The Ptolemy project (http://ptolemy.org) studies modeling, simulation, and design of concurrent, real-time, embedded systems. The focus is on assembly of concurrent components.

The Ptolemy Miniconference is an opportunity for research collaborators and Ptolemy users and extenders from industry, academia, and government to get together, present their work to the Ptolemy community, and hear about related research and results. It is typically held every two years.

In addition, the miniconference will act as an annual meeting for the Center for Hybrid and Embedded Software Systems (CHESS, http://chess.eecs.berkeley.edu).

At Miniconferences in the past we have had presentations and posters from organizations worldwide, plus members of the Ptolemy project describing current research at Berkeley.

This year, we are focusing on Cyber-Physical Systems.

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are integrations of computation and physical processes. Embedded computers and networks monitor and control the physical processes, with feedback loops where physical processes affect computations and vice versa. The economic and societal potential of such systems is vastly greater than what has been realized, and major investments are being made worldwide to develop the technology. The technology builds on the older (but still very young) discipline of embedded systems, computers and software embedded in devices whose principle mission is not computation, such as cars, toys, medical devices, and scientific instruments. CPS integrates the dynamics of the physical processes with those of the software and networking, providing abstractions and modeling, design, and analysis techniques for the integrated whole.