cylab mobility research center
Mobile systems, including notebook computers, mobile phones, and specialized devices, are becoming the dominant mechanism for Internet access, with various networking technologies enabling anywhere-anytime computing, communication and collaboration. Services such as mobile shopping, advertising, reservations and social networking are on the increase. Embedded wireless sensors in appliances, vehicles, infrastructure and the environment will dramatically increase the available information and sources of context. Mobile professionals and young people are already early adopters of these technologies which are dramatically transforming the way in which people work, shop, collaborate and play. In-vehicle and hand-held travel guidance systems provide a small glimpse of the possibilities enabled by these technologies.
Mobility is a large and ever growing business opportunity for both established and startup companies including network operators, handset manufacturers, vendors of systems and networking equipment, vendors of embedded systems and software and vendors of mobile software and services. Applications include services, products and platforms for getting information (as a portal), connectivity (email, IM, social media, etc.), advertising, and entertainment.
To accelerate the growth and adoption of these technologies new data and media management, interfaces and visualization are crucial. The development of more powerful wireless networks and the collaboration and semantic features of the rapidly evolving internet could provide richer planned and serendipitous collaboration and customization. Equally important is the development of the underlying systems that will ensure privacy, security, and reliability of these systems even as they are entrusted with our most sensitive and valuable information. The development of context-aware services will combine with mobile social networks to add intelligence to the systems and allow them to interact with and between people in an intuitive, non-intrusive and natural manner.
Leveraging Silicon Valley
In light of the dramatic technical, economic, and socially disruptive effects of the global development of mobility technology, Carnegie Mellon launched the new CyLab Mobility Research Center leveraging its Silicon Valley facilities. This Center, an extension of CyLab at Carnegie Mellon, will link existing research, education and entrepreneurship programs at Carnegie Mellon’s Silicon Valley campus and Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh.
The research program is intrinsically multi-disciplinary and experimental, combining innovative research in technology, usability, behavior, business and policy. Application-driven research and systems prototyping, along with large-scale pilots, will provide a context to drive the integrated experimental research into technology, usability, business, and policy. This effort is unique in examining these forces in a unified way.
In addition to advancing hardware and software technology, the Center’s research will include studies of how people work, play, shop and collaborate within the test-bed, and how new applications and services can change their lives. The Center will conduct usability studies to improve the value and ease of use for different populations and will build-on existing software engineering expertise to improve ways of developing such applications. The Center will study business and organizational issues related to mobility, including new ways of monetizing services, managing distributed mobile development and dynamically allocating resources to enhance mobile services.
Graduate Study
Students taking part in this program will be able to earn a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering as they focus their research activities in the area of mobility and security. Another option for graduate study is the MS in Information Technology - Mobility (MSIT-MOB) at the Information Networking Institute (INI). Both bicoastal programs expose students to the rich academic experiences in Pittsburgh and the exciting career and entrepreneurial opportunities in Silicon Valley.
This Center will help to support new courses to be offered at Carnegie Mellon’s Silicon Valley campus, along with industrial practicum and research projects focused on various aspects of mobility. The Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley campus is the ideal location for this Center, given the presence of major players in the mobile systems market and the culture of entrepreneurship and innovation.
Carnegie Mellon University’s broad and deep expertise in related research activities in software engineering, open source (COSI), robotics (CMIL) and context-aware systems (SmartSpaces) and expertise in the academic departments and schools at Carnegie Mellon including Electrical and Computer Engineering, Human Computer Interaction Institute, and School of Computer Science ensure that the CyLab Mobility Research Center is uniquely positioned to partner with organizations around the world including to advance the state of the art in mobility systems.