Research Opportunities in the CCL
Join the CCL team and work on challenging problems in the realm of parallel and distributed systems. We work closely with collaborators in physics, molecular dynamics, machine learning, and other fields to build systems that scale to tens of thousands of cores on national infrastructure such as clusters, clouds, and grids. We publish open source software that is used around the world.
Ph.D. Students (2-3)
We have openings for 2-3 new Ph.D. students in the CCL in 2021.
Students in the Ph.D. program delve deeply in the principles of distributed
systems, and work to design, implement, and evaluate novel systems that
meet the needs of advanced computing in science and engineering.
Our graduates go on to take advanced technical positions in industry
and faculty positions in top colleges and universities.
The Ph.D. program takes about five years from beginning to end.
Candidates must be proficient in the C programming language, comfortable
working in the Unix environment, and be able to communicate and collaborate
in multi-disciplinary teams. Prospective Ph.D. students must apply
to the ND CSE Ph.D. Program.
Current ND CSE graduate students looking to join a research group
should contact Prof. Thain directly.
M.S. Students
We have openings for new M.S. students every year. The typical M.S. program
takes 1-2 years beyond the B.S. degree and focuses on advanced coursework
and a research project. M.S. students in the CCL build and analyze new
software capabilities that become part of our open source software suite.
Candidates must be proficient in the C programming language and
comfortable working in the Unix environment. Prospective M.S. students
must apply to the CSE MS Program.
Current M.S. students looking for a research group
should contact Prof. Thain directly.
Undergraduate Students
We have many opportunities for undergraduate students to participate in research. Students from around the country may apply for NSF-sponsored
research projects during the summer. Students at Notre Dame may also perform research for credit during the school year. (You can use three research credits to fill a CSE elective requirement.) To apply, contact Prof. Thain
The following skill areas are particularly needed:
- System Visualization - Create clever new ways to visualize complex distributed systems with thousands of interacting components, to assist users with understanding and troubleshooting. Need students with experience in Javascript and related web technologies.
- Container Management - Modern software is distributed via container software that encapsulates complex dependencies. Create new ways of managing the useful but large objects that must be managed across thousands of machines. Need students comfortable working with Unix and the shell environment.
- Languages and Databases - Many distributed systems are built using novel high level languages. Help us to build and improve new languages for expressing workflows, querying data, and troubleshooting systems. Need students comfortable working in C with data structures, and the Compilers class is a plus.