Koushik Kar

Associate Professor
Department of Electrical, Computer & Systems Engineering,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Contact Information:

ECSE Department, JEC 6048,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
Troy, NY 12180, USA.
Ph :  (518) 276-2653
Email :  koushik (AT)  ecse.rpi.edu

Brief Bio

I have been with the Department of Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) since Fall 2002. I obtained the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2002, and the M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the same university in 1999. I received the B.Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, in 1997. I have also held visiting research positions at Bell Laboratories, NJ, and IBM TJ Watson Research Center, NY.

I specialize in the area of computer and communication networks. More details on my research, teaching and other professional acitivities can be found below.

Research

My research is in the field of computer and communication networks, and I am broadly interested in performance modeling, analysis and optimization questions for the Internet as well as wireless networks. At a high level, a unifying theme that characterizes most of my recent research activities is the design and analysis of solution approaches that can optimize usage of critical resources like bandwidth and energy in wired and wireless networks, with the goal of attaining maximum global network utility or fair sharing of resources in the network. A significant part of this research is focused on solutions/algorithms that can be implemented in a distributed manner, through local coordination, often only requiring limited information about the network topology and conditions. A novel and distinguishing feature of my work is the use of linear, non-linear and stochastic optimization techniques to study these network algorithm design/resource allocation questions.

Major research interests/projects are listed below. More details on these projects with a listing of the key papers can be found by clicking on the specific links.

My research has been funded by the National Science Foundation (three grants, including the NSF CAREER Award), and MIT Lincoln Laboratories.

I am a part of the Networks Lab at RPI, and is also a member of Center of Pervasive Computing and Networking at RPI.

Publication List (A full list of publications, with links to selected papers)

Teaching

I teach courses in the areas of computer systems and communication networks, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The courses that I have taught at RPI are:

Course materials for Fall 2007 courses are available online through the RPI Learning Management System (RPI-LMS), but only accessible to the registered students of the courses. ECSE 4670 and ECSE 6660 are taught through EWP (distance learning) in alternate years.

Professional Actitivities

I have been a Technical Program Committee member of the following conferences:

I was the Technical Program Committee Vice-Chair (TPC Vice-Chair) for MobiHoc 2007, and the Submissions Management Chair (EDAS Chair) for Infocom 2007.

I have been a reviewer of the following conferences and journals:

I have been a reviewer for the following two books (I will strongly recommend these books to graduate students in networking, particularly to Ph.D. students interested in research in mathematical modeling, analysis and optimization of communication networks):

I am a member of the Graduate Curriculum Committee of the ECSE Department at RPI, and serve as the academic advisor of about 30 undergraduate students of the class of 2009.

I have been a member of the IEEE Communications Society since 2002.

Honors and Awards

Research Students

I am always looking for graduate students with a high motivation for research and a strong mathematical background. Here is a list of my former and current graduate research students:

Undergraduate students who are looking for some research experience over the academic year or summer are also welcome. Some URP students who have worked/are working with me:

Last updated on August 1, 2008.