The Internet of Things (IoT) has strong potential for supporting a human society interacting more symbiotically with its physical environment. Indeed, the emergence of tiny devices capable of sensing environmental cues and triggering actuators after consulting logic and human preferences promises for a more environmentally aware and promiscuous society. However, the intrinsic nature of the IoT challenges existing software development processes and, in particular, techniques for ensuring software reliability and security. In this talk I will cover our experiences in the development of debugging and monitoring solutions for a reliable and secure IoT. In addition, I will put our work in the perspective of a question on the minds of many PhD students and candidates: shall I pursue scientific research towards a PhD degree (and possibly beyond) or rather go for a tech startup?

Professor Eugster’s research aims at proposing support for developing distributed systems. Particular topics of interest, in the context of distributed settings, include algorithms, middleware, and programming languages, abstractions, and methodologies.

Professor Eugster was educated in Switzerland, and has worked for both Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) and in Zurich (ETHZ), as well as for Sun Microsystems (now Oracle) prior to joining Purdue University. He has authored over 70 refereed articles, and is a member of ACM and IEEE. Among other awards for his research and teaching, Professor Eugster has received an NSF CAREER award (2007) and Experienced Researcher fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt foundation (2011). He is also a participant of the 2011 DARPA Computer Science Study Panel.