National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU): Science DMZ Performance Measurement

This Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program is a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded research program at Tennessee Tech University. We have 2-3 positions over the Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 semesters. The undergraduate research assistants will learn to perform research under the guidance of Computer Science faculties. We welcome applications from all current undergraduate students at Tennessee Tech with strong interests in systems areas such as high-performance computing, networking, and distributed systems. We strongly encourage applications from women and students from underrepresented groups in STEM fields.

Eligibility

  1. Levels: Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors

  2. Citizenship Requirements: US Citizens & Permanent Residents

  3. Enrollment Requirement: You must be enrolled at Tennessee Tech as an undergraduate

  4. Minimum GPA: 3.0

  5. Deadline to Apply: Open until filled.

How to Apply

To apply, you will need:

  1. Your resume

  2. An one-page essay (300 words or less) that describes (i) your research interests and previous experiences, (ii) why you are interested in this opportunity

  3. Unofficial TNTech transcripts

Apply here: https://forms.office.com/r/L2m2bwqYcN

Scope of work

Science DMZs are special computer networks that are dedicated to research traffic. The DMZs are optimized for network performance and large data transfers. Through this project, the students will learn how to

  • design and configure networks that can transfer Terabytes to Petabytes of data at a very high speed (10Gb/s and above)

  • configure networks that can support very low latency

  • design and perform measurement studies for high speed networks

  • write and deploy measurement software at strategic points around the world

  • work with cloud instances, docker containers, and measurement instruments (e.g., RIPE Atlas) to gather measurement data

  • collect measurement results, analyze, and plot them

  • work on a research paper towards the end of the project

Benefits:

The student

  • will be hired as an hourly research assistant at $10/hour for up to 20 hours/week.

  • will interact with research faculty and learn to perform cutting-edge research

  • will gain hands-on experience in real-world network deployment, configuration, and performance measurement

Questions?

For questions or additional information, please contact

Prof. Susmit Shannigrahi

sshannigrahi@tntech.edu

Support

This project is supported by NSF Award 2018373.