Top Internet Researchers to Convene at NYU-Poly

Brooklyn, New York—More than 200 scholars and representatives from business and government will gather on the campus of the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) next week to participate in a project that re-envisions the Internet and its capabilities. From October 27 through 29, NYU-Poly will host the 18th GENI Engineering Conference.  The conference will bring together users, developers and operators of the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI), a virtual laboratory for computer network scientists.

Open and broadly inclusive, GENI provides collaborative and exploratory environments for academia, industry, and the public and allows experimenters to test theoretical approaches real time, with real users and real hardware. Although it is in great demand by those working in the areas of networking and distributed systems—those computer systems too large to have one centralized authority—GENI also opens up great possibilities for cross-discipline research. Over 1,000 people across the country are using the virtual lab for their research and in their classrooms. Working in a real-time environment has marked advantages over using analytical models or simulations, which, while useful, often over-simplify or limit experimentation.

With one of the few fourth-generation (4G) wireless test beds in the nation, NYU-Poly is a key participant in GENI. Part of Downtown Brooklyn’s Tech Triangle, the campus is a fitting place to host the conference.

The event, which will feature an opening speech by NYU-Poly President and NYU Dean of Engineering Katepalli Sreenivasan, is being spearheaded by Research Assistant Professor Thanasis Korakis of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and the Center for Advanced Technology in Telecommunications (CATT) at Poly.

Lectures, class sessions, and hands-on tutorials will cover such topics as:

• Basic experimentation and instrumentation for novices
• Programming networks using OpenFlow
• Deploying and operating GENI resources as a campus network administrator
• Designing and implementing new GENI features, tools, and services

One-on-one help sessions will also be available, and a demonstration and networking event will be held on October 27 at 5:30 pm, in which participants will view the latest trends in networking as well as to exchange ideas with top researchers from industry and academia.

“Evolving technological and social networks, intertwined and worldwide in scope, are rapidly transforming societies and economies, and GENI is paving the way for transformative research at the frontiers of networking science and engineering,” Korakis says. “NYU-Poly is proud to be an active participant in GENI, providing one of the few open, remotely accessible research test beds that support 4G wireless technologies.”

For more information about the conference or to register, click here.