Workshop: FIND Student Collaboration Meeting

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

This proposal requests funding to cover the costs of running a workshop to permit students funded under the NSF FIND program to come together to present their work to each other, discuss potential collaboration, and identify important open problems for future research. The FIND program is distinctive from many other NSF programs, both in its technical emphasis and its approach to research. The FIND program seeks to involve the research community in a collective exploration of what the Internet of 15 years from now should be. This project requires a long-range perspective, the invention of new concepts not fettered by the constraints of today?s networks, an understanding of the larger social, economic and legal issues that arise from the interplay between the Internet and society, and a willingness to collaborate on larger visions that build on the ideas developed in individual research grants. Because of the value that the FIND program places on integration and collaboration, it is important that those working on the parts of the program have opportunities to meet and discuss objectives, approaches and opportunities. The FIND program has held five prior meetings for PIs funded by FIND, as well as others associated with the program. However, the size of these meetings has precluded including students in the meetings. The FIND planning committee, and the community of FIND researchers generally, have said that it is very important to give students an opportunity to get together in the same way that faculty have been encouraged to do. It is important for the careers of the students, especially those who will enter academia when they graduate, and as well important for the health of the FIND program. These students, as they perform their research, will greatly benefit from having in their minds the larger picture of the goals of FIND. This meeting is planned to occur immediately following the ACM SigComm conference in Seattle this August, which many of these students would attend, in order to reduce the cost and overhead of travel. Intellectual merit The agenda of this workshop has been centered on the identification and discussion of open questions?aspects of a future network that are not yet being explored as part of the FIND program or elsewhere. While the students will be invited to present their own work (via a poster session and ?lightning talks? in breakout sessions) the challenge that will be put to the working groups of the meeting is to assemble a list of important open problems. Such a list will prove valuable both to the students as they plan their own future research. Broader impact The broader impact of this workshop will be to facilitate and further the careers of students, especially students who will enter academia when they finish their graduate work. The objective is to generate excitement and motivation, a sense of purpose and coherence, and a collegial context for a future generation of network researchers.