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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.

Postdoctoral Scholars (1)

We are currently recruiting for a postdoctoral scholar with expertise in cyberinfrastructure to join the SADE Project under the supervision of Prof. Douglas Thain. The SADE project overall aims to develop new techniques for managing autonomous drones in controlled airpsace. We are currently developing a sophisticated online environment that combines flight control systems, physical simulation, photorealistic rendering, and air traffic communications to simulate and evaluate components of the SADE system. The ideal candidate will bring expertise with cyberinfrastructure and simulation tools, and work to design, execute, and evaluate the overall simulation architecture. Contact Prof. Thain for more information.

Ph.D. Students (2)

We have openings for 2 new Ph.D. students in the CCL in academic year 2024-2025. 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 (2)

We have openings for 1-2 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.