The National Science Foundation has awarded Andre Platzer, assistant professor of computer science, a five-year, $400,000 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award to study "Logical Foundations of Cyber-Physical Systems." Platzer develops methods for verifying the performance of cyber-physical systems, including hybrid systems and distributed hybrid systems, in which embedded computers interact with an ever-changing real world. Examples include applications such as distributed adaptive cruise controls in automobiles, aircraft collision avoidance systems, and robotic surgery devices.

A video of Platzer discussing his work http://www.jfk50.org/page/legacy_gallery/video/andre_platzer_24 is among those of other scientists, industry leaders, artists, politicians and students featured on the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum's new microsite marking the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy administration, http://www.jfk50.org/.

Platzer, who was one of Popular Science's Brilliant 10 in 2009, earned a master's degree in computer science at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Oldenburg, Germany. He  joined the faculty of Carnegie Mellon's Computer Science Department in 2008.