Networks
Networks make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Social networks, computer networks, and transportation networks are all examples of networks that are deeply enmeshed into our lives. CISE investigates fundamental research questions in networks, such as network formation and evolution, and interaction between network agents (which may be selfish or malicious). The questions are addressed through advances in the fields of optimization, control, distributed algorithms, and game theory. The theoretical methods are complemented by experimental work, which include testing of IoT and 5G network systems, deployment of networks of autonomous agents (e.g., robots, drones, and connected vehicles), design of neural networks for deep learning, federation of cloud computing systems, and data-driven methods to detect and thwart malicious behavior on the Internet.
The Sensor You Swallow
Thanks to the work of Assistant Professor Rabia Yazicigil (ECE) and her colleagues at MIT, Crohn’s and other bowel disease sufferers might someday skip the arduous annual endoscopy and instead swallow a pill-sized device that would literally shed light on what’s going on inside the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. MIT researchers previously developed a 1.5-inch capsule that contained […]
Synthetic gene sensors and effectors to redirect organoid development
Human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived organoids hold great promise for tissue engineering and personalized drug screening, but obtaining the desired multicellular organization and function from these systems is usually performed in an ad hoc fashion without forward design specification. Recently, we reported successful liver bud formation containing stromal cells, vascular tube-like structures and hematopoiesis-like […]
Gut Health Project Nets Professor Yazicigil Multi-Disciplinary Grant
CISE faculty affiliate Rabia Yazicigil (ECE) is leveraging her skill with hardware design and IoT security in a new direction, for the benefit of human health. Working in collaboration with Professor Tim Lu, of MIT’s EECS & Biological Engineering departments, Professor Yazicigil is developing a new miniaturized bio-electronic device which would make it possible to […]
Collaborative Research: A Workshop on Pre-emergence and the Predictions of Rare Events in Multiscale, Complex, Dynamical Systems
Although pandemics have threatened human civilization since ancient times, how to predict and prevent them remains one of the most pressing challenges, calling out for innovative insights and practices. Pandemics emerge through incidental ‘perfect storms’: molecular changes in pathogens, gradual trends in climate, subtle shifts in ecological interactions among potential hosts, and even individual behavioral […]
SII Planning: Escaping Gravity: The End of Gs
This award is a planning grant for the Spectrum Innovation Initiative: National Center for Wireless Spectrum Research (SII-Center). The focus of a spectrum research SII-Center goes beyond 5G, IoT, and other existing or forthcoming systems and technologies to chart out a trajectory to ensure United States leadership in future wireless technologies, systems, and applications in […]
BU Researchers Propose Method for Controlling COVID-19 through Cellphones
CISE faculty affiliate Ari Trachtenberg along with fellow Boston University Computer Science professors Mayank Varia, and Ran Canetti recently published a paper that proposes a method for using cellphones to track COVID-19, while protecting user privacy. The researchers write: “Successful containment of the Coronavirus pandemic rests on the ability to quickly and reliably identify those […]
Secure Bio-Engineered Sensors for Disease Management
The objective of this project is to address the limitations in our current ability to measure disease biomarkers in the gastrointestinal tract. Unable to track the levels of these molecules, we have an incomplete picture of the process of inflammation, and thus cannot evaluate disease progression or how well treatments are working. To overcome gaps […]
CNS Core: Small: Collaborative Research: HEECMA: A Hybrid Elastic Edge-Cloud Application Management Architecture
Application software is becoming increasingly abundant in functionality and increasingly demanding of resources, e.g., memory and compute power. This project examines how application software, e.g., a Virtual Reality (VR) based drone control application, can be partitioned and deployed over different parts of a distributed computing infrastructure, i.e., resources are managed by a hybrid of service […]
CNS Core: Small: Collaborative Research: The Interplay of Markets and Security in 5G Shared Spectrum Services
Efficient and secure use of shared spectrum is critical to support the demands from emerging 5G wireless applications that have potential benefits across society. This project is addressing these by considering intertwined economic and security issues in 5G wireless networks that use more flexible spectrum access paradigms, such as the recently finalized rules for the […]
Efficiently Distributing Optimization Over Large-Scale Networks
This project will design new algorithms for distributed optimization which can work without any kind of central coordinator or processor server and whose asymptotic performance always improves in larger networks. The algorithms will run over communication networks based on peer-to-peer nearest neighbor with connectivity backbones that can vary with time. Our model will explicitly account […]