Rodrigo Fonseca

Rodrigo Fonseca is an Associate Professor with Tenure in the Computer Science Department at Brown University's School of Engineering. He received his PhD from UC Berkeley in 2008 under Ion Stoica, focusing on execution tracing for distributed systems.

His educational background includes a PhD in Computer Science from UC Berkeley (2008).

Fonseca's research focuses on distributed systems, networking, and operating systems, with particular interest in understanding complex system behavior. His work spans distributed tracing and debugging (X-Trace, Pivot Tracing), network management in datacenters (2DFQ, Planck), power management in mobile systems (Quanto, Application Modes), and software-defined networking (Participatory Networking, Simon). His research integrates theoretical insights with practical implementations that have influenced both academic and industrial systems.

His publication record shows a strong focus on distributed system instrumentation, with recurring themes of causal tracing, resource management, and network monitoring. The most recent publications demonstrate continued innovation in data-aware indexing structures, in-network packet analysis, and context propagation techniques for distributed systems.

Fonseca has received significant recognition including an NSDI Test of Time Award for X-Trace, an NSF CAREER Award, and a Best Paper Award at SOSP for Pivot Tracing. His work has been consistently published in top-tier venues including SIGCOMM, NSDI, SOSP, and OSDI.

He has mentored numerous graduate students, with five PhD graduates as of 2019 who have gone on to positions at Google, Microsoft, Apple, and MPI-SWS. His research has been supported by funding from the National Science Foundation, Google, Intel, and Microsoft Research, where he also spent visiting periods.

He is actively involved in the research community, having served on program committees for major conferences and co-organizing workshops including HotCloud and the New England Networking and Systems Day. In 2019-2020, he served as PC co-chair for HotNets and General Chair for SoCC'2020.