Albert M. K. Cheng
Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin; Senior Member, IEEE
Associate Professor and Director, Real-Time Systems Laboratory
Department of Computer Science
University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-3475, USA
Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
Associate Editor, International Journal of Computer and Information Science
Guest Co-Editor, IEEE-TSE Special Issues on Software and Performance, Nov-Dec 2000
Work-in-Progress Program Chair, IEEE-CS Real-Time Technology and Applications, May 2001
Office: 534 Philip G. Hoffman (PGH)
Phone: (713) 743-3353
Fax: (713) 743-3335
WWW: http://www.cs.uh.edu/~acheng/acheng.html
Email: cheng@cs.uh.edu
Office Hours for Fall 2001: T Th 3:00pm-4:00pm and by appointment
COSC 4330 Syllabus
COSC 4330 Sample Exam 1 Problems
COSC 4330 Sample Exam 2 Problems
COSC 6384 Syllabus
ACM Student Programming Contest, Nov. 2000
ACM Student Programming Contest, Nov. 1999
Areas of Expertise:
Real-Time Systems
Rule-Based Expert Systems
Multimedia Communication
Real-Time Networking
Operating Systems
Real-Time Systems Rule-Based Expert Systems Multimedia Communication Real-Time Networking Operating Systems Current Research Projects :
Estella (Analysis and Optimization of Real-Time Rule-Based Systems)
The objective of this research is to develop the scientific
foundation and to
implement practical tools for
optimizing and synthesizing rule-based expert systems to
meet specified response time constraints.
Real-time rule-based expert systems are embedded artificial
intelligence (AI) systems
increasingly used in many applications, such as
airplane avionics, medical monitoring instruments,
smart robots, space vehicles, and other safety
critical applications.
In addition to functional correctness, these
systems must also satisfy stringent timing constraints.
The result of
missing a deadline in these systems may be catastrophic.
If a given rule-based
system cannot deliver an adequate performance
in bounded time,
then it has to be optimized or resynthesized.
The first part of the project
investigates several approaches (state-space-based
and semantics-based)
for optimizing the rule base of expert systems.
The second part of the project investigates
the optimization of the match phase,
which has a highly unpredictable runtime.
RETIMA-NET (REal-TIme MultimediA and Networking)
The objective of this project is to
develop and implement a unified framework for predictable real-time (wired and
wireless)
multimedia communication with several levels of guaranteed quality of
service (QoS).
Estella (Analysis and Optimization of Real-Time Rule-Based Systems)The objective of this research is to develop the scientific foundation and to implement practical tools for optimizing and synthesizing rule-based expert systems to meet specified response time constraints. Real-time rule-based expert systems are embedded artificial intelligence (AI) systems increasingly used in many applications, such as airplane avionics, medical monitoring instruments, smart robots, space vehicles, and other safety critical applications. In addition to functional correctness, these systems must also satisfy stringent timing constraints. The result of missing a deadline in these systems may be catastrophic.
If a given rule-based system cannot deliver an adequate performance in bounded time, then it has to be optimized or resynthesized. The first part of the project investigates several approaches (state-space-based and semantics-based) for optimizing the rule base of expert systems. The second part of the project investigates the optimization of the match phase, which has a highly unpredictable runtime.
RETIMA-NET (REal-TIme MultimediA and Networking)
The objective of this project is to
develop and implement a unified framework for predictable real-time (wired and
wireless)
multimedia communication with several levels of guaranteed quality of
service (QoS).
1999-2000 ACM Regional Collegiate Programming Contest at Rogers State University
1998-1999 ACM Regional Collegiate Programming Contest at Rice University
Team Advisor Dr. Albert M. K. Cheng with UH Team Members:
(l to r) B. J. Guillot, Edward G. Stangler, Prof. Albert Cheng, Chandler Wilkerson, Priti Mehta, Navin Boppuri, Susan Arevalo.
COSC 7384 Class Schedule:
8-28-01: L. E. P. Rice and Albert M. K. Cheng,
``Timing Analysis of the X-38 Space Station Crew Return Vehicle Avionics,''
Proc. IEEE-CS Real-Time Technology and Applications
Symposium,
Vancouver, Canada, June 2-4, 1999.
8-30-01: F. Jahanian and A. K. Mok, ``Safety Analysis of Timing Properties in Real-Time Systems,'' IEEE Trans. Software Engineering, Vol. SE-12, No. 9, Sept. 1986, pp. 890-904.
9-4-01: F. Jahanian and A. K. Mok, ``A Graph-Theoretic Approach for Timing Analysis and its Implementation,'' IEEE Trans. Computers, Vol. C-36, No. 8, pages 961--975, August 1987.
9-6-01 to 9-11-01: E. M. Clarke, E. A. Emerson, and A. P. Sistla, ``Automatic Verification of Finite-State Concurrent Systems Using Temporal Logic Specifications,'' ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems, Vol. 8, No. 2, April 1986, pp. 244-263.
9-13-01: S. Campos, E. Clarke, W. Marrero, M. Minea and H. Hiraishi, ``Computing Quantitative Characteristics of Finite-State Real-Time Systems ,'' Proc. 15th IEEE Real-Time Systems Symp., San Juan, Puerto Rico, pages 266--270, Dec. 1994.
9-18-01: A. M. K. Cheng, J. C. Browne, A. K. Mok, and R.-H. Wang, ``Analysis of Real-Time Rule-Based Systems With Behavioral Constraint Assertions Specified in Estella,'' IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol 19, No. 9, pp. 863-885, Sept. 1993.
9-20-01: J.-R. Chen and A. M. K. Cheng, ``Response Time Analysis of EQL Real-Time Rule-Based Systems,'' IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 26-43, Feb. 1995.
A. M. K. Cheng and J.-R. Chen, ``Response Time Analysis of OPS5 Production Systems,'' IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, May/June 2000.
B. Zupan and A. M. K. Cheng, ``Optimization of Rule-Based Systems Using State Space Graphs,'' IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 238-254, March/April 1998.
9-25-01: X. Huang and A. M. K. Cheng, ``Applying Imprecise Algorithms to Real-Time Image and Video Transmission,'' Proc. IEEE-CS Real-Time Technology and Applications Symp., Chicago, IL, pp. 96-101, May 1995.
9-27-01: A. M. K. Cheng and X. Gu, ``Improving the I/O Performance of Real-Time Database Systems with Multiple-Disk Storage Structures'' Proc. 25th Intl. Conf. on Parallel Processing, Bloomingdale, IL, Vol. I, pp. 204-211, Aug. 1996.
10-2-01: A. M. K. Cheng, ``Self-Stabilizing Real-Time Rule-Based Systems,'' Proc. 11th IEEE-CS Symp. on Reliable Distributed Systems, Houston, Texas, pp. 172-179, Oct. 1992.