The young researcher Mathias Soeken, member of the "Work Group Computer Architecture" led by Professor Rolf Drechsler in the Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science at the University of Bremen, has been awarded an international young-researcher prize in Yokohama, Japan. The prize is for research on quality in system designs which he carried out while working on his doctoral thesis.
Some background: When setting out to build a complex technical system like an MP3 player or a cell phone, for instance, one has to begin with a detailed specification which describes all the functions the product has to perform. However: the more functions that are foreseen, the more complicated these specifications will be. Quite often it takes large teams of experts to create the necessary documentation. It is easy to lose sight of things when dealing with hundreds of pages of specifications. Therefore it is crucial to implement measures of quality assurance during the development and production of complex systems.
In his doctoral thesis Soeken tackles the problem of how to ensure high quality throughout the system design process. He investigates how errors arising in complex designs can be efficiently discovered. It is important in this context to check that the initially compiled description does not contain any contradictions. In the absence of such examination, possible errors may not be identified until the implementation phase of product development – resulting in costly correction work.
In order to avoid this situation from occurring, Soeken has developed fully automatic procedures which check certain system designs for contradictions "at the press of a button". In the event of errors being discovered, his development even delivers the causes and solutions for the problem. In this way it is possible to ensure that the implementation phase is not initiated unless the respective model is free of errors. The approaches developed by Soeken now make it possible to deal with systems of extreme complexity on this level of abstraction and is full of promise for commercial applications.
Following publication of his initial research findings at several renowned international conferences, Soeken’s breakthrough achievement has now received recognition from experts: Within the context of a presentation of young researchers during the "Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference" (ASP-DAC) in Yokohama he received a Best Poster Award reserved for post-graduate and doctoral students. For 26-year-old Mathias Soeken, who had already managed to obtain a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes to fund his studies, this represents an important award in his still young research career.
