Nate Foster
Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University
New Foundations for networks
Abstract
Software-defined networking (SDN) is often explained as a shift in who is in control. SDN empowers network owners to implement new functionality directly, rather than waiting for equipment vendors and standards bodies. But there is another important -- and often overlooked -- aspect of SDN: it offers an exciting opportunity to develop new foundations for networking based on solid mathematical principles. This talk will discuss opportunities and challenges in network verification, ranging from the design of expressive modeling languages to approaches for specifying correct behavior to scalable property-checking tools.
Bio
Nate Foster is a Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University and a Platform Architect at Intel. His research aims to develop languages and tools that make it easy for programmers to build secure and reliable systems. His current work focuses on designing and implementing languages for programming software-defined networks. He has also worked on bidirectional languages (also known as “lenses”), database query languages, data provenance, type systems, mechanized proof, and formal semantics. He received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania, an MPhil in History and Philosophy of Science from Cambridge University, and a BA in Computer Science from Williams College. His awards include a Sloan Research Fellowship, an NSF CAREER Award, the SIGCOMM Rising Star Award, a Most Influential POPL Paper Award, a Most Influential ICFP Paper Award, a Tien ‘72 Teaching Award, several Google Research Awards, a Yahoo! Academic Career Enhancement Award, a Cornell Engineering Research Excellence Award, and the Morris and Dorothy Rubinoff Award.