Information for Prospective Students

You're here because:

• you clicked the 'Join my team' link on my web page, or
• you contacted expressing interest to work with me.

In either case, thanks for your interest! I am always on the lookout for enthusiastic people to work with.

I am interested in the following topics (in no particular order):

• Adaptive deployment of end-to-end services across heterogeneous infrastructures
• Opportunistic composition of distributed systems and systems of systems
• Energy-efficient distributed applications
• Cloud brokerage and adaptive decision support
• Intent Driven Networking
• Measuring online systems, such as web infrastructures and social networks

If any of the above is interesting to you, the information below is what you need to know.

Please select the relevant link:  PhD  Masters  L4 Projects  Internships  Guidelines 

PhD Students

I receive many requests from all over the world. In order to filter these, I look for the following aspects. If these are not clarified, I am inclined to ignore your email.

• I expect my students to have systems programming and data analysis skills. I expect you to publish 2 or more publications during your PhD project, at least one of which at a top-tier systems venue.
• You need to identify the overlap of interests and experience between you and I. Please only make contact once you have an idea of what you want to work on and how it would be relevant to my fields of research (see above).
• Once you know this, send me such details in the form of a concise research proposal (1-2 pages) that provides a planned methodology and research objectives, along with a CV (include previous degrees and grades, any publications, awards of excellence).
• Your proposal should outline what problem you want to work on, why it is important, and how you intend to approach it. This includes the knowledge and skills you will bring to solve said problem.
• When emailing me, please send any attached documents in PDF. I will not open Word documents.
• If I find your proposal interesting and convincing, I will let you know so you can name me as a supporter of your official application using the standard procedure.

Masters Students

• A Masters project in the UK is relatively short but intense. I will meet you frequently for supervision and support. In return, I expect total commitment from your end.
• Before our first meeting, look at my topics of interest at the top of this page and see if there is any overlap with your areas of interest.
• As with all other student projects, I expect my students to be strong system programmers and with good data analysis skills. I also expect them to be creative and have good problem solving skills. Publishing is not a must, but 1 good paper resulting from your work would strongly indicate the importance and quality of your work.
• All notes below on L4 projects also apply.

L4 Project Students

• I expect my students to be confident at coding and data analysis.
• I will meet you frequently to make sure you are on the right path.
• You need to take ownership of your project as it is your work that will be evaluated at the end of it. It is you who needs to define, develop, and defend the project. My job is to guide you through it.
• To give you a good grade I need to see progress and not just an end result. Make sure you show up to meetings and deliver the expected work that we agree upon from one meeting to the next.
• The University gives you access to a number of very rich online digital libraries such as ACM and IEEE. Make use of them! You will need to identify related works as part of your project.
• If your work is of good quality, I will support you in getting it published.

Internships

• There is usually one or more paid internship opportunities available over summer. Please email me to inquire about these, ideally around March. The positions last for 8-12 weeks, and involve significant systems coding and problem solving.
• For paid internships, you need to be physically in the UK. Unfortunately, we cannot help with a visa application if you need one.
• Remote internships are possible, although no pay would be possible for legal and administrative reasons. They are, however, not restricted to the summer. Please email me to inquire, including a CV (in PDF) and a short statement (< 150 words) about what interests you and why this is a worthy subject.