CPS: Medium: Collaborative Research: GOALI: Methods for Network-Enabled Embedded Monitoring and Control for High-Performance Buildings
Lead PI:
Luca Carloni
Abstract
The objective of this research is to develop methods for the operation and design of cyber physical systems in general, and energy efficient buildings in particular. The approach is to use an integrated framework: create models of complex systems from data; then design the associated sensing-communication-computation-control system; and finally create distributed estimation and control algorithms, along with execution platforms to implement these algorithms. A special emphasis is placed on adaptation. In particular, buildings and their environments change with time, as does the way in which buildings are used. The system must be designed to detect and respond to such changes. The proposed research brings together ideas from control theory, dynamical systems, stochastic processes, and embedded systems to address design and operation of complex cyber physical systems that were previously thought to be intractable. These approaches provide qualitative understanding of system behavior, algorithms for control, and their implementation in a networked execution platform. Insights gained by the application of model reduction and adaptation techniques will lead to significant developments in the underlying theory of modeling and control of complex systems. The research is expected to directly impact US industry through the development of integrated software-hardware solutions for smart buildings. Collaborations with United Technologies Research Center are planned to enhance this impact. The techniques developed are expected to apply to other complex cyber-physical systems with uncertain dynamics, such as the electric power grid. The project will enhance engineering education through the introduction of cross-disciplinary courses.
Luca Carloni

Luca Carloni is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he leads the System-Level Design Group. He holds a Laurea Degree Summa cum Laude in Electronics Engineering from the University of Bologna, Italy, a Master of Science in Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California at Berkeley.

At Berkeley Luca was the 2002 recipient of the Demetri Angelakos Memorial Achievement Award in recognition of altruistic attitude towards fellow graduate students. Luca received the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation in 2006, was selected as an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in 2008, received the ONR Young Investigator Award in 2010 and the IEEE CEDA Early Career Award in 2012.

His research interests include methodologies and tools for multi-core system-on-chip platforms with emphasis on system-level design and communication synthesis, design and optimization of networks-on-chip, embedded software and distributed embedded systems. Luca coauthored over ninety refereed papers and is the holder of one patent.

Luca is an associate editor of the ACM Transactions in Embedded Computing Systems and the Elsevier Journal of Sustainable Computing. He has served in the technical program committee of several conferences including DAC, DATE, ICCAD, and EMSOFT. In 2010 he served as technical program co-chair of the International Conference on Embedded Software (EMSOFT), the International Symposium on Networks-on-Chip (NOCS), and the International Conference on Formal Methods and Models for Codesign (MEMOCODE).

In 2013 Luca serves as general chair of Embedded Systems Week (ESWeek), the premier event covering all aspects of embedded systems and software.

Luca participates in the Gigascale Systems Research Center (GSRC).

Performance Period: 03/01/2010 - 02/28/2015
Institution: Columbia University
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Award Number: 0931870