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2007-2008 Faculty Lecture Series in Electrical Engineering
Winter 2008

Computing Platforms Embedded in the Environment for Resource Management and New Healthcare Systems

Professor William Kaiser
UCLA Electrical Engineering

Wednesday, March 5, 2008 at 1:00PM

54-134 Engineering IV Building
Refreshments Served

Abstract: This presentation will describe recent research advances and opportunities for future research inspired by new embedded computing platforms and applications. Embedded networked systems, developed over the last decade, are now appearing in the most urgent global applications from environmental resource management to healthcare. In support of these important objectives, new actuated sensing platforms, optimized distributed sensing measurement methods, and a new sensor node platform have been recently introduced to the community. These systems developed by UCLA EE research teams are now being deployed in national and international locations.

The primary discussion in this presentation will focus on a foundation technology in our group: A new embedded networked system that adaptively optimizes its own energy usage at runtime. This new platform, the Low energy Power Aware Platform (LEAP) includes monitoring and control capabilities for processor, memory, storage, and network interface components. Its high temporal resolution measurement systems permits the first accounting for energy usage of individual platform components at the level of individual computing tasks. The Energy Endoscope, a new LEAP tool, creates an unprecedented capability for optimizing energy efficiency in subsystems that were previously nearly invisible to conventional profiling tools. While LEAP was first inspired by networked sensing, this same architecture now promises capabilities for enhancing energy efficiency in large scale data center systems where growing electrical energy use is now a primary cost and constraint on business.

This presentation will also describe the applications of this and related embedded platforms to the new field of Wireless Health. Our group has collaborated closely with Professor Majid Sarrafzadeh's group and a large, multidisciplinary community in the School of Medicine, School of Public Health, and many other units on our campus. We are pleased that through a sustained effort, our campus organization in Wireless Health is growing and its research impact is expanding in applications ranging frm pharmaceutical management to new assistive devices for geriatric care. This presentation will also discuss a recent research highlight – the Smart Cane – a new embedded networked system based on the "MicroLEAP" platform. The Smart Cane has been developed to guide individuals to enhance safe usage of assistive devices. Successful development and demonstration of patient guidance are now leading to both research successes, the initiation of clinical trials, and commercialization programs. Most importantly, this and the topics above all create new research opportunities that include communication, control, optimization, circuits, and embedded computing.

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