Invited Speakers

Henrique Madeira
University of Coimbra, DEI-CISUC – Coimbra, Portugal

“Quantitative safety assessment: experiments and field measurements”
Abstract: Fault injection and experimental dependability evaluation is often regarded as a very expensive approach. Expensive and difficult to apply, especially when the goal is to emulate realistically relevant fault types such as software faults(i.e., software bugs) and hardware transient faults. In fact, although both the industry and the research community use fault injection today, most of the utilization examples are related to the use of fault injection as a testing approach. The use of fault injection as evaluation or measurement technique is relatively rare and generally not convincing from a technical perspective. The talk addresses the use of fault injection techniques to assess dependability attributes of components and/or computer systems, with particular focus on the use of fault injection to help on computer safety assessment. The potential use of fault injection techniques in conjunction with traditional methods for safety analyses will be discussed, for both qualitative and quantitative safety assessment methods. Above all, we will show that the correct utilization of fault injection techniques can be quite effective and affordable for computer safety assessment. Additionally, other utilizations of fault injection such as faultload for dependability benchmarking, experimental risk assessment, and computer failure prediction are also presented and illustrated with research examples.

Short Bio: Henrique Madeira is professor at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. His main research interest is experimental evaluation of dependable computing systems, fault injection, error detection mechanisms, and transactional systems dependability, subjects on which he has authored or co-authored more than 150 papers in refereed conferences and journals. He has coordinated or participated in tens of projects funded by the Portuguese government and by the European Union. Henrique Madeira was the Vice-Chair of the IFID Working Group 10.4 Special Interest Group (SIG) in Dependability Benchmarking from the establishment of the SIG in the summer of 1999 until 2002. He has organized several Workshops and scientific events, including serving as Program Co-Chair of the major conferences of his research area, such as the IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks. Henrique Madeira was co-developer of RIFLE, a pin-level fault injection tool, and Xception a software implemented fault injection (SWIFI) tool. These tools have been used in several European universities and by the Brazilian National Institute of Space Research (INPE), NASA, ESA, among others. Henrique Madeira was a co-founder of the company Critical Software SA.

Philippe Quéré
Renault

“Key Challenges for the Automotive Industry and Renault”
Abstract: The automotive domain will continue to change in the future, for instance cars are becoming more and more connected, ADAS (Advanced Driving Assistance Systems) will more and more help the driver and sometimes take hand on the car, and maybe one day our car will become fully autonomous! The automotive industry is therefore facing new major technical challenges, with very important safety and security stakes. The talk will present in five points the challenges in the automotive domain and within Renault more specifically. At first, a general introduction on the automotive context will recall the key factors driving this industry and business challenges that we are facing. Some of the differentiating characteristics with other industries will be highlighted in order to allow the understanding of the automotive context. Then, from this introduction, the focus will be put on Renault and its strategy for his customers. Some orientations that may differ from other car manufacturers will be explained. These orientations influence the research and development efforts for Renault. Then, the top technical challenges at vehicle level, as seen by Renault will be shown. Some of the actions already on going in order to meet these challenges will be highlighted. I will then explain more deeply the consequences at the software level, and what are the key areas of interest on Renault’s side, and in particular regarding safety and security of the software embedded in the cars. And as a conclusion, the importance of the link between the industry and the academics will be emphasized. Some figures showing Renault involvement in this domain will be provided.

Short Bio: Philippe Quéré is the manager of an advanced engineering team on real-time embedded software in Renault. He is involved, among other subjects, in the advanced studies related to safety for real-time embedded software. He is ISO expert in WG16 group for the development of the ISO 26262 international standard. He takes part in the discussions on cross domain comparison of safety standards in a working group of Embedded France. He is a computer science engineer with experience in embedded software. He joined Renault in 2005 as an “advanced engineering” engineer to work on software development subjects. He took the lead of the team in 2010. Before joining Renault Philippe has been involved in the development of embedded software for the consumer electronics and the automotive industry, working for car suppliers and manufacturers via subcontracting.

Philip Koopman
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) – Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)

“Software Quality, Dependability and Safety in Embedded Systems”
Abstract: We often trust embedded systems with mission-critical functions, and even our own lives. But the designers of such systems (and especially their managers) are often domain experts who have not been formally trained in software development. While many embedded systems work well, in my design reviews I frequently see problems ranging from the subtle to the catastrophic. In this talk I will identify commonly occurring technical, process, and quality assurance issues based on my experience performing more than 135 industry design reviews and present results of a case study that illustrates how many of these problems are present in a widely deployed system. Common problems include a lack of embedded-specific software engineering skills, software process gaps, and a failure to appreciate that more than just product-level testing is required to create high quality software. Most of these problems cannot simply be fixed by adopting a tool, but rather require a change of culture and perspective in engineering organizations. All too often, the developers and their management simply don’t realize they have gotten in over their heads as their product’s software has escalated from performing a simple supporting function to providing make-or-break product functionality.

The video of Philip Koopman giving the Toyota UA case study talk is on line:
http://betterembsw.blogspot.com/2014/09/a-case-study-of-toyota-unintended.html

Short Bio: Dr. Philip Koopman is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, where he has worked in the broad areas of wearable computers, software robustness, embedded networking, dependable embedded computer systems, and autonomous vehicle safety. Previously, he was a submarine officer in the US Navy, an embedded CPU architect for Harris Semiconductor, and an embedded system researcher at United Technologies. His current research interests focus on safety critical software and Embedded/Cyber-Physical System education. He is a senior member of IEEE, senior member of the ACM, and a member of IFIP WG 10.4 on Dependable Computing and Fault Tolerance. Recently he has served as a testifying expert witness for automotive unintended acceleration cases. He has affiliations with the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department (ECE), Institute for Software Research (ISR), and National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC).

Werner Steinhoegl
European Commission, unit Complex Systems and Advanced Computing, CONNECT – A3

“Cyber-Physical Systems in Horizon 2020 – Trends in EU research and innovation activities”
Abstract: Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) refer to next generation embedded ICT systems that are interconnected and collaborating including through the Internet of Things, and providing citizens and businesses with a wide range of innovative applications and services. These are the ICT systems increasingly embedded in all types of artefacts making “smarter”, more intelligent, more energy-efficient and more comfortable our transport systems, cars, factories, hospitals, offices, homes, cities and personal devices. The challenge for Europe is on both reinforcing industrial strengths as well as exploring new markets.
Often endowed with control, monitoring and data gathering functions, CPS need to comply with essential requirements like safety, privacy, security and near-zero power consumption as well as size, usability and adaptability constraints. To maximise impact and return on investment in this field, the following challenges are essential:

• De-verticalising technology solutions with CPS platforms that cut across the barriers between application sectors including mass consumer markets
• Bringing together actors along the value chain from suppliers of components and customised computing systems to system integrators and end users.
• Creating new ICT Platforms for both vertical and core markets from automotive, health, smart buildings and energy to wireless communications and digital consumer products and services.

The goal is to enable every business in Europe, and notable SMEs, to get access to latest CPS technologies, knowledge and skills in order to innovate and generate higher value in its products, processes and services and to compete at a world scale.
Different EU actions are foreseen for this:

• Objectives related to CPS in the “Industrial Leadership” part of Horizon 2020 supporting collaborative research and innovation projects
• In particular, networks of competence centres offering a one stop shop for any business to upgrade their products, processes and services. These should enable the organic development of innovation clusters around these centres and a dynamic environment for business growth in emerging areas such as “smart anything everywhere” and Internet of Things.
• ECSEL, the Joint Technology Initiative in components and systems, strengthens the digital supply chain in Europe and ensures that value creation from the supply industry in Europe is compatible with the size of our economy and provides the technologies needed to drive the whole economy.

Short Bio: Werner Steinhögl is Scientific Programme Officer at the European Commission in Brussels. He develops strategies for the ICT research workprogramme in the Cyber-Physical Systems domain and manages collaborative research projects in the directorate general for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (CONNECT). Before he had been working for 6 years in the Future and Emerging Technologies programme (FET) and managing research projects in quantum information processing and atomic scale ICT devices. From 1999 to 2005 he was a research engineer and staff scientist at Siemens and Infineon Corporate Research in Munich and did R&D in advanced semiconductor technologies, materials and devices. His education is in theoretical and experimental physics where he holds a PhD acquired at the Max-Planck Institute for fluid dynamics in Göttingen, Germany. His thesis dealt with problems of surface and solid state physics. He is author and coauthor of about 45 scientific papers and filed more than 5 patents.