Dr. Sabri Pllana


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	My current research interests include: intelligent programming environments; performance-oriented software engineering; high-level specification of parallel and distributed programs for multi-core, cluster, Grid, and Cloud computing systems; and modeling and simulation techniques. In addition, I enjoy to study the properties of various kinds of systems using simulation (such as flexible manufacturing systems or health-care systems), and to apply the Monte Carlo method to simulation of stochastic processes (for instance, Markov Chain Monte Carlo method for solving systems of linear equations).


	Projects

	- PEPPHER: Performance Portability and Programmability for Heterogeneous Many-core Architectures. EU FP7 STREP Project. PEPPHER has been top-ranked during the evaluation and no other project proposal that addressed the topic ICT-2009.3.6 received more points. The total budget of PEPPHER is €3.44 million.
	Contributions: Project Coordinator during the project implementation. Also coordinated the project proposal preparation.

	- HiPEAC: European Network of Excellence on High Performance and Embedded Architecture and Compilation. Contributions: member of the HiPEAC network of excellence.

	- PlanetHPC: EU FP7 Support Action. Contributions: member of the PlanetHPC network. Contribution to a roadmap for future HPC research.

	- MY SCIENCE: EU FP7 Project. Contributions: training the young European journalists to report about the EU ICT-related research (Workshop Program). Contributed the ICT-related part to the project proposal. Devised the program and coordinated the implementation of the ICT-related workshop.

	- ADMIRE: Advanced Data Mining and Integration Research for Europe. EU FP7 STREP Project. Contributions: process designer; CRISP-DMI.

	- @neurIST: Integrated Biomedical Informatics for the Management of Cerebral Aneurysms. EU FP6 IP Project. Contributions: high-level specification of QoS-aware grid workflows.

	- HiPro: high-level programming of multi-core computing systems. HiPro aims to develop a high-level program development model for multi-core computing systems, which hides the complex details of low-level multi-threading. Our approach supports a compositional program development process, where programs are constructed from smaller parallel building blocks that are adapted and tuned for a specific multi-core platform. Responsibilities: high-level programming of multi-core computing systems. Contributions: an intelligent compositional program development approach for multi-core computing systems.

	- NESSI: Networked European Software and Services Initiative (NESSI) is the European Technology Platform on Software and Services. Contributions: Grid Vision and Strategic Research Agenda (V.3.0).

	- Amadeus: a holistic service-oriented environment for QoS-aware Grid workflows. Amadeus considers user requirements (in form of QoS constraints) during workflow specification, planning, and execution. A distinguishing feature of Amadeus is the support of a comprehensive set of QoS requirements, that consider in addition to performance and economical aspects also legal and security aspects. Amadeus project introduced the concept of Location Affinity, which allows the user to express preferences regarding the location of Grid resources where an activity should be executed, by specifying the Grid site, organizational, or geographical affinity. Responsibilities: specification of QoS-aware Grid workflows. Contributions: (1) development of a UML-based domain specific language (DSL) for QoS-aware Grid workflows and the corresponding tool-support; (2) development of the concept of Location Affinity.

	- Askalon: a tool set for cluster and Grid computing. Responsibilities: (1) performance modeling and prediction; (2) specification of Grid workflows. Contributions: (1) development of a hybrid approach for performance modeling and prediction, which combines mathematical modeling and discrete-event simulation; (2) development of a UML-based domain specific language for performance-oriented parallel and distributed programs; (3) development of the Abstract Grid Workflow Language (AGWL), which is an XML-based workflow language; (4) development of a UML-based domain specific language for Grid workflows.

	- Aurora: advanced models, applications and software systems for high performance computing. The special research program Aurora (1997-2007) was a distinctively interdisciplinary project, based upon a highly synergetic cooperation of the participating institutions across a broad range of disciplines that include: parallel languages, compilers, runtime systems, performance evaluation tools, numerical algorithms, computational finance, theoretical chemistry, and atto-second physics. Responsibilities: performance modeling and prediction. Contributions: development of an approach and the corresponding tool-support for the performance modeling and prediction of parallel and distributed computing systems.

	- Performance Prophet: a performance modeling and prediction system for parallel and distributed programs. Our approach supports the graphical specification of performance model in a human-intuitive fashion on one hand, and on the other hand is amenable to machine-efficient model evaluation. The model transformation, from the graphical human-intuitive form (that is, UML representation), to the form that can be efficiently evaluated by a machine (that is, C++ representation), is performed automatically. Our methodology for performance prediction of computing systems combines mathematical modeling and simulation. We use mathematical modeling to develop parameterized performance models (that is, cost functions) for components of the system. Thereafter, we use discrete-event simulation to describe the structure of system. The aim is to combine the model evaluation efficiency of mathematical performance models with the structure awareness of simulation models. Responsibilities: principal investigator. Contributions: design and implementation of Performance Prophet.

	- Teuta: a platform-independent and extensible graphical editor for the UML-based modeling of parallel and distributed programs. The main components of Teuta are: Model Checker, Model Traverser, and the Graphical User Interface (GUI). The GUI of Teuta is used for the development of UML model. The Model Checker is used to verify whether the model conforms to the UML specification. For the generation of different model representations (such as XML or C++) the Model Traverser is used. Responsibilities: principal investigator. Contributions: design and implementation of Teuta.

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