David Choffnes, PhD Candidate (Distributed Systems, Operating Systems, Mobile Wireless Ad-hoc Networks)

Short Research Statement

My current research topic is building large-scale distributed systems over both wired and wireless networks.
    One aspect of my research focuses on enabling a sort of “information plane” for globally-distributed systems by reusing measurements collected by existing long-running services. The goal of this service is to provide network information to services at low cost, i.e., without having to perform extensive measurement and probing operations.
   In the wireless domain, I am exploring approaches to build and evaluate cooperative distributed
systems for vehicular ad-hoc networks. I am currently investigating new message aggregation and dissemination algorithms in support of a platform for highly reliable communication in variable-density vehicular environments.
   Click here for more detail.

Background

I graduated from Amherst College, magna cum laude, in 2002 with a double-major in Physics and French. Since the job market for francophone physicists dried up, I was left with no choice but to pursue a career in the book-authorship business with Deitel & Associates. In two years, I worked on three books, two of which I coauthored. After that, I decided it was time for me to stop writing about others' work and start making my own to write about. Luckily for me, Fabián saw fit to entertain this notion, and here I am.

Current

I'm currently plugging away in my 4th year of grad school at Northwestern.

Cetera

For those who don't know me, the following passage has become a theme that runs through my life. In short, I "push the rock," just like Sisyphus from Greek mythology. But Camus tells it better:

As for this myth, one sees merely the whole effort of a body straining to raise the huge stone, to roll it and push it up a slope a hundred times over; one sees the face screwed up, the cheek tight against the stone, the shoulder bracing the clay-covered mass, the foot wedging it, the fresh start with arms outstretched, the wholly human security of two earth-clotted hands. At the very end of his long effort measured by skyless space and time without depth, the purpose is achieved. Then Sisyphus watches the stone rush down in a few moments toward that lower world whence he will have to push it up again toward the summit. He goes back down to the plain. It is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. A face that toils so close to stones is already stone itself! I see that man going back down with a heavy yet measured step toward the torment of which he will never know the end. That hour like a breathing-space which returns as surely as his suffering, that is the hour of consciousness. At each of those moments when he leaves the heights and gradually sinks toward the lairs of the gods, he is superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock.

-- Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus

		David Choffnes PhD Candidate, in Computer Science at Northwestern University Northwestern Systems Research Group Aqualab Research Lab ~ Home ~
Research Statement CV Software Recreation Photos Personal		Short Research Statement My current research topic is building large-scale distributed systems over both wired and wireless networks. One aspect of my research focuses on enabling a sort of “information plane” for globally-distributed systems by reusing measurements collected by existing long-running services. The goal of this service is to provide network information to services at low cost, i.e., without having to perform extensive measurement and probing operations. In the wireless domain, I am exploring approaches to build and evaluate cooperative distributed systems for vehicular ad-hoc networks. I am currently investigating new message aggregation and dissemination algorithms in support of a platform for highly reliable communication in variable-density vehicular environments. Click here for more detail. Background I graduated from Amherst College, magna cum laude, in 2002 with a double-major in Physics and French. Since the job market for francophone physicists dried up, I was left with no choice but to pursue a career in the book-authorship business with Deitel & Associates. In two years, I worked on three books, two of which I coauthored. After that, I decided it was time for me to stop writing about others' work and start making my own to write about. Luckily for me, Fabián saw fit to entertain this notion, and here I am. Current I'm currently plugging away in my 4th year of grad school at Northwestern. Cetera For those who don't know me, the following passage has become a theme that runs through my life. In short, I "push the rock," just like Sisyphus from Greek mythology. But Camus tells it better: As for this myth, one sees merely the whole effort of a body straining to raise the huge stone, to roll it and push it up a slope a hundred times over; one sees the face screwed up, the cheek tight against the stone, the shoulder bracing the clay-covered mass, the foot wedging it, the fresh start with arms outstretched, the wholly human security of two earth-clotted hands. At the very end of his long effort measured by skyless space and time without depth, the purpose is achieved. Then Sisyphus watches the stone rush down in a few moments toward that lower world whence he will have to push it up again toward the summit. He goes back down to the plain. It is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. A face that toils so close to stones is already stone itself! I see that man going back down with a heavy yet measured step toward the torment of which he will never know the end. That hour like a breathing-space which returns as surely as his suffering, that is the hour of consciousness. At each of those moments when he leaves the heights and gradually sinks toward the lairs of the gods, he is superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock. -- Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus