From: hillmr@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (M R Hill)
Subject: PhD EECS,+3yrs real-time parallel sys, Xlib, ML, Z, Transputers,Occam, RELOC
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Warwick University, England
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 16:44:03 GMT

NAME :

  Martin Hill

ADDRESS :

Home:  
  Flat 15 Aspen House,
  Mitton Road,
  Handsworth Wood,
  Birmingham
  B20 2JR.
  England.

Work:
  Dept. Computer Science,
  Warwick University,
  Coventry,
  CV4 7AL.
  England.

Tel: (+44)-0203-523523x2350
Fax: (+44)-0203-525714
E-mail: hillmr@dcs.warwick.ac.uk

DATE OF BIRTH :   16th April 1964

NATIONALITY :     British

AVAILABILITY :    Negotiable

EDUCATION :
  University of Aston PhD, Department Electronic Eng. Awarded Jan 1991
  Oct 1986 - May 1990  

  TITLE : The Design of Robust Commit Protocols for Distributed 
          Real-Time Systems.

  UCNW Bangor BSc (2.1) Joint Honours in Electronic Engineering and 
              Mathematics (IEE accredited)
  Oct 1982 - Jun 1985 

  Wisewood Comprehensive  3 A-levels (Maths, Physics, Chemistry)
  School, Sheffield  8 O-levels 
  1975 - 1982  

WORK EXPERIENCE :

  June 1990 - Present  Research Fellow, Department Computer Science, 
  Warwick University, England.

  TITLE : Static Analysis of Distributed Real-Time Programs.

  1986 - 1990  Part time laboratory demonstrator, Aston University

  Oct 1985 - Oct 1986  Software Engineer, MEL (Philips UK).

  Summer Vacations  Repairing Electrical Appliances.

PROJECT INFORMATION :

  POSTDOCTORAL WORK :
  Static Analysis of Real-Time Programs.

  This has involved the design and development of a software tool to predict
  the feasibility of a real-time program when executed on a specified system
  architecture. The programs analysable consist of non-terminating parallel 
  processes.

  The timing of a program depends not only on the programming language used but 
  also details about the system architecture. The analysis is general purpose
  and any particular language or architecture can be used. However, the systems 
  we considered were Occam programs executing on multi-Transputer hardware. I 
  had to examine how the programs would be executed on the Transputer and 
  needed to understand Transputer Assembly language and detailed information 
  such as how the micro-coded scheduler worked.

  The tool runs on a Sun Workstation and uses the X-Windows system. It has been 
  specified in the formal specification language Z and written using the 
  functional language ML. 

  As a member of a small programming team working on this project I have been 
  involved with all stages of the design and development. I have been involved 
  with the coordination of the project and also had an influence on major 
  design decisions.

  My major programming responsibilities were to design the user interface and 
  to provide a method of automatically calculating the timing estimations of 
  program statements.

  THESIS :
  The Design of Robust Commit Protocols for Distributed Real-Time Systems.

  My doctoral work investigated the use of distributed database management
  techniques in real-time systems. In particular, commit protocols and 
  recovery techniques were developed for use in distributed real-time control 
  systems. These protocols were used to coordinate distributed nodes and ensure 
  that unsafe states never happened even if a processor or communication failure 
  occured.

  Timed Petri nets and Finite State Automata were used to model the protocols,
  the analysis of which showed that the required functional and timing 
  properties were satisfied. These models allowed faults and failures to be 
  included so that the resiliency of the protocols could be investigated. 
  The protocols were developed using the parallel programming language Occam
  and implemented on a multi-Transputer PC-based system. 

  BSC DISSERTATION :
  Computer Aided Design of Boolean Functions using Logical Multiplexor Circuits.

  A software tool was developed that produced a minimal gate circuit to 
  implement a boolean function. The technique behind this was the 
  RadeMacher-Walsh transformation which is similar to fourier analysis but 
  applicable to 2-valued functions.
  
  This was written using UCSD Pascal on an Apple II and included the use of 
  graphics to display the resulting circuit. 

  PHILIPS UK :
  My work at Philips as a software engineer involved the design of real-time 
  software for embedded systems using the language RTL-2. I was involved in all 
  stages of the software from design to testing. The specification technique 
  used was the Warnier Orr graphical method. I was also trained in the 
  languages ADA, CORELL-66 and MC68000 Assembly. The programs were developed 
  on a VAX/VMS 	system

PUBLICATIONS :

  M.R.Hill, D.J.Holding "The Modelling, simulation and analysis of commit 
  protocols in distributed computing systems", Proc. UKSC conf., 
  Brighton, Sept. 1990

  D.J.Holding, M.R.Hill, G.F.Carpenter, "The design of distributed, software
   fault tolerant, real-time systems incorporating decision mechanisms", 
  Microprocessors and Microprogramming, Vol 24, 1988, pp 801 - 806

AWARDS :

  1985  The Paul Green Prize from the school of Electronic Engineering
  (UCNW Bangor) for BSc project.

LANGUAGES :

  Conversational German (O-level 1980, refresher course 1991).
  Willing to learn any European language.

PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS :

  Associate Member of the IEE.

REFEREES :
  Professor Mathai Joseph,
  Department Computer Science,
  Warwick University,
  Coventry,
  CV4 7AL.
  England.

  Dr D.J.Holding,
  Head of IT Research,
  Department Electronic Engineering,
  Aston University,
  Birmingham,
  B4 7ET.
  England.


-- 
Martin Hill (hillmr@uk.ac.warwick.cs)
Dept. Computer Science, Warwick University,
Coventry.
UK