Panel 1 – Software Defined Network and Network Function Virtualization
1. Ajay Rajkumar
Ajay Rajkumar received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University. Dr. Rajkumar currently leads the SDN and Programmable Networks domain in Mobile Networks CTO at Nokia. Dr. Rajkumar has received Bell Labs President’s Award for Design and Prototype of Base Station Router (BSR) which has since its early days evolved into Mobile Edge Computing and its concepts used to develop flat IP architectures across many different cellular standards. He has received another Bell Labs President’s Silver award for the first prototype that demonstrated seamless interworking across heterogeneous access networks for real-time applications. Dr. Rajkumar led the mobile industry to develop standards that enable ubiquitous coverage across heterogeneous access and was the Founding Chair of IEEE 802.21 for Media Independent Handover. He was also a Member of the IEEE 802 Executive Committee Board. Dr. Rajkumar has been a frequent invited speaker at research labs, universities, industry and technical panels. He has many publications and has received more than 25 patents in very diverse areas of technology.
2. Jack Brassil
Jack Brassil currently serves as a Program Director in the Division of Computer and Network Systems at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Virginia.
His program responsibilities include the Networking Technology and Systems (NeTS) core research program, and experimental networking and computing research infrastructure including GENI, US Ignite, and NSFFutureCloud.
Dr. Brassil has performed and managed computing and networking research for over 25 years, holding multiple positions at Bell Labs in Murray Hill and Holmdel, NJ, and HP Labs in Palo Alto, Ca.
He is a Senior Scholar in the Department of Computer Science at Princeton University (on leave), and is a Fellow of the IEEE.
3. Kalyani Bogineni
Fellow, Verizon
Dr. Kalyani Bogineni is a Fellow at Verizon, responsible for defining forward-looking network architectures using new technologies like SDN, NFV, 5G, Information Centric Networking and Mobile Edge Computing. Recently, she led a group of Verizon technologists, along with other industry leaders, to define Verizon’s SDN-NFV architecture. The resulting document outlines the strategies necessary to evolve Verizon’s existing network to meet the needs of new and emerging technologies. Prior to that project, Dr. Bogineni worked on network architecture and standardization for technologies including 4G/LTE, IP-optical integration, and Advanced Intelligent Networks.
4. Kandan Kathirvel
Gnanavelkandan Kathirvel is a Lead-System Architect and Cloud expert at AT&T working on Cloud Strategy, Cloud Architecture and Network function Virtualization (NFV). Kandan led the architecture work to support Cloud convergence, building external cloud and Content Delivery network (CDN) for AT&T. He is currently focused on AT&T’s “Domain 2.0” initiative to virtualize large portions of AT&T Network services infrastructure on top of a common OpenStack based Cloud.
5. Jin Xiao
Jin Xiao is a research staff member at IBM T. J. Watson Cloud platforms and services. He is a lead architect and technical consultant on Next-generation enterprise optical networks and software-defined network functions for IBM global network service infrastructure. Dr. Xiao received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of Waterloo, Canada where he conducted research on network and service operations and management. His current focus is on network service automation for hybrid enterprise Cloud.
Panel 2: What’s next in the Internet of Things and Cyber Physical Systems?
1. Prof. Dario Pompili
Dr. Dario Pompili in an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Rutgers University, NJ, USA, where since 2007 he is the director of the Cyber-Physical Systems Laboratory (CPS Lab). He received a PhD degree in ECE from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2007, where he worked in the Broadband Wireless Networking Laboratory. He had previously received a “Laurea” (integrated BS/MS) and Doctorate degrees in Telecommunications and Systems Engineering from the University of Rome “La Sapienza,” Italy, in 2001 and 2004, respectively.
In 2011, Dr. Pompili received the NSF CAREER award to design efficient communication solutions for underwater multimedia applications. In 2012, he received the ONR Young Investigator Program (YIP) award, one out of 26 awarded nationwide, to develop an uncertainty-aware autonomic mobile computing grid framework as well as the DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA), one out of 51 awarded nationwide, to enable real-time information processing based on compute-intensive models for operational neuroscience. In 2015, he was nominated Rutgers Chancellor’s Scholar. Dr. Pompili published more than a hundred refereed scholar publications: with almost 6,000 citations, he has an h-index of 27 and an i10-index of 42 (Google Scholar, July’16). Since 2014, he is a Senior Member of both the IEEE Communications Society and the ACM.
2. Douglas M. Freimuth
Douglas Freimuth is a Senior Technical Staff Member and Master Inventor in the Cognitive Internet of Things group at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center where he has focused on the research, design and development of cloud networking and IoT technologies. He is a co-author of the IO Virtualization (IOV) specifications in the PCI SIG. He has also participated in the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) for activities related to deployment of Virtual Machines and cloud networks. He has 70+ disclosures and patents in the domain of cloud networking and has also published related papers, developed products and contributed to open source software. Doug was the IBM lead on the DARPA CORONET program where he led the creation of a cloud computing platform that automatically scaled compute and network resources across the wide area network.
3. Manish Parashar
Manish Parashar is Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Rutgers University. He is also the founding Director of the Rutgers Discovery Informatics Institute (RDI2). His research interests are in the broad areas of Parallel and Distributed Computing and Computational and Data-Enabled Science and Engineering. Manish serves on the editorial boards and organizing committees of a large number of journals and international conferences and workshops, and has deployed several software systems that are widely used. He has also received a number of awards and is Fellow of AAAS, Fellow of IEEE/IEEE Computer Society and ACM Distinguished Scientist. For more information please visit http://parashar.rutgers.edu/
4. Alicia Abella
Dr. Abella – AVP, Cloud Technologies and Services Research Organization – With 21 years of research experience, Dr. Abella has held positions that allow her to demonstrate her skills in a broad research spectrum which have unfolded into her organization’s current responsibilities which include research in cloud computing, software-defined storage, human-computer interaction, mobile services, and Internet of Things.
In 2013, Dr. Abella received Columbia University’s Medal of Excellence, an award given each year to an alumnus or alumna, under 45 years of age, whose record in scholarship, public service, or professional life is outstanding. This is the first time since 1929 –when the award was first given– that Columbia has awarded the medal to an engineer. In 2011, she was selected by President Obama to be on his Presidential Advisory Commission for Educational Excellence for Hispanics. Also in 2011, she was inducted into the prestigious WITI (Women in Technology International) Hall of Fame.
Besides her technical contributions, Dr. Abella has been a strong advocate in fostering the development of minorities and women in science and engineering. She received her B.S. in Computer Science from NYU and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Columbia University.
5. Davor Dokonal
As a Director of Cloud Services at AEDTechnologies, Davor consults companies on the utilization of cloud services in their operations, transformation of existing products or creation of new web and cloud-based offerings. As a project manager (PMP), scrum master and facilitator, he embeds with clients’ teams to facilitate agile development or manage R&D and infrastructure deployment projects. As a security advisor, he performs security audits and assessments and advises on technical and security policy issues.
While heading up the Strategic Product Management group at LM Ericsson’s division on Long Island, Davor managed a program of mobile Internet applications, conceptualized new wireless services and new media usage models through close cooperation with global mobile operators. Amongst others, the teams’ task was to create new M2MC services, the early incarnation of today’s growing Internet of Things.
Davor holds M.E.E. in Telecommunication and Information Technology from the School of Electrical Engineering, University of Zagreb, Croatia. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), and a Senior Member if Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. He is currently the Chair of the Long Island Computer Society and the editor of the IEEE Long Island Newsletter.
6. Guilling Wang
Dr. Grace Guiling Wang received her BS degree from Nankai University, China. She received the PhD degree in Computer Science and Engineering and a minor in Statistics from the Pennsylvania State University at May 2006. She is currently a professor in the Computer Science Department at New Jersey Institute of Technology. Her research interests include vehicular networks, wireless sensor networks, and mobile computing