Computer Science - University of St Andrews

Network architectures for mobile systems: The connectivity available to a mobile system
may vary: from GSM, to wireless LAN, to 3G. The system may require more than one
of these modes to be active at once, e.g. making a phone call whilst performing a
document download. We are examining how flexible and dynamic connectivity can
be enabled, by redefining how edge networks make use of routing, addressing and
control signalling to self-organise intra- and inter-network connectivity.
Novel middleware systems architecture: We are addressing the deficiencies in current
middleware systems by creating transformational tools and novel middleware,
which can overcome limitations in existing systems such as inter-address-space
communication, replication & coherency of objects and policy placement.
Transformational tools create an isomorphic version of an existing application that
can be instrumented to support non-functional behaviour such as distribution,
persistence, application profiling, resiliency, replication, robustness and performance.
Software architectures: Work on software architecture focuses on methods and techniques
for developing evolvable system architectures that can adapt to the needs of the
application. One approach is to develop tools that support performance driven
evolution of applications. This helps explore the need for change by empirically
measuring application performance.
We are also interested in formal architectural style-based languages for describing
and analysing design-time and run-time evolvable software architectures, taking into
account reuse of components. Customised process-driven environments will provide
tools to support architectural models (including quality attributes), reasoning about
these models, and refining them into compliant implementations.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) architectures are an emerging area of interest. We are
interested in evaluation techniques for P2P storage architectures and tools and
techniques for rapidly developing dependable and secure P2P systems.
Programming highly sensorised systems: Many modern systems now include sensors to
observe their actions and environments. The challenge is to interpret imprecise,
partial and often conflicting sensor observations to inform intelligent actions. Our
work in this area focuses on uncertain reasoning (to understand what’s happening),
programming paradigms (to cleanly and efficiently express what we want to happen),
and mathematical analysis (to ensure that systems remain within a safe envelope of
behaviour).
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