Ulrich Schmid

Full professor (Head of ECS Group)

Ulrich Schmid
Head Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn.
E-Mail
Phone ++43-1-58801-18250
Fax ++43-1-58801-18297
Address



 Vienna University of Technology
Institute of Computer Engineering
Embedded Computing Systems
Treitlstrasse 3, 2nd floor, 1040 Wien, Austria

 

 

Research
Publications (+BibTeX Entries)
Projects
Teaching
Other responsibilities
About myself

 

Research

I am interested in finding sound solutions to relevant and difficult scientific problems in all areas of computer engineering. My major concerns are motivation and support of my PhD students and PostDocs and, more generally, creating a climate that combines challenge, openness, fun & freedom in my research group. My past and current PhD students (I am proud of and grateful to all of them) could tell ...

Research fields: Starting out from the mathematical analysis of algorithms and network protocols for multiaccess channels, I turned to applying analytic combinatorics in the analysis of queueing systems subject to deadlines, which cumulated in my Habilitation at TU Wien. My current major research interests are modeling and mathematical analysis of fault-tolerant distributed algorithms, topology in distributed systems, epistemic logic, fault-tolerant asynchronous VLSI circuits/SoCs, and real-time systems.

Here is what I would currently consider my five most interesting publications:

Five additional publications that I find as interesting can be found here.

Selected presentations:

I served in the PCs of many distributed computing conferences (PODC, DISC, OPODIS etc.). I have also been general (co-)chair of DISC'17 in Vienna, and the PC chair of DISC'18 in New Orleans.

Projects

Here are some of my current and recent research projects:

      ByzDEL is a project led by the logician Roman Kuznets, who has fortunately joined my research group. Its goal is incorporate arbitrarily misbehaving agents into an epistemic reasoning framework and to supplement the standard Kripke semantics with a suitable topological semantics for distributed systems, while exploiting, and being informed by, the success of Dynamic Epistemic Logic in capturing the dynamics of knowledge evolution in modal logic.

      DMAC is devoted to the development of a purely digital model for asynchronous circuits, which enables accurate and fast dynamic timing analysis and is a mandatory prerequisite for any attempt on practical formal verification of such designs.

      This project is devoted to the development of the theoretical foundations, models, algorithms and analysis techniques for relaxed distributed agreement in directed dynamic networks. It shall yield new insights into the fundamental limitations of dynamic networks as well as the development of novel algorithms that solve distributed agreement problems reliably even under very weak communication guarantees.

          Teaching

          My major intention here is to convey some my own enthusiasm about research to my own students, and to help them to develop their individual skills as much as possible - which also requires supporting gifted students early on and challenging them to the extent necessary for reaching international competitiveness. I am hence particularly devoted to and proud of our Bachelor with Honors program, which I have helped creating.

          I also want all of my students to understand that computer science is much more than programming, and that solving challenging research problems primarily requires mathematical/formal and abstraction skills. In fact, I strongly believe that developing such skills is the core (and unrivaled) responsibility of universities and hence the central issue in academic curricula.

          As a consequence, I am proud of many students who did their Master thesis (Diplomarbeit) with me - including several EPILOG finalists and the EPILOG Distinguished Young Alumnus SS2020 winner Thomas Schlögl. Here are a some posters of such theses (and here is more):

          Schloegl_2021_EPILOGWINNER_small.jpg     Perner_2013_EPILOG_small.jpg   Schwarz_2014_EPILOG_small.jpg

          Besides Scientific Working in our Bachelor program "Technische Informatik", I primarily teach the following courses in our Master program "Technische Informatik/Computer Engineering" (and other master studies):

          Moreover, since 2018, I am also full faculty member of the Doctorate Program Logical Methods in Computer Science (LogiCS), which is now in its 2nd 4-years period and has opened up its scope to the application areas cyber-physical systems, distributed systems and security & privacy.

          Other responsibilities

          I serve in several internal and external commitees and boards. Feel free to contact me in any matter related to the following:

           

          About myself

          I am full professor and head of the Embedded Computing Systems Group at the Institut für Technische Informatik at TU Vienna. My background is in computer science and mathematics as well as in industrial electronics and embedded systems design. I received several awards and prices, most notably the Austrian START-prize, and own the venia docendi ("Habilitation") for the whole field of computer science at TU Wien.

          Here is my full curriculum vitae:

          My private interests besides my family are music (playing church organ), philosophy, literature, and Dutch as well as Italian painting.

          I admire the positions and the general attitude regarding the responsibilities of a scientist by the great philosopher Sir Karl R. Popper, and am hence a member of the Netzwerk Wissenschaftsfreiheit e.V. and support the Austrian liberal party NEOS. And I am happy to be a "Sterntaler" since many years.