Michigan Journal

Issue date: 2/19/08 Section: News

Media Credit: UM-D CIS?Professor Shengquan Wang received $400,000 award from the National Science Foundation for his proposed project.

Shengquan Wang is an assistant professor of computer and information science at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. He earned his Ph.D. in computer science and a master's degree from Texas A&M. He also has a master's degree in applied mathematics from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, in China.

While joining the UM-D faculty only two years ago, Wang has another award to put under his belt.

Wang recently received $400,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Faculty Early Career Development program, also known as the CAREER program. This award is one of the most prestigious grants available from NSF.

The grant, which will be distributed over five years, was awarded for Wang's proposal, titled "Timing-Aware Dynamic Thermal Management in High Performance Embedded Systems."

The project addresses the problem of overheating in microprocessors while guaranteeing the timely processing required for high-performance, real-time embedded applications, such as avionics and flight control, space shuttle systems, vehicles and instrumentation in medical and emergency facilities. These high-performance applications present greatly increased computational requirements, while semiconductor manufacturing technology allows for smaller-sized devices.

"As a result, power density in microprocessors increase exponentially," said Wang.

According to Wang, microprocessors are prone to overheating because of the increased power density, and more than half of electronic failures are temperature-related.

"Temperature is becoming one of the big concerns in system design," said Wang.

According to Wang, as high-performance embedded systems become more thermally constrained, the issue of how to provide timing guarantees under the thermal constraint must be addressed.

"Meeting both the timing constraint and the thermal constraint at the same time makes the issue more exciting and challenging," said Wang.

Wang plans to explore ways to achieve this goal by developing various timing-aware forms of "dynamic thermal management," or TA-DTM. TA-DTM refers to a range of possible hardware and software strategies that work dynamically to control a chip's operating speed and temperature.

"This award to Professor Wang is a great indication of both the high quality of his work and his potential to provide leadership in the study of computer science for years to come," said Subrata M. Sengupta, dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science. "It also is indication of the overall excellence of our faculty and the value of their research at the national and international levels."

According to a statement from the National Science Foundation, "This program emphasizes the importance the NSF laces on the early development of academic careers dedicated to stimulating the discovery process in which the excitement of research is enhanced by inspired teaching and enthusiastic learning. The CAREER program embodies the NSF's commitment to encourage faculty to practice, and academic institutions to value, integration of research and education."

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