Rachit Agarwal is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University, with research focusing on systems, networking, and theoretical problems arising in practical systems. He leads a research group working on resource disaggregation, host architecture, secure cloud storage, and datacenter design. PhD in Computer Science, Cornell University Undergraduate, IIT Kanpur His research spans three major directions: Resource Disaggregation (with $3M NSF and Google awards), Host Architecture (exploring terabit interconnects), and PANCAKE (secure oblivious cloud storage with $1M NSF award). He also contributed to foundational work in Near-optimal Datacenter Design and Data Plane Monitoring . Awards include the Sloan Fellowship, NSF CAREER, IRTF Applied Networking Prize, and multiple best paper awards. His recent publications focus on host network architecture, congestion control, oblivious data access mechanisms, and secure cloud storage systems. He has advised multiple Ph.D. and postdoctoral researchers who now hold faculty positions at leading institutions. Sloan Research Fellowship NSF CAREER award Kavli Fellowship IRTF Applied Networking Research Prize SIGCOMM Best Student Paper Award Usenix Security Distinguished Paper Award Tau Beta Pi Professor of the Year 2025 Rachit has advised numerous students including current Cornell advisees like Midhul Vuppalapati, Shreyas Kharbanda, and Omar Eqbal. Former advisees include Saksham Agarwal (UIUC), Qizhe Cai (UVA), and Mina Tahmasbi Arashloo (University of Waterloo). His research is supported by large NSF grants and industry awards, with deployments in real-world systems and open-source contributions.
Malcolm McCulloch serves as Professor of Energy Systems and Group Leader of the Energy and Power Group within the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford. He also holds the position of Co-Director for the Oxford Martin Programme on Integrating Renewable Energy and maintains affiliation with Christ Church college. His research spans four primary domains: domestic energy systems, electric vehicle technology, renewable generation, and energy solutions for developing regions. McCulloch's research focuses on practical energy transition challenges. His domestic energy work develops user-centric demand side management technologies and behavior change interventions, leading to the spin-out Intelligent Sustainable Energy (now Navetas Energy Management). In transportation, he pioneered the Morgan LifeCar hydrogen sports car project, resulting in high-efficiency motors and the Oxford Yasa Motors spin-out. His renewable generation research includes lightweight tidal turbines through Kepler Energy, while his Energy for Development work creates nano/micro grid solutions for distributed electrification. Analysis of his recent publications reveals a strong emphasis on integrating variable renewables through innovative market mechanisms, grid flexibility solutions, and electric vehicle integration. His work consistently addresses the technical and economic barriers to decarbonization, with increasing focus on peer-to-peer energy trading, thermal storage, and climate-resilient cooling solutions since 2020. McCulloch previously served as Co-Director of the Institute for Carbon and Energy Reduction in Transport (2008-2013) under the Oxford Martin School. His leadership extends to creating the Integrated Transport Network for Oxford and developing practical applications through multiple successful spin-out companies that bridge academic research and commercial implementation.
Alexandre Jacquillat is the Maurice F. Strong Career Development Associate Professor and Associate Professor of Operations Research and Statistics at MIT Sloan School of Management. His research focuses on data-driven decision-making with applications in air traffic management, urban mobility, and decarbonization. He holds a PhD in Engineering and MS degrees from MIT and École Polytechnique. Education PhD in Engineering, MIT MS in Technology and Policy, MIT MS in Applied Mathematics, École Polytechnique Research Interests His work develops scalable optimization models for efficient, equitable, and sustainable operations. Key areas include stochastic optimization, large-scale systems design, and machine learning applications in transportation and public policy. Recent projects explore vertiport planning for urban aerial mobility and prescriptive analytics for pandemic response. Awards Harold W. Kuhn Award (2024) INFORMS Harvey Greenberg Research Award (2023) MIT Jamieson Prize for Excellence in Teaching (2023) Multiple INFORMS Best Paper Awards (2015-2023) Named Leading Academic Data Leader by Chief Data Officer Magazine (2021-2022) Teaching & Grants Teaches courses in optimization (15.093, 15.083) and analytics (15.072). His grants support work in robotic warehousing, air traffic scheduling, and disaster response logistics. Advises on transportation analytics for industry and government. Labs/Teams Leads MIT Sloan's operations research group, collaborating with industry partners like McKinsey & Co. and Booz Allen Hamilton on transportation analytics and optimization projects.
Mohsen Ghaffari is an Associate Professor at MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), holding the Steven and Renee Finn Chair. His research focuses on theoretical computer science, particularly distributed and parallel algorithms, graph theory, and network optimization. Formerly, he was a tenured CS faculty member at ETH Zurich until 2022. PhD in Computer Science from MIT (2016) His research interests include distributed algorithms, parallel computing, graph decomposition, and network congestion management. His recent work addresses coreness decomposition, spanner construction, and Euclidean k-center optimization in massive parallel computation frameworks. Notable scientific awards include the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award (Honorable Mention), ACM-EATCS Doctoral Dissertation Award, and multiple best paper awards at FOCS, PODC, and SODA. He has advised numerous PhD and Master's students, many of whom have transitioned to academic and industry roles. He has taught courses at MIT and ETH Zurich on distributed algorithms, advanced algorithms, and massively parallel computation. His professional activities include serving on program committees for SODA, FOCS, STOC, and organizing workshops like Highlights of Algorithms (HALG) and Workshop on Local Algorithms (WOLA).
Navid Azizan is the Alfred H. (1929) and Jean M. Hayes Career Development Assistant Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), holding dual appointments in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (in Control, Instrumentation & Robotics) and the Schwarzman College of Computing's Institute for Data, Systems & Society (IDSS). He is also a Principal Investigator in the Laboratory for Information & Decision Systems (LIDS), and a faculty member of the MIT Statistics and Data Science Center, the Center for Computational Science and Engineering, and the Operations Research Center. Dr. Azizan received his PhD in Computing and Mathematical Sciences from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2020, his MSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 2015, and his BSc in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Physics from Sharif University of Technology in 2013. Prior to joining MIT, he completed a postdoc at Stanford University's Autonomous Systems Laboratory and was a research scientist intern at Google DeepMind. His research spans the intersection of machine learning, systems and control, mathematical optimization, and network science. Dr. Azizan's work focuses on developing principled learning and optimization algorithms for reliable intelligent systems, with applications to autonomy and sociotechnical systems. His research has significant implications for creating trustworthy AI systems that can operate effectively in complex, uncertain environments. Dr. Azizan's recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on uncertainty quantification, reliable AI systems, constrained optimization, and control-oriented learning. His work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications, particularly in autonomous systems where safety and reliability are paramount. His research group has made notable contributions to areas including neural network verification, multi-agent reinforcement learning, and adaptive inference techniques for large language models, with several papers featured on MIT News and selected for oral presentations at top conferences. Alfred H. (1929) and Jean M. Hayes Career Development Professorship (2025-present) Frank E. Perkins Award for Excellence in Graduate Advising (2025) List of Outstanding Academic Leaders in Data from the CDO Magazine (2024, 2023) Amazon Science Hub Research Award (2023) Outstanding UROP Faculty Mentor (2023) Esther and Harold E. Edgerton (1927) Career Development Chair (2022-2025) Information Theory and Applications (ITA) Gold Graduation Award (2020) Dr. Azizan has been recognized for his excellence in graduate advising, receiving the Frank E. Perkins Award for Excellence in Graduate Advising in 2025. During the pandemic, he founded and co-organized the 'Control meets Learning' virtual seminar series, connecting researchers across disciplines. His work has attracted significant research funding from industry partners including Google, Amazon, and MathWorks, supporting both fundamental research and practical applications in reliable intelligent systems. The Azizan Lab at MIT brings together researchers from mechanical engineering, computer science, and applied mathematics to tackle challenges at the intersection of learning and control. The lab emphasizes both theoretical foundations and practical implementations, with a particular focus on developing algorithms that provide guarantees of performance and safety. Current research directions include uncertainty quantification in AI systems, constrained optimization for neural networks, and control-oriented learning for autonomous systems, with applications spanning robotics, transportation, and complex sociotechnical systems.
Raissa M. D'Souza is a Professor and Associate Dean of Research in the College of Engineering at the University of California, Davis. She holds joint appointments in the Department of Computer Science, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Graduate Group in Applied Mathematics, and Graduate Group in Physics. Her research focuses on complex networks, percolation theory, cascades, and interdependent systems, with applications to social, biological, and technological networks. She leads the Networks and Control research group and is a Founding Lead Editor of Physical Review Research . Her work spans interdisciplinary collaborations, including with the Santa Fe Institute and the Complexity Sciences Hub Vienna. Key awards include Fellowships from AAAS (2024), APS (2016), and the Network Science Society (2019), as well as the Euler Award for her contributions to network science. Dr. D'Souza has advised over 10 PhD students and has secured grants from agencies including the NSF. Her lab explores topics like explosive percolation, synchronization in oscillator networks, and network controllability. Notable recent work includes studies on exotic synchronization patterns and strategies for mitigating cascading failures in interdependent systems.
Phuong H. Nguyen is an Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). He leads the digital Power & Energy Systems (digi-PES) lab, focusing on smart energy systems, distributed control, and IoT integration for future energy grids. His research addresses energy transition challenges, including microgrid optimization, flexibility markets, and data-driven grid management. Nguyen holds a PhD from TU/e (2010) and has held visiting researcher positions at Clemson University. His work contributes to UN SDG goals related to affordable and clean energy. Education: Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering, Hanoi University of Science and Technology (2002) Master's in Electrical Engineering, Asian Institute of Technology (2004) PhD in Electrical Engineering, TU/e (2010) Key Research Areas: Smart Grids and Cyber-Physical Systems Distributed Energy Resource Management Local Energy Markets and Flexibility Provision IoT and Big Data in Energy Systems Awards & Recognition: Best Paper Award SEST 2020 Projects & Grants: REACT-D: Reactive Power Management (Project Manager) Al-driven Applications to Smarten Power System Operation (Project Lead) UNIversity Campus as a Self-Regulated Network (Co-Manager) Labs & Teams: The digi-PES lab develops cyber-physical tools for energy transition, including microgrid simulations, flexibility markets, and grid resilience strategies.
Sishuai Gong is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, focusing on system reliability and security. His research bridges machine learning, software engineering, and computer architecture to address challenges in large-scale software systems. Education : Ph.D. in Computer Science from Purdue University (2025), B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Science and Technology of China (2019). Research Interests : System reliability and security, kernel concurrency testing, verified security modules, and machine learning for systems. He develops interdisciplinary techniques to identify and mitigate functional interference bugs in OS virtualization and latency-sensitive applications. Scientific Awards : Jay Lepreau Best Paper Award at OSDI (2024) Google Cloud Research Innovator (2024) Bilsland Dissertation Fellowship at Purdue (2024) Teaching : Offering COMP 790: Reliable and Secure Systems (Fall 2025) with a focus on empirical studies, static/dynamic analysis, and machine learning for systems. Course grading includes paper presentations (30%), class participation (30%), and research projects (40%).
Maher Elshakankiri is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Ain Shams University (Egypt), followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Regina. His research focuses on IoT, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), and pedagogical integration of technology and gaming. He has supervised over 100 student projects and authored a book on WSNs. Education: Ph.D. in Computer Engineering, Ain Shams University, Egypt M.Eng., B.Eng. in Engineering, Ain Shams University, Egypt Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Regina, Canada Research Interests: IoT in healthcare, agriculture, and sports Active learning classrooms and technology in education Wireless communication protocols (V2V, UAV, RFID) Leadership & Grants: Director, Bachelor of Information (BI) Program (2024–present) Coordinator, Information Systems and Design (ISD) Concentration (2023) SSHRC Grant: 'Gaming in teaching towards a more inclusive class' (2022–2023) Professional Activities: Member, SCC IoT & Digital Twins Standards Committee Reviewer for journals including Wireless Networks , Telematics and Informatics , and Computational Intelligence Technical Program Committee member at multiple conferences Teaching: Courses include INF1340 (Programming for Data Science), INF1005/1006 (IoT Workshops), and INF452 (Information Design Coding).
Prof. Liam Murphy is a Full Professor of Computer Science & Informatics at University College Dublin (UCD) and Director of the Performance Engineering Laboratory. He holds a B.E. from UCD, M.Sc. and Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. His research focuses on performance engineering of networks, software systems, and multimedia transmissions. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers and is an IEEE member and Fellow of the Irish Computer Society. Education: B.E. in Electrical Engineering, UCD (1985) M.Sc. & Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley (1988, 1992) Research Interests: Dynamic resource allocation in networks Cloud computing efficiency Software performance engineering Wireless multimedia systems Quality of Service (QoS) optimization Recent work emphasizes energy-efficient cloud workflows, multi-objective data center optimization, and decentralized traffic simulation. Grants & Awards: Fellow of the Irish Computer Society (2007) Conference Paper Awards (2004, 2002, 2001) Principal Investigator in multiple funded projects (e.g., EU-funded traffic simulation, cloud resource allocation) Advising & Labs: Directed 24 Ph.D. and 8 M.Sc. students. Leads the Performance Engineering Laboratory (PEL), focusing on distributed systems, cloud efficiency, and network performance. Collaborates on industry-relevant projects like crovan (UCD/DCU campus company). Teaching: Coordinates courses on computer science fundamentals, distributed systems performance, and software engineering at UCD.
T. S. Eugene Ng is a Professor of Computer Science and Electrical & Computer Engineering at Rice University. He holds appointments in both departments and chairs the CS Grad Committee. His research focuses on network architectures, optical networking, and machine learning applications in distributed systems. Education: B.S. in Computer Engineering (with distinction and magna cum laude), University of Washington M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University Research Interests: Developing robust network infrastructure, optical circuit-switched systems, congestion control, and efficient machine learning frameworks. Current projects include BOLD (Big data and Optical Lightpaths Driven) networking, telemetry systems like Söze, and gradient compression techniques for distributed training. Awards: IEEE Fellow (2023) Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow (2009) National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2005) IBM Faculty Award (2009) Kavli Fellow Professional Activities: Chair of the 2018 ACM SIGCOMM Distinguished Dissertation Award Committee, Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Big Data, and organizer of multiple networking conferences/workshops. Active in program committees for SIGCOMM, NSDI, and CoNEXT. Teaching: Courses include Introduction to Computer Networks, Advanced Computer Networks, and seminars in distributed computing and network systems.
Magdy M. A. Salama is a Professor and University Research Chair at the University of Waterloo's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering. He holds a P.Eng. license and is a Fellow of the IEEE. His research spans Energy Systems (Power Quality, Smart Grids, Renewable Energy) and Biomedical Engineering (Medical Imaging, Sleep Analysis). He has authored/co-authored over 460 publications and supervised numerous graduate students. Education: PhD (University of Waterloo), M.Sc. and B.Sc. (Cairo University). Awards include the IEEE Fellow distinction, University Research Chair, and multiple teaching/research awards from the University of Waterloo. Research trends in his articles focus on Smart Grid resiliency, renewable integration, cyber-physical security, and biomedical applications of AI. Notable projects include voltage sag mitigation, EV fleet electrification, and blockchain-based energy trading platforms. Scientific Awards: IEEE Fellow, University Research Chair, Teaching Excellence Award (2000) Grants/Consultation: Extensive industry and institutional collaborations on power systems and biomedical tech. Labs/Teams: Active in High Voltage Lab, Smart Grids Research Group, and Medical Image Processing Lab.
Stelios Timotheou is an Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and faculty member at the KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence, University of Cyprus. He holds a Dipl-Ing from National Technical University of Athens, and MSc/PhD from Imperial College London. His research focuses on developing real-time distributed methodologies using mathematical optimization, machine learning, and computational intelligence to enhance efficiency in critical infrastructure systems. Research interests center on data-driven decision making for urban mobility management, traffic control systems, and energy optimization. Key areas include: Intelligent UAV-based sensing for traffic monitoring Cooperative control algorithms for multi-agent systems Optimization of renewable energy integration Robust infrastructure protection strategies Recent publications demonstrate strong focus on traffic state estimation (76%), energy system optimization (16%), and UAV applications (8%). Awarded the Cyprus Research Award (2017) and ERC Consolidator Grant for URANUS project. Secured multiple research grants focusing on real-time control systems.
Prof. Hans van Lint is a Professor of Traffic Simulation and Computing at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), where he holds the Anthony van Leeuwenhoek Chair since 2013. He is affiliated with the Department of Transport & Planning within the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences. His research focuses on the intersection of traffic flow theory, data analytics, and traffic simulation, with applications in estimating and predicting traffic states in networks. He has supervised numerous PhD students and contributed to valorization projects translating research into practical solutions. Van Lint earned his MSc in Civil Engineering in 1997 and returned to TU Delft for his PhD, which he completed in 2004 on 'Freeway Travel Time Prediction.' He has held roles including Assistant Professor (until 2009), Associate Professor, and has served as Director of Education for the MSc Transport, Infrastructure and Logistics program from 2010–2016. His research interests include traffic simulation frameworks, data assimilation techniques, and the development of tools for traffic state estimation. He has authored influential papers on topics such as microscopic traffic modeling, congestion pattern analysis, and macroscopic fundamental diagrams. His work emphasizes bridging theoretical models with real-world applications, enhancing traffic management and infrastructure planning. Van Lint teaches courses like 'Transport & Planning' and 'Interdisciplinary Fundamentals,' reflecting his commitment to both research and education. He actively contributes to TU Delft's labs, including the Traffic Dynamics, Modelling and Control Lab, advancing interdisciplinary approaches to mobility challenges.
Benyuan Liu is a Professor at the Miner School of Computer and Information Sciences within the Kennedy College of Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Lowell . He serves as Director and Graduate Coordinator for Ph.D. programs, with expertise in Data and Computer Communication Networks, Mobile and Wireless Networks, and Internet Technologies & Applications. Education: B.S., University of Science and Technology of China M.S., Yale University Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Amherst His research focuses on Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging , Deep Learning for Endoscopy , and Edge Computing Systems . Recent work includes automated lesion detection, 3D reconstruction from sensor data, and predictive models for financial and reproductive health domains. The 15 most recent publications highlight applications of deep learning in medical diagnostics (thyroid nodules, gastric lesions, dental caries), computer vision (attention mechanisms, transformers), and financial technology (market psychology analysis). Technical themes include mmwave radar processing, diffusion models for synthetic data, and multi-scale feature extraction. Benyuan Liu leads the Computer Networking Lab and CHORDS initiative at UMass Center for Digital Health. His work bridges network optimization with healthcare AI , emphasizing real-time systems and portable diagnostics.
