Computer Engineering
Computer Engineering is based on an integral approach combining informatics, communications technology and microelectronics. The primary area of research is embedded systems, which are an essential part of many objects in our everyday life.

Contact
- Ulrich Schmid, Coordinator
Research Topics
- Digital Circuits and Hardware Architectures
- Parallel and Distributed, Dependable, Real-time Systems
- Hybrid Systems and Optimal Control
- Quantitative and Runtime Verification
- Computational Modeling and Simulation
- Autonomous Systems, Robotics and Automation Systems Integration
- Cyber-physical Social Systems & Internet of Things
About
Computer Engineering is based on an integral approach combining informatics, communications technology and microelectronics. The primary area of research is embedded systems, which are an essential part of many objects in our everyday life.
The research focus Computer Engineering deals with all aspects of the direct interaction of computer systems and their environment, from the lowest level of circuit and hardware architectures to safety-critical cyber-physical systems like industrial automation and smart grids, healthcare, spacecraft, and automotive.
Designing such systems is challenging, both from a scientific and technological perspective: Many functions are directly implemented in hardware for performance reasons, distributed and parallel processing is omnipresent, digital signal processing is often required, real-time and power/thermal constraints must be met, energy-efficiency is crucial, stopping operation in the case of failures is often not feasible, unique security issues and threats exist, “trial-and-error-style programming” is not an option in many applications, asserting system correctness by means of testing may be insufficient for the required reliability level, emergent behavior originating from autonomous operation must be understood and controlled, integration and complexity issues created by the upcoming Internet of Things must be managed, etc.
Key characteristics of the research focus Computer Engineering are hence (i) an integrative view of a multitude of system aspects, including hardware architectures, continuous/discrete systems, parallelism and communication, dependability, real-time processing, low-power design, energy and resource efficiency, decision and control theory, autonomy, etc., and (ii) interdisciplinarity: Core computer science knowledge and skills like programming, modeling, design and analysis, formal verification and synthesis of both software and hardware are complemented by specific knowledge and skills from other disciplines, in particular, continuous mathematics, system theory and electrical engineering.
Research Units
Four of the faculty’s twenty-three research units are primarily focused on topics related to Computer Engineering. Visit their pages to learn about current projects, publications, courses, and the people involved.
Below is a small selection of recent research activities related to Computer Engineering. To learn more, visit the pages of the research units listed above.
Recent Projects
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Reconsidering digital deconstruction, reuse and recycle processes using BIM and Blockchain
2022 – 2024 / Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) -
Open Building Automation Modeling - Open modeling of building automation over the entire building life cycle
2021 – 2023 / Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) -
Autonomous-Driving Examiner
2020 – 2023 / Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) -
Knowledge-based building management combining human
perception and building automation systems
2019 – 2021 / Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) -
Power System Cognification
2019 – 2022 / Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) -
Coordination of Autonomous Vehicles for Transporting Goods in Environments with Pedestrians
2017 – 2019 / Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) -
eywa: distributed power intelligence
2017 – 2018 / Vienna Business Agency (WAW) -
Innovationslehrgang zur Gestaltung der Digitalen Transformation in der Produktentwicklung und Produktion
2016 – 2018 / Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) -
Independent Two Wheel Steering
2016 – 2017 / DS Automotion GmbH -
Project "Architecture" as Part of the Initiative "Reference Architecture for Secure Smart Grids in Austria"
2015 – 2017 / Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) -
Innovative lighting management system
2015 – 2017 / Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) -
Hierarchisch und modular aufgebautes Brandmeldesystem - thematisches Anschlussprojekt an HQ 834005
2015 – 2017 / Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) -
Adaptable Platform for Active Services Exchange
2015 – 2018 / European Commission -
Balanced Manufacturing
2014 – 2017 / Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) -
Exascale Programming Models
2013 – 2016 / European Commission
Recent Publications
- MoonLight: A Lightweight Tool for Monitoring Spatio-Temporal Properties / L. Nenzi, E. Bartocci, L. Bortolussi, S. Silvetti, M. Loreti / accepted for publication in International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer
- Identification of security threats, safety hazards, and interdependencies in industrial edge computing / P. Denzler, S. Hollerer, T. Frühwirth, W. Kastner / Talk: The Sixth ACM/IEEE Symposium on Edge Computing (SEC ´21), San Jose, CA, USA.; 2021-12-14 - 2021-12-17; in: "The Sixth ACM/IEEE Symposium on Edge Computing (SEC ´21)", (2021), 6 pages
- Towards Explaining the Fault Sensitivity of Different QDI Pipeline Styles / P. Behal, F. Huemer, R. Najvirt, Z. Tabassam, A. Steininger / Talk: 27th IEEE International Symposium on Asynchronous Circuits and Systems, online; 2021-09-07 - 2021-09-10; in: "Proceedings 27th IEEE International Symposium on Asynchronous Circuits and Systems", (2021), 1 - 8
- An Automated Setup for Large-Scale Simulation-Based Fault-Injection Experiments on Asynchronous Digital Circuits / P. Behal, F. Huemer, R. Najvirt, A. Steininger / Talk: 24th Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design, Palermo, Italy; 2021-09-01 - 2021-09-03; in: "Proceedings of the 24th Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design", (2021), 1 - 8
- A Processor Extension for Time-Predictable Code Execution / M. Platzer, P. Puschner / Talk: 2021 IEEE 24th International Symposium on Real-Time Distributed Computing (ISORC), Daegu, South Korea; 2021-06-01 - 2021-06-03; in: "2021 IEEE 24th International Symposium on Real-Time Distributed Computing (ISORC)", C. Ceballos (ed.); IEEE, IEEE (2021), ISSN: 2375-5261; 34 - 42
- Tunnelling and Mirroring Operational Technology Data with IP-based Middlewares / P. Denzler, D. Ramsauer, W. Kastner / Talk: 2021 22nd IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology (ICIT), Valencia, Spain; 2021-03-10 - 2021-03-12; in: "Proceedings 2021 22nd IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology (ICIT)", IEEE, (2021), ISBN: 978-1-7281-5730-6; 1205 - 1210
- ROMANet: Fine-Grained Reuse-Driven Off-Chip Memory Access Management and Data Organization for Deep Neural Network Accelerators / R. Putra, M. Hanif, M. Shafique / IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems, 29 (2021), 4; 702 - 715
- Predictive Monitoring with Logic-Calibrated Uncertainty for Cyber-Physical Systems / M. Meiyi, J. Stankovic, E. Bartocci, L. Feng / ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems, 20 (2021), 5s (101); 1 - 25
- The Involution Tool for Accurate Digital Timing and Power Analysis / D. Öhlinger, J. Maier, M Függer, U. Schmid / Integration the VLSI journal, 76 (2021), 87 - 98
- Interpolation for intermediate logics via injective nested sequents / R. Kuznets, B. Lellmann / Journal of Logic and Computation, 31 (2021), 3; 797 - 831
- Modeling and Analysis of Cardiac Hybrid Cellular Automata via GPU-accelerated Monte Carlo Simulation / L. Treml, E. Bartocci, A. Gizzi / Mathematics (MDPI), 9 (2021), 2
- A survey of hardware architectures for generative adversarial networks / N. Shrivastava, M. Hanif, S. Mittal, S. Sarangi, M. Shafique / Journal of Systems Architecture, Volume 118 (2021)
- Blood Coagulation Algorithm: A Novel Bio-Inspired Meta-Heuristic Algorithm for Global Optimization / D. Yadav / Mathematics (MDPI), 9 (2021), 23; 3011 pages
- BioNetExplorer: Architecture-Space Exploration of Biosignal Processing Deep Neural Networks for Wearables / B. Prabakaran, A. Akhtar, S. Rehman, O. Hasan, M. Shafique / IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 8 (2021), 17; 13251 - 13265
- A Perspective on "CCS Expressions, Finite State Processes, and Three Problems of Equivalence" / E. Bartocci, M. Bender / ACM SIGACT News (invited), 52 (2021), 4; 76 - 77
Recent Awards
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Ezio Bartocci:
Best Software Science Paper of the European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software (ETAPS) 2022
2022 / European Association of Software Science and Technology (EASST) / Germany / Website -
Jesper Larsson Träff:
Innovation Radar: Innovation Title: PGAS-based MPI with interoperability; Innovation Category: Exploration; FP 7 project EPiGRAM
2018 / Project -
Sascha Hunold:
Best Paper Award EuroMPI/Asia: "Reproducible MPI Micro-Benchmarking Isn't As Easy As You Think", S. Hunold, A. Carpen-Amarie, J. Träff, EuroMPI/ASIA 2014, Kyoto, Japan, September 9-12, 2014
2014 / Japan -
Jesper Larsson Träff:
Best Paper Award: "Reproducible MPI Micro-Benchmarking Isn't As Easy As You Think", S. Hunold, A. Carpen-Amarie, J. Träff, 21st European MPI Users' Group Meeting, EuroMPI/ASIA 2014, Kyoto, Japan, September 9-12, 2014
2014 / Program Chairs of EuroMPI/ASIA 2014 / Japan -
Wilfried Elmenreich:
E-Learning Award 2006/2007 für ausgezeichnete Leistungen in der Lehrentwicklung (Kategorie für Speziallösungen)
2007 / Austria -
Peter Puschner:
Gründungsmitglied der IFIP 10.2 WG on Embedded Systems
2006 / IFIP -
Hermann Kopetz:
Wilhelm Exner Medaillie
2005 / Austria -
Christopher Krügel:
Wirtschaftskammerpreis
2005 / Wirtschaftskammern / Austria -
Hermann Kopetz:
IEEE Technical Achievement Award
2004 -
Josef Widder:
FIT-IT Embedded Systems Dissertationsstipendium "Distributed Computing in the Presence of Bounded Asynchrony"
2004 / Austria -
Hermann Kopetz:
Vorsitzender d. Wiss. Beirat ACR
2004 / Austria -
Raimund Kirner:
Mobilitätsstipendium der Creditanstalt AG
(wird für aussergewöhnliche Dissertationen
an der Technischen Universität Wien verliehen)
2003 / Austria -
Herbert Grünbacher:
Ehrenzeichen der Stadt Villach
2002 / Austria -
Hermann Kopetz:
IGM-Preis
2001 / Austria -
Christopher Krügel:
EIB Scientific Award for Excellent Diploma Thesis
2000 / Germany