Here is a list of the research projects run by the ECE Department that have secured funding from Funding Agencies and Companies outside Cyprus. The projects are listed in the reverse chronological order of their starting dates (but a number of educational/outreach projects are placed at the end of the list). More information about the research projects, their current status, and opportunities for employment, can be found in the project webpages and/or the webpages of the faculty members involved.
Validation of Distributed Collaboration for Chip Multiprocessors
UCY Principal Investigator Names: Marios Polycarpou, Maria Michael, Theocharis Theocharides
Period: 1/1/2007-31/12/2007
Amount: 18,000 euro
Funding Agency: Intel Corporation
Description: Chip Multiprocessor Systems (CMPs) have become a dominant trend in computer systems, and are expected to be the dominant design paradigm for general and special purpose systems. It is expected that such systems will be composed of tens (and possibly hundreds) of processor cores, where each core will collaborate with the rest for program execution, using an on-chip interconnection infrastructure. Each core is very simple and consists of basic computational units such as an ALU and memory. Resource allocation in such large-scale systems is a critical factor in the performance, energy consumption and reliability of these systems. It is widely accepted that most traditional resource allocation methods are not adequate for future support of large-scale chip multiprocessors, particularly due to the large number of processor cores, but also due to the large number of computational resources placed on a single chip, such as memory and interconnect. Our department, in collaboration with Intel Corporation, is developing system-level design methodologies for resource allocation and other relevant CMP problems in such large scale systems, utilizing intelligent algorithms, such as genetic algorithms and neural networks, aiming to optimize system performance, minimize energy consumption, and improve the reliability of such systems.
NetRefound (Network Research Foundations and Trends)
Principal Investigator Name: Leandros Tassiulas (University of Thessaly, Greece)
UCY Principal Investigator Names: Stavros Toumpis (UCY), Charalambos D. Charalambous (UCY)
Period: 1/10/2006-1/10/2009
Amount: 1.7 million euro (of which UCY receives 205,000 euro)
Funding Agency: European Community (Sixth Framework Program)
Description: The objective of the NET-REFOUND project is to develop the theory, methods and algorithms suitable for the modeling, analysis and design of future telecommunication networks. The long term goal is the theoretical understanding of the collective interaction of a multiplicity of communicating nodes beyond the boundaries posed by specific telecommunication standards. This will lead to a quantitative characterization of the fundamental performance limits of these systems and eventually to algorithms for achieving them. Successful completion of the proposed research will lead to methodological approaches that will shape the future telecommunication standards for emerging technologies like the sensory web and autonomic computing systems.
More information about the project
Decentralized Ethernet Passive Optical Networks
Principal Investigator Name: George Ellinas (UCY)
Period: 01/09/2006 – 1/08/2008
Amount: 80,000 euro
Funding Agency: European Commission
Description: Current access technologies represent a significant bottleneck in bandwidth and service quality between a high-speed residential/enterprise network and a largely overbuilt core backbone network. Even though high capacity routers and ultra-high capacity fiber links have created a true broadband architecture, distribution of that connectivity to individual enterprises and homes is just as critical for meeting the huge demand for more bandwidth. Passive optical network (PON) is a technology viewed by many as an attractive solution to the last mile problem as PONs can provide reliable yet integrated data, voice, and video services to end-users at bandwidths far exceeding current access technologies. In this project we investigate decentralized Ethernet-based PON architectures and we define distributed bandwidth allocation protocols as well as survivability schemes for QoS applications for these architectures. The results of the proposed project will be beneficial in accelerating the deployment of next generation broadband optical access networks.
CRUISE: CReating Ubiquitous Intelligent Sensing Environments
UCY Principal Investigator Name: Christos Panayiotou (UCY)
UCY Co-Investigator Names: Vasos Vassiliou (UCY), Andreas Pitsillides (UCY), Charalambos D. Charalambous (UCY), Stavros Toumpis (UCY)
Period: 1/1/2006-31/12/2007
Amount: 37,500 euro (UCY Budget)
Funding Agency: European Community (FP6)
Description: The Network of Excellence (NoE) CRUISE intends to be a focal point in the planning and coordination of research on communication and application aspects of wireless sensor networking in Europe. It brings together a diverse group of partners who will integrate their expertise and knowledge gained in projects on related fields. CRUISE partners share the vision of ubiquitous intelligent sensing environments and are convinced that a NoE in this field is necessary, taking into account the benefits that sensor networks have to offer to European society and the current weakness and fragmentation in this field in Europe. CRUISE will focus its research toward the solution of specific theoretical and technological problems that will enable the building of sensor network applications that can significantly affect European society.
More information about the project
MOTIVE: Mobile Terminal Information Value Added Functionality
UCY Principal Investigator Name: Andreas Pitsillides (UCY)
UCY Co-Investigator Names: Christos Panayiotou (UCY), Charalambos D. Charalambous (UCY), George Samaras (UCY)
Period: 1/1/2006-31/12/2007
Amount: 258,000 euro (UCY Budget)
Funding Agency: European Community (FP6)
Description: Mobile terminals are evolving into a ubiquitous computing platform. Yet their information gathering and processing capabilities are underutilised, although they are excellent candidates for mobile data monitoring. MOTIVE enabled terminals are expected to transparently store, pre-process and upload to the network (for further processing) historical information about the monitored data. The MOTIVE project demonstrates the value of this innovative concept by enhancing existing processes and enabling the provision of new context aware services. MOTIVE will define a multi-layered system architecture and functionality addressing issues such as terminal local processing, user control (when and how information is revealed), data transfer load, network side processing/storage and real time vs. off-line information collection modes.
More information about the project
Robust Information Transmission and Control Subject to Uncertainty and Power Constraints
Principal Investigator Name: Charalambos D. Charalambous (UCY)
Co-Investigator Names: Marios Polycarpou (UCY), Christos Panayiotou (UCY)
Period: 1/7/2004-31/6/2006
Amount: 80,000 euro
Funding Agency: European Commission, Marie Curie Programme
Description: The rise of internet technologies and standards has created a rapid convergence between computing and communications, in which computers are becoming pervasive technology. On the other hand, recent advances in wireless communications and electronics have enabled the development of new low cost, low power multifunctional sensors, which communicate over small distances. This project focuses on the creation of a unified framework of robust information transmission in which Shannon’s information theory, such as source coding, data compression, channel coding, channel capacity blocks are subject to uncertainty.
Fault Diagnosis in Stochastic Dynamical Systems with Censorship, Involving Neural Models
Principal Investigator Name: Pedro J. Zufiria (Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain)
UCY Principal Investigator Name: Marios M. Polycarpou, (UCY)
Period: 1/12/2003-1/12/2004
Amount: 39,651 euro (total)
Funding Agency: Ministry of Science and Technology of Spain
Description: The design of a fault diagnosis scheme for nonlinear dynamical systems with structural uncertainty and perturbations is proposed, so that the model considers stochasticity and data censorship. Initially, a plant identification is performed via neural models, taking into account the data censorship. Afterwards, the detection schemes will be performed based on decision theory, in the framework of stochastic differential and difference equations. Non-censored data will be assumed in a first step; then, the design of observers and identifiers will take into account censorship. Finally, faults (both deterministic and stochastic) will be identified with neural models for accommodation purposes. The resulting schemes will be evaluated in different simulation practical cases. The feasibility of experimental evaluations in a mobile robot will also be addressed.
EDUCATIONAL/OUTREACH PROJECTS
ESTIA-Net: Opening up Electrical Engineering, Computer Technologies and Applied Sciences to Successful Women Careers
Principal Investigator Name: Maria G. Ioannidis (National Technical University of Athens, Greece)
UCY Principal Investigator Name: Maria K. Michael (UCY)
UCY Co-Investigator Name: Marios M. Polycarpou (UCY)
Period: 1/10/2003-1/10/2004
Amount: 390,964 euro (Note: UCY is one of several nodes which are part of the ESTIA network. The amount listed is the total for all the nodes)
Funding Agency: EC Socrates/Erasmus 3 Thematic Network
Description: The main objective of ESTIA-Net is to build up a thematic network, focused in creating women-friendly interdisciplinary postgraduate education in Electrical Engineering, Computer Technologies and Applied Sciences. The network aims at increasing awareness about gender bias issues in education, informing and motivating young women, leading women to their educational and career paths, and studying the potentials for implementing a new interdisciplinary postgraduate curriculum. ESTIA-Net mainly targets female students, young women deciding their future education and career, women executives who need postgraduate education on new technologies, and women who start a new career. Main activities include research into the number of women students and academic staff in Universities, development of a mentor's curriculum, organization of a mentor's seminars and info days, identification of existing interdisciplinary courses and assessment of their impact, implementation of a Web site and an information system for perspective students, design of the interdisciplinary postgraduate women-friendly curriculum and dissemination.
ECOPLACE: Electrical and Computer Engineering Student Placements in Europe
UCY Principal Investigator Name: Mrs Emma Zeniou (International Relations and European Programs)
ECE Principal Investigator Name: Maria K. Michael (UCY)
Period: Academic Year 2006-2007
Amount: 20,030 euro
Funding Agency: EU Leonardo da Vinci, Community Vocational Training Action Program
Description: This is a vocational training project which is part of the EU’s Leonardo da Vinci program. It will promote and fund the placement of four students per year, during the summer period (June-August), in companies in Austria and Germany. The collaborators in this effort are the Danube Association for European Training and RTD in Austria and the Leonardo Office Part Sachsen at the Technical University of Dresden in Germany.