Ph.D. Project Opportunities

This page gives information about some Ph.D. project topics currently proposed by potential supervisors in ICSA.

Projects in Self-Timed Systems Design and Testing, Computer Micro-architecture

I am interested in the interface between circuit design and computer architecture with a focus on self-timed or asynchronous circuits and systems. A sample of research topics suitable for PhD research in these areas.

• Noise-Tolerant Asynchronous Circuits
• Micro-architectural Solutions for Fault-Tolerance
• Data-Dependent Processing for Energy-Aware Systems
• Top-down Testability for Self-Timed Circuits
• Delay Fault Testing of Self-Timed Circuits
  Industrial CASE studentship available

Projects in Skeletal Parallel Programming

The skeletal approach to parallel programming advocates the use of program forming constructs which abstract commonly occuring patterns of parallel computation. In effect, these constructs define a co-ordination language into which fragments of lower level (either sequential or explicitly parallel) code can be inserted. There is a range of opportunities for developments in this area:

• Design, definition and implementation of a skeletal extension to a "standard" imperative parallel framework such as MPI.
  
  
• A similar investigation of the application of the skeletal approach to a thread based parallel system such as Java.
  
  
• Investigation of the application of the skeletal approach to the programming of Grid (and other distributed) applications.
  
  
• Investigation of the application of shape analysis to the compilation of skeletal parallel programs.
  
  
• Consideration and exploitation of the relationship between the skeletal approach and the concept of patterns as studied by Software Engineering researchers.

Projects in Optimisation and Compilation

The primary research question I am interested in is: how can compiler technology best exploit the potential of high performance architectures? This work involves developing new theory and optimisation techniques and then prototyping these ideas in experimental compilers. Compilers are one component in high performance computing and I am interested in their interaction with other components, most notably architecture design. My research interests include:

Projects in Computer Architecture

I am interested in supervising research in any topic related to computer architecture design. In particular, my main research topics currently are:

• Speculative Parallelisation for Multiprocessors
  I am interested in both hardware and software techniques for performing speculative parallelisation in both small- and large-scale multiprocessors. I am also interested in compiler technology to support speculative parallelisation. For more details, please consult the VESPA project web page.
• Cellular Multiprocessors
  This new architectural approach is likely to replace current monolithic superscalar microprocessors in the future. I am mainly interested in the architectural and hardware issues involving this new approach. I am also interested in some compiler and programming issues. For more details, please consult the Cellular Multiprocessors project web page.

Projects in Computer Architecture

There is a strong synergy between computer architecture and compilers - many architectural innovations rely upon increasingly sophisticated optimizations, whereas optimizations such as auto-parallelization and code generation for instruction-level parallelism typically rely upon certain underlying hardware structures. The research topics below address the general question of how to exploit higher levels of integration in the quest for increasing performance in future computing systems, particularly embedded systems.

• Just-In-Time Codesign
  Today there is an increasing bluring of the distinction between hardware and software. The idea of codesign is to simultaneously optimize both the software and hardware structures for a given application, or class of applications. The concept of just-in-time codesign extends this to real-time, iterative, or even continuous compilation down to hardware and software. It relies on the concept of flexible hardware and mobile intermediate forms such as Java byte-code.

• Distributed on-chip memory architecture
  A previous research project into scalable VLIW architecture showed how it is possible to partition applications across a large number of function-unit clusters effectively. However, a major fundamental unsolved problem, for all such partitioned architectures, is how to provide adequate memory bandwidth. Multiple caches may be required, raising issues such as cache coherence. This project aims to investigate this problem with a combined compiler/architecture approach to maintaining a coherent but distributed memory hierarchy within a single-chip implementation.
  

Projects in Software Tools for Embedded Systems

Only about 2% of all microprocessors made drive PCs, the other 98% is embedded CPUs. However, unlike the PC domain there is no single processor architecture dominating the embedded domain. In fact, there is a large number of sometimes highly specialised processors for widely varying applications. Idiosyncratic architectures, specialised applications and the demand low cost, high performance solutions often operating under real-time constraints challenge traditional software tools, making it necessary to investigate new approaches in the area of tool support for embedded systems.

My main research interests are currently:

Projects in Networking

My current research is mainly in the area of wireless and mobile networking, focusing on issues such as performance, reliability, self-configuration and heterogeneity. Sample topics include:

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