Project acronym DEPENDABLECLOUD
Project Towards the dependable cloud:
Building the foundations for tomorrow's dependable cloud computing
Researcher (PI) Rodrigo Seromenho Miragaia Rodrigues
Host Institution (HI) INESC ID - INSTITUTO DE ENGENHARIADE SISTEMAS E COMPUTADORES, INVESTIGACAO E DESENVOLVIMENTO EM LISBOA
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE6, ERC-2012-StG_20111012
Summary Cloud computing is being increasingly adopted by individuals, organizations, and governments. However, as the computations that are offloaded to the cloud expand to societal-critical services, the dependability requirements of cloud services become much higher, and we need to ensure that the infrastructure that supports these services is ready to meet these requirements. In particular, this proposal tackles the challenges that arise from two distinctive characteristic of the cloud infrastructure.
The first is that non-crash faults, despite being considered highly unlikely by the designers of traditional systems, become commonplace at the scale and complexity of the cloud infrastructure. We argue that the current ad-hoc methods for handling these faults are insufficient, and that the only principled approach of assuming Byzantine faults is too pessimistic. Therefore, we call for a new systematic approach to tolerating non-crash, non-adversarial faults. This requires the definition of a new fault model, and the construction of a series of building blocks and key protocol elements that enable the construction of fault-tolerant cloud services.
The second issue is that to meet their scalability requirements, cloud services spread their state across multiple data centers, and direct users to the closest one. This raises the issue that not all operations can be executed optimistically, without being aware of concurrent operations over the same data, and thus multiple levels of consistency must coexist. However, this puts the onus of reasoning about which behaviors are allowed under such a hybrid consistency model on the programmer of the service. We propose a systematic solution to this problem, which includes a novel consistency model that allows for developing highly scalable services that are fast when possible and consistent when necessary, and a labeling methodology to guide the programmer in deciding which operations can run at each consistency level.
Summary
Cloud computing is being increasingly adopted by individuals, organizations, and governments. However, as the computations that are offloaded to the cloud expand to societal-critical services, the dependability requirements of cloud services become much higher, and we need to ensure that the infrastructure that supports these services is ready to meet these requirements. In particular, this proposal tackles the challenges that arise from two distinctive characteristic of the cloud infrastructure.
The first is that non-crash faults, despite being considered highly unlikely by the designers of traditional systems, become commonplace at the scale and complexity of the cloud infrastructure. We argue that the current ad-hoc methods for handling these faults are insufficient, and that the only principled approach of assuming Byzantine faults is too pessimistic. Therefore, we call for a new systematic approach to tolerating non-crash, non-adversarial faults. This requires the definition of a new fault model, and the construction of a series of building blocks and key protocol elements that enable the construction of fault-tolerant cloud services.
The second issue is that to meet their scalability requirements, cloud services spread their state across multiple data centers, and direct users to the closest one. This raises the issue that not all operations can be executed optimistically, without being aware of concurrent operations over the same data, and thus multiple levels of consistency must coexist. However, this puts the onus of reasoning about which behaviors are allowed under such a hybrid consistency model on the programmer of the service. We propose a systematic solution to this problem, which includes a novel consistency model that allows for developing highly scalable services that are fast when possible and consistent when necessary, and a labeling methodology to guide the programmer in deciding which operations can run at each consistency level.
Max ERC Funding
1 076 084 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-10-01, End date: 2018-01-31
Project acronym EVALISA
Project "The Evolution of Case, Alignment and Argument Structure in Indo-European"
Researcher (PI) Jóhanna Barðdal
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT GENT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2012-StG_20111124
Summary "Alignment and argument structure lies at the heart of all current theoretical models in linguistics, both syntactic models and research within typology. In spite of that, no large-scale comprehensive study of the historical development of case marking and argument structure has been carried out in modern times, using modern linguistic approaches and frameworks, and covering an entire language family from its first documentation until modern times. The project EVALISA aims to investigate case marking and argument structure from a historical perspective, or more precisely non-nominative case marking of subjects, focusing on its development through the history of the Indo-European languages. One of the products emerging from the project is an electronically searchable database of predicates taking non-nominative subject marking, available to the research community at large, for further research on the topic. Another product is a typology of grammaticalization paths of non-nominative case marking of subjects. This is a timely enterprise given that non-nominative subject marking is extremely common in the languages of world. A third product is a methodology for reconstructing syntax and grammar, based on the tools of Construction Grammar. The theoretical framework of Construction Grammar is easily extendible to syntactic reconstruction, due to the basic status of form–meaning pairings in that model, and hence the more lexicon-like status of the grammar. This creates a natural leap for Construction Grammar from synchronic form–meaning pairings to historical reconstruction, based on form–meaning pairings. This methodology is of importance for scholars within anthropological linguistics, working on the history of oral or less-documented languages."
Summary
"Alignment and argument structure lies at the heart of all current theoretical models in linguistics, both syntactic models and research within typology. In spite of that, no large-scale comprehensive study of the historical development of case marking and argument structure has been carried out in modern times, using modern linguistic approaches and frameworks, and covering an entire language family from its first documentation until modern times. The project EVALISA aims to investigate case marking and argument structure from a historical perspective, or more precisely non-nominative case marking of subjects, focusing on its development through the history of the Indo-European languages. One of the products emerging from the project is an electronically searchable database of predicates taking non-nominative subject marking, available to the research community at large, for further research on the topic. Another product is a typology of grammaticalization paths of non-nominative case marking of subjects. This is a timely enterprise given that non-nominative subject marking is extremely common in the languages of world. A third product is a methodology for reconstructing syntax and grammar, based on the tools of Construction Grammar. The theoretical framework of Construction Grammar is easily extendible to syntactic reconstruction, due to the basic status of form–meaning pairings in that model, and hence the more lexicon-like status of the grammar. This creates a natural leap for Construction Grammar from synchronic form–meaning pairings to historical reconstruction, based on form–meaning pairings. This methodology is of importance for scholars within anthropological linguistics, working on the history of oral or less-documented languages."
Max ERC Funding
1 498 744 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-10-01, End date: 2018-09-30
Project acronym LIGHT
Project advanced Light mIcroscopy for Green cHemisTry
Researcher (PI) Maarten Blanka Jozef Roeffaers
Host Institution (HI) KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE4, ERC-2012-StG_20111012
Summary "Optimization of catalytic materials and hence of chemical processes heavily relies on gaining detailed insight into the complex dynamics underlying the outcome of a catalytic process and using this information in the rational design of improved catalysts. So far, spectroscopic approaches have already contributed importantly; however a strong need for new and improved in situ spectroscopic methods with micro- and nanometer resolution still remains. This project aims to develop advanced light microscopy tools that will significantly contribute to this goal."
Summary
"Optimization of catalytic materials and hence of chemical processes heavily relies on gaining detailed insight into the complex dynamics underlying the outcome of a catalytic process and using this information in the rational design of improved catalysts. So far, spectroscopic approaches have already contributed importantly; however a strong need for new and improved in situ spectroscopic methods with micro- and nanometer resolution still remains. This project aims to develop advanced light microscopy tools that will significantly contribute to this goal."
Max ERC Funding
1 999 485 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-10-01, End date: 2017-09-30
Project acronym UTM
Project Updating the mind: The mechanisms behind behavioural change
Researcher (PI) Frederick Verbruggen
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT GENT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2012-StG_20111124
Summary Translation of basic research on human executive control into facilitating behavioural change is a holy grail for psychologists and neuroscientists. Adaptive behaviour is attributed to executive functions that update the cognitive system. But how system updating mechanisms regulate behavioural change is still unclear. This stems from a lack of careful process analysis and a failure to integrate findings from different research areas.
My proposal consists of three innovative subprojects. In the first subproject, I aim to develop a unified account of system updating and behavioural change. I propose that three well-defined cognitive processes (detection-selection-implementation) underlie all forms of updating; each component may be influenced by preparation or practice. In the second subproject, I aim to show how stress and incentives, which influence behavioural change outside the lab, modulate the updating processes studied in Subproject 1. This will lead to much richer models of updating and control. Finally, the third subproject will focus on the role of rules in system updating. More specifically, I will examine how both children and adults acquire new rules and how a rule-based control network can develop and strengthen. This may also provide a framework for the development of treatments. In each subproject, I will use carefully designed behavioural paradigms and integrate techniques such as neurostimulation, EEG, and mathematical modelling of decision-making to specify how updating occurs and how variation in the effectiveness of updating arises.
The proposed work will substantially extend my previous work on response inhibition and executive control. I will synthesise work in cognitive, clinical, and social psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and neurobiology; and by providing novel important insights into the substrates of the executive control of updating, contribute to a better understanding of the many disorders associated with control deficits, and of human behaviour in general.
Summary
Translation of basic research on human executive control into facilitating behavioural change is a holy grail for psychologists and neuroscientists. Adaptive behaviour is attributed to executive functions that update the cognitive system. But how system updating mechanisms regulate behavioural change is still unclear. This stems from a lack of careful process analysis and a failure to integrate findings from different research areas.
My proposal consists of three innovative subprojects. In the first subproject, I aim to develop a unified account of system updating and behavioural change. I propose that three well-defined cognitive processes (detection-selection-implementation) underlie all forms of updating; each component may be influenced by preparation or practice. In the second subproject, I aim to show how stress and incentives, which influence behavioural change outside the lab, modulate the updating processes studied in Subproject 1. This will lead to much richer models of updating and control. Finally, the third subproject will focus on the role of rules in system updating. More specifically, I will examine how both children and adults acquire new rules and how a rule-based control network can develop and strengthen. This may also provide a framework for the development of treatments. In each subproject, I will use carefully designed behavioural paradigms and integrate techniques such as neurostimulation, EEG, and mathematical modelling of decision-making to specify how updating occurs and how variation in the effectiveness of updating arises.
The proposed work will substantially extend my previous work on response inhibition and executive control. I will synthesise work in cognitive, clinical, and social psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and neurobiology; and by providing novel important insights into the substrates of the executive control of updating, contribute to a better understanding of the many disorders associated with control deficits, and of human behaviour in general.
Max ERC Funding
1 138 518 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-02-01, End date: 2018-01-31
