Center of Excellence for Research

Director: Professor Maria Domenica Di Benedetto

Prof. M.D. Di Benedetto

The Center of Excellence DEWS (Design Methodologies of Embedded Controllers, Wireless Interconnect and Systems-on-chip) of the University of L’Aquila is a Center of Excellence established in 2001 at the University of L’Aquila, on the basis of a national competition set up by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR).

The research activities carried out by DEWS are centered on the use of high technology in the interest of society. During the past five years, the Center has focused on the design, implementation and management of wireless sensor and actuator networks. The applications of embedded wireless systems in everyday's life are numerous.  For example, by monitoring the environment ,  and human vital functions in an unobtrusive way with a rich network of intelligent sensors, we can help preserving Italy’s natural treasures and supporting elders in their lives., .

DEWS fosters full cooperation among researchers of different scientific fields essential for reaching specific research objectives in the field of wireless networked embedded systems, e.g., automatic control, electromagnetic fields, analog and digital electronics, information science and telecommunications.

DEWS has established strong research collaborations with some of the most prestigious academic institutions world-wide such as the University of California at Berkeley, the Berkeley Wireless Research Center (BWRC), the Berkeley Center for Hybrid and Embedded Software System (CHESS), and the Royal Institute of Technology at Stockholm. Moreover, DEWS has developed and strengthened research cooperation on wireless systems with companies such as Selex Communications (Chieti, Firenze, Genova, Pomezia) and Thales Communications (Chieti). Within this collaboration framework, the Center has acquired the ability to plan and manage projects of significant complexity concerning both the development of new basic methodologies and of industrial spin-offs (WEST AQUILAhttp://www.westaquila.com/, a DEWS spin-off, was considered one of the eight best start-up companies region-wise).

The Center international vocation has its root in a formal research and education agreement with the University of California at Berkeley endorsed by the Chancellor of University of California at Berkeley and the Rettore Magnifico of L’Aquila. This agreement allows students and researchers spending significant periods of time visiting the two institutions to carry out joint research projects. The agreement was facilitated by the appointment of the Director of the Center, Prof. Maria D. Di Benedetto, as Adjunct Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of the University of California at Berkeley for five years.

The Center is a member of the Network of Excellence HYCON: “Hybrid control: taming heterogeneity and complexity of networked embedded systems” http://www.ist-hycon.org.

DEWS has established DEWSlab, a testbed for the design of wireless sensor networks and their applications based on the MICA network, developed by Crossbow, a Californian company. The platform has been configured as a testbed of innovative solutions for coding and routing algorithms, and as a web service allowing remote access to measurement data by means of a high-level interface. In the Network of Excellence HYCON, DEWS has been chosen as the node of the European Embedded Control Institute http://www.eeci-institute.eu/ for the establishment of the Networked Control Systems Laboratory (NCSlab).