With the help of Auburn faculty member Levent Yilmaz, Trident Systems Incorporated, a  Fairfax, Va., based business that provides hardware and software systems to military and commercial clients, is getting some impressive returns. Trident has garnered more than $2.5 million in investment and revenue on its Safe Test Boundaries (STB) technology, of which Yilmaz was the principal investigator and lead researcher. The technology is now listed by the U.S. Navy as one of the top 50 successful Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) technology transfers of 2008 (www.navysbir.com/docs/navybook-07.pdf).

"We are glad Levent had the opportunity to work with this outstanding technology," said Kai Chang, chair of the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering. "Faculty members who are involved in a successful technology transfer process are valuable to the university, and their work speaks volumes to the quality of faculty here at Auburn."

As the principal investigator on the project, Yilmaz developed an approach and algorithms for understanding the indirect impact of change between two large, complex software source code baselines with a goal of reducing the amount of retesting and maintenance required for system upgrades. After the research phase was completed, Trident was awarded a $749,000 Phase II SBIR to develop a full scale prototype. During this phase, Yilmaz continued to support the program as a consultant under subcontract from Auburn. The combined Trident/Auburn team developed a successful prototype which led to several successful Phase III transitions for a total of $841,000, including:

• Joint SIAP (Single Integrated Air Picture) Program to analyze the impact of change for the IABM (Integrated Architecture Behavioral Model) for E2C Aircraft
• Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren to analyze Aegis C&D (Controls & Displays) baseline upgrades
• Advanced Seal Delivery System (ASDS) Integrated Controls & Displays (ICAD) to understand the extent of the impact of ICAD upgrades on the safety Certified Software
• Trident's Collaboration Gateway technology to analyze the impact of changes between versions prior to re-certification by NSA and DIA

"Dr. Yilmaz was a primary contributor to successful research at Trident," said David Britton, vice president and director of Trident's systems engineering division. "His continued support through a consulting agreement has been extremely valuable."

Yilmaz is an associate professor in computer science and software engineering and holds a joint appointment with the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. He also supported Trident in other related research areas, including interface contract violation detection (NAVAIR), model-based behavior verification (NAVSEA) and test ready model for flexible systems (MDA/ONR) SBIRs.

For more on the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, visit www.eng.auburn.edu/csse.