RISC - Trustworthy Computing Systems and Networks

The RISC Department on  "Trustworthy Computing Systems and Networks "aims to develop innovative solutions to master the design, scaling, architecture, analysis, supervision and operational deployment of complex dynamic communication networks, cyberphysical systems and associated applications. The research focuses on systems and applications that have to fulfil strong requirements in terms of quality of service, timeliness, operational safety, resilience or security. The objective is to contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge both on theoretical foundations and on conceptual approaches based on formal and experimental methods as well as on their practical implementation.

Research Teams

The activities are carried out within four research teams addressing complementary  research topics :

  • System Engineering and Integration (ISI): The team develops methods and tools to optimize the lifecycle processes of complex systems,particularly requirement management, model integration, V&V, simulation and virtual prototyping. Emphasis is put on integration of heterogeneous models in requirements engineering and design, and on model-driven (co)-simulation of complex systems. 
  •  Services and Architectures for Advanced Networks (SARA): The research is aimed at mastering the design, planning, deployment management and supervision of next-generation communication networks and systems and their applications. The contributions focus on the development of methods, models and tools, and the proposal of architectures, protocols and services.
  • Dependable Computing and Fault Tolerance (TSF): The contributions focus on the development of algorithms, architectures and testing and assessment techniques to ensure the dependability, resilience and security of computer and cyber-physical systems. Both accidental threats (software, hardware, or human interaction failures) and malicious threats (e.g. intrusions) are considered.
  • Verification of Time Critical Systems (VERTICS): The research addresses formal description and verification model-based techniques to support the design of critical communicating and hybrid systems with strong timeliness requirements. The team designs verification algorithms and new abstractions to avoid combinatorial explosion for larger-scale models and to facilitate the integration of these formal techniques into the systems engineering processes.

Research Topics 

The following figure summarizes the main research topics addressed  in the department.

Key research targets and technologies: Autonomous systems, Embedded systems, Critical infrastructures,Real-time, Internet of Things, M2M, Wireless communications, satellite/5G communications, Virtualisation (Cloud, SDN, NFV, Edge computing, 5G) 

Application domains : Transportation (aeronautics, automotive), Telecommunications, Industry 4.0, Space, Energy, Defence, Smart city, Social networks and Web applications