MSc in Engineering in Computer Science and Engineering - Secure, Trustworthy, and Reliable Systems in Ann Arbor United States | University of Michigan Ann Arbor

The ongoing miniaturization of silicon manufacturing processes has introduced major reliability issues that are now a primary design obstacle. Design robustness faces threats from both complexity hurdles, where massive designs resist full verification, and physical limitations like semiconductor degradation and transient faults that disrupt proper system function, along with hardware-exploitable security vulnerabilities. CSE experts in this field are tackling these critical issues through complementary research approaches, spanning from immediate reliability enhancement methods to boost current chip quality, to future-oriented solutions for identifying, recovering from, and fixing system failures. Additionally, ensuring the absolute functional accuracy of digital chips, especially sophisticated processors, is vital for creating secure and dependable systems. Yet this objective remains unmet today, as shown by extensive error reports for commercial processors detailing design flaws missed during verification. To overcome verification difficulties, researchers are developing self-monitoring systems that can identify and rectify their own mistakes. They're pioneering update methods to fix these undetected bugs on-site, effectively giving hardware the adaptability of software. Furthermore, they're examining economical approaches to verify computations during operation, specifically methods with guaranteed ability to block erroneous outcomes.