Newcastle University

Introduction

I received a B.Sc.(Hons) in Mathematics in 1980 from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Between 1980 and 1982 I worked as a Systems Analyst and Computer Programmer for the Sage Group. I wrote the initial versions of many of Sage's well known commercial programs including the first Sage Payroll, Time Recording and Job Costing packages.
I received a Ph.D. degree in Theoretical Physics in 1985 from the University of Durham for research work on Composite models of Weak Gauge Bosons.

For 2 years I worked as a Consultant for Mari Advanced Microelectronics Ltd. I was the Project Leader of

Esteem Indicators

My work on fault injection of fail-silent nodes has led to collaboration and a joint paper with Professor R.Iyer's world renowned research group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Member of the organising committee for DSN-2007 The International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks. This is the world's premiere conference in the are of dependable computing.

• Farj K, Chen Y, Speirs NA. A Fault Injection Method for Testing Dependable Web Service Systems. In: 15th IEEE International Symposium on Object/Component/Service-oriented Real-Time Distributed Computing. 2012, Shenzhen, China: IEEE.
• Zhao R, Selvarajah K, Speirs NA. Tools for Building Context Aware and Secure Pervasive Computing Applications. In: 2nd International Conference on Pervasive and Embedded Computing and Communication Systems. 2012, Rome, Italy. In Press.
• Farj K, Speirs N, Chen Y. A Fault Injection Method for Testing Dependable Web Service Systems. Newcastle upon Tyne: School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2011. School of Computing Science Technical Report Series 1263.
• Selvarajah K, Zhao R, Speirs NA. Building Smart Space Applications with PErvasive Computing in Embedded Systems (PECES) Middleware. Global Science and Technology Forum: Journal on Computing 2011, 1(4).
• Zhao R, Selvarajah K, Speirs NA. Development Tools for Pervasive Computing in Embedded Systems (PECES) Middle ware. In: International Conference on Wireless Information Networks and Systems (WINSYS). 2011, Seville, Spain.
• Selvarajah K, Speirs N. Workshop on Pervasive Computing and Cooperative Environments in a Global Context. In: Ambient Intelligence: 1st International Joint Conference (AmI 2010). 2010, Malaga, Spain: Springer-Verlag.
• Ezhilchelvan PD, Brasileiro FV, Speirs NA. A Timeout-Based Message Ordering Protocol for a Lightweight Software Implementation of TMR Systems. IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems 2004, 15(1), 53-65.
• Mohammad A, Speirs N. A Wan Emulator for CORBA Applications. Newcastle upon Tyne: School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2004. School of Computing Science Technical Report Series 862.
• Mpoeleng D, Ezhilchelvan PD, Speirs NA. From Crash Tolerance to Authenticated Byzantine Tolerance: a Structured Approach, the Cost and Benefits. Newcastle upon Tyne: School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2004. School of Computing Science Technical Report Series 824.
• Lu F, Speirs NA. Emulating a Wide Area Network for Testing Dependable Distributed Systems. In: 2003 IEEE International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN '03) (supplemental). 2003, San Francisco, California, USA: IEEE Computer Society Press.
• Mpoeleng D, Ezhilchelvan P, Speirs N. From crash tolerance to authenticated byzantine tolerance: a structured approach, the cost and benefits. In: 2003 IEEE International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN '03). 2003, San Francisco, CA, USA: IEEE.
• Ezhilchelvan PD, Speirs NA. A Two Tier Approach To Building Dependable Middleware Services. In: Workshop on Dependable Middleware-Based Systems; part of the IEEE International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN 2002). 2002, Washington DC, USA: IEEE Computer Society Press.
• Little MC, Shrivastava SK, Speirs NA. Using bloom filters to speed-up name lookup in distributed systems. Computer Journal 2002, 45(6), 645-652.
• Arief B, Speirs N. A UML Tool for an Automatic Generation of Simulation Programs. Newcastle upon Tyne: School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2001. School of Computing Science Technical Report Series 731.
• Stott DT, Speirs NA, Kalbarczyk Z. Comparing Fail-Silence Provided by Process Duplication versus Internal Error Detection for DHCP Server. In: 15th IEEE International Parallel & Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS 2001). 2001, San Francisco, CA: IEEE Computer Society Press.
• Arief LB, Speirs NA. A UML Tool for an Automatic Generation of Simulation Programs. In: 2nd International Workshop on Software and Performance (WOSP 2000). 2000, Ottawa, Canada: ACM Press.
• Stott DT, Speirs NA, Xu J, Bagchi S, Whisnant K, Kalbarczyk Z, Iyer RK. Fault Injection Based Assessment of Fail-Silence Provided by Process Duplication versus Internal Error Detection. Newcastle upon Tyne: Department of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2000. Department of Computing Science Technical Report Series 694.
• Shrivastava SK, Ezhilchelvan PD, Speirs N, Fitzgerald JS. Safety Critical Distributed Systems: a State of Art Report. London: National Air Traffic Services, 2000.
• Speirs NA, Arief LB. Simulation of a Telecommunication System Using SimML. In: IEEE Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Simulation Symposium. 2000, Washington DC, USA: IEEE.
• Arief LB, Speirs NA. Automatic Generation of Distributed System Simulations from UML. In: 13th European Simulation Multiconference (ESM'99). 1999, Warsaw, Poland: SCS Publishing House.
• Arief LB, Speirs NA. Automatic generation of distributed system simulations from UML. In: 13th European Simulation Multiconference. 1999, Warsaw, Poland: Soc, Computer Simulation.
• Arief LB, Speirs NA. Simulation Generation from UML Like Specifications. In: 1999 IASTED International Conference on Applied Modelling and Simulation (AMS 1999). 1999, Cairns, Australia: ACTA Press.
• Arief LB, Little MC, Shrivastava SK, Speirs NA, Wheater SM. Specifying distributed system services. BT Technology Journal 1999, 17(2), 126-136.
• Arief LB, Speirs NA. Using SimML to Bridge the Transformation from UML to Simulation. In: Workshop on Software Performance Prediction extracted from Designs. 1999, Edinburgh, Scotland: Heriot-Watt University.
• Little MC, Speirs NA. Comparative Evaluation of Object Location Mechanisms. British Telecom, 1998.
• Arief LB, Speirs NA. Specification of Distributed Intelligent Network Systems using UML and Extensions. :British Telecom,1998.
• Ezhilchelvan PD, Brasileiro FV, Speirs NA. A Timeout Based Message Ordering Protocol for a Lightweight Software Implementation of TMR Systems. Newcastle upon Tyne: Department of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1997. Department of Computing Science Technical Report Series 582.
• Brasileiro FV, Ezhilchelvan PD, Shrivastava SK, Speirs NA. Implementing Fail-Silent Nodes for Distributed Systems. Newcastle upon Tyne: Department of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1997. Department of Computing Science Technical Report Series 581.
• Brasileiro FV, Ezhilchelvan PD, Shrivastava SK, Speirs NA, Tao S. Implementing fail-silent nodes for distributed systems. IEEE Transactions on Computers 1996, 45(11), 1226-1238.
• Brasileiro FV, Ezhilchelvan PD, Speirs NA. Authenticated Agreement Protocols without Explicit Clock Synchronisation. In: European Research Seminar on Advances in Distributed Systems (ERSADS) Workshop. 1995, l'Alpe d'Huez, France.
• Brasileiro FV, Ezhilchelvan PD, Speirs NA. TMR Processing without Explicit Clock Synchronisation. In: 14th Symposium on Reliable Distributed Systems. 1995, Bad Neuenahr, Germany: IEEE Computer Society.
• Barrett PA, Speirs NA. Delta-4: An Open Architecture for Dependable Systems. Newcastle upon Tyne: Department of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1994. Department of Computing Science Technical Report Series 457.
• Barrett PA, Shrivastava SK, Speirs NA, Waterworth A. Building Fault-Tolerant Distributed Computing Systems Using Standard Components. In: 9th AIAA Computing in Aerospace Conference (AIAA Computing in Aerospace 9). 1993, San Diego, CA, USA: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
• Barrett PA, Shrivastava SK, Speirs NA, Waterworth A. Building Fault-tolerant Distributed Computing Systems using Standard Components. Newcastle upon Tyne: Department of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1993. Department of Computing Science Technical Report Series 449.
• Speirs NA. Efficient Protocols for Fail-Silent Nodes in Distributed Systems. In: 5th European Workshop on Dependable Computing. 1993, Lisbon, Portugal.
• Shrivastava SK, Ezhilchelvan PD, Speirs NA et al. The Design and Implementation of Voltan Fault-tolerant Nodes for Distributed Systems. Transputer Communications 1993, 1(2), 93-109.
• Speirs NA, Tao S, Brasileiro FV, Ezhilchelvan PD, Shrivastava SK. The Design and Implementation of Voltan Fault-tolerant Nodes for Distributed Systems. Newcastle upon Tyne: Department of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1993. Department of Computing Science Technical Report Series 454.
• Barrett PA, Speirs NA. Towards an Integrated Approach to Fault Tolerance in Delta-4. Distributed Systems Engineering 1993, 1(2), 59-66.
• Speirs NA, Shrivastava SK. Demonstration of Voltan Fail-Controlled Node. Dependable Computing Systems Centre, 1992. BG/92/40.
• Speirs NA, Shrivastava SK, Ezhilchelvan PD, Tao S, Brasileiro FV. Efficient Schemes for Constructing Reliable Computing Nodes in Distributed Systems. UK: University of Newcastle upon Tyne, PCT/GB 93/02225, 28-07-1992.
• Shrivastava SK, Ezhilchelvan PD, Speirs NA. Fail-Controlled Computer Architectures for Distributed Systems. Dependable Computing Systems Centre, 1992. BG/92/38.
• Shrivastava SK, Ezhilchelvan PD, Speirs NA, Tao S, Tully A. Principle Features of the VOLTAN Family of Reliable Node Architectures for Distributed Systems. IEEE Transactions on Computers (Special Issue on Fault-Tolerant Computing) 1992, 41(5), 542-549.
• Shrivastava SK, Ezhilchelvan PD, Speirs NA, Seaton DT. Fail-controlled Computer Architectures for Distributed Systems. Newcastle upon Tyne: Computing Laboratory, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1991. Computing Laboratory Technical Report Series 333.
• Shrivastava SK, Seaton DT, Howard N, Speirs NA. Fail-Silent Hardware for Distributed Systems. In: Powell, D., ed. Delta-4: A Generic Architecture for Dependable Distributed Computing. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1991, pp. 295-305.
• Shrivastava SK, Ezhilchelvan PD, Speirs NA, Tao S, Tully A. Principal Features of the Voltan Family of Reliable Node Architectures for Distributed Systems. Newcastle upon Tyne: Computing Laboratory, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1991. Computing Laboratory Technical Report Series 348.
• Barrett PA, Speirs NA. Towards an Integrated Approach to Fault Tolerance in Delta-4. Newcastle upon Tyne: Computing Laboratory, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1991. Computing Laboratory Technical Report Series 344.
• Shrivastava SK, Ezhilchelvan PD, Speirs NA. Fail-controlled processor architectures for distributed systems. DELTA-4 ESPRIT Project, 1990.
• Barrett PA, Hilborne AM, Bond PG, Seaton DT, Verissimo P, Rodrigues L, Speirs NA. The Delta-4 Extra Performance Architecture (XPA). In: 20th International Symposium on Fault-Tolerant Computing (FTCS-20). 1990, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: IEEE Computer Society Press.
• Speirs NA, Barrett PA. Using Passive Replicates in Delta-4 to Provide Dependable Distributed Computing. In: 19th International Symposium on Fault-Tolerant Computing (FTCS-19). 1989, Chicago, IL, USA: IEEE Computer Society Press.
• Corradi A, Salati C, Speirs NA. A Reliable Telecontrol Application Built on a Fault Tolerant Distributed System. In: IASTED International Conference on Reliability and Quality Control. 1987, Paris, France: International Association of Science and Technology for Development.
• Collins PDB, Speirs NA. Composite Weak Bosons and their Decays. Journal of Physics G: Nuclear Physics 1986, 12(11), 1115-1134.
• Ruskin A, Speirs NA. Persistent Objects. In: CAP Technical Conference. 1986, Cambridge, UK.
• Collins PDB, Speirs NA. The Width of the Z Boson in Composite Models. Journal of Physics G: Nuclear Physics 1985, 11(7), L115-L118.
• Collins PDB, Speirs NA. Z to e⁺e^- gamma in a Composite Model. Journal of Physics G: Nuclear Physics 1985, 11(1), L5-L9.
• Collins PDB, Speirs NA. Can the Z boson be Composite?. Physics Letters B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics 1984, 144(3-4), 275-279.