Research topics

Research lines. The courses taught in the Master provide postgraduate and research-oriented training in these major research lines:

  • Computer architecture, computer technology and parallel and distributed platforms.
  • Bio-inspired systems and their applications.

Computer architecture, computer technology and parallel and distributed platforms

High Performance Parallel computing in bioinformatics, optimization and prediction

Study of techniques and resources of parallel architectures and algorithms to achieve the required levels of performance in specific applications in bioinformatics, optimization and prediction requiring a high computational cost. Generating optimal code based on the characteristics of different microarchitectures. Performance evaluation techniques on parallel architectures. This line is directly related to the High-Performance Computing Module.

Network interfaces, system software, and efficient communication in clusters

Study of the characteristics of network interfaces by analyzing their interaction with the hardware and operating system in order to improve the communication performance taking into account the requirements posed by different applications. In particular, considering the possibilities of reducing the overhead of communication software in order to develop lightweight communication protocols for clusters and heterogeneous systems. Also considered are aspects of software-related system security, reliability, and single system image (SSI). This line is associated with the Server’s Security, Reliability and Communications Module.

Distributed Control Systems

It considers problems associated with the development of geographically distributed control applications and investigates various alternatives for its resolution that provides current technology involving both controller and computing devices, such as networks and field buses, drivers and protocol communications for distributed control. This line is essentially associated with the Distributed control systems Module.

Bioinspired systems and their applications

Evolutionary computing: algorithms, applications, and distributed implementation

It is considered problems related to performance and implementation of various types of algorithms that can be included in what is called evolutionary computation. Computational characteristics are studied and their applications, and, taking advantage of the implicit parallelism that it exhibits, its parallel and distributed implementation is also studied, using Internet technology and computing platform. Modules more directly related to this line are: High-Performance Computing and Bio-inspired Systems Engineering and Applications.

Advanced Signal Processing Techniques, applications, and implementation

This line considers the application of new techniques like independent component analysis (ICA) or geometrical methods to signal processing problems that demand high performance. Special attention is paid to the problem of signal separation by extending the field of linear and non-linear mixtures, and convolution. We study the efficient implementation of the procedures used, exploiting the parallelism available in DSPs, special-purpose processors, and clusters of computers. This line is related with the Module Bio-inspired Systems Engineering and Applications.

Applications and implementation of bio-inspired models

We study aspects of neural models, fuzzy logic and their hybridization with other techniques (evolutionary algorithms, matrix transformations, etc.) to develop procedures addressing specific applications, reaching benefits that cannot be obtained by conventional techniques, or without hybridization techniques. It considers the use of parallelism at various levels, providing the computing architectures available to achieve an efficient software implementation. This line is related with the Module Bio-inspired Systems Engineering and Applications.

Bio-inspired Integrated Systems

Development and implementation via FPGA and other programmable circuits of reconfigurable embedded systems (SoC) for specific applications with a fine degree of parallelism using bio-inspired models. Some applications in biomedicine and robotics will be studied, through the SpikeFORCE and CORTIVIS European Projects, that are conducted by some professors of the Master. This line is associated mainly with the modules Integrated Systems and Bio-inspired Systems Engineering and Applications.