The emerging information technology scenario features a swarm of devices that are immersed in all kinds of physical processes and offer a variety of personal or broad use services, from health monitoring to vehicle, building and power management. In these cyber-physical systems computing, networking and control are combined with mechanical, electrical and chemical processes. The increasing sophistication of these systems requires innovations in several technology domains as well as design methodologies. This class merges theoretical aspects with applications to give students a grasp of thefundamentals of system design as well as a taste of the problems posed by complex applications. It presents theories, design methods and tools that help handle the growing complexity and heterogeneity of embedded and cyber-physical systems. Approaches to a new "system science" are demonstrated, where heterogeneity, concurrency, multiple levels of abstraction play a fundamental role and where a set of correct-by-construction refinement and composition techniques are used to substantially reduce design time and errors. System-level design methodologies and tools will be illustrated on several applications including car electronics, building automation and electrical power systems control. During the Lab sessions, methodologies and tools will be demonstrated on industrial strength platforms together with specific design cases. During the discussion sessions, recent results and papers will be presented to the class by the students.

Prerequisites: There is no formal prerequisite for this course, but some exposure to the basics of real-time embedded system and an inclination to formal reasoning is welcome.

Important pages:

Embedded System Design: Modeling, Analysis, and Synthesis