Lecture Series in Mobile Telecommunications and Networks (1583KB)

adds a great deal of discrete complexity. In computer science, we are dealing with these discrete calculations,
interfacing with the physics of the car, so those are called hybrid systems. We ultimately need proof of safety of these
hybrid systems.
This is a Mickey Mouse answer of a kind of theorem, just to illustrate the point. Imagine a directed graph, and here are
some properties of the graph. Imagine a number of cars, some properties of the environment, road width and so on,
and the angles of intersections. There are also some models of the car and some notion of real-time scheduling. We
can then guarantee that all these cars could be operated without collisions, safely, and without gridlocks, liveness.
This is a very simple, hand-crafted proof for this application but, as we design very complicated systems, we will have to
automate these kinds of proofs of safety and so on, and that is a huge challenge for theorists because complexity is a
huge barrier.
Collision avoidance
I want to show you collision avoidance. It turns out that, in the US and elsewhere, hundreds and millions of dollars are
wasted on collisions, and injury from collisions.
[Video – model vehicles in lab]
In the town of Champaign, where I come from, people pay money to see these kinds of events. The point I want to
make is that most accidents are caused by human error. In fact, if you could just have someone tap you on your
shoulder two seconds before, you could prevent many accidents. In this day and age, we should not be having these
kinds of accidents. That is the first point.
Secondly, it turns out that designing systems with the human being in them is actually more difficult than designing
automatic systems. If you automate things, you can actually do a little better.
Intelligent intersections
The oncoming pedagogical challenges
16 The Royal Academy of Engineering
The next topic is intelligent intersections. I realised, after
spending a day here, that I am probably talking about the
wrong topic in the wrong place because you already have
better technology with roundabouts – you do not have
these intersections. It turns out that stop lights and traffic
lights are very wasteful. For example, in suburban roads at
intersections you often stop when there is no need for you
to stop – and in some countries they do not – and this also
applies at night. The idea therefore is that we should just
get rid of these altogether. We can then probably lower fuel
consumption, reduce delays, create greater safety and so
on. This is an application and I want you to decide for
yourself whether you would sit in one of these cars – there
are no lights, but they just negotiate packets and cross the
intersection. [Animated diagram] There are obviously
significant legal and social challenges here, and perhaps
psychological ones too.
This is my last slide. It turns out that the convergence of all these technologies is giving rise to pedagogical challenges
which we, at universities, have had to confront. We live in this post-Maxwell, von Neumann, Shannon, Bardeen-Brattain
world, and we can do rather sophisticated things. I believe that the 21st century is the age of large system building. As
we recognise the era of limitations – environmental, energy and so on – we will be building smart transportation
systems, smart energy grids and so on.
If you look back over the last 50 years or so – and perhaps you should never trust an account of history so soon after the
event – you could argue that the last 50 years was the age of building strong individual disciplines. For example,