Much of our economy and way of living will be affected by nanotechnologies in the decade to come and beyond. Mastering materials at the molecular level and their interaction with living matter opens up unforeseeable horizons. This talk deals with how we will conceive, design and use cyberphysical systems exploiting devices at the edge of the scaling limits. Whereas switching circuits and microelectronics have been the enablers of computer and communication systems, new nano-devices have the potentials to realize innovative computational fabrics whose applications require broader hardware abstractions. Moreover design complexity and usability will depend much on the interconnection schemes among computational elements. The technological feasibility envelope and the related multivariate design optimization problems pose challenging and disruptive research questions that this talk will address.

Research on ASIP architecture and description languages started in the early nineties. Technology excitement peaked with inflated expectations, followed by a trough of disillusionment a couple of years later. Today ASIP's are accepted as a key building block of embedded systems in industry. In this talk we discuss the history of ASIP's and the lesson we have learned about the (too) long way from academic research to the acceptance of a disruptive technology in industry.

Engineers are not recognized for what they are doing. As a result of a questionnaire, engineers are seen as not sensitive to environment problems, quality of life and social life. However, looking at energy, environment, water, carbon emission, engineers are the only persons capable of improving planet health by proposing intelligent ICT systems. However, today they are not credited for this; it is therefore time for changing the image of engineers. Our goal must be the usage of ICT technologies to reduce significantly the worldwide energy consumption and carbon emission. Predictions about energy consumption in 2050 show that nearly 100% renewable energy is possible. On one hand, ICT devices themselves can be much more energy efficient in their usage but also in their fabrication. However, a more significant role for these systems will be to reduce the pressure over our planet in domains like transportation, agriculture, lighting, home control and health monitoring. Nevertheless, people behavioral changes are also definitely required for achieving...

Main visions and research directions for the ALaRI will be presented. Our mission is to maintain a premiere place in research and education of embedded systems and play a major role in the areas that we deem relevant to the sustainability of our socio-economic wellbeing. To this end, we have coined the name "Double BEAMS" that stands for areas of our research activity in the following sectors: Biotechnology and Business, Energy and Environment, Architecture and Agriculture, Medicine and Manufacturing, Social Networks and Services. Our group can boast expertise in embedded systems design, modeling, simulation, testing, diagnosis, fault tolerance, security in almost all of the aforementioned sectors. ALaRI will explore enormous opportunities especially in energy, agriculture and medicine. Last but not least is education where Master Programs with innovative teaching model will continue and more emphasis will be put on increasing and strengthening of our PhD program.

The famous gaming console ATARI has more than naming similarities with ALaRI, where I had the good fortune to study during 2001-2002 MSc course. This presentation starts with a short recounting of my experience of ALaRI and a brief summary of ATARI. The role that ATARI played in embedded systems and in general in computing systems is revisited. In the second part of this presentation, major challenges of modern embedded system design are discussed. From that perspective, at the end, I will highlight why ATARI and ALaRI remains highly relevant.

It all began when I saw a poster of ALaRI at my university in Istanbul, and decided to send an e-mail to Prof. Sami. ALaRI was promising a digital revolution at the time, and I feel truly grateful for becoming a part of it today. After ALaRI, my journey in systems research has continued at EPFL, Imperial College London, Stanford University, and IBM Research - Zurich. I will discuss the opportunities and the challenges posed by each location, and how these contributed to my research career.