ACE Research Group Members
The ADAPTIVE Communication Environment (ACE) research group focuses on patterns, implementation, optimization, and empirical analysis of object-oriented techniques for developing high-performance, real-time distributed systems running on parallel processing platforms over high-speed networks and embedded system interconnects.
University Directors
Dr. Douglas C. Schmidt
William & Mary | Inaugural Dean, School of Computing, Data Sciences & Physics at William & Mary
Previous Positions:
- Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), 2024
- Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Engineering, Vanderbilt University
- Associate Provost of Research Development and Technologies, Vanderbilt University
- Co-Director of the Data Science Institute, Vanderbilt University
Research Interests: Distributed real-time and embedded middleware, object-oriented and component-based frameworks, model-driven engineering, prompt engineering for large language models, mobile cloud computing applications
Publications: 10+ books, 700+ papers including 140+ journal publications in IEEE, ACM, IFIP, and USENIX journals
Dr. Ron Cytron
Washington University in St. Louis | Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
Research Interests: Automatic program optimization, voting strategies for Internet, storage-management systems
Background: BS, MS, and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. David Levine
Former Washington University Director
Research Interests: Testing and performance analysis of real-time systems, distributed real-time system scheduling, contributions to ACE and TAO frameworks
Affiliated Faculty and Staff
Chris Gill
Washington University in St. Louis | Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
Research Focus: Middleware for supporting dynamic scheduling and adaptive resource management of distributed real-time systems
Andy Gokhale
Vanderbilt University | Professor of Computer Science
Research Focus: Performance and correctness analyses of CORBA, network programming, and contributions to TAO development
Key Research Projects
Major software frameworks and tools developed by the research group, widely used in industry and academia.
ACE Framework
The ADAPTIVE Communication Environment - an open-source object-oriented framework for high-performance network programming
Learn MoreThe ACE ORB (TAO)
A real-time CORBA implementation optimized for high-performance distributed systems with QoS requirements
Learn MoreCORBA Component Model
Component-based middleware framework for distributed real-time and embedded systems
Learn MoreResearch Areas
- Distributed Real-Time and Embedded Systems: Middleware frameworks and patterns for DRE systems
- Object-Oriented Programming: Design patterns and frameworks for concurrent and networked systems
- Model-Driven Engineering: Generative software techniques and domain-specific modeling languages
- Generative AI: Prompt engineering and prompt patterns for large language models
- Network Programming: High-performance communication frameworks and protocols
- Component-Based Development: CORBA Component Model and adaptive middleware
- Quality of Service: QoS-enabled middleware for real-time systems
- Performance Analysis: Testing, benchmarking, and optimization of distributed systems