I Background preparation

        I grew up in the academic environment of IIT Kharagpur since childhood. I got exposed to research and technology from an early age as my father was a professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department of IIT Kharagpur. Throughout my school career, I consistently maintained excellent academic records. This got reflected in my receiving the prestigious scholarships at the end of my high-school career and in freshman year at IIT. I received the most prestigious Jagadish Bose National Science Talent Search (JBNSTS) scholarship awarded to only the exceptionally bright students, selected through rigorous multiple phase examinations of innovative problem solving. I also received the National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) scholarship awarded on a whole India basis. I was selected to represent my state in the Indian National Mathematics Olympiad conducted by National Board of Higher Mathematics. The internationally famous Statistical and Mathematical Institute, Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) selected me for undergraduate study with scholarship. However, my background motivated me to study the field of Computer Science and Engineering that interested me since my childhood.
        On joining Computer Science and Engineering Department of IIT, I concentrated on acquiring knowledge not only through the classroom teaching materials, but also through the volume of Computers related materials in our house. In the process I have acquired in-depth knowledge in the fields of Computer Organization and Architecture, Operating Systems, Design and Analysis of Algorithm, Parallel Processing and Distributed Systems. I was also fascinated with the growth of Networking and Communications. In my junior year, I undertook the challenging assignment of making a network topology with microprocessors employing token-ring concept. I built an optimizing compiler for a subset of C – one of the most challenging and satisfying tasks I undertook - and for quite some time used my own compiler in compiling all my programs. The Operating systems lab and Networks lab unleashed my creative juices and I spent many happy hours going far beyond the class assignments, also getting the top grade in these subjects.
        The Internet revolution motivated me and I took formal and informal project works in the field of Networking and Distributed Systems. Even though I have gathered excellent knowledge in these fields, at times I neglected studies on day to day mundane class materials. As a result, I had to pay a price in terms of my grades, which are lower than the top group of students I belong to. However, I have enough of self-confidence to make it up and produce best grades in the fields I am interested in. Apart from academics, I excelled in extra-curricular activities too, leading my hall teams in soccer, aquatics, chess and quizzing in University competitions.
        With this background preparation I have substantially gained in one area – I have acquired sufficient knowledge in the field of my future research direction. To strengthen my background I undertook my final research project in these areas. As a student member of IEEE, I keep myself abreast with the current developments in the field through the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking.

II My Research Interest

        On completing my junior year, during the summer months of 1999 I undertook a research work in the Internet area. The Internet has brought phenomenal changes in the society in terms of bringing people from different geographical locations closer. High-speed transmission of images and video telephony will take it a step further for online interaction. So I concentrated in building a system to realize this goal. I came out with a scheme that was submitted in the IEEE sponsored International VLSI Design conferencescheduled in January 2000 in India. The paper has been accepted for presentation in the conference. The conference proceedings will be published byIEEE computer Society Press. I have also received a fellowship to present the paper in this conference. The proposed scheme can be applied for video telephony.
        The Internet has also brought in significant interest in Network Computing and Distributed Systems. So as I moved to my senior year I decided to do my project work in this field. As the hardware circuit speed is reaching a plateau, the demand of higher range of computing power can be only met through parallel and distributed computing environment. Execution of applications through proper distribution of computing tasks is a prerequisite to gain high throughput. At the same time, there exists a limitation of bandwidth for any real life applications. So, there is a need for caching frequently used computing tasks in the local memory of a CPU. Though in last two decades the cache concept has been studied in detail for a single processor environment, it’s behavior with respect to a distributed environment is an open problem. In my undergraduate project I have been building and enhancing the cache performance that would lead to higher throughput for a distributed system. I have designed a cache simulator for any generic distributed environment.
        Further, availability of Internet and Java based computing have added a new dimension to distributed processing paradigm. In this background, the second major problem I have been working on matching the computing requirement of an application with the available bandwidth of the communication link and computing power of different processing nodes of a distributed computing environment.
        The Internet was not build with security in mind. Now with the world turning to electronic exchange of information (for example e-commerce) in a big way, network security has become a point of major concern. I presented a well-received seminar on "Network Security & Authentication" at IIT Kharagpur; in the process I got a wide exposure in this challenging field getting an "Ex" grade in the seminar presentation.

III My Career Goals

        In the beginning of my senior year, I got a job offer from Texas Instruments though campus interviews – one of the most prestigious jobs available in India. However, my career goals have led me to draw the following conclusion – it is necessary for me to get a better exposure in the field of my choice through higher studies and research.
        I intend to master the current networking concepts in the rich and flexible environment of a top university in US. This environment, I have concluded, will be ideally suited to realize my goals. I am greatly impressed with the high quality of research being done on Networks and Distributed systems there. I would love to enrich myself in the graduate program, and ultimately make a meaningful contribution in the ever-growing field of Computer Networks by joining some research group. In the process I am confident of contributing significantly in the research efforts of the department.
        My long-term goal is to put my footprints in the field of network based computing environment through contribution of original ideas and translating those ideas to end applications and products. In this endeavor, I want to contribute significantly to the human society.

Santashil Pal Chaudhuri