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H. B. Acharya

Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin.
Assistant Professor, IIIT Delhi, India.
Assistant Professor, RIT, New York.

Research Interests

I research networks and network security. My original interest was in firewalls and flow tables, and how they interact with tools such as Traceroute. More recently, I focus on Software-defined Networks and programmable switches. I also study Internet-scale phenomena, such as how new protocols affect censorship, or how new providers such as Starlink are changing widespread availability. And I'm starting to take an interest in how the Machine Learning revolution affects (and is affected by) networks.

More generally, I am interested in networks and distributed systems, ranging from sensor networks to cloud security. Many lessons from older physical systems (such as wireless sensor networks) and virtual systems (such as CORBA) remain relevant for modern data centers, clouds, and the Internet of Things. And over the long term there will be fundamental changes in network technology (6G) as well as security (Quantum Computing) – I'm excited to see how the field changes in coming years.

My research statement covers my work concisely. Details are provided under "Research", on top.

Teaching

I am comfortable teaching large service courses such as Programming, CyberSecurity, etc., and undergraduate and graduate courses in Networks, Security, and Distributed Systems. If needed, I can also teach Operating Systems, Machine Learning, and Computational Biology.

I keep my classes very active, with discussions and short demonstrations, so the "theory" class is closely related to the "lab" assignments. In upper-division and graduate classes, I also make time for "war stories" (such as Avery Pennarun's blog for Networks, or Kyle Kingsbury's for Dostributed Systems), to emphasize how the subject is alive and changing.

My teaching statement covers the courses I teach, and my approach to teaching students at various levels. Details under "Teaching", on top.