ABSTRACT

The NSF Net-centric and Cloud Software and Systems Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (NCSS I/UCRC) is a multi-university cooperative established in 2009 with a collaborative research partnership between the University of North Texas (UNT) and the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), with Southern Methodist University (SMU) as an affiliated academic site. The original academic sites (UNT and UTD, with SMU as an affiliated member) will complete Phase I in February 2014 and are seeking to continue operations as Phase II I/UCRC sites. The research focus of the NCSS I/UCRC is on cost-effective methods of enabling the rapid design and deployment of highly efficient and dependable net centric and cloud hardware/software systems that must operate in various environments subject to potentially stringent response time, power, heat, security and resource constraints. By combining the diverse capabilities and expertise of the participating academic institutions and the real-world experiences of engineers from well-known innovative high tech companies, the center will enhance the research capabilities of all the participants. The NCSS I/UCRC will develop innovative and practical technologies for modeling, analysis, design, implementation, verification and validation, deployment, and evolution of a variety of net-centric and cloud systems. This systems-oriented research is aimed at enabling the coordinated hardware/software development of highly dependable integrated net-centric and cloud systems.

The NCSS I/UCRC research will enable industry to develop and leverage emerging net-centric and cloud computing platforms and infrastructures. The industrial sectors that benefit from the center include defense, energy, transportation, health care, commerce, homeland security, and emergency preparedness/emergency response industries. The Center has actively worked with the Metroplex Technology Business Council (MTBC) Innovation Group in Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area and led to the creation of a new MTBC Special Interest Group (SIG) in the area of cloud computing. The NCSS I/UCRC will continue to provide education and training of students to meet our nation?s future workforce needs in these rapidly emerging and evolving technology areas. Many of the software tools, and infrastructure (e.g., sensors labs) developed at UNT site were made available to students in various courses such as sensor networks (with 30 students per year), computer architecture (with 40 students per year). The UTD site developed courses on cloud computing systems, Internet of Things, programming and optimization of applications on heterogeneous multicore systems, power management for multi-core systems, and other NCSS related topics. Over 60 students have enrolled in these courses over the past 3 years. A significant growth in enrollments in these courses is anticipated. The Center activities also have and will continue to provide real-world research experience for several graduate and undergraduate students as well as international education and research collaboration in this area with some faculty and students from universities in China, France, Germany, Italy, Taiwan, and Turkey.

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