E-Merging Traffic Ahead

E-commerce, live Webcasts, streaming video. As more and more users join the Internet — performing increasingly complicated tasks and demanding more dynamic content — the Internet is facing serious traffic jams.

To help ease the strain on the Internet, the U.S. government and global corporations have invested more than $2 million in the interdisciplinary research of Shivkumar Kalyanaraman, associate professor of electrical, computer, and systems engineering at Rensselaer.

High-Tech Traffic Cop
Kalyanaraman is on the short list of the world’s leading high-tech problem-solvers. Named one of Technology Review’s top 100 young innovators in 2000, he is performing unique research — bridging information technology, engineering, economics, and other disciplines to forge big-picture solutions to big-picture problems. From groundbreaking work in Internet traffic management and high-speed networks to new pricing policies, Kalyanaraman and his Rensselaer colleagues are working to shape the functionality and future of the Internet.

Kalyanaraman’s research not only crosses traditional academic boundaries, it has forged strong links with industry to create entrepreneurial ventures within large corporations and new start-up companies.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Information Technology Office, Intel, Nortel, Qwest Communications, Reuters, and others are major technology players that have contributed funding and support to Kalyanaraman’s research.

Information Technology at Rensselaer
The rapid emergence of information technologies has dramatically changed the scope of basic scientific research in computer science, computer engineering , communications, and systems theory. It has rapidly defined new interdisciplinary fields of investigation, from networking to visualization and electronic commerce.

Analysts have identified three major trends in the evolution of information technologies:

• Pervasive computing describes the wide dissemination of information technologies through networked, distributed, mobile, real-time, and embedded systems. These trends are driven by the affordability of computing, the availability of interconnection, and the improvement of interfaces.
  
  
• Deep computing refers to the application of high-performance computers to large and difficult problems, such as weather forecasting, protein folding, and combustion simulation. This trend is driven by the development of accessible and shared supercomputing and the ability to model and write effective simulation code.
  
  
• Revolutionary computing describes the development of concepts and technologies in support of future generations of computers based, perhaps, on quite different principles. These efforts explore the science and potential of molecular and quantum computing, for example.

Rensselaer has major research activities in these emerging areas, as well as involvement in many applications of information technologies.

The scientific basis for new and revolutionary computing technologies is explored in conjunction with the Institute's focus in microelectronics and microsystems research. Rensselaer’s Center for Integrated Electronics (CIE) is doing leading-edge work in electronics design and manufacturing, on-chip interconnects, and the development and utilization of electronic media.

Other areas of principal research span interests in pervasive computing and information compression algorithms to routing control and protocols in high-speed networks. Related work in technical communications, multimedia applications development, and the social and economic context of network communications are complementary aspects.

Rensselaer’s Scientific Computation Research Center (SCOREC) is at work in advanced modeling and the simulation of complex systems. This is part of a wide-ranging research interest in deep computing that includes algorithmic research on adaptive methods for partial differential equations, parallel scientific computation, automated modeling, multiscale computational techniques, and visual technologies. Areas of application include: biomechanics, composite materials and structures, fluid flow problems, materials processing, and nonlinear solid mechanics.

Rensselaer also is exploring the use of data modeling and data-mining techniques in areas such as bioinformatics. Relational database technologies have been developed at Rensselaer, and software systems have been successfully deployed through a commercial spin-off company. Software engineering and programming are vital to complex engineering systems and unique template-based methods are under development at Rensselaer.

In addition, fundamental studies of cognitive science in learning, communications, authoring systems, and human-computer interfaces; studies of social science and cultural implications of information technology; research on electronic commerce and management techniques; as well as creative efforts in electronic arts and multimedia performance studies are indicative of the wide scope of information technology research at Rensselaer.

Why Is Rensselaer So Immersed in Information Technology?
Information technology is everywhere. It has revolutionized every industry on the planet. It is, by design, interdisciplinary – with applications in science, engineering, business, art, and much more. Rensselaer provides an ideal environment for information technology research.

The university has been a pioneer in collaborative, technology-enabled learning. It offers the multidisciplinary brainpower of prestigious professors and top students, partnerships with leading corporations and government entities, and access to its vibrant technology park and new business incubator.

Why not change the world?