In 2007, the Presidential Council of Advisors in Science and Technology
named systems that interact with the physical world the number one research
priority in information systems. Distributed, cyber-physical systems
featuring sensor and actuator networks offer a new frontier for computer
science research that may well cause the next society-transforming leap
since the introduction of personal computers and the formation of the
Internet. To promote successful discovery on these research topics, the
National Science Foundation sponsored a Ph.D. student forum, in conjunction
with IEEE RTSS 2007,
on ideas in deeply embedded real-time computing. The
goal of the forum was to encourage student involvement in new research
directions and offer a channel to discuss and reward the most innovative
student ideas in an exciting emerging research field. The forum was held on
December 3rd at the Hilton El Conquistador in Tucson, Arizona. It featured
29 accepted short presentations on key challenges in cyber-physical
systems. There presentations were divided into three groups; (i) design and
analysis, (ii) technology and applications, and (iii) middleware and
protocols. Forum participants represented key research laboratories in the
field at many universities in the nation including the University of
Illinois at Urbana Champaign, University of Michigan, University of
Pennsylvania, University of Texas at Austin, University of Virginia, and
Washington University, among others. As such, the forum presented a
thorough sampling of the cyber-physical research landscape as viewed by its
current participants. SIGBED review dedicates this issue to the publication
of forum results. We hope the reader will find this overview of current
cyber-physical computing ideas and directions in the nation both
interesting and informative.
Welcome to the SIGBED Review. The peer-reviewed quarterly publication
provides a dissemination forum for research on embedded computing. Topics of
interest include, but are not limited to, embedded software, embedded system
architecture, model-based design, distributed real-time middleware, real-time
architectures, feedback control, low-power computing, sensor networks, security,
and embedded applications. Submissions on these and other topics should be sent
by e-mail to Tarek Abdelzaher,
Last update: 02-18-2008
Maintained by Chengdu Huang
