Radu Marculescu Carnegie Mellon University

COATNET: COlloidAl computing for Textile-area NETworks

The objective of this presentation is to address an emerging field of research that combines the strengths and capabilities of electronics and textiles in one: namely electronic textiles, or e-textiles. E-textiles represent an interdisciplinary field of research which brings together specialists in information technology, microsystems, materials, and textiles. The focus of this new area of research is on developing the enabling technologies and fabrication techniques for the economical manufacturing of large area, flexible, conformable information systems which are expected to have unique applications for both consumer electronics and military industry.

This talk is intended to introduce the audience to the exciting field of e-textiles, illustrate their possible applications and challenges imposed by the dual textile electronics technology. In addition, the presentation will provide a thorough vision of what is expected from the design automation community for supporting the new technology and what is the impact on the design cycle imposed by the newly emerging application.

Bio
Radu Marculescu received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 1998. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor in the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department at Carnegie Mellon University. He and his research group are performing research on formal methods for system-level design of embedded applications. Of particular interest are fast methods for power and performance analysis that can guide the design process of portable information devices. Currently, the group develops probabilistic models for exploiting concurrency and communication aspects in the design and optimization of complex heterogeneous applications. He has recently received one best paper award in the area of system-level design methodologies at the 2001 edition of the Design and Test Conference in Europe (DATE) and was in 2000 awarded the National Science Foundation's Career Award for the System-Level Power/Performance Analysis for Embedded Systems Design.