Demonstration 1:
High-level synthesis flow based on Architecture Description Language.

Increasing complexity of cutting-edge System-on-Chips (SoCs) is forcing designers to adopt high-level language-based specifications compared to traditional Register Transfer Level (RTL). A range of high-level synthesis tool flows are currently available in commercial and academic realm for modeling the complete SoC or its constituents. The synthesis flows offer automatic generation of optimized RTL based on input specification and several user-directed constraints. Different language specifications are offered for modeling different kind of computing architectures such as processors, Coarse-Grained Reconfigurable Architectures (CGRAs) and Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). While the various specification models provide increasing design productivity for the target computing domains, it increases the difficulty to explore the intermediate design points efficiently. In this work, we propose an approach for high-level synthesis of ASICs based on Architecture Description Languages (ADLs), which are predominantly used for modeling application-specific processors. This helps the designers to explore a wide range of intermediate design points between an ASIC and a weakly programmable processor. We provide several efficient algorithms for automating the high-level synthesis. The ADL-based ASIC synthesis flow is tested with several case studies from modern embedded applications.

Demonstration 2:
Fast Reliability Exploration for Embedded Processors via High-level Fault Injection.

The downscaling of technology features have brought the system developers an important design criteria, reliability, into prime consideration. Due to external radiation effects and temperature gradients, the CMOS device is not anymore guaranteed to function flawlessly. Admission for errors to occur is also helpful as that increases the power budget. The power-reliability trade-off compounds the system design challenge by adding another metric, for which efficient design exploration framework is needed. In this work, we present a high-level design framework extended with the capability of fault injection, an important ingredient of reliability-driven design. Compared to traditional HDL-based fault injection, the proposed fault injection during instruction-set simulation is significantly faster without any notable loss of accuracy. The fault injection framework also allows quick exploration of fault prevention measure both by the aid of software and hardware techniques. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by one case study with a cryptographic processor, where fault protection plays a major role.

Beim neuesten Ranking des Magazins „WirtschaftsWoche“ küren die Personalchefs der größten deutschen Unternehmen die RWTH Aachen erneut zur besten Universität. Nach Herkunft der bevorzugten Absolventinnen und Absolventen befragt, setzen sie die RWTH als einzige Universität in Deutschland gleich in vier Bereichen auf den Spitzenplatz. So belegen die Fächer Elektrotechnik, Maschinenbau, Naturwissenschaften und Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen der RWTH den ersten Platz. In der Informatik rückt sie zudem im Vergleich zum Vorjahr vom dritten auf den zweiten Platz vor.

FootPath (ComSys)
UMIC, as well as the chair for Communication and Distributed Systems at RWTH Aachen University will present a novel indoor navigation system, helping visitors to find their way in unfamiliar locations. While navigation systems have - mainly due to the ubiquity of satellite based positioning services such as GPS - become very common in the outdoor setting, this is not the case for the indoor setting. Challenges include the accurate localization, as well as the vailability of maps. Our system tackles both these aspects elegantly: Instead of finding our position in an arbitrary area, we restrict ourselves to finding the location on the path we are navigating on towards the destination. Using only the sensors already present in modern smartphones, we detect steps and their direction and map those onto said path. Finally, using OpenStreetMap, a wiki-like system for open extensible maps, we allow easy, extensible and incrementally deployments without the need for additional infrastructure or expensive calibration.
While this system works reliable for pedestrians - it does depend on steps after all - it was previously not working for wheelchairs and SegWays. With an elegant solution on how to derive the movement without any additional hardware from a smartphone (patent pending) we now present an extension bringing our indoor navigation technology to a completely new set of users, who depend even more on good local guidance systems.

SoulMigration (ComSys)
Furthermore, we will present SoulMigration, our approach to providing mobile users with a seamless working environment, when switching from one device to another, without the need for cloud resources. Users have many different devices and switch between them depending on their location and the device capabilities. Each time a user switches to another device the working context is lost and has to be manually reestablished on the new device. With the growing number of devices per user and an increasing need for mobility this becomes a cumbersome task. Our architecture automates and simplifies the migration process by providing the means to extract the current state information of an application, discover possible target devices, migrate the state to a target device, and finally reestablish the previous working state.

Design and Control Optimization for Multi-Tier Radio Networks (Institute for Theoretical Information Technology
Optimal design and efficient operation of radio network infrastructure are key challenges for network operators to sustainably succeed in the market. While the design and deployment phase is strongly influenced by economical aspects, efficient network operation aims at optimal system performance in terms of maximizing relevant key performance indices (KPIs). We provide key components to cope with these challenges considering multi-tier LTE radio networks (MTNs):

• Ray optical algorithms for radio wave propagation prediction
• A semi-stochastic approach for MIMO channel modeling
• Optimization models for radio network design and initial configuration
• Concepts and algorithms for self-organized network operation
  
  

Together with Dipl.-Inform. Dominik Franke, scientific assistant at the Embedded Software Laboratory (Prof. Kowalewski), he defined the algorithm based on OpenStreetMap (OSM) data. A key motivation was Dzafic's personal experience that short ways are not necessarily efficient ways, regarding the power consumption of electric wheel chairs. If the road is steep, electric wheelchairs do even consume exponential more power than on a less steep road. Thanks to UMIC and the Undergraduate Research Funds both researchers were able to present their work through papers and presentations on the FOSSGIS in Heidelberg and AGIT in Salzburg.

To make this extended navigation system work reliable in different regions, altitude data information of streets is required. One problem is that for a huge part of Germany altitude data is missing in OSM. In other map services it is rarely available, and neither free nor precise. The advantage with OSM is the possibility for every user to add altitude data to each street. So one current focus of the project is to add altitude data for the region of Aachen to the OSM database, so that the navigation system will at least work reliable in the area of Aachen. Other cities like Heidelberg have already lots of altitude data in their OSM maps, as a consequence of some projects from the university in Heidelberg.

The implemented navigation system is currently available through a web interface and a mobile client for Android, called eNav (see https://embedded.rwth-aachen.de/doku.php?id=forschung:enav). To build this project up, there is still a lot of work to do. So the team looks for further students, which are interested to support this project. Furthermore this concept is not only restricted to the area of electric wheelchairs. It also applies to electric vehicles in general. As the road to go is still long, new interested parties and challenges rise along.