The Road Ahead: It Doesn't Get Any Easier

The accomplishments of the real-time systems research community over the past 25 years have been substantial. Starting from a diffuse base of ideas from computer science, software engineering, operations research, queuing theory and other related disciplines, the real-time systems community established its distinct identity as a mainline research field able to achieve big impacts in real-world systems. Whether in networks and telecommunications, vehicle management systems, industrial process control, avionics and spacecraft, or many other applications, the real-time computing research community devised concrete techniques and technologies to ensure predictable, safe, and reliable operation of complex automated systems constrained by deadlines. But the story of the real-time computing research community does not end with these successes. The time-driven systems envisioned for the future present new challenges not even imagined at the first RTSS event a generation ago. At this Symposium, we have an opportunity to reminisce proudly about the accomplishments of the past quarter century, and to draw a bead on the challenges of the future.