High-Performance Computing & Embedded Systems Lab (HiPCES)

The High-Performance Computing and Embedded Systems Lab (HiPCES) was established with the founding of Frederick University. It is equipped with high technology infrastructure such as advanced FPGA and DSP/embedded processor systems ranging from low-cost to state-of-the-art.

Embedded systems, IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), and high-performance computing (HPC) work together to transform precision agriculture and healthcare by enabling real-time data collection, analysis, and decision-making.

Embedded systems and IoT devices gather environmental or patient data, AI analyzes this data to detect patterns and optimize actions, and HPC handles large-scale processing to ensure timely, accurate insights. This synergy leads to smarter farming (e.g., targeted irrigation, disease prediction) and personalized, proactive healthcare (e.g., early diagnostics, remote monitoring).

The research conducted in HiPCES includes: Multi-core system design with Data flow scheduling Network-on-Chip architectures and routing algorithms Embedded and Smart system design.

The lab members currently include full-time Frederick University faculty, Ph.D and MSc students as well as a number of undergraduate students. The lab members have participated in a number of competitive funding European and national research projects in Cyprus and Greece and have published a textbook, a number of book chapters as well as journal and conference papers.

The main research interests and activities of the members of the lab are related to:

• Embedded, Smart Systems and IoT : Smart Sensor node design for precision agriculture, healthcare and other applications.
• Networks-on-Chip: Routing algorithms, architectures and hardware IP blocks for buffered and bufferless Networks-on-Chip
• Hardware Acceleration: Implementation of demanding real-time algorithms on embedded systems including AI on FPGAs
• CAD tools for embedded systems: Implementation of tools for facilitating embedded system design and education.

Research Projects Experience

“ARTEMIS: Shooting Range Targeting Management System", Cypus Research and Innovation Foundation, 2023

The aim of the Shooting Range Management System (ATERMIS) project was the design and development of a prototype shooting targeting management system that will offer the capabilities of an official championship ISSF layout, and can be configured to include the most common or well-known targeting schemas, such as championship targeting system, in a portable wireless system.

“iPONICS: Smart Off-Grid System for Sustainable Hydroponics", Cypus Research and Innovation Foundation, 2019-2021

Water shortage and pollution are environmental threats affecting large parts of EU as well as the entire world. Climate change is expected to further increase water shortage and threaten food production. iPONICS proposed the design and implementation of an intelligent, reliable, low-cost IoT-based control and monitoring system for hydroponics greenhouses.
The system is based on three types of sensor nodes: The main (master) node is responsible for controlling the pump, monitoring the quality of the water in the greenhouse and aggregating and transmitting the data from the slave nodes. Environment sensing slave nodes that monitor the ambient conditions in the greenhouse and transmit the data to the main node. Security nodes that monitor activity (movement in the area). The system monitors water quality and greenhouse temperature and humidity, ensuring that crops grow under the optimal conditions according to hydroponics guidelines. Remote monitoring for the greenhouse keepers is facilitated by monitoring these parameters by connecting to a website. The system is optimized for low power consumption in order to facilitate off-grid operation.

“SYSMANTIC: SYStematic design of 3D Multicore Architectures with NeTwork-on-chIp Communication", Cyprus Research and Innovation Foundation, 2010-2012

The widening gap between power and performance requirements of applications and what is afforded by technology scaling and architectural techniques, clearly points to multi-processor architectures as the solution. However, the traditional bus-based, shared memory computer architecture is not suitable for contemporary memory-demanding multiprocessor embedded applications, leading to a new interconnect paradigm, the emergence of Network-on-Chip (NoC) platforms.
The objective of the SYSMANTIC project is the development of an efficient and robust framework for the design of application-specific heterogeneous multicore architectures with NoC interconnect and their realization in 3-Dimensional (3D) platforms.
Specifically, the project adresses three main open problems: 1) selecting the optimal heterogeneous multicore architecture for a target application, 2) mapping the selected MPSoC architecture to 3D platforms efficiently and 3) meeting strict performance, power and time-to-market constraints for such complex systems. SYSMANTIC addresses these challenges by developing new design flows and tools.