Today's embedded computers are increasingly mobile and ubiquitous, are capable of interacting with the environment, and can communicate with one another over possibly vast and pervasive networks. Mobile wireless networks are envisaged to revolutionize the way people and organizations will interact and communicate. While most of the wireless networks are not expected to be capable of controlling their own motion, new technological possibilities are emerging to provide small embedded devices with the means to propel themselves, with an energy expenditure that is comparable to the energy budget of communication and computation. SInce the power required for propulsion typically decreases with the mass of device, cheap mobility has the potential to dramatically impact the way networks of small, "smart" devices are designed and operated. We will call a network of embedded devices endowed with computation, communication, and motion capabilities a controlled-mobility wireless network. The purpose of this project and its intellectual merit, are to be found in the development, of a new conceptual framework for the design, development, and operation of efficient and reliable networks with such characteristics.

This project involves the development of an integrated modeling environment for the fast simulation and verification of systems that have both continuous and discrete components, such as air traffic control systems and biological systems. The modeling environment uses an abstract functional interface to allow a wide variety of modeling formalisms and solvers to be incorporated and leveraged throughout the simulation and verification process.

This project investigates techniques for the fast simulation of large discrete event systems that are prevalent in biological models. The research leverages hybrid modeling techniques that allow for the approximation of discrete interactions by continuous differential equations. Examples of current relevance, such as the biological toggle switch, are currently being studied.