Ramesh Sitaraman

Ramesh Sitaraman is a Distinguished Professor and Associate Dean for Educational Programs and Teaching at the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences (CICS), University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is a world-renowned expert in Internet-scale distributed systems and content delivery networks (CDNs). His contributions include pioneering the first major CDN (Akamai) and foundational work in edge computing and video streaming technologies. He holds part-time roles as Akamai’s Chief Consulting Scientist and directs the Laboratory for Internet-Scale Distributed Systems (LIDS).

Education:

• PhD in Computer Science, Princeton University
• B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras

Research Interests: His work spans distributed systems, networking, energy efficiency, and sustainable computing. Key areas include:

• CDNs and edge computing architectures
• Adaptive bitrate algorithms (e.g., BOLA)
• Energy-aware systems and decarbonization
• Algorithmic design for scalability

Awards and Honors:

• AAAS Fellow (2023)
• IEEE William R. Bennett Prize (2023)
• ACM SIGCOMM Networking Systems Award (2018)
• ACM and IEEE Fellowships (2019)
• University Distinguished Teaching Award (2020)

Teaching and Leadership: As founding director of the Informatics Program, he bridges computer science with interdisciplinary fields. He has received top teaching awards and advocates for curiosity-driven research and broad undergraduate education.

Labs and Initiatives: Directs LIDS and collaborates with the Center for Data Science. Research focuses on sustainable internet infrastructure and next-generation distributed systems.