Dependable computing systems based on emerging paradigms and architectures
My name is Marco Ottavi. I joined the CAES group of the faculty of EEMCS in November 2021 as an Associate Professor. My research focuses on Dependable Computing Systems. My goal is to explore new computing paradigms and architectures to bring reliable, secure, and efficient computing in IoT devices, thus enabling intelligence on the edge.
Dependability is at the very foundation of the digital revolution and the pervasive presence of computing systems in all the aspects of our lives. Dependability measures the level of trust a system operates as expected, and will not fail for some unintended reason. This overarching definition includes quality, reliability and security.
- Quality represents the level of trust that a system operates correctly when facing the occurrence of random events at manufacturing.
- Reliability represents the level of trust that a system will operate correctly when facing the occurrence of random events during its mission time.
- Security represents the level of trust that a system will operate correctly when facing the occurrence of malicious events both at manufacturing and mission time.
Quality, reliability, and security are three intertwined features of modern computing system design. All must be taken into account when designing dependable computing systems.
Background
In my background, I have experience in Academia and Industry both in the US and in Europe. Throughout my career I worked on dependability of advanced digital systems with special focus on emerging computing paradigms. I have a strong interest in exploring the different layers involved in emerging computing architectures: from the technology level to the software Instruction Set Architecture. I believe that innovation must come through a cross layer approach.
In the years to come
My goal is to create novel dependable computing systems based on emerging paradigms and architectures. I am planning to explore the paradigm shift in computing ushered by new technologies, to achieve, as an example, sensing and computing in memory using resistive devices such as memristors, power and computing on chip by exploiting the characteristics of emerging materials such as perovskites. Also I am planning to leverage the openness and flexibility of the RISC-V Instruction Set Architecture to achieve Hardware security against counterfeits and vulnerabilities (hardware security and Trust), system safety in critical applications such as automotive, avionics, reliability of low-power systems for Edge computing applications and IoT.
Education
My teaching activity is focused on computing architectures and dependability: I am in the teaching team of the Master module “Embedded Computer Architectures 1” and I will start a new Master course “Dependable Computing Systems” which has the goal to provide students with advanced knowledge of manufacturability, reliability and security of digital systems.
Collaborations
Over the years I have established many scientific collaborations with research institutes and companies. Having worked at AMD I have strong connections with industry. Also, I was the coordinator of the COST MEDIAN action (Manufacturable and Dependable multicore architectures at nanoscale) that created a European network of expertise on all aspects of dependability of the future computing systems, involving researchers from 24 European countries and international researchers from the USA, Brazil and Singapore. Finally, I have an established collaboration with the European Space Agency ESA-ESTEC in Noordwijk on the design of dependable systems for on board computing in space applications.