Renowned computer scientist strengthens digital expertise and strategy at TUM

Prof. Caccamo has been awarded a Humboldt Professorship

Nowadays, the operation of systems, processes and machines via digital communications networks happens in real time: for example, in power plants, aircraft and self-driving vehicles. Prof. Marco Caccamo is an internationally recognized expert working at the cutting edge of research into these safety-critical cyber-physical systems. His focus is on both fundamental research into real-time computing (RTC) and embedded systems and working with industrial partners in the development of applications. These technologies are indispensable to the advance of the internet of things (IoT) and are serving to revolutionize the entire industrial world.

The Italian native currently works as a professor with the department of computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in the U.S. Following his degree in computer engineering from the University of Pisa (Italy) in July 1997, he earned his Ph.D. in computer engineering from Scuola Superiore Sant’-Anna (Italy) in 2002. He joined UIUC as assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor at the age of 36, then became a full professor in 2015. He’s also served as a visiting professor at ETH Zürich (Switzerland) and with TUM. Caccamo additionally has chaired several IEEE flagship conferences on Real-Time Systems and Cyber-Physical Systems, serves as a board member of leading scientific organizations, including many Technical Program Committees (TPC) and with the IEEE publication, “Transactions on Computers.”

Under the auspices of the Humboldt Professorship, Caccamo will join the TUM Department of Mechanical Engineering. He’ll be tasked with establishing a new, interdisciplinary institute for cyber-physical systems to harness the digital expertise of departments including Mechanical Engineering, Informatics and Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Caccamo will become the sixth professor to receive the prestigious Humboldt Professorship at TUM, making TUM the German university with the most Humboldt Professorship appointments overall. Ac-cording to Prof. Wolfgang A. Herrmann, TUM President: “Our success in garnering our newest Humboldt Professorship at TUM highlights our excellence across a broad spectrum of digital research fields. Caccamo’s appointment at our university will also serve to further strengthen the State of Bavaria’s digital strategy and the Zentrum Digitalisierung.Bayern (Bavarian Center for Digitalization). With the support of the Humboldt Foundation, we’re able to attract top European research talent back to Europe from the USA.”