About the Research of Edward A. Lee
My research centers on the role of models, particularly deterministic models, in the engineering of cyber-physical systems. I consider the most significant research contributions of my group to be (roughly in reverse chronological order by start date):
- Efficient real-time software for predictable systems.
See Lingua Franca, a polyglot coordination language for deterministic concurrency. - Philosophy of technology, technology and society.
See viewpoints and books. - The CAL Theorem, fundamental tradeoff between Consistency, Availability, and Latency.
See original paper and its application to cyber-physical systems. - A demonstration that determinism is incomplete.
See "Fundamental Limits of Cyber-Physical Systems Modeling" (2016). - An understanding of how the role of models differs in engineering and science.
See "The Past, Present and Future of Cyber-Physical Systems: A Focus on Models" (2015). - A family of processor architectures that deliver repeatable timing.
See PRET and papers on computer architecture. - A deterministic programming model for distributed real-time systems.
See PTIDES and papers on real time. - Rigorous semantics for hybrid systems, which mix discrete and continuous dynamics.
See papers on hybrid systems. - Mathematical models for concurrent and timed systems.
See papers on semantics. - Techniques for the engineering of complex systems.
See papers on systems engineering. - Open-source software for modeling and design of cyber-physical systems and the Internet of Things.
See Accessors, Ptolemy, and papers on software. - Dataflow models for signal processing and parallel computation.
See papers on dataflow.
You can find a reasonably up-to-date overview video in my keynote talk at MODELS 2016, where I lay out my central position on the importance of determinism in modeling. My recent book, Plato and the Nerd (MIT Press, Fall 2017), provides an accessible view of the philosophical underpinnings of my work. I have also written a number of textbooks. Other resources include a complete list of publications and a list of selected publications organized by topic. If you want to read just one paper, a reasonable choice is "The Past, Present, and Future of Cyber-Physical Systems: A Focus on Models," Sensors, 2015. See also my academic biographical summary or my complete CV.
Third Person Summary
Edward A. Lee is the Robert S. Pepper Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California at Berkeley, where he has been on the faculty since 1986. He the author of Plato and the Nerd - The Creative Partnership of Humans and Technology (MIT Press, 2017), a number of textbooks and research monographs, and more than 300 papers and technical reports. Lee has delivered more than 180 keynote talks and other invited talks at venues worldwide and has graduated at least 35 PhD students.
Professor Lee's research group studies cyber-physical systems, which integrate physical dynamics with software and networks. His focus is on the use of deterministic models as a central part of the engineering toolkit for such systems. Specifically, his group has made contributions in models of computation with time and concurrency, model-based design and analysis, software tools for design of cyberphysical systems, architectures for real-time computing, and modeling and programming of distributed real-time systems. His group has also been involved with parallel and distributed computing, specifically partitioning and scheduling algorithms, fault tolerance, dataflow models of computation, and modeling of sensor networks. His group has also pioneered methods for blending computing with continuous dynamics and hybrid systems. Prof. Lee himself has an extensive background in signal processing and physical-layer communication systems and has co-authored two books on these subjects, in addition to four books on embedded systems modeling and design technologies.