The Dependable Computing Systems Laboratory (DCSL) at Purdue University investigates the question of how to build dependable heterogeneous large-scale distributed systems. Since many business and life critical functions are being performed by distributed systems, they need to be dependable while meeting their performance goals. Thus, there is need for smart error detection, diagnosis and recovery protocols. More importantly, there is need for architectures that can combine fault tolerance and security aspects with performance aspects in an adaptive manner, adapting to different user requirements and different runtime environments.

Our application contexts come from various domains, many from our industrial colleagues. These include: voice over IP environments (in collaboration with Avaya Inc.), distributed e-commerce systems (in collaboration with IBM Watson Research Center), and mobile ad hoc, sensor, and mesh networks (in collaboration with Emnet LLC).

Our goal is to do cutting edge practical system building work that makes a splash in the academic community and a difference in the wider technology sphere through strategic collaborations with industrial partners.