Keynote: Endurance Barriers and Solutions for Flash Memory
by Dr. Tei-Wei Kuo (National Taiwan University)

Abstract:
Flash memory has penetrated many facets of consumer technology in recent years. Within one decade after its invention, we had witnessed the tremendous growth of the flash market. As flash memory gains its momentum, new challenges also emerge. In this talk, we will address endurance issues in the designs of flash-memory storage/file systems. Challenges on the design methodologies will also be presented. In particular, we will present solutions in wear leveling. Related issues in performance enhancement and disturbing problems will be addressed. Multi-stage programming is a paradigm for writing generic programs that do not pay a runtime overhead. The key underlying technology is program generation.

Speaker's profile:
Prof. Tei-Wei Kuo received the B.S.E. degree in Computer Science and Information Engineering from National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1986. He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin in 1990 and 1994, respectively. He is currently a Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Taiwan University.  He served as the Chairman of his department from August 2005 to July 2008. Between Feb 2006 and July 2008, he also served as a Deputy Dean of the College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, National Taiwan University. Prof. Kuo has served in the editorial board of many journals, including the Journal of Real-Time Systems and IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics. He was the Program Chair and General Chair of the IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium (RTSS) in 2007 and 2008, respectively, where RTSS is the flagship conference in real-time systems. Between 2005 and 2008, Prof. Kuo has also served as the Steering Committee Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Embedded and Real-Time Computing Systems and Applications (RTCSA). Prof. Kuo receives many research and teaching awards including the 2004 Ten Young Outstanding Persons Award of Taiwan, the Distinguished Research Award from the National Science Council, and the Distinguished Teaching Award from his university (Top 1%). His research interests include embedded systems, real-time task scheduling, real-time operating systems, flash-memory storage systems, and real-time database systems. He has over 170 technical papers published or been accepted in international journals and conferences and more than 6 patents in USA and Taiwan on the designs of flash-memory storage systems.

Keynote: Event Driven Software Quality
by Dr. Jens Palsberg (University of California at Los Angeles, USA)

Abstract:
Event-driven programming has found pervasive acceptance, from high-performance servers to embedded systems, as an efficient method for interacting with a complex world. The fastest research Web servers are event-driven, as is the most common operating system for sensor nodes. An event-driven program handles concurrent logical tasks using a cooperative, application-level scheduler. The application developer separates each logical task into event handlers; the scheduler runs multiple handlers in an interleaved fashion. Unfortunately, the loose coupling of the event handlers obscures the program's control flow and makes dependencies hard to express and detect, leading to subtle bugs. As a result, event-driven programs can be difficult to understand, making them hard to debug, maintain, extend, and validate.

This talk presents recent approaches to event-driven software quality based on static analysis and testing, along with some open problems. We will discuss progress on how to avoid buffer overflow in TCP servers, stack overflow and missed deadlines in microcontrollers, and rapid battery drain in sensor networks. Our work is part of the Event Driven Software Quality project at UCLA, which is aimed at building the next generation of language and tool support for event-driven programming.

Speaker's profile:
Jens Palsberg is a Professor of Computer Science at UCLA. He received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of Aarhus, Denmark in 1992. In 1992-1996 he was a visiting scientist at various institutions, including MIT. In 1996-2002 he was an Associate Professor and, in 2002-2003, Professor of Computer Science at Purdue University. His research interests span the areas of compilers, embedded systems, programming languages, software engineering, and information security. He has authored over 80 technical papers, co-authored the book Object-Oriented Type Systems, and co-authored the 2002 revision of Appel's textbook on Modern Compiler Implementation in Java. He is the recipient of National Science Foundation CAREER and ITR awards, a Purdue University Faculty Scholar award, an IBM Faculty Award, and an Okawa Foundation research award. Dr. Palsberg's research has also been supported by DARPA, Intel, and British Telecom. Dr. Palsberg is an associate editor of ACM Transactions of Programming Languages and Systems, a member of the editorial board of Information and Computation, and a former member of the editorial board of IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering. He is serving as the vice chair of ACM SIGBED, Special Interest Group on Embedded Systems, and he has served as vice chair of computer science at UCLA, as associate head of computer science at Purdue University, as the general chair of the ACM Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (POPL) and International Workshop on Model Checking of Software (SPIN), as conference chair of the IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science (LICS), as a program chair for ACM Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (POPL), the Static Analysis Symposium (SAS), Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems (TACAS), Conference on Embedded Systems Software (EMSOFT), Conference on Formal Methods and Programming Models for Co-Design (MEMOCODE), Symposium on Requirements Engineering for Information Security (SREIS), and ACM Workshop on Program Analysis for Software Tools and Engineering (PASTE), and he has been a member of more than 50 other conference program committees. 

Keynote: Wireless Sensor Network in Industrial Automation
by Dr. Richard Zurawski (ISA Group, CA, USA)

Abstract:
Although reports on actual implementations are rare, and potential applications in the projected areas are still under consideration, the wireless sensor networks are in the deployment stage by the manufacturing industry. The use of wireless links with field devices, such as sensors and actuators, allow for flexible installation and maintenance, mobile operation required in case of mobile robots, and alleviates problems with cabling. A wireless communication system to operate effectively in the industrial/factory floor environment has to guarantee high reliability, low and predictable delay of data transfer (typically, less than 10 ms for real time applications), support for high number of sensor/actuators (typically over 100 in a cell of a few meters radius, in a discrete manufacturing environment), and low power consumption, to mention some.

This presentation will give a general overview of some of the most important requirements dictated by industrial automation applications most of wireless sensor networks have to comply with; to mention: availability and reliability, safety, survivability, security, and dependability. Then main characteristics of wireless sensor networks used in industrial automation applications are discussed including network topology and architectures, real-time restrictions, reliability, power consumption, and life-time issues. The presentation introduces four communication protocols used with wireless sensor networks: IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee, and dedicated solutions to include Wireless Interface to Sensors and Actuators (WISA), and two most notable standardization initiatives aiming at wireless sensor networks for industrial applications:  WirelessHART and ISA100. Some of the deployment issues and solutions are illustrated by an example of a wireless sensor/actuator network developed by ABB and deployed in a discrete manufacturing environment - in a robotic assembly cell.

Speaker's profile:

Dr. Zurawski is affiliated with ISA Group, CA, involved in providing solutions to 1000 Fortune companies. Prior to that, he held various executive positions with San Francisco Bay area based companies. He was also a full-time R&D advisor with Kawasaki Electric, Tokyo, and held a regular Professorial appointment at the Institute of Industrial Sciences, University of Tokyo.  He was Editor of five major handbooks published by CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, including Embedded Systems Design and Verification, vol. 1, Embedded Systems Handbook 2nd edition, 2008, and Networked Embedded Systems, vol. 2, Embedded Systems Handbook 2nd edition, 2008. Dr. Zurawski was a Guest Editor of a special issue on Industrial Communication Systems in Proceedings of the IEEE, June 2005. In 1998, he was invited by IEEE Spectrum to contribute an article on Java technology to “Technology 1999: Analysis and Forecast Issue.” Dr. Zurawski is Editor of the Industrial Information Technology book series, CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, and Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics. Dr. Zurawski served as a Vice President of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES) and was on a steering committee of the ASME/IEEE Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems. In 1996, he received the Anthony J. Hornfeck Service Award from the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society.  Richard Zurawski received the M.S. degree in informatics and automation from the University of Mining and Metallurgy, Krakow, and the Ph.D. degree in computer science from LaTrobe University, Melbourne, Australia.