The objective of this project is to research tools to manage uncertainty in the design and certification process of safety-critical aviation systems. The research focuses on three innovative ideas to support this objective. First, probabilistic techniques will be introduced to specify system-level requirements and bound the performance of dynamical components. These will reduce the design costs associated with complex aviation systems consisting of tightly integrated components produced by many independent engineering organizations. Second, a framework will be created for developing software components that use probabilistic execution to model and manage the risk of software failure. These techniques will make software more robust, lower the cost of validating code changes, and allow software quality to be integrated smoothly into overall system-level analysis. Third, techniques from Extreme Value Theory will be applied to develop adaptive verification and validation procedures. This will enable early introduction of new and advanced aviation systems. These systems will initially have restricted capabilities, but these restrictions will be gradually relaxed as justified by continual logging of data from in-service products. The three main research aims will lead to a significant reduction in the costs and time required for fielding new aviation systems. This will enable, for example, the safe and rapid implementation of next generation air traffic control systems that have the potential of tripling airspace capacity with no reduction in safety. The proposed methods are also applicable to other complex systems including smart power grids and automated highways. Integrated into the research is an education plan for developing a highly skilled workforce capable of designing safety critical systems. This plan centers around two main activities: (a) creation of undergraduate labs focusing on safety-critical systems, and (b) integration of safety-critical concepts into a national robotic snowplow competition. These activities will provide inspirational, real-world applications to motivate student learning.

The objective of this project is to create a focused cyber-physical design environment to accelerate the development of miniature medical devices in general and swallowable systems in particular. The project develops new models and tools including a web-based integrated simulation environment,capturing the interacting dynamics of the computational and physical components of devices designed to work inside the human body, to enable wider design space exploration, and, ultimately, to lower the barriers which have thus far impeded system engineering of miniature medical devices. Currently, a few select individuals with deep domain expertise create these systems. The goal is to open this field to a wider community and at the same time create better designs through advanced tool support. The project defines a component model and corresponding domain-specific modeling language to provide a common framework for design capture, design space exploration, analysis and automated synthesis of all hardware and software artifacts. The project also develops a rich and extensible component and design template library that designers can reuse. The online design environment will provide early feedback and hence, it will lower the cost of experimentation with alternatives. The potential benefit is not just incremental (in time and cost), but can lead to novel ideas by mitigating the risk of trying unconventional solutions. Trends in consumer electronics such as miniaturization, low power operation, and wireless technologies have enabled the design of miniature devices that hold the potential to revolutionize medicine. Transformational societal public health benefits (e.g., early diagnosis of colorectal cancer or prevention of heart failure) are possible through less invasive and more accurate diagnostic and interventional devices. By eliminating large incisions in favor of natural orifices or small ports, these medical devices can increase diagnostic screening effectiveness and reduce pain and recovery time. Furthermore, if successful, the proposed scientific approach can be extended to any other application, wherever size, power efficiency, and high confidence are stringent requirements. The educational plan of the project is centered on the web-based design environment that will also contain an interface for high school students to experiment with medical cyber-physical devices in a virtual environment. Students will be able to build medical devices from a library of components, program them using an intuitive visual programming language and operate them in various simulated environments. A Summer Camp organized in the framework of this project will enhance students learning experience with real hands-on experimentation in a lab.

As Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) employing mobile nodes continue to integrate into the physical world, ensuring their safety and security become crucial goals. Due to their mobility, real-time, energy and safety constraints, coupled by their reliance on communication mediums that are subject to interference and intentional jamming, the projected complexities in Mobile CPSs will far exceed those of traditional computing systems. Such increase in complexity widens the malicious opportunities for adversaries and with many components interacting together, distinguishing between normal and abnormal behaviors becomes quite challenging. The research work in this project falls along two main thrusts: (1) identifying stealthy attacks and (2) developing defense mechanisms. Along the first thrust, a unifying theoretical framework is developed to uncover attacks in a systematic manner whereby an adversary solves Markovian Decision Processes problems to identify optimal and suboptimal attack policies. The effects of the attacks are assessed through different instantiations of damage and cost metrics. Along the second thrust, novel randomization controllers and randomization-aware anomaly detection mechanisms are developed to prevent, detect and mitigate stealthy attacks. The outcomes of this CAREER project will ultimately provide concrete foundations to build more secure systems in the areas of robotics, autonomous vehicles, and intelligent transportation systems. The educational activities--as in curriculum development and hands-on laboratory experiences--will provide students with the essential skills to build dependable and trustworthy systems, while ensuring the participation of undergraduates, women and underrepresented minorities. The outreach activities will expose high school students to Computer Science education and scientific research.