DIMACS Graduate Student Projects and Jobs: Past Projects

The following projects were proposed by DIMACS members and the positions were filled or expired.

Project Number: 97-1
Posting Date: March 26
Proposer: Rafail Ostrovsky, Bellcore (rafail@bellcore.com)
Category: Research project or Job: Research Project
Title of Project or Job: Research in Cryptography and Security
Description (a few sentences): I have several specific research directions in mind, but I am also open to suggestions, as long as they are crypto/security related, and I find them interesting.
Required Background: crypto course and/or exposure to security issues; mathematical maturity.
Time Requirements: negotiable
Proposed Type of Award: Dimacs fellowship, specific amount depends on the project agreed upon.
Deadline to Apply (optional): April 15, for Summer 1997, later otherwise
Project Number: 97-2
Posting Date: March 26
Proposer: Albert Greenberg, albert@research.att.com
Category: Research project or Job: Research Project
Title of Project or Job: Understanding the behavior of large networks
Description (a few sentences): Visualization, Network and distributed systems programming, and simulations.
Required Background: Great implementors needed, willing to spend significant time with us.
Time Requirements: 3 days a week
Proposed Type of Award: Don't know.
Deadline to Apply (optional):
Project Number: 97-3
Posting Date: March 30
Proposer: C. Lee Giles, NEC Research Institute (giles@research.nj.nec.com, www.neci.nj.nec.com/homepages/giles.html)
Category: Research project or Job: Research Project
Title of Project or Job: Fundamental issues in communication in multiagent learning
Description (a few sentences): There are many assumptions regarding communication in multiagent learning. This research attempts to understand what those assumptions are and how learning affects them.
Required Background: Candidates should have experience in research and be able to effectively communicate research results in publishable form. Ideal candidates will have knowledge of one or more machine learning techniques (e.g. neural networks, decision trees, rule based systems, and nearest neighbor techniques), and be proficient in the software implementation of algorithms.
Time Requirements: Negotiable
Proposed Type of Award: DIMACS fellowship with possibility of other support.
Deadline to Apply (optional):
Project Number: 97-4
Posting Date: April 2
Proposer: C. Lee Giles, NEC Research Institute (giles@research.nj.nec.com, www.neci.nj.nec.com/homepages/giles.html)
Category: Research project or Job: Research Project
Title of Project or Job: Applications of Machine Learning to the WWW.
Description (a few sentences): Discuss with proposer.
Required Background: Candidates should have experience in research and be able to effectively communicate research results in publishable form. Ideal candidates will have knowledge of one or more machine learning techniques (e.g. neural networks, decision trees, rule based systems, and nearest neighbor techniques), and be proficient in the software implementation of algorithms.
Time Requirements: Negotiable
Proposed Type of Award: DIMACS fellowship with possibility of other support.
Deadline to Apply (optional):
Project Number: 97-5
Posting Date: June 2
Proposer: Diane Souvaine, Rutgers CS, dls@cs.rutgers.edu
Category: Research project or Job: Research Project
Title of Project or Job: Shortest Paths in Polygonal Regions
Description (a few sentences): A lot of work has been done on calculating shortest paths in polygonal regions. In this classic shortest path work, the shortest path between two points is the shortest path achievable by a piece of string, i.e. it can wrap around corners. For work in wireless communications, there CAN be some wrapping around vertices, but the "shortest path" achievable by a signal tends to travel in straight lines, and then be reflected off a wall or an obstacle where the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. This project will develop a package that calculates multiple reflections. There have been a couple of groundbreaking papers on this topic in the last 18 months, but nothing has been implemented.
Required Background: Good programming skills in C and a course in computational geometry.
Time Requirements: negotiable
Proposed Type of Award: hourly $12 and up depending on background.
Deadline to Apply (optional): June 16, 1997
Project Number: 97-6
Posting Date: June 4
Proposer: Joan Feigenbaum (jf@dimacs.rutgers.edu)
Category: Research project or Job: Job
Title of Project or Job: DREI'97 (Cryptography and Network Security) Teaching Assistant
Description (a few sentences): First, the TA will attend lectures and will be a "scribe" to the extent that this is possible, working together with the DREI instructor on materials provided to produce notes in a timely manner to be distributed to the DREI students (i.e., a group of high school teachers). The writeups may be reproduced on paper and/or posted locally on the web. Second, the TA will work together with the lead instructors guiding daily problem sessions for the students. Additionally, the TA will produce solutions to some of the problems and encourage the production by students of solutions to the problems. Possibly (but rarely) the TA will give additional presentations during the daily problem session/review session which will usually accompany the Education Program's lectures. More information is available at: http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/archive/drei/1997/schedule/DREI97_ad_Research.htm
Time Requirements: Scribe must be present for the appropriate lecture week between July 28 and August 15, 1997.
Proposed Type of Award: Salary
Deadline to Apply (optional): June 30, 1997
Project Number: 97-7
Posting Date: June 4
Proposer: Steve Mahaney, DIMACS Center, mahaney@dimacs.rutgers.edu
Category: Research project or Job: Job
Title of Project or Job: Publicity and TR Coordinator.
Description (a few sentences): The person in this position will provide computer skills and editorial support to publicize DIMACS programs (workshops, special years, etc.); will prepare technical reports by center scientists and visitors for electronic and paper distribution; and will fulfill requests for publicity materials, TRs, and related materials as needed. This person has responsibility for many parts of the center's WWW site under supervision of regular staff.
Specific duties include editing and preparing materials into latex, html, and text formats; distributing by email, mail, etc. to journals, and other sites; monitoring information needed and requesting updates as necessary; editing and maintaining accuracy of WWW pages; preparing electronic and paper TR's from latex or postscript submissions; and other duties as assigned. There is a possibility of part time work after the summer.
Students interested in a half time summer position are encouraged to apply also; the duties can be split over two students.
Time Requirements: 37.5 hours per week; mid June to end of summer.
Proposed Type of Award: $12.00 per hour;
Deadline to Apply (optional): June 23, 1997
Project Number: 97-8
Posting Date: July 7, 1997
Proposer: Joel Lebowitz, Mathematics, Rutgers
Category: Research project or Job: Project
Title of Project or Job: Statistical Mechanics of protein folding
Description (a few sentences): Investigate structure of contact matrices describing configuration of protein molecules.
Time Requirements: 40 hours per week, 4 weeks, August 1 - 31, 1997.
Proposed Type of Award: Salary
Deadline to Apply (optional): July 23, 1997
Project Number: 97-9
Posting Date: August 6, 1997
Proposer: Fred S. Roberts, DIMACS and Mathematics, Rutgers, froberts@dimacs.rutgers,edu
Category: Research project or Job: Job
Title of Project or Job: Preparing an Index for a book on Mathematical Psychology
Description (a few sentences): Prepare the index for my book, Recent Progress in Mathematical Psychology. Chapter by chapter review of book, subject and author index must be done. Want a math, CS or OR student with some background in psychology. Since chapters were done in various software systems, this will require going through each chapter as well as working with authors' suggestions.
Time Requirements: Preferred completion time is late August or early September.
Proposed Type of Award: Hourly wages.
Deadline to Apply (optional): October 15, 1997
Project Number: 97-10
Posting Date: August 14, 1997
Proposer: Fred S. Roberts, DIMACS and Mathematics, Rutgers, froberts@dimacs.rutgers.edu
Category: Research project or Job: Job,
Title of the Job : Latexing work to assist editor of DIMACS Volume on Molecular Biology
Description: Martin Farach, Fred Roberts, Michael Waterman, and Martin Vingrong are completing a volume of papers resulting from the DIMACS Special Year on Mathematical Support for Molecular Biology. Papers have come to the editors in a variety of formats. We need help to change them into the American Math Society DIMACS volume latex format. This involves a lot of formatting and some retyping
Required Background: latex, editing. Familiarity with AMS latex a plus.
Time Requirements: Preferred starting time is early in the Fall semester.
Proposed Type of Award: Pay will be hourly, based on experience.
Deadline to Apply (optional): October 15, 1997
Project Number: 97-11
Posting Date: September 18, 1997
Proposer: Avishai Wool (yash@research.bell-labs.com)
Category: Research project or Job: Research Project
Title of the Job: Web-based key management for broadcast networks
Description: As a starting point I want to build a web interface for some new key management schemes that are designed for satellite-TV-like environments. I have some related ideas for further research, and I'm also open to suggestions.
Required Background: Crypto course and/or exposure to security issues;mathematical maturity; knowledge in Java programming (or willingness to learn).
Time Requirements: Negotiable. Starting date can be immediately.
Proposed Type of Award: DIMACS fellowship
Deadline to Apply (optional): October 15, 1997
Project Number: 97-12
Posting Date: September 29, 1997
Proposer: Joel Lebowitz, Rutgers Mathematics Dept.
Category: Research project or Job: Research Project
Title of the Job: Computer simulation of discrete models in statistical mechanics
Description:
Required Background: Student should have a good background in statistical mechanics as well as in computer simulations.
Time Requirements: 10-20 hours per week
Proposed Type of Award: DIMACS fellowship or supplementary salary
Deadline to Apply (optional): October 15, 1997
Project Number: 98-1
Posting Date: February 21, 1998
Proposer: Markus Jakobsson
Category: Research project or Job: Research Project
Title of Project or Job: Distributed Computing and Cryptography
Description: Cryptography has lately become a hot area with a lot of commercial interest. May problems relating to secure and efficient multi-party computation need to be solved, and have potential applications within telephony, Internet, banking, and more. Although I have no particular project in mind, and am open to work within the frames of the above rather general description, I do focus on problems related to assymetric cryptography, zero-knowledge proofs, and e-cash. Look at some of my recent papers at http://www.bell-labs.com/~markusj/ for a taste of what type of project I would prefer.
Note: it is very likely that Bell Labs will want sole ownership of the intellectual property coming out of the project; this normally does not prevent publishing, though.
Required Background: Reasonable knowledge of cryptography, escpecially the above mentioned primitives.
Time Requirements: negotiable
Proposed Type of Award: DIMACS fellowship (to begin with at least)
Project Number: 98-2
Posting Date: March 13, 1998
Proposer: Yuval Shavitt
Category: Research Project
Title of Project or Job: Simulation of multi-path routing
Description: In order to use the network resources efficiently, bandwidth reservations must be made to ensure high probability of data arrival to its destinations. However, for reactive application (such as WWW browsing), the traditional way of attempting a reservation along a single route might delay connection establishment time due to the inability of the original path to accommodate the required resources, and the need to try another route. Multi-path routing was suggested by us in the past to overcome this difficulty. We developed algorithms that attempt reservation along several routes (not necessarily disjoint) and thus are capable to find a feasible route (one with sufficient resources) in shorter average time. We showed analytically the high potential of multi-path routing, and also have promising preliminary simulation results of these algorithms. This project is aimed at a thorough simulation study that will enable us to understand the potential and limitations of multi-path routing. It will require to write a robust simulation engine (based on some building blocks we have) and to plan and perform a comprehensive simulation study of the algorithms.
Required Background: The student is expected to have good background in distributed algorithms, and computer simulations.
Time Requirements: 400 hours, spread over 2-3 month.
Proposed Type of Award: TBD
Project Number: 98-3
Posting Date: April 23, 1998
Proposer: Avishai Wool (yash@research.bell-labs.com)
Category: Research Project(appropriate for special year on networks)
Title of Project or Job: Performance study of a combined routing and flow control protocol on a ring-based WAN.
Description: Implement a new routing and flow control protocol (using off the shelf network simulation tools) for a novel network architecture based on multiple rings. Run a computational performance analysis with respect to the delay and throughput characteristics under different load conditions. Interested students are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Contact either Avishai Wool (yash@research.bell-labs.com) or Bulent Yener (yener@research.bell-labs.com).
Time Requirements: summer job, preferably starting in early May.
Proposed Type of Award: DIMACS fellowship

Project Number: 98-4
Posting Date: July 17, 1998
Proposer: Michael Saks
Category: Research project or Job: Job (Programming related to a research project)
Title of Project or Job: Searching directed graphs for triangles
Description: We need someone to do some programming in order to construct a catalog of integer sequences having certain properties. We have outlines of algorithms for constructing these catalogs, and they need to be implemented, and, possibly, enhanced. The algorithms to be implemented require linear programming as a subroutine linear programs, and so it will be necessary to interface with an appropriate linear programming package. The background of the problem is a well known conjecture: every directed graph on n vertices having minimum out degrees n/3 has a directed triangle. With Ryan Hayward, I have developed an approach to this problem which requires identifying for small values of n, all sequences s of length n having the property that any digraph with out-degree sequence s must have a directed triangle. We'd like to do this for n up to 15, but exhaustive search approaches are not feasible for this size. We have some methods for cutting down the search time that we want implemented and hopefully these will give much better performance than exhaustive search.
Required Background: Programming experience (preferably in C), and sufficient knowledge of some linear programming package to be able to link it in with your program.
Time Requirements: 50 hours (estimation), the time per week is negotiable
Proposed Type of Award: TBD

Project Number: 99-1
Posting Date: April 15, 1999
Proposer: Yuval Shavitt, Bell Labs, shavitt@lucent.com; Avishai Wool, Bell Labs, yash@research.bell-labs.com; Bulent Yener, Bell Labs, yener@research.bell-labs.com
Category: Research project or Job: Research Project
Title of Project or Job: Extracting Internet Topological Information
Description (a few sentences): Determining the topology of the Internet is a difficult task and current approaches provide only ad-hoc solutions. The objective of this project is to design and implement algorithms to optimally extract topological information on the Internet.
The project involves building a simulation to test the performance of algorithms that are currently under development. The algorithms will be tested on synthetic networks built using models for Internet-like networks.
Required Background: Experience in C/C++. Basic graph theory.
Time Requirements: summer position
Proposed Type of Award: Dimacs fellowship
Deadline to Apply (optional): ASAP

Project Number: 99-2
Posting Date: October 15, 1999
Proposer: Yuval Shavitt, Bell Labs, shavitt@lucent.com; Dr. Danny Raz, Bell Labs, raz@dnrc.bell-labs.com
Category: Research project or Job: Research Project
Title of Project or Job: Developing a Search Algorithm for Network Management
Description (a few sentences): SNMP is a simple query protocol used to manage computer networks. The protocol allows the user to retrieve a single scalar item from a management information base (MIB) using queries. However, the MIB has a tree structure that may include large tables and navigating remotely in it may be costly. The project aims at optimizing the cost of navigating the tree by developing intellegent search algorithms. The student will help in refining the search algorithms we developed and implementing them using the UC Davis SNMP package. A successful implementation will be contributed to that package public repository.
There are significant benefits to establishing a relationship with researchers at Bell Labs, learning a new field, and eventually publishing the research result.
Required Background: Relavent background only.
Time Requirements: part-time and flexible; can begin any time, for a duration of 8-10 weeks (asuming a day a week effort)
Proposed Type of Award: Dimacs fellowship
Deadline to Apply (optional): November 1, 1999 or until position is filled

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