Research in the Software/System Engineering Research Laboratory (SERL) focuses on topics related to the design of complex, software-intensive systems. The development of software in these systems cannot be separated from system engineering activities and much of the research in the lab would more properly fit into the category of systems engineering than software engineering. SERL research is cross-disciplinary and spans aeronautics and astronautics, computer science, human factors and cognitive engineering, system safety engineering, and other disciplines and applications using computers for control (such as transportation and medical devices).
Aerospace software presents some of the greatest challenges in software and system engineering today: it usually has hard real-time deadlines, is mission- and safety-critical, is embedded within a larger system composed of heterogeneous components (electromechanical, digital, and human), and may interact with humans in a sophisticated partnership to assure common goals. Our research is directed at these challenges: We want to stretch the limits of complexity of the systems we can build while increasing assurance of critical properties.
Currently, SERL researcher are working with Eurocontrol, NASA, Raytheon, Ford, and others on such diverse applications as air traffic management, aircraft avionics and flight management systems, autonomous vehicles, robots, automobiles, and spacecraft.
Ongoing research projects in the laboratory include modeling and analysis of complex system designs, accident analysis and prevention, specification and visualization of requirements, designing reusable specifications and models of spacecraft systems, testing and assurance of critical system properties, spacecraft design for fault tolerance,
Faculty: Prof. Nancy Leveson, Prof. Charles Coleman, Prof. Kristina Lundqvist