Arvind Easwaran

PhD Candidate
Department of Computer and Information Science
School of Engineering and Applied Science
University of Pennsylvania

Contact: 3330 Walnut St,
             302 Levine Hall,
             Philadelphia, PA 19104
Email:    arvinde (at) cis (dot) upenn (dot) edu
Phone:   215.796.0268

About me

Presently, I am a Research Associate in the CISTER/IPP-HURRAY lab, at the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal. Prior to this, I was a PhD student supervised by Prof. Insup Lee. My dissertation research focussed on developing frameworks and tools for the design and analysis of modular (component-based) real-time embedded software systems. This work aimed to develop abstraction techniques so that properties of software components can be represented succinctly in their interfaces. A component interface hides internal complexities of the component, and presents only as much information as is required for system building. This ensures separation of concerns among different component developers, and also simplifies system integration. This research is highly relevant in todays efforts that aim to develop safe, but efficient, software systems. Classic application domain includes safety-critical embedded software systems such as those found in avionics, automobiles, and medical devices. During my internship with Honeywell Aerospace in the summer of 2007, I was able to apply these research techniques for solving real world problems in avionics software systems. This experience was enriching in terms of seeing academic research being useful to the real world.

More recently, I have been working on the development of new scheduling algorithms for multiprocessor platforms. We have developed a universal framework that generalizes virtal cluster-based scheduling in two directions: (1) it supports arbitrary task-cluster mappings, and (2) it allows the use of different intra- and inter-cluster schedulers. For this purpose, we have exploited the virtualization provided by component interfaces in hierarchical systems. Virtual clustering can be viewed as a two-level hierarchical scheduling framework with lower level intra-cluster and higher level inter-cluster scheduling. We have developed cluster interfaces to abstract intra-cluster resource demand using minimum processor utilization, and to schedule the clusters on the platform.

In the past, I graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (BE) in Computer Engineering from Mumbai University, India. After my graduation, I had a brief stint first at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay as a Project Engineer with Prof. Subramani Arunkumar, and then at Infosys Technologies Ltd. as a Software Engineer. Since then I have completed my Master of Science in Engineering (MSE) in Computer and Information Science from the University of Pennsylvania, USA.

In my spare time, I like to read non-fiction, but I am also a big fan of Ayn Rand. I love nature as it is, and hence am always ready for activities that give me an opportunity to explore wilderness. These include trekking, hiking, running, and many adventure sports. Occasionally, I like to be involved in activities that help the extremely talented, but less fortunate children in our society. Greater Philadelphia Cares is a wonderful organization that has provided me with a platform for this purpose.