| NSF Org: |
CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | September 13, 2018 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | September 18, 2023 |
| Award Number: | 1645578 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Ralph Wachter
rwachter@nsf.gov (703)292-8950 CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems CSE Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering |
| Start Date: | October 1, 2018 |
| End Date: | September 30, 2024 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $299,634.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $299,634.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
660 S MILL AVENUE STE 204 TEMPE AZ US 85281-3670 (480)965-5479 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
P.O. Box 876011 TEMPE AZ US 85287-6011 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | CPS-Cyber-Physical Systems |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.070 |
ABSTRACT
The goal of this research is to enable a broad spectrum of programmers to successfully create apps for distributed computing systems including smart and connected communities, or for systems that require tight coordination or synchronization of time. Creating an application for, say, a smart intersection necessitates gathering information from multiple sources, e.g., cameras, traffic sensors, and passing vehicles; performing distributed computation; and then triggering some action, such as a warning. This requires synchronization and coordination amongst multiple interacting devices including systems that are Internet of Things (IoT) devices that may be connected to safety critical infrastructure. Rather than burden the programmer with understanding and dealing with this complexity, we seek a new programming language, sensor and actuator architecture, and communications networks that can take the programmer's statements of "what to do" and "when to do", and translate these into "how to do" by managing mechanisms for synchronization, power, and communication. This approach will enable more rapid development of these types of systems and can have significant economic development impact.
The proposed approach has four parts: (1) creating a new programming language that embeds the notion of timing islands -- groups of devices that cooperate and are occasionally synchronized; (2) creating a network-wide runtime system that distributes and coordinates the action of code blocks -- portions of the program -- across devices; (3) extending the capabilities of communications networks to improve the ability to synchronize devices and report the quality of synchronization back to the runtime system, enabling adaptive program behavior; and (4) extending device hardware architecture to support synchronization and time-respecting operation.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The recently completed NSF CPS project, "TickTalk: Timing API for Federated Cyber-physical Systems," has had significant impacts in intellectual innovation, personnel training, and community development.
This project developed:
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TTPython (https://ccsg.ece.cmu.edu/ttpython/index.html), a programming language that allows programmers to express synchronization between the cyber and physical worlds with clear semantics.
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A compilation approach for translating programs from the language into an intermediate representation that abstracts communicating, synchronized processes on a heterogeneous cyber-physical system.
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Extensions to current networking approaches to support synchronized fog/cloudlet computing in the network.
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Device-level architectural extensions to virtualize small sensor and actuator (ensemble) devices for shared use by multiple applications, each with its own synchronization constraints.
Research Impact: This project resulted in over 30 publications, including 3 Ph.D. theses, 7 MS theses, 4 UG theses, 10 conference papers, 8 journal articles, and 3 granted US patents. The work produced has already been cited more than 300 times, with one of the most cited contributions being the robust intersection management algorithm for connected autonomous vehicles, which has been cited over 60 times by researchers from institutions such as CMU, MIT, and UIUC. Additionally, the last paper from this project, focusing on Pan and Tilt angle determination of traffic cameras, received the Best Paper Award at the VLSI Design Conference 2025.
Workforce Development: The project trained 3 Ph.D. students, 7 Master’s students, and 4 undergraduate students. Two Ph.D. graduates are now working as senior robotics engineers, and one is an Assistant Professor at the South Dakota School of Mines. The MS and undergraduate students have secured positions at leading US companies, including Apple, SanDisk, Amazon, and Intel, enhancing global competitiveness, contributing to technological innovation, and bolstering the U.S. economy.
Through its breakthroughs in synchronization mechanisms for cyber-physical systems and its influence on education and workforce development, the TickTalk project has made substantial contributions to the field and established a foundation for future advancements.
Last Modified: 02/26/2025
Modified by: Aviral Shrivastava
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