SPECIAL SESSIONS 2008 MSC

ThB07 TITLE: NSF GRANT OPPORTUNITIES FOR INDUSTRY-UNIVERSITY COLLABORATIONS Organizer and Chair: Kishan Baheti, National Science Foundation Kishan Baheti, National Science Foundation ThB07.1 ABSTRACT The National Science Foundation (NSF) is focusing on “transformative” research and on encouraging “high risk” at the cutting edge instead of “sure thing” projects that promise only incremental advances. The goal of the session is to bring together university and industry researchers and students attending the 2008 MSC and inform them about the NSF funding priorities. Specific focus includes Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) to synergize university-industry partnerships. The session will include the following presentations that will share their perspectives on industry-university collaborations. Four NSF GOALI projects with Academia and Xerox Corporation - The Impact and lessons learnt Lalit K. Mestha, Xerox Research Center ThB07.2 ABSTRACT Partnerships and collaborations between Xerox, Universities and Government Labs is an important element of Corporate Innovation Strategy. This talk will share examples of the successful four NSF GOALI projects that created value through interactions with academia and brought high quality researchers to Xerox who in turn created high value to our customers. The talk will describe the lessons learnt and the impact it generated for the printing industry. Dynamic Mode, Probe Based High Density Data Storage: A collaborative effort with IBM, Zurich Research Labs Murti V. Salapaka, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis ThB07.3 ABSTRACT Conventional means of storing data is primarily magnetic. The data storage densities in storing data magnetically are approaching fundamental limits. A new and promising means of achieving data storage densities in the Terabit per inch square range involves using a probe made of a sharp tip at the end of a cantilever flexure. IBM Zurich Research Labs (IBM, ZRL) has pioneered this probe based data storage technology. NanoDynamics Systems Lab. (NDSL) at University of Minnesota Minneapolis has developed new methods of interrogating matter with better resolution and at higher bandwidth. Another focus of the research at NDSL is the dynamic mode operation of this technology. The complimentary set of tools at IBM, ZRL and at NDSL has motivated a collaborative agreement between University of Minnesota and IBM. In this talk, the process by which the initial contact between the groups at IBM and NDSL was made and the means by which a common charter of research was arrived at will be described. An emphasis on some of the challenges faced caused by researchers from relatively different areas will be highlighted. The next step of formulating an IP agreement between the two establishments followed by a description of research that the agreement has facilitated will be presented. The role an NSF grant is playing in the research will be highlighted. Fault Detection, Isolation, and Localization in Embedded Control Software Ratnesh Kumar, Iowa State University ThB07.4 ABSTRACT Embedded control software reacts to plant and environment conditions in order to enforce a desired functionality, and exhibit hybrid dynamics: control-loops together with switching logic. Control software can contain errors (faults), and fault-tolerance methods must be developed to enhance system safety and reliability. We present an approach for fault detection and isolation that is key to achieving fault-tolerance. Detection approach is hierarchical involving monitoring both the control software, and the controlled-system. The latter is necessary to safeguard against any incompleteness of software level properties. A model of the system being monitored is not required, and further the approach is modular and hence scalable. When fault is detected at the system level, an isolation of a software fault is achieved by using residue methods to rule out any hardware (plant) fault. We also proposed a method to localize a software fault (to those lines of code that contain the fault). The talk will be illustrated through a servo control application.

2008 IEEE Multi-conference on Systems and Control 25