Gerald M. Masson's home page

<title> Gerald M. Masson's home page </title>
<h1> Gerald M. Masson's home page </h1>

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<h1> Gerald M. Masson </h1>

<h2> Professor and Chairman </h2>

<h2> Education </h2>

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Ph.D. 	Electrical Engineering 	Northwestern University 		1971 
M.S.E 	Electrical Engineering 	Northwestern University			1968 
B.S. 	Electrical Engineering 	Illinois Institute of Technology 	1966
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<h2> Research </h2>

Fault tolerant computing, including systems diagnosis theory and
applications to distributed computing, and real-time error monitoring
of hardware/software; software design for testability; interconnection
networks, including analysis and design of switching network
structures, and applications to conferencing and collaboration.

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Regarding the field of fault tolerant computing, Prof. Masson has
participated in the development of a theoretical foundation for the
area of systems diagnosis relative to a variety of classes of
diagnosability measures based on both probabilistic and deterministic
models. Recently, Profs. Masson and Sullivan have invented a new error
monitoring technique based on the concept of a certification trail.
The technique has been developed and experimentally evaluated for a
variety of interesting and useful computational algorithms.  The
design and theoretical/experimental analysis of program certifiers is
currently being explored.  Software design for testability utilizing
the concept is also being examined. Prof. Masson's research has long
been associated with the design and analysis of interconnection
networks. Currently, of particular interest are switching structures
that can support multimedia broadcast and conferencing
applications. Some of the previous switching design developments in
which Prof. Masson has participated have been implemented for
particular applications. These existing switch implementations
represent testbeds on which theories associated with new technologies
can be explored.

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Prof. Masson has served as Technical Program Chairman of a number of
IEEE conference/workshops, including the <em>1979 International
Symposium on Fault-Tolerant Computing</em>. He has participated in the
development and presentation of several tutorials for the IEEE, and
was guest editor of a special issue of the <cite>IEEE Transactions on
Computers</cite> dedicated to fault tolerant computing in 1988. He has
served on the Editorial Boards of the <cite>IEEE Transactions on
Computers</cite>, and the <cite>Journal of Digital Systems</cite>, and
currently is on the editorial board of the <cite>Journal of Electronic
Testing</cite>.

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<h2> Selected Publications </h2>

Blough, D.M., Sullivan, G.F., and Masson, G.M., ``Fault Diagnosis on
Sparsely Interconnected Multiprocessor Systems," <cite>Digest of the
19th International Symposium on Fault-Tolerant Computing</cite>, IEEE
Computer Society Press, pages 62-69, 1989.

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Blough, D.M. and Masson, G.M., ``Performance Analysis of a Generalized
Concurrent Error Detection Procedure," <cite>IEEE Trans.
Computers</cite>. Vol. 39, pages 47-62, 1990.

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Yang, Y. and Masson, G.M., ``Nonblocking Broadcast Switching
Networks," <cite>IEEE Trans. Computers</cite>. Vol. 40, pages
1005-1015, 1991.

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Blough, D.M., Sullivan, G.F., Masson, G.M., ``Efficient Diagnosis of
Multiprocessor Systems under Probabilistic Models," <cite>IEEE Trans.
Computers</cite>, Vol. 41, pages 1126-1136, 1992.

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Blough, D.M., Sullivan, G.F., Masson, G.M., ``Intermittent Fault
Diagnosis in Multiprocessor Systems," <cite>IEEE Trans.
Computers</cite>, Vol. 41, pages,1430-1441, 1992.

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Masson, G.M., and Sullivan, G.F., ``A method and apparatus for fault
tolerance," United States Patent Office, <cite>United States Patent
Office Serial No. 07/543451</cite>.

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Masson, G.M., Blough, D., and Sullivan, G.F., ``Systems Diagnosis,"
<cite>Fault Tolerant Computing</cite> (D.K. Pradhan, Editor), Vol. 2,
Prentice-Hall,1993.

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