Computer Systems Engineering

This research falls into two broad categories:

Computer Architecture, which is concerned with the design, programming and techniques for the application of high performance computer systems. These systems increasingly involve parallel computer systems which require a balance of skills in machine organisation, programming and application domains for their effective use. The group has a number of collaborative linkages some of which include University of Adelaide, Manchester University, Osaka University, Lawrence Livermore National Laborato ries and Colorado State University. Topics under study include:

• parallel computer architectures
• interconnection networks
• implicit parallel programming languages
• comparative performance of parallel computer systems
• data driven computer architectures
• application specific computer systems
• computer aided design of digital systems
• applications of high performance computer systems
• real time computer systems
• reconfigurable systems

 Intelligent Robotics  - which is involved in a number of related research projects concerning sensor, computational and mechatronic support for controlling both robotic manipulators and automated guided vehicles (mobile robots). These projects cover such topics as:

• computer animated robot simulation
• navigational algorithms and instrumentation
• multiple camera colour vision
• eye-in-hand vision
• optical ranging devices
• ultrasonic localisation and environmental mapping
• robotic touch sensing
• navigational markers for mobile robots
• dextrous robot manipulators
• virtual reality in an intelligent robotic context
• indoor and outdoor autonomous mobile robot navigation
• regularisation algorithms for computer vision
• object recognition systems
• artificial neural networks
• swarm robotics

Facilities

High Performance Computing

Within the ECSE department's dedicated server rack in B35/105 is a small linux based computing cluster The "Pizzeria" that can be used for research, simulation, development and preparation of software to run on the larger high performance computing systems that are available to postgraduate students and researchers.

Academics, researchers and postgraduate scholars have access to the Monash Sun Grid (MSG) high performance compute facility.

Alternative high performance computing facilities are the Victorian Partnerships for Advanced Computing VPAC and NCI (Previously APAC) facilities.

There is also the Engineering teaching pc lab cluster BC727 . This beowulf cluster utilizes the machines in the student labs during the times when the labs are closed. Generally it has about 90 nodes available overnight.