2002 Summary of Engineering Research Supplement

Emilio Frazzoli’s research area is decision and control architectures for autonomous systems, including guidance and control of agile vehicles, distributed cooperative control of multiple vehicle systems, high-confidence software engineering for high-performance dynamical systems, and integrated vehicle health management systems.

High-Confidence Software for Aerospace Embedded Systems

E. Frazzoli*

National Science Foundation, CAREER Award, CCR-0133869

This research project is aimed at developing new tools and techniques for the design and analysis of high-confidence software for high-performance, aerospace embedded systems. The main core of the research project is aimed at dramatically reducing the complexity of embedded software design and verification by exploiting the geometric structure of the underlying physical system in the modeling effort and by preserving this structure in the design of control laws and algorithms. This will make feasible the analysis of the complete system, including its physical and software components and otherwise poorly scalable techniques, such as abstract interpretation and model checking. It will also provide the means for the effective use of techniques based on compositional reasoning.

Geometric and Algorithmic Techniques for Design and Verification of Hybrid Control Systems

E. Frazzoli,* M. Branicky* (Case Western Reserve Univ./ECE), S. LaValle (Comput. Sci.)

National Science Foundation, CCR-0208919

This research project is aimed at improving the efficiency of the verification process for safety-critical embedded and hybrid systems. The research group believes that the solution to this problem involves the careful integration of complexity-reducing modeling and design techniques and powerful new verification algorithms into the development process. Therefore, the approach aims at reducing the gap between the problems that can be solved using current techniques and the challenges confronted in modern applications from two directions. The first is by exploiting the geometric structure of the underlying physical system and the second is by developing provably efficient algorithmic techniques to enable a fast exploration of the reachable states for high-dimensional hybrid control systems.

Cooperative Networked Control of Dynamical Peer-to-Peer Vehicle Systems

G. Dullerud* (Mech. & Indus. Engr.), E. Frazzoli (Aero. & Astro. Engr.), M. Viswanathan (Comput. Sci.), D. Liberzon (Elect. & Comput. Engr.), F. Bullo (Gen. Engr.), B. Reznick (Math), P. R. Kumar (Elect. & Comput. Engr.), E. Feron (MIT/AA), S. K. Mitter (MIT/EECS), N. Lynch (MIT/EECS), E. Modiano (MIT/AA), J. Abounadi (MIT/EECS), S. Lall (Stanford/AA), J. Mitchell (Stanford/CS)

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Air Force Office for Scientific Research

The focus of this project is on the control algorithms and internal software required to develop multiple vehicle systems, which are verifiably robust. Such systems must operate under situations with significant external environmental uncertainty, combined with malicious attacks and rapidly evolving mission objectives. These issues are a central concern for current and future autonomous systems. A major direction of the proposed program is the frontier between the design methodologies of distributed software systems and those of robust feedback control, an area which holds significant promise for advances with dramatic theoretical and practical impact.

Computer Science

• Jiawei Han

http://www-sal.cs.uiuc.edu/~hanj/

hanj@cs.uiuc.edu

Jiawei Han’s areas of research include data mining (knowledge discovery in databases), data warehousing, and database systems. Before coming to the University of Illinois, he was a professor in the School of Computing Science, Simon Fraser University (SFU), Canada. With more than 100 journal and conference publications to his credit, Han has been invited to give talks or tutorials at international conferences, universities, and industry firms in many countries. He served on the editorial board for IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering (1996-2001) and has been on the editorial boards of the Journal of Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery and Journal of Intelligent Information Systems.

Efficient Mining of Frequent Patterns, Sequential Patterns, Structured Patterns and Their Applications

J. Han, J. Wang, J. Pei (SFU), G. Dong (Wright State Univ.), K. Wang (SFU), W. Wang (IBM), P. Yu (IBM), J. Yang (IBM), X. Yan, Y. Lu, P. Tzvetkov

University of Illinois (start-up); Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council; Microsoft Research Gift

Following their published and well-recognized algorithms PF-growth (2000) and H-mine (2001) for mining frequent patterns and PrefixSpan (2001) for mining sequential patterns, this research team has been working on mining sequential patterns with the existence of noise (2002), gSpan (2002) for mining structured (subgraph) patterns. A more systematic study is under way to develop highly efficient methods for mining these patterns in large databases.

Mining Data Warehouses

J. Han, J. Wang, J. Pei (SFU), G. Dong (Wright State Univ.), S. Chaudhuri (Microsoft Research), L. V. S. Lakshmanan

University of Illinois (start-up); Microsoft Research Gift

This research group has been developing efficient methods for multidimensional gradient analysis and constructing a data warehouse-based analysis system called CubeExplorer (2002).

Mining Unusual Patterns and Outliers for Homeland Security

J. Han, J. Wang, J. Pei (SFU), G. Dong (Wright State Univ.), P. Yu (IBM), Y. Zhou, C. Clifton (Purdue), O. Wolfson (UIC), M. Welge (NCSA)

University of Illinois (start-up); IBM Faculty Award

Researchers are studying methods for mining unusual patterns for homeland security applications. These methods will be an integral part of the SOS (Secure Open System) project in the University of Illinois Department of Computer Science.

Pattern Mining in Bioinformatics and Biodatabases

J. Han, Y. Lu, H. Fang, P. Yu (IBM), W. Wang (IBM), L. Liu, C. Yu (UIC)

University of Illinois (start-up)

This team has been working with researchers at the University of Illinois Biotechnology Center to investigate efficient bio-mining algorithms for DNA subsequence analysis, bio-data classification, and other data mining methods related to biodata analysis.

StarWeb: Enabling Systematic Web Information Access and Mining

J. Han, K. Chang, H. Yu, X. Yin

University of Illinois (start-up); Microsoft Research Gift; IBM Faculty Award; National Science Foundation

This research is focused on constructing a Web data warehouse, called StarWeb, and developing a set of methods for StarWeb-based Web mining.

StreaMiner: Stream Data Mining and Stream OLAP Analysis

J. Han, Y. Chen, J. Wang, B. Wah, J. Pei (SFU), G. Dong (Wright State Univ.), P. Yu (IBM), X. Yan, W. Jin (SFU)

University of Illinois (start-up); Microsoft Research Gift; IBM Faculty Award

This research group has developed a stream cube model (2002) and methods for multidimensional regression analysis in stream database (2002). Efficient and scalable stream mining methods, including stream classification, stream clustering, stream gradient analysis, and stream frequent pattern analysis, are under investigation.

• Jennifer C. Hou

http://www-sal.cs.uiuc.edu/~jhou/

jhou@cs.uiuc.edu

Jennifer C. Hou is working in the areas of multicast routing and multicast; exploitation of long range dependency in resource/congestion control; protocol design and software implementation for Quality of Service (QoS) control; network modeling and simulation, including JavaSim Release; distributed systems/applications; and real-time computing. A common theme of her research projects is that they address how to make performance improvements to traffic of different QoS requirements while simultaneously achieving the highest possible network utilization, taking into account heterogeneous sources or receivers, protocol interaction across multiple layers at multiple time scales, and issues of scalability or implementation.

Multiple Time Scale Traffic Control for Next-Generation Internets

K. Park* (Purdue Univ.), J. C. Hou, G. He, H. Zhang

National Science Foundation, Information Technology Research

In this project, researchers address the following two-pronged problem: how to exploit multiple time scale property of network protocols to facilitate effective coordination and integration of disjoint network controls for end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS), and how to exploit the multiple time scale nature of Internet workload to achieve workload-sensitive traffic controls. Problem one is comprised of two key issues: sufficiency or separation conditions under two network controls and the effective coupling of protocols when time scale separation is unavailable. Problem two consists of three key issues: short-lived connection management using lightweight optimistic control; long-lived connection management using connection duration prediction and multilayered feedback control; and QoS amplification through workload-sensitive, end-to-end, and per-hop control.

Reliable Multicast for Core-based Multicast Routing

J. C. Hou,* Y. Gao, Y. Ge (Ohio State Univ.)

National Science Foundation, Advanced Networking Infrastructure and Research, ANI-9903160

Researchers work to design, implement, and evaluate a repair-based reliable multicast framework for core-based multicast trees, with the objectives of avoiding negative acknowledgement implosion and duplicate replies, reducing recovery latency, achieving recovery isolation, and providing adaptability to dynamic topology/membership changes. The major designing difficulty is that an on-tree router on a core-based tree does not know, due to lack of the per-source information, how to direct a retransmission request toward the source. The research team is designing a simple, yet effective scheme that facilitates routers on a core-based tree to properly direct retransmission requests so as to closely emulate the optimal recovery scenario.

Design, Theoretical Validation, and Empirical Evaluation of a Class of Multicast Congestion Control Schemes

J. C. Hou,* H. Ozbay, Y. Gao (Ohio State Univ.)

National Science Foundation, Advanced Networking Infrastructure and Research, ANI-0073725

In this project, researchers explore the use of robust, feedback control theory to design and implement a rate-based congestion control framework for multicasts. Design objectives include capability to adjust source sending rates to achieve TCP-friendliness and (weighted) fairness in an analytically provable manner, capability to handle independent losses of the same packet, capability to deal with dynamic traffic/membership changes, and minimal router support.

On Providing Quality-of-Service Control for Core-based Multicast Routing

J. C. Hou,* B. Wang, H. Y. Tyan (Ohio State Univ.)

National Science Foundation, Advanced Networking Infrastructure and Research, ANI-9804993

In this project, researchers investigate the Quality of Service (QoS) extension to core-based multicast routing protocols such as Core-Based Tree, Simple Multicast, and Protocol Independent Multicast Sparse Mode. Specifically, they propose a set of enhancements in the member join/leave and state update/refresh procedures to facilitate the deployment of additive (for example, end-to-end delay bound), multiplicative (such as packet loss ratio along a path), and concave (such as minimum bandwidth available) QoS. The team will also implement a proof-of-concept prototype in the FreeBSD UNIX operating system and conduct an empirical study on a lab testbed.

Next-Generation Network Protocols and Services for Real-Time Fault-Tolerant Systems

J. C. Hou,* S. Kalyanaram, C. Hu

Multidisciplinary Research Program of University Research Initiative, Air Force Office of Scientific Research

In this project, researchers categorize network protocols as follows: traffic specification and Quality of Service (QoS) translation/negotiation; admission control; unicast/multicast routing; resource reservation and adaptation; congestion and flow control; local traffic control and run-time packet scheduling; fault detection and fast restoration; security; and traffic regulation and QoS monitoring. In addition, they address the problems of provisioning QoS and fault tolerance in each category.

An Integrated Simulation Environment for Next-Generation Internets

J. C. Hou,* H. Kim, N. Li

Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, Network Modeling and Simulation

In this research project, the team is working to develop a component-based, compositional Java network simulation environment, called JavaSim. JavaSim is built upon an innovative autonomous component architecture that closely mimics the IC design architecture. Researchers also are developing a generalized packet switched network model. The model defines the generic structure of a node (either an end host or a router) and the generic network components, both of which can then be used as base classes to implement protocols across various layers. JavaSim also provides a script interface to allow integration with different script languages, such as Perl, Tcl, or Python.

Quality of Surveillance and Control in Network Centric Warfare

L. Sha,* J. C. Hou, R. Zheng, W. P. Chen

Multidisciplinary Research Program of University Research Initiative, Office of Navel Research

Researchers are addressing the quality of control, surveillance, and communication in ad hoc, information networks. In particular, the team is developing low level QoS-driven, energy conserving, and secure routing protocols/algorithms. They also are devising, in conjunction with the QoS-driven ad-hoc routing protocols, packet prioritization and scheduling algorithms at ad-hoc nodes subject to the temporal QoS requirement, the level of importance of packets, and the available battery power, CPU cycle, and buffer.

Data-centric Sensor Networks

J. C. Hou,* L. Sha, P. R. Kumar, S. Kandula

National Science Foundation, Special Projects in Networking

In this project, researchers first lay an integrated framework in which a comprehensive solution can be designed that comprises a set of component solutions at each layer to achieve the targeted goals of data-centric sensor networks. Then the team will consider, under this unified framework, research issues along the following thrusts: hierarchical cluster formation and routing; topology control and power management; QoS provisioning within/between clusters; MAC design for timely dissemination of delay-sensitive data; and empirical study with the use of Motes.

• Steven M. LaValle

http://msl.cs.uiuc.edu/~lavalle/

lavalle@cs.uiuc.edu

Steven M. LaValle’s research interests include robotics, motion planning, geometric motion strategy problems, vision and visibility analysis, nonholonomic planning, nonlinear systems, uncertainty issues, artificial intelligence, algorithms, computational biology, and practical issues in real-world applications, such as mobile robotics, drug design, and virtual prototyping.

Algorithmic and Differential-Geometric Trajectory Design

F. Bullo,* S. M. LaValle*

National Science Foundation, IIS-0118146, Directorate: CISE

This project focuses on general-purpose trajectory design algorithms for high dimensional, highly nonlinear systems evolving in complex environments. The goal is to solve the currently intractable problem of trajectory generation and optimization for high-fidelity models of various types of autonomous vehicles. Researchers are using an approach that combines methods from differential geometry, nonlinear control theory, robot motion planning, randomized algorithms, and mathematical programming.

Motion Strategy Algorithms for Geometry-Intensive Applications

S. M. LaValle*

National Science Foundation CAREER Award, IIS-9875304, Directorate: CISE

This award supports an integrated research and education program that is centered on computing motion strategies in geometry-intensive applications. The core of this research program is rooted in robot motion planning, which leads to the investigation of three core algorithmic issues: searching high-dimensional spaces that have algebraic and differential constraints; responding to unpredictable changes and online information; and solving sensor-based tasks and processing incomplete information. The focus is significantly broader than traditional path planning. The core research is guided by efforts in several applications, such as mobile robotics with active sensing and virtual prototyping-hazardous environments.

Solving Visibility-based Mobile Robotics Tasks Using Minimal Representations

S. M. LaValle,* R. Murrieta (ITESME, Mexico City, Mexico)

National Science Foundation, CONACyT Collaborative Research Opportunities, IIS-0116592, Directorate: CISE

This collaborative effort builds on the complementary expertise of LaValle in geometric algorithms and Murrieta in experimental mobile robotics and sensing uncertainty. The researchers are developing mobile robotics systems that perform sophisticated visibility-based tasks with minimal sensing requirements. In the past few years, there has been an increasing interest in enabling robots to perform tasks, such as searching in a cluttered environment for an unpredictable moving target (pursuit-evasion) or tracking a moving target with a camera. The goal is to provide autonomous mobile robots in such applications as surveillance, search-and-rescue, fire fighting, law enforcement, remote virtual presence, and the monitoring of other robots. The guiding philosophy of this research project is that many common problems can be overcome by developing algorithms and mobile robots that minimize the information requirements. For example, the robot may be able to achieve a task without ever having a map of its environment.

Multiple-Robot Sensor-based Pursuit Strategies

S. M. LaValle*

Office of Naval Research, Robotics Program

The proposed research is centered on determining motion strategies for robots or people, called “pursuers,” to search cluttered environments for moving targets, called “evaders.” Present efforts are built on a foundation, developed by this research group over the past few years, which includes techniques from geometric motion planning, mobile robotics, game theory, computational geometry, and graph theory. The pursuers each have a sensing device, such as a camera, flashlight, laser scanner, or radar, and the objective is to guarantee that the evaders will be detected, even though they might be able to sneak back to places already searched. Several questions arise in this kind of scenario. Does a strategy even exist that guarantees the evaders will be found? If not, then how many more pursuers are needed before this task can be completed? What kind of environment representation is required to solve the problem? Applications in robotics include surveillance, strategic robotics, and remote presence. Beyond robotics, software tools can be developed that assist in the design of military operations in complicated coastal waters or indoor environments. Methods developed from this research are also expected to enable people to systematically search or cover complicated environments in applications such as law enforcement, hostage crisis resolution, search-and-rescue, and hazardous cleanups.

• José Meseguer

http://cs.uiuc.edu/people/faculty/meseguer.html

meseguer@cs.uiuc.edu

José Meseguer’s research interests are in the following areas:

• formal, executable specification and verification;

• software composition, reflection, and metaprogramming;

• object-oriented specification and software architecture;

• concurrent, distributed, and mobile computing;

• logical frameworks and formal interoperability; and

• logical and semantic foundations.

• Marc Snir

http://www-sal.cs.uiuc.edu/~snir/

snir@uiuc.edu

Marc Snir is the Michael Fainman and Saburo Muroga Professor of Computer Science and head of the Computer Science Department. His areas of interest include large-scale parallel and distributed systems, parallel computer architecture, and grid computing. Before coming to the University of Illinois, he was a senior manager at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, where he initiated and led the IBM Blue Gene project. Previously, he led the Scalable Parallel Systems research group and was responsible for major contributions to the IBM SP scalable parallel system: architecture, parallel operating environment, message-passing libraries, tools, parallel file system, parallel algorithms, and applications. He is an ACM Fellow and IEEE Fellow, and he serves on the editorial board of Parallel Processing Letters and ACM Computing Surveys.

Research on Teraflop Architecture Based on Superconducting Switch

M. Snir,* J. Torrellas

Department of Defense, MDA904-02-R-0940

This project studies a design for a large-scale shared memory multiprocessor, based on the use of an ultrafast superconducting crossbar. The future availability of such crossbar technology opens new opportunities for the design of scalable Uniform Memory Access multiprocessors. It also requires new designs for the memory subsystem. A key focus of this research is the performance of these designs for applications that are relevant to the Department of Defense.

• Mahesh Viswanathan

http://cs.uiuc.edu/people/faculty/viswanathan.html

vmahesh@cs.uiuc.edu

Mahesh Viswanathan is part of the algorithm research group. He is interested in analysis and validation of software systems, including the following:

• design of efficient algorithms;

• characterization of computational limitations;

• development of formal models for system specification; and

• implementation of software tools for program analysis.

Civil and Environmental Engineering

• Christopher Barkan

http://cee.uiuc.edu/contact/faculty/barkan1.htm

cbarkan@uiuc.edu

Christopher Barkan is the director of the University of Illinois Railroad Programs. He provides leadership for the railroad engineering research and academic programs.

His responsibilities include coordination of the railroad research activities of more than 20 faculty members, teaching in the areas of railroad technology and engineering, and oversight and development of the railroad engineering academic program.

Barkan also serves as director of the Association of American Railroads (AAR) Affiliated Laboratory at the U of I. He maintains frequent contact, coordination, and collaboration with the AAR Safety and Operations staff and with the railroad research staff at the Transportation Technology Center, Inc. in Pueblo, Colo. Before coming to the U of I, Barkan was director of AAR Risk Engineering in the Safety and Operations Division, and he held a similar position before that in the AAR Research and Test Department. He continues to serve the AAR as deputy project director of the RPI-AAR Railroad Tank Car Safety Research and Test Project, a cooperative program of the tank car and railroad industries.

Barkan’s research program is focused on railroad safety and risk analyses with particular emphasis on derailment prevention, tank car design, and aspects of hazardous materials. He is also directing the AAR project to develop a North American standard for a spill-proof fuel delivery system for railroad locomotives.

A long-time member of the Transportation Research Board Committee on Transportation of Hazardous Materials, Barkan was also recently appointed to membership on the Committee on Railroad Track Structure System Design.

• Amr Elnashai

http://cee.ce.uiuc.edu/contact/faculty/elnashai1.htm

aelnash@uiuc.edu

Amr Elnashai is director of the Newmark Structural Engineering Laboratories and associate director of the Mid-America Earthquake Center, with responsibilities primarily in coordination. He has worked in the field and reported on most of the damaging earthquakes around the world since the mid-1980s. His technical interests are experimental, analytical, and field investigations of the seismic response of concrete, steel, and composite buildings and bridges.

Before coming to the University of Illinois, Elnashai was a professor and head of the Engineering Seismology and Earthquake Engineering Section at Imperial College, London. He has more than 200 publications in the field of earthquake engineering. He is founder and co-editor of the Journal of Earthquake Engineering, a member of the drafting panel of the European seismic design code, senior vice-president of the European Association of Earthquake Engineering (1998-2002), and a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the United Kingdom Institution of Structural Engineers.

Structure Retrofit Strategies (CM4)

M. B. Hueste* (Texas A&M Univ.), F. Yamazaki

(Instit. of Indus. Sci.), P. Fajfar (Univ. of Ljubljana), A. Kerimidjian (Stanford Univ.)

Mid-America Earthquake Center (National Science Foundation–Funded Engineering Research Center)

This project addresses the issue of level and type of structural intervention for populations of structure to achieve a specified level of consequence minimization in the case of the region being hit by an earthquake. It also deals with new designs where the preliminary design outcome is considered as an existing population of structure. This is addressed by first relating the intervention technique to changes in structural characteristics and then deriving intervention-sensitive fragility relationships. This will lead to a set of vulnerability functions that apply to a very large number of structural systems before and after strengthening. Therefore, decisions on the effectiveness of various intervention techniques on earthquake losses can be evaluated and visualized, leading to informed risk mitigation decisions.

• John S. Popovics

http://cee.ce.uiuc.edu/contact/faculty/Popovics1.htm

johnpop@uiuc.edu

John S. Popovics has two primary research interests in the area of civil engineering. The first is nondestructive evaluation of structures and pavement. In particular, he is interested in the use of mechanical waves (ultrasound and vibration) to assess the condition of civil engineering structures and pavement. His second research interest concerns the mechanical properties of cement-based infrastructure materials. His research findings have been published in more than 30 articles in refereed technical journals and 30 conference proceedings. He is an associate editor for the ASCE Journal of Materials for Civil Engineering.

Popovics has established a collaborative research relationship with the German Federal Research Institute (BAM-Berlin). Before coming to the University of Illinois, he was an assistant professor at Drexel University and a research assistant professor at Northwestern University. At Northwestern, he was the co-principal investigator for two funded research projects involving nondestructive testing and material modeling, respectively, of airport pavements. He carried out research as an active member of the Center of Excellence for Airport Pavement Research at the U of I as well as the National Science Foundation Center for Advanced Cement-Based Materials and the Center for Quality Engineering and Failure Prevention, both at Northwestern University.

He is actively developing a research program related to his research interests and has been awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER grant.

• Travis Waller

http://cee.ce.uiuc.edu/atrel/twaller.htm

stw@uiuc.edu

Travis Waller is a member of the transportation research group. His research interests are focused on modeling and large-scale optimization of transportation systems, including network design, combinatorial network problems, dynamic traffic assignment, and decision making under uncertainty, real-time control, and simulation.

Development of Mathematical and Simulation Models for Transportation Network Systems Experiencing Information Provision

S. T. Waller,* S. Ukkusuri

University of Illinois Research Board

The objective of this work is to develop new models for the evaluation of multiple-stage transportation systems under dynamic and/or uncertain conditions experiencing real-time information provision and control. Of particular interest are fundamentally new models incorporating Intelligent Transportation Systems into dynamic equilibrium traffic models, from both fundamental and practical views. In addition to new analytical models, simulation-based approaches for dynamic traffic assignment are being extended with stochastic routing algorithms to address large-scale regional traffic networks.

Optimization and Control of Multistage Stochastic and Dynamic Urban Transportation Systems

S. T. Waller,* S. Ukkusuri, S. Hasan

National Science Foundation

This research will develop new mathematical models and solution algorithms to account for transportation system uncertainty and dynamics with a focus on representing actions, such as real-time routing and control, as stochastic recourse. These will then be used within the context of prior stage decisions (such as network design), where new methods will be investigated in order to account for the potential recourse. By viewing the system within the overall strategic, tactical, operational, and real-time framework, stage interactions will be explored as well as the role of information and uncertainty within the integrated decision process.

Regional Traffic Simulation with Transit Signal Priority

S. T. Waller,* H. Golani

Chicago Regional Transportation Authority

Transit signal priority for bus operations is a promising approach for improved transit performance. However, such real-time control measures are daunting for dense urban areas where small fluctuations can cause significant traffic delays. The objective of this work is to address that issue: first, to provide a traffic simulation tool designed to evaluate the regional impacts of deploying transit signal priority strategies on multiple bus routes; and second, to perform, with RTA assistance, systematic analyses of the simulation results under sufficient deployment scenarios so that the impacts are well understood.

Electrical and Computer Engineering

• P. Scott Carney

http://www.ece.uiuc.edu/faculty/faculty.asp?carney

carney@uiuc.edu

P. Scott Carney’s areas of interest include scattering and inverse scattering, coherence theory and statistical optics, near-field optics, imaging and tomography, and microscopy. His research is primarily in the field of theoretical optics. Lately, the work has focused on inverse scattering within homogeneous fields. The main area of application is in near-field imaging, though there is considerable overlap with other problems, such as tomographic imaging with photon density waves in diffusive media and various forms of probe microscopy.

His research team has developed semi-analytic solutions to the inverse scattering problem. The work has led to stable, efficient algorithms for a broad class of experiments. Many open problems remain in this program, such as development of nonlinear inversion methods, limited data reconstruction, and improved forward modeling. He is also working on problems in the propagation, guiding, and scattering of surface waves, which is of particular interest to researchers working toward large-scale integrated optics.

• Minh N. Do

http://www.ece.uiuc.edu/faculty/faculty.asp?minhdo

minhdo@uiuc.edu

Minh N. Do is working in the areas of signal and image processing as well as wavelets and harmonic analysis.

Directional Multiresolution Image Processing

M. N. Do*

University of Illinois (start-up)

This project seeks to develop new “true” two-dimensional representations that can capture the intrinsic geometrical structure that is key in pictorial information. The focus is on the development of directional and multiresolution image expansions using nonseparable filter banks. In essence, the project pursues nonseparable extensions of wavelets and multiresolution techniques so that they can capture the directional information—an important and unique feature of multidimensional signals. In parallel, newly developed image representations will be explored in a variety of applications, where substantial improvements over current methods are expected.

• Yoshihisa Shinagawa

http://www.ece.uiuc.edu/faculty/faculty.asp?sinagawa

sinagawa@uiuc.edu

Yoshihisa Shinagawa’s research interests include computer graphics, multimedia systems, image processing, and medical imaging. In particular, he has been working on the representations and recognition of shape information by extracting the essential structures, such as the singular points of functions defined on the shapes. The applications include automatic image matching, shape databases, and analysis of human body motions. Examples of recent research follow:

• Completely automatic image matching. Optimal mappings between the given images are computed automatically using multiresolutional nonlinear filters called the Critical-Point Filters (CPF) that extract the critical points of the images of each resolution. CPF can interpolate between images with large differences. For example, the faces of a human and a cat can be matched and interpolated. The matching results can be used to generate intermediate views when given two different views of objects.

• CAD systems and solid modelers based on differential topology. Solid modeling includes various representations of the shapes of three-dimensional (3D) objects. The surface coding based on Morse theory has made it possible to handle complex shapes.

• Recognition of 3D objects from images. The Morse-based codings can be used for 3D object shapes.

• 3D shape reconstruction from cross-sectional images, including the volume rendering. This new model uses a homotopy, which smoothly transforms one contour to another. The surface is generated as the locus of the transformation. The resulting surface is a generalization of classical parametric surfaces and includes the spline approximation. Researchers have proposed several methods to implement the homotopy. They also have proposed a novel method that uses the diffusion equation and allows any number of branches in the contours. The homotopy model is now being expanded to integrate volume rendering.

• Recognition of human facial expressions. The approach for recognizing facial expressions is based on the 3D data and use of a Lighting Switch Photometry (LSP) method.

• Analysis of human motions. Research is aimed at developing a system that obtains the data of the human motion using image processing techniques. Analysis is based on the manifold mappings.

• Visualization of abstract mathematics. Researchers propose a method to visualize abstract algebraic concepts such as algebraic topology by animating the process of its computation. They are developing a computer-aided instruction (CAI) system of topology based on the visualization method.

• Medical image and geographical databases. New databases enable researchers to extract useful information on the structural elements from the images and other stored data.

• Dental CAD systems. This novel method to characterize the contact of objects is applied to actual dental articulations to validate its effectiveness. Characterization is based on the time-variant topological structures of the complementary space of the 3D objects as a 4D space. The data are stored in a database and indexed by shape characteristics.

• Nitin Vaidya

http://www.ece.uiuc.edu/faculty/faculty.asp?nhv

nhv@godel.crhc.uiuc.edu

Nitin Vaidya’s work is focused on fault-tolerant computing and mobile computing and networking. His research interests include wireless ad hoc networking, security in wireless and mobile environments, and fault tolerance. Following is a sampling of recently funded project titles:

• Ad Hoc Wireless Networks Utilizing Multi-Rate and Power-Save Capabilities

National Science Foundation, 2002-2005

• Utilizing Directional Antennas for Ad Hoc Networking (UDAAN)

BBN Technologies (sub-contract on DARPA FCS project), 2001-2002

• Providing Survivable Real-Time Communication Service for Distributed Mission Critical Systems

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), 1999-2002

• TCP-Unaware Approaches to Improve Performance of TCP over Wireless Links

National Science Foundation, 1999-2002

• Protocols for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

National Science Foundation, 1999-2002

• Distributed Algorithms for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

National Science Foundation, 1999-2001

• Geocasting in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks Using Location Information

National Science Foundation, Funded as part of NSF-CONACyT research program, 1999-2001

• CISE Research Instrumentation: Wireless Networking and Collaborative Knowledge Building Research

National Science Foundation, 1999-2002

• Pramod Viswanath

http://www.ece.uiuc.edu/faculty/faculty.asp?pramodv

pramodv@uiuc.edu

Pramod Viswanath’s areas of interest include wireless communication systems, multiuser communication theory, and information theory. His research focus in wireless communication networks is on understanding fundamental limitations to reliable wireless communication with a goal of leveraging this understanding into engineering solutions for wireless networks. An important component of this research is to take a system view of wireless communication by a joint consideration of networking and medium-access issues with the underlying time-varying wireless channel.

Viswanath is particularly interested in researching the precise nature of the multiuser diversity gain in the context of delay-sensitive user traffic. Multiuser diversity is a form of diversity inherent in a wireless network, provided by independent time varying channels across the different users. The diversity benefit is exploited by tracking the channel fluctuations of the users and scheduling transmissions to users when their instantaneous channel quality is near the peak.

He has identified two paths of study. First, identify the precise nature of multiuser diversity gain as a function of appropriately defined user parameters (delay and rate requirements of the traffic being conveyed), and then design scheduling algorithms at the network level that achieve these promised gains. Second, study the physical layer techniques that boost the multiuser diversity gains realized at the network layer.

This area of research entails a novel view and use of physical layer techniques that have traditionally been studied from a point-to-point perspective. It is motivated by review of recent work that utilized multiple transmit antennas in a novel way with far superior gains as compared to space-time codes. Viswanath proposes a formal and fundamental study of the role of multiple antennas in a wireless network as opposed to a point-to-point setting. The role of multiuser diversity in handling out-of-cell interference would be a natural extension of these studies.

Broadly, this area of research continues the theme of

a new design principle for wireless networks that is emerging through the lens of multiuser diversity—a theme that shifts one from the view of the wireless system as a set of point-to-point links to the view of a system with multiple users sharing the same resources (spectrum and time).

Materials Science and Engineering

• Erik Luijten

http://www.mse.uiuc.edu/faculty/Luijten.html

luijten@uiuc.edu

Eric Luijten’s research is focused on the thermodynamic properties and phase behavior of materials, with a strong emphasis on complex fluids, such as polymeric systems and electrolytes. These systems are studied predominantly by means of computer simulations. Primary goals are to understand experimentally observed phenomena from the underlying microscopic features of a system and to test the predictive value of analytic theories describing these systems. Insights could lead to the prediction of yet unknown properties of materials and the design of new materials.

Structure of Condensed Polyelectrolyte Phases

E. Luijten,* J. Lee, G. C. L. Wong

Intel Corporation

This research group studies the properties of condensed phases (bundles) of like-charged polyelectrolytes. A goal is to closely mimic, by means of molecular dynamics simulations, systems that are the subject of current experimental research at the University of Illinois. A central issue is the role of counterion correlations and distributions within F-actin bundles, and their effect on the structure of the condensed phase.

Phase Behavior of Charged Colloidal Mixtures

E. Luijten,* J. A. Lewis

Intel Corporation

This project pursues a fundamental understanding of binary colloidal mixtures in which the constituents exhibit large size and charge asymmetries. Recent experimental research has provided evidence for a new mechanism for colloidal stabilization in these systems, which may open wide areas of applications. This research focuses on the development of computational techniques for the investigation of such fluid mixtures. This simulation approach offers the advantage that the various stabilized phases are accessible at the molecular level, permitting a simultaneous study of structural and thermodynamic properties. The resulting insight can contribute to the rational design and tailoring of colloidal suspensions.

Phase Behavior of Multicomponent Polymeric Systems and Advanced Simulation Techniques for Polymeric Liquids

E. Luijten,* L. Guo, N. B. Wilding (Univ. of Bath, U.K.)

Petroleum Research Fund; Materials Computation Center; Intel Corporation

An understanding of the miscibility of polymer blends and solutions is of considerable importance for the production of polymeric materials with improved properties. In the current project, binary and ternary polymer solutions are investigated by means of advanced computer simulations. Variation of the degree of polymerization leads—particularly in the ternary case—to rich phase diagrams, which are only accessible through the use of new simulation methods that are being developed within the framework of this project.

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

• Harley T. Johnson

http://www.mie.uiuc.edu/johnson

htj@uiuc.edu

Harley T. Johnson is working in the areas of computational science and engineering, engineering mechanics, materials behavior, and MEMS.

Strain Effects on Photonic Device Properties across Length Scales

H. T. Johnson*

National Science Foundation, CMS 0296102

Computational and analytical models are used to study three separate but related fundamental problems in electronic and optical materials behavior. Applications

of the research are in microelectronics and telecommunications devices. At the atomic scale, coupling of mechanical and electronic structure is studied using tight-binding atomistic methods. At the mesoscale or 10–100 nm level, strain effects on optical properties of quantum dots are studied using finite element analysis. At the continuum scale, residual stress effects on MEMS devices are studied using continuum analytical and coupled FEM-atomistic methods.

Ion-Beam Machining to Eliminate Stress Induced Curvature in MEMS Optical Devices

H. T. Johnson,* T. G. Bifano* (Boston Univ.)

National Science Foundation, DMI 0223821

A combined experimental and computational approach is used to develop a method of stress-induced curvature reduction in freestanding MEMS thin-film structures. The method is based on a theoretical understanding of residual stress sources that lead to curvature in such structures. Using ion-beam machining techniques, it is then possible to impose compensating stresses in sufficiently thin surface layers of material that will restore the structures to planar configurations. The objective of the project is to develop an understanding and methodology for this new approach.

• Scott D. Kelly

http://www.mie.uiuc.edu/content/asp/people/faculty/current/scott_d_kelly.asp

sdk@uiuc.edu

Scott D. Kelly is working in the areas of computational science and engineering, control systems, dynamic systems, and engineering mechanics.

Geometric Mechanics and Biomorphic Locomotion in Fluids

S. D. Kelly*

University of Illinois

Biomorphic robotic systems offer advantages to conventional autonomous vehicles in energy efficiency, agility, adaptability, and stealth. Biomorphic designs for underwater and aerial vehicles are particularly promising in these respects, but the superior performance of biological systems reflects their ability to exploit complex dynamic phenomena in subtle ways. This project endeavors to realize reduced-order nonlinear control models for the interaction of deformable bodies and vortical flows using contemporary techniques from Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics.

Dynamic Modeling and Analysis of the Adaptive Immune Response

S. D. Kelly,* C. C. Leong*

University of Illinois

Certain features of the adaptive immune response to antigen challenge, such as the Th1/2 polarization of proliferating CD4+ T cells, emerge dynamically from the interactions of different cell types at a population level. This project seeks to model cytokine-mediated T cell proliferation and differentiation in a manner that illuminates the properties of the adaptive immune response as a dynamical system. This work anticipates a control-theoretic approach to immunomodulatory disease therapy.

• Amy Wagoner Johnson

http://www.mie.uiuc.edu/content/asp/people/faculty/current/amy_johnson.asp

ajwj@uiuc.edu

Amy Wagoner Johnson’s research is in the area of materials behavior. She is particularly interested in advanced materials development and processing and the correlation of micromechanical deformation and strengthening mechanisms to the macroscopic behavior of metals, composites, and biomaterials for high-performance applications.

Mechanical Behavior of 3D Scaffolds for Bone Replacement

A. J. Wagoner Johnson,* J. A. Lewis (Mater. Sci. & Engr.), S. Brehmer (Mater. Sci. & Engr.)

Campus Research Board; Argonne National Laboratory

Tissue scaffolds are structures that provide a conduit

for natural tissue growth. Understanding the material/structure properties and the failure mechanisms of such scaffolds is critical to their success in vivo. Here, the mechanical behavior of model 3D scaffolds for bone replacement is being studied. These scaffolds are tested in compression in the as-processed condition, and their deformation and failure mechanisms are evaluated using x-ray microcomputed tomography at Argonne National Laboratory. Similar compression tests will be conducted after exposing the scaffolds to physiologically simulated environments. The x-ray tomography will also be used to image the cell distribution pattern after in-vitro culturing.

Mechanical Behavior of Materials for Cardiac Devices

A. J. Wagoner Johnson,* A. A. Polycarpou,* J. Kelm, N. Yu

Guidant Corporation

Materials used in cardiac devices serve in critical applications, and therefore, their properties must be well characterized and well understood. In this project, researchers are determining both the shear modulus and the residual stress magnitude and profile of submillimeter diameter wires used in pacemakers. Nano-indentation, a technique often used to determine the properties of thin films that are in a biaxial state of stress, is used to determine residual stress profile along the transverse and longitudinal cross sections of wires. Here, the triaxial stress state of the wires must be considered.

Physics

• Thomas R. Junk

http://www.physics.uiuc.edu/People/Faculty/profiles/Junk/

trj@uiuc.edu

Thomas R. Junk’s area of research is experimental high-energy physics, including the search for the Higgs boson predicted by the Minimal Standard Model and the neutral and charged Higgs bosons predicted by the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model; charged-particle tracking: reconstruction and modeling; b-tagging; statistical combination of experimental search results; and silicon detector construction and testing. His work is focused on the upgraded silicon vertex detector for the CDF experiment at Fermilab and also the Tile Calorimeter project for the ATLAS detector under construction at CERN.

Earlier in his career, Junk made important contributions to the OPAL experiment at the Large Electron Positron Collider facility at the Centre Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN). He specialized in the reconstruction of charged particles on the OPAL experiment, improving both the reconstruction and computer simulation of tracks measured by the OPAL drift chambers and the silicon microvertex detector. This work contributed to OPAL’s final measurement of the branching ratio of the Z boson to b quarks and also to OPAL’s Higgs boson searches. He also served as convenor of the OPAL Working Group for Higgs boson searches. He continues to search for pair production of CP-even and CP-odd neutral Higgs bosons decaying into hadronic jets without flavor tagging.

The Collider Detector at Fermilab

T. Liss,* L. Cerrito, P. Doksus, N. Eddy, D. Errede, S. Errede, T. Junk, M. Kasten, H. Kim, J. Kraus, K. Lannon, C. Marino, V. J. Simaitis, J. Strologas, K. Pitts, T. Vickey

U.S. Department of Energy, DE-FG02-91ER40677

(In collaboration with physicists of the CDF group at Fermilab)

The TeVatron, a superconducting accelerator/storage ring at Fermilab, collides a beam of 1000 GeV protons with a beam of 1000 GeV antiprotons. The Collider Detector at Fermilab group has built a large detector to make precision measurements of the properties of the W boson, the top quark, and B hadrons, and to search for new phenomena, such as the production of Higgs bosons. The detector contains systems for charged particle tracking, energy measurement, and particle identification. The Illinois group’s responsibilities include the central muon detectors, readout triggers, and participation in the silicon tracking upgrade.

Summary of ATLAS High-Energy Physics Research at the U of I

S. Errede,* D. Errede, G. Gollin, M. Haney, T. Junk, K. Pitts, J. J. Thaler

U.S. Department of Energy, DE-FG02-91ER40677

(In collaboration with physicists of the ATLAS group at CERN)

The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider will study very-high-energy proton-proton collisions to provide insight into the nature of electroweak symmetry breaking and to search for new phenomena beyond the Standard Model. Present efforts include construction of hadron calorimeter modules and studies of the performance

of photomultiplier tubes to be used in the readout of the calorimeter.

• Sheldon Katz

http://www.physics.uiuc.edu/People/Faculty/profiles/Katz/

katz@math.uiuc.edu

An internationally renowned mathematician with strong interests in physics, Sheldon Katz’ research area is algebraic geometry and its interaction with theoretical physics, especially string theories and supersymmetric field theories. He is a coauthor, with D. Cox, of the influential book Mirror Symmetry and Algebraic Geometry.

String theory seeks to unify quantum field theory and general relativity. Current research in this area focuses on duality, which relates different formulations of string theory in various regimes. This allows the moduli space of these theories to be explored in greater detail and is expected to provide hints for the sought-for complete formulation of string theory. String and M-theory dualities also lead to dualities of supersymmetric quantum field theories and deep connections to geometry.

Research in algebraic geometry is focused on the study of algebraic curves on three complex dimensional algebraic varieties. These are identified with world-sheet instantons in string theory. Specific topics include Gromov-Witten theory, which is identified with topological string amplitudes, and toric varieties, which are closely related

to Witten’s gauged linear sigma model.

• Jen-Chieh Peng

http://www.physics.uiuc.edu/People/Faculty/profiles/Peng/index.html

jcpeng@uiuc.edu

Jen-Chien Peng’s research area is experimental medium- and high-energy nuclear physics, including Parton structures of the nucleons and nuclei. Current research has focused on establishing a proton-nucleus experimental program and a new experiment to measure the neutron electric dipole moment using the technique of ultracold neutron production in superfluid helium.

The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in Brookhaven National Laboratory has three primary goals: to search for a new state of matter, called the quark-gluon plasma, through the collisions of two energetic heavy-ion beams; to understand the spin structure of the proton, especially the role of the gluons, via the interaction of two colliding polarized proton beams; and to investigate the antiquark and gluon distributions in nuclei by measuring the nuclear dependence of various hard-processes in proton-nucleus collisions.

The goal of the Neutron Electric Dipole Moment experiment is to observe a non-zero neutron electric dipole moment (EDM), which would provide direct evidence for time reversal and CP violation. The present experimental upper limit for neutron EDM is 10^–25 e •cm, limited by the flux of the ultracold neutrons (neutrons having energies less than 200 nano-electron volts). This research proposes a new measurement using large cells of superfluid helium for producing ultracold neutrons and measuring their EDM in situ. The goal of this experiment is to reach a sensitivity of 10^–27 e •cm, a factor of 100 improvement over the most recent measurement. The research team plans to use the spallation neutron beam at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center for

this experiment.

Early in his career, Peng worked as a researcher at the Centre d’Etudes Nucleaires de Saclay, University of Pittsburgh, and Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he became a Laboratory Fellow. While at Los Alamos, he made pioneering contributions to several areas of medium-energy physics. He was the first to recognize the feasibility of producing h mesons at the Los Alamos Meson Production Facility (LAMPF) and made the first (p,h) measurements on nuclei. In the early 1980s, Peng proposed the (p+,K+) measurements at Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Alternating Gradient Synchrotron accelerator, which ultimately identified single-particle states of lambda hypernuclei far beyond what had been possible using the (K–,p–,) reaction. Since then, he has made seminal contributions to high-energy nuclear physics in a series of experiments at Fermilab (E772, E789, and E866), which pioneered the use of massive lepton pair production to probe the distributions of antiquarks in the nucleons and nuclei.

Peng is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

• Benjamin D. Wandelt

http://www.physics.uiuc.edu/People/Faculty/profiles/Wandelt/

bwandelt@uiuc.edu

Benjamin D. Wandelt’s research areas include theoretical cosmology; cosmic microwave background; structure formation; dark matter; large-scale structure; early universe; mathematical, statistical, and computational methods applied to theory and observations in cosmology; data mining and analysis; weak gravitational lensing; and the Sunjaev-Zel’dovich effect.

A theoretical cosmologist, Wandelt has studied a variety of problems in cosmology. He is an internationally acclaimed expert in the analysis of cosmic microwave background (CMB) data, where he invented innovative algorithms that make the analysis of huge new data sets tractable. Current efforts to observe the CMB anisotropy use his numerical and statistical methods for key stages in the theoretical interpretation of the data. By studying the properties of the CMB anisotropy, one can learn about the physical processes that occurred in the very early universe.

Recent projects have included studying the bispectrum of the CMB anisotropy as measured by the space mission COBE/DMR in order to constrain the non-linearity of the perturbations created during inflation. Wandelt also has participated in efforts to predict the properties of exotic forms of dark matter, designed to solve puzzles related to observations of the clustering properties of matter on galaxy scales. He is associated as a theorist with the ESA/NASA’s Planck space mission to obtain the definitive maps of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies and detailed all-sky observations of other components of the microwave sky. He co-leads Planck’s harmonic analysis effort and is an associate of the theory and simulations team. His research interests include the following areas:

• physics of dark matter, the inner shapes of galactic halos generating a growing controversy;

• particle physics motivated models of structure formation;

• statistical tests of cosmology, including tests which look for particular modes of deviations in the CMB temperature fluctuations as well as in the intercomparison between temperature and polarization fields;

• analysis and simulation of CMB data to find ways to deal with the flood of data from a new generation of instruments and missions; and

• polarization of the CMB science.

Theoretical and Applied Mechanics

• Jonathan Freund

http://www.tam.uiuc.edu/directory/faculty/freund.html

jbfreund@uiuc.edu

Jonathan Freund’s areas of research include aerodynamic sound, compressible turbulence, numerical methods, large-scale parallel computing, molecular dynamics simulation of nanometer scale flows, and heat transfer in solids.

Atomistic Simulation of Nanometer-scale Fluid Systems

J. B. Freund*

University of Illinois

The dynamics of highly confined fluids can be considerably different that those in bulk. In this group of efforts, researchers use atomistic simulations to track the trajectories of fluid atoms and study mechanics in highly confined fluid systems. This study is focused on the electro-osmotic flow in nanometer-scale channels, the interfacial tension of ultrathin liquid films (with V. Dhir and S. Shina at UCLA), evaporation of thin-liquid films, and the flow in the vicinity of the solid-liquid-vapor contact line of a droplet sliding on a solid surface.

Jet Noise Physics and Modeling Using Direct Numerical Simulation

J. B. Freund,* J. M. F. Moreland

The theoretical sources of turbulent jet noise that have been proposed are impossible to measure in experiments due to their complexity, but their details are essential for developing predictive simulation tools for jet noise. To provide the detailed description of the flow necessary for studying noise sources, these researchers have developed a capability to compute noise without any modeling approximation. This approach is, of course, computationally expensive, but agreement with experiment is excellent since no approximations are made. The resulting databases are being analyzed to examine the details of the mechanisms and to evaluate complex quantities that are not currently available by any other means.

Optimal Control of Jet Noise

J. B. Freund,* M. Wei

U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research

Regulations are driving intense efforts to reduce aircraft noise, of which jet noise is a major component. However, there are presently neither accurate models nor efficient simulation tools to improve designs. Nozzle modifications are determined via expensive trial-and-error experimentation. In light of this, these researchers have developed optimal control techniques to automatically identify effective controls. They are used in conjunction with highly accurate (and computationally expensive) simulations of turbulent jets and their noise. A substantial noise reduction has been achieved. Currently, researchers are pursuing multiple avenues for deducing general control rules.

Thermal Transport in Nanostructured Semiconductors

J. B. Freund,* G. Chen* (MIT)

National Science Foundation

The mean-free path and, in some case, the wavelengths of the lattice waves (phonons) that carry heat are on the same scale of nanostructures that are being fabricated for solid-state electrical, electrical/thermal, and electrical/optical applications. Because of this, the transport of heat can be very different than it is in bulk materials. In some cases thermal conductivities are suppressed by as much as a factor of 10 from predictions using bulk continuum models. In this work, researchers use atomistic simulation techniques to study processes at Si-Ge material interfaces and thermal transport in carbon nanotubes. Objectives are to understand the mechanics of the processes and to develop Boltzmann transport models that can bridge the gap between large-scale devices and their small-scale features.