KTH thesis wins prestigious prize

It is not enough to test to see if computer system s are working - in many cases it must be possible to ensure that no errors can occur. For example, if the computer in the autopilot of a jumbo froze the consequences would be devastating.

In order to achieve this, mathematical tools and computer calculations are used to prove that systems are flawless.

However, formulae can be incredibly large with millions of variables, and the processing power and memory capacity of computers has formed a bottleneck for many years. If the memory becomes too large, it may be difficult to find the needle in the haystack that is the proof needed.

One natural approach to solving this problem has been to limit memory usage, but this may exert a dramatic effect on the time computation takes. This is demonstrated in Jakob Nordström's research which was part of a thesis presented at the Royal Institute of Technology last year.

“We have proven mathematically that there is a delicate balance between processing power and memory,” says Jakob Nordström, currently a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT.

He adds that the line is paper thin.

“The difference between a calculation taking only a few seconds or spreading over thousands of years is extremely small,” says Jakob Nordström.

This is the research for which he won the Ackermann Award 2009 which is given by the European Association for Computer Science Logic for "outstanding theses in computer scientific logic". In previous years the prize has been divided between several theses, but this year Jakob Nordström is the sole winner.

Jakob Nordström works within basic research, however the results of his research may be of great practical use in industry.

If a calculation takes too long, the system may not be good enough.

As concerns his research position at MIT, he says:

“My thesis at KTH was clearly one of the reasons that I was welcomed at MIT.”

Peter Larsson