Majid Sarrafzadeh - US grants

The goal of this project is to design efficient algorithms for graph optimization, recognition, and isomorphism problems. The research focuses on two large classes of graphs: perfect graphs and intersection graphs. Techniques are drawn primarily from graph theory, design of algorithms and computational geometry. Experience has shown that many problems possess some mutual underlying properties. The approach of this project in analyzing a problem is to consider various representations of the graphs in interest and to develop decomposition or reduction schemes for identifying the core of the problem. The intent is either to conclude that most solvable cases of the problem adopts some well-known techniques in a disguised manner or to discover genuinely new algorithms.

The research is in four areas of IC design theory: floor-planning, global routing, wirability theory, and point dominance. In floor- planning a generalized version of the module placement problem, where the modules can assume any shape is being developed. For global routing, a generalization of sequential methods to a method, which can handle all nets in 2-D (and higher dimension) arrays simultaneously, is under investigation. A layout model that generalizes the Lipski- Preparata wirability model to include 2 and 3 layer net routing and includes more detail is being analyzed. Point dominance is a new area which builds on and integrates results in graph theory relating to layout problems. Questions about k-chains and circular k-chains are being addressed.

The goal of this project is to establish a series of one-day workshops for researchers in theoretically oriented fields of computer science in the Midwest United States. The plan is to hold the meeting twice a year in the Midwest to discuss latest results in theoretical aspects of computer science and methodologies to transfer them to applied fields.

9421704 Sarrafzadeh This award supports the continuing series of Midwest Theory Days. For the past few years researchers in theoretically oriented fields of computer science have met two times a year in the Midwest United States. At the meetings, attendance have ranged from 60 to 80, representing 15 institutions. These meetings bring Midwest researchers together to discuss latest results in theoretical aspects of computer science and in the transfer of rigorous methodologies to applied fields. Students (mostly graduate) at all Midwest institutions benefit from Midwest Theory Day by getting exposed to advances in theoretical studies. Approximately 30 to 40 graduate students attend each meeting. ***

CDA-9703228 Prithviraj Banerjee Northwestern University A Distributed High-Performance Computing Infrastructure This award is for the acquisition of 20 high-end UNIX workstations, 50 low-end UNIX workstations, three UNIX fileservers, an 8-processor distributed shared memory multiprocessor, and a 64-ported ATM switching hub. The machines would be networked together using high-speed OC-3 ATM networks with bandwidths of 155 Mbps. As the use of high-speed networking moves from the laboratory to the workplace, new opportunities arise for the design and implementation of a high-speed distributed computing environment. The goals of this project are: (1) to explore the use of high-speed networking and computing to investigate file systems and data management issues for high-performance distributed computing, (2) to investigate the parallel programming support of networks of high-speed workstations and personal computers as an alternative to stand-alone parallel computers, (3) to study high-performance computer-aided design of electronic systems in a heterogeneous environment, and to develop a Web-based CAD computing center, that takes advantage of high-speed networking, (4) to explore new instructional techniques that take advantage of the high bandwidth and high speed.

This research is concerned with algorithmic, performance, and hardware issues related to reduced-rank adaptive filtering. Reduced-rank filters project the incoming received signal onto a lower dimensional subspace, which reduces the amount of training data needed relative to a conventional full-rank algorithm.
Algorithmic techniques will be studied initially within the context of interference suppression for Direct Sequence (DS)-Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA), although they can be applied to any adaptive linear filter. The focus of the research is on a recently developed class of reduced-rank adaptive algorithms based on the multi-stage Wiener filter of Goldstein and Reed. This technique can achieve full-rank performance
with a very low filter rank, which enables rapid convergence and tracking. Furthermore, these algorithms
do not rely on an explicit estimate of the signal subspace. The project is multi-disciplinary in that it combines the expertise of the two co-PIs in the areas of adaptive signal processing and low power VLSI design.
The main objective of the research is to build a low-power special purpose hardware prototype, which can serve as the computational engine for reduced-rank filtering in a variety of applications. Algorithmic issues to be studied include selection of filter rank, performance in different adaptive filtering applications, such as equalization, and numerical stability and dynamic range problems.

Automation of a given design process requires an algorithmic analysis of it. The availability of fast and easily implementable algorithms is essential to the discipline. This proposal focuses on the physical design problems and their interaction with higher and lower-levels of the design hierarchy. Two classes of problems are being studied. First, the interaction between various cost functions in the placement problem is being investigated. In particular, relationship among net-cut, wirelength, congestion, and timing is being researched. Next, the class of algorithmic predictors and statistical predictors are being studied. One goal of this project is to show that it is possible to obtain accurate prediction very fast using floorplan and placement predictors. CAD tools associated with the above projects are under development.

Because of the relentless march of the silicon-based electronics technology as predicted by Moore's Law, computation, storage, and communication are now woven into the fabrics of our lives. The emerging technology of flexible electronics, where electronics components such as transistors and wires are built on a thin flexible material, offers a similar opportunity to weave computation, storage, and communication into the fabric of the very clothing that we wear. The implications of seamlessly integrating a large number of communicating computation and storage resources, mated with sensors and actuators, in close proximity to the human body will transform many aspects of biomedical research and practice. For example, one can imagine biomedical applications where biometric and ambient sensors are woven into the garment of a patient or a person in a medically-critical or hazardous environment to trigger or modulate the delivery of a drug.
To realize this vision outside the laboratory, radical innovation is required in the area of system-level information technology. These systems will not scale to widespread use if they are viewed simply as traditional chips or motherboards based on a different, flexible form factor. Rather, a rethinking of the architecture and the design methodology for all layers of these systems is needed. The reasons are two-fold. First, the underlying technology of electronics in flexible materials has characteristics and computation-communication cost trade-offs that are very different from that of silicon and PCB-based electronics. Second, the natural applications of these systems have environmental dynamics, physical coupling, resource constraints, infrastructure support, and robustness requirements that are very different from those faced by traditional systems.
One of the challenges in developing the needed information technology architecture and design methodology for these systems is that one needs to both conduct experimental work and develop a conceptual understanding of the problem domain. This research studies:
Application: Use as a driver application capability, reconfigurable fabric (R-Fabric) based on a combination of (i) the technology of flexible electronics using organic materials, and (ii) computing, communication, and sensing elements implemented as E-Buttons.
Architecture: Develop the general architecture concepts and cost/performance optimization techniques. The issues that we will focus on will include (i) appropriate primitives for composing the architecture, (ii) system interconnect network optimized for the electrical characteristics of the organic electronics, (iii) techniques to cope with the high ration of communication to computation cost, and (iv) architecture level self-configuration and re-configuration for robust operation.
Programming: Develop techniques and primitives for programming a system composed of hundreds of computation, storage, sensing, and actuation elements that are individually resource constrained and are connected by a structured but fault-prone high-cost interconnect network.
Processors: Develop domain-specific processor architecture optimized for these power-constrained, physically coupled applications.

Design Methodology: Develop techniques and hybrid emulation platform for systematic architecture exploration, simulation, optimization, and reconfiguration of these systems.

Proposal number: 0820245

Title: Certification of Medical Device Software

PI: Jens Palsberg
Co-PI: Majid Sarrafzadeh

A medical device should not crash or confuse. A device crash can be anything from inconvenient to life threatening, while confusing device behavior can lead a user to draw an incorrect medical conclusion. While rigorous testing will remain essential, new approaches to design, implementation, and certification have great potential to increase our confidence in medical devices. At the end of the rainbow in this research area lays a design for certifiability paradigm in which programmers think of certification from day one and create designs and code that can be certified by static error checking tools. The project's goal is to develop languages and tools for designing, building, and certifying medical device software in elegant and powerful new ways. The project focuses on a common class of medical devices called medical monitoring devices. The investigators envision a certification tool that can meet challenges related to space bounds, soft-real-time response, life time, and meaningful results. The project's goal is to take a major step towards design for certifiability and to bring closer the day when the FDA will use static error checking tools frequently and routinely. One of the outcomes of the project will be open-source versions of medical device software, along with implementations of the new language and certification tools. The result is a platform for experimenting with software for medical devices that may open up new possibilities for researchers.

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
The Health Guardian project provides medical care through Wireless Health: remote monitoring, wearable body area sensors and wireless communications. The goal is to promote independent living by improving home patient care quality (and reduce costs) while enabling the care of mobile individuals. Today, doctors and nurses manually record and track patients? status. This manual process cannot guarantee accuracy and efficiency in the face of increasing complexity of sensed data and measurement procedures. However, remote, automated monitoring has become technically feasible. This program introduces a BodyLAN interconnecting body sensors to a data collection gateway, the ?Health Guardian?. In turn, the Health Guardian connects to external networks to propagate the data for further processing. Leveraging the growing popularity of P2P personal networks, this project enables new patient care models based on P2P networking among patients and care providers.
Broader Impact: Wireless health will reach into homes, workplace environments and rural communities. The foundation for emerging new applications and business opportunities that range from networking of individuals interacting in health, wellness and safety to rehabilitation and disease management of clinical patients. On the education front, creation of cross cutting project-oriented undergraduate and graduate courses.
Intellectual merits: Innovative research in delay tolerant, reliable networking between Body LAN, Guardian and Internet overcoming intermittent wireless connectivity; cooperation among peers to share critical resources and discover ?useful? neighbors with the help of Social Network techniques; concept validation via clinical trials.

A mobile health monitoring system generates and monitors data related to a patient?s health using a wireless or wired channel. It may also control dosages of medicine or alter the behavior of medical devices to preserve a patient?s health. Such continuous monitoring and control gives mobile health monitoring systems the promise of improving health for lower costs than traditional methods. The security of mobile health monitoring systems is critical because of the importance of their tasks and the vulnerability of the devices and their operating environments. Such devices are sometimes used in hospitals or other health care facilities, but more often in patients? homes, offices, and other ordinary environments whose physical and cyber security cannot be controlled. The security of widely used mobile health monitoring devices is badly flawed. This danger will be addressed by adding security mechanisms to the overall system and environment in which mobile medical health devices operate. While less effective and efficient than designing such devices properly in the first place, there are reasonable low-cost solutions that can substantially improve the safety and security of such devices.

This PFI: AIR Technology Translation project focuses on translating a non-invasive monitoring of nutrition (NIMON) sensory necklace with an embedded microphone, wireless module and data processing unit to fill the need of automatically detecting swallows and eating patterns. The translated NIMON technology has the following unique features: low-cost, low-power, wearable, automated filtering of noise from audio signals, detection of swallows and daily eating patterns that provides exemplary performance, cost savings, efficiency and efficacy when compared to the leading competing nutrition monitoring programs or nutrition monitoring software such as DietMaster or Nutrinote, or even the activity monitoring devices.

The project accomplishes this goal by deploying unique signal processing algorithms providing noise-filtering of audio signals, segmentation, feature extraction and classification algorithms resulting in a proposed necklace. The partnership engages WearSense Inc. to provide guidance in the health and nutrition market and commercialization and further financing as they pertain to the potential to translate the NIMON necklace technology along a path that may result in a competitive commercial reality. The potential economic impact is expected to be $250 million in the next 5 years, which will contribute to the U.S. competitiveness in the health and nutrition market. The societal impact, long term, will be enhanced nutrition and health, the potential to diagnose swallow and diet-related disorders while providing a foil against which several technologies can grow.

PROJECT 1 ABSTRACT (PROJECT DESCRIPTION) With the advent of mobile health (mHealth), exciting opportunities now exist with remote monitoring systems capable of providing ubiquitous vigilance and new contextual insights into patient behavior and disease. Real- world observations can particularly be useful with pediatric populations in order to better understand the everyday situations and environments that contribute to myriad health issues. But there remains a critical, unmet need for a flexible, extensive platform that can enable secure data collection and transmission over a growing heteroge- neity of wearable and local environmental sensors. Standard methods to link sensors, mobile devices, and data centers are needed to ensure extensibility and future broad adoption of mHealth platforms. Project 1 supports the communication of sensors with mobile devices in an integrative, modular manner. This part of the Los Angeles PRISMS Center focuses on the design and development of application programming interfaces (APIs) and a standardized software platform that addresses the capture of data from sensors, exe- cutes local processing as needed, and securely transfers data and receives instructions to/from a data center (i.e., the PRISMS U24 data and software coordination and integration center). The innovations and develop- ments behind Project 1 are an important piece of the Biomedical REAl-Time Health Evaluation for Pediatric Asthma (BREATHE) platform. A key objective of Project 1 is the specification of a standard protocol for sensor descriptions, configuration, and data collection. Two communication APIs will be developed through Project 1: between the sensors and smartphone; and between the smartphone and data center. The APIs will enable: 1) querying of available sensors and/or smartphones; 2) scheduling and configuration of data collection on the smartphone (e.g., what sensors to connect to) and sensors (e.g., sampling frequency); and 3) automatically uploading time- and location-stamped data to the data center. Interwoven throughout the design and implemen- tation of the APIs are security and privacy mechanisms, applied across the multiple points of communication involved in gathering and handling sensor data. Recognizing the import of low-power design of sensors and mobile devices on user acceptance and compliance with mHealth applications, Project 1 also develops novel algorithms to optimize sensor usage and information gain, while minimizing power usage, thereby enabling sen- sors and devices to remain powered over the long-term and without interruption. Development of the mobile device platform and its user interfaces is done in coordination with Project 2; and field testing is considered with Project 3. The approaches taken in Project 1 provide a foundation upon which new U01 PRISMS sensors can be readily integrated.