so exciting to be at the cutting edge of technology.
As an undergraduate you learn the best a field has to offer distilled down into it's purest form, as a masters student you start to see the edge of human knowledge about a subject. As a Ph.D. student you find exactly where that edge is and blast through it. When you get to those questions where the right answer is "nobody knows" and then you set off to answer them for the first time -- well that is a pretty special thing.
I think that is part of the reason that going to school with both absolutely top research and a deep dedication to the students, like UCSB Engineering, is so important. You want to learn from people passionate about the field, and you want them to help guide you to that edge. I think that is what I find so rewarding about my job, bringing students to the edge of human understanding in science and engineering, and then pushing on that edge until we can move it forward.
(More about Professor Sherwood and other faculty's research...)