Richard O. Chapman, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

108 Dunstan Hall
Auburn University, AL 36849-5347
Email: chapman@eng.auburn.edu
Phone: (334) 844-6314
Fax: (334) 844-6329

Research

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Ground communications Current army tactical UAV systems require extensive cabling between ground system components. This research aims at replacing the cables with a wireless network. Funded by US Army Unmanned Systems Initiatve.

Data dissemination Often, a UAV is gathering data to be utilized by people very near the actual location of the UAV at the time it gathers the data. However, most UAV's are controlled by a skilled operator who may be quite remote. This project attempts to deliver information by ad hoc wireless networks to the users in the field without routing the information through the remote controller. Funded by US Army AMCOM.

Ubiquitous Computing

Small, wireless, networked gadgets"

High Level Synthesis

How can a VLSI designer make use of the approximately ten million transistors available on a single chip? More importantly, how can she be confident that a design using those millions of transistors functions as intended? High level synthesis (HLS) is the automatic generation of register-transfer level designs from behavioral specifications, an even higher level of automatic design generation than is available in current commercially-available logic synthesis tools. I am interested in efficient, formally verifiable tools for HLS, and my research is funded by the National Science Foundation computer and information sciences directorate, computer and communications research division, design automation program.

Hardware-Software Codesign

As time spent on design becomes an increasingly significant fraction of the cost of digital system design, concurrent hardware and software development through codesign becomes increasingly important. Also, emerging field programmable logic technologies permit digital system codesigners to easily migrate system functionality between software and hardware during the design process. Yet few codesign tools exist currently, and among those there is often an inverse relation between usability and functionality. They lack interfaces that fit with designers' ways of working, or they do not integrate with existing frameworks for chip and program development. I am advising several Ph.D. students investigating "Better Tools and Better Interfaces for Hardware-Software Codesign", funded by the National Science Foundations Graduate Research Trainee project.

Curriculum Vitae

Teaching

I teach a wide variety of courses, including VLSI CAD tool design, programming language semantics, senior design, introduction to compilers, operating systems, algorithms, and introduction to engineering computing. Below are some links to current course materials and student projects.

VLSI CAD tool design

Have a look at the syllabus

Senior Design

Computer Engineering majors at Auburn take a two-quarter sequence of courses in which they work in teams to complete an engineering design project.

Formal Methods for Software Engineering

Computer Ethics

Operating Systems

Operating Systems Lab

Wireless Engineering

Other interests

Other things I am interested in include: