Fostering Systems Research in Europe A White Paper by EuroSys - the - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Fostering Systems Research in Europe A White Paper by EuroSys - the - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Fostering Systems Research in Europe A White Paper by EuroSys - the European Professional Society for Systems European Chapter of ACM SIGOPS - the Special Interest Group on Operating Systems Thomas Gross ETH Zrich Peter Druschel MPI Rebecca


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Thomas Gross ETH Zürich Peter Druschel MPI Rebecca Isaacs Microsoft Cambridge Marc Shapiro LIP6 & INRIA

Fostering Systems Research in Europe

A White Paper by EuroSys - the European Professional Society for Systems European Chapter of ACM SIGOPS - the Special Interest Group on Operating Systems

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Outline

  • Why are we here?
  • Systems
  • EuroSys
  • Recommendations

– For the Systems community – For department heads, deans, and presidents – For industry

  • Concluding remarks
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Why are we here?

  • Many important contributions in systems

from Europe

  • European systems research not as effective

as possible (or necessary)

  • Europe runs the risk to miss out on important

developments

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Why are we here?

  • Europe lately attractive for US-educated

researchers

  • European companies world leaders

– Require Systems expertise

  • Our plan:

– Change limiting aspects of environment – Recommendations for

  • Systems community
  • Deans, department heads, presidents
  • Industry and policy makers
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Systems

Union of

  • Operating systems
  • Distributed systems
  • Embedded/real time systems
  • Pervasive systems
  • Core tools (language runtime systems, networks,

compilers) Systems research is the scientific study, analysis, modeling and engineering of effective software platforms

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Systems in Computer Science

Many of our recommendations or findings also apply to other parts of CS Special considerations:

– Experimental science – Long cycles

  • Design
  • Implementation
  • Evaluation
  • Publication

– Technology constraints

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Systems research

  • Systems a core computer science research

area

– Drives and builds upon results in many other parts

  • f computer science:

Theory Software Engineering Information systems Graphics

  • Hypothesis: what’s good for systems is good

for computer science

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Systems research

  • Essential for many companies

– Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, IBM, Iona, Microsoft, RedHat, Sun, Suse, Symbian, VMWare … – Airbus, Nokia, Philips, Siemens, STM, Thomson – Automotive industry – Financial industry

  • Essential for society
  • Hard research challenges remain
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Research challenges

  • Security
  • Reliability
  • Scale and diversity
  • Data storage and filtering
  • Managing complexity
  • Sensor integration
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EuroSys

  • European professional society for Systems

research

  • Chapter of ACM SIGOPS (Special Interest

Group on Operating Systems)

  • European strengths
  • European weaknesses
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European strengths

  • Important Systems contributions from Europe

– Not exclusive -- just a few examples – Xen virtual machine – MARS real-time operating system – L4 microkernel – Camille embedded OS

  • Open source development

– Linux started here … – So did the WWW

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European weaknesses

  • Short duration of Ph.D. program

– Top US schools: 5-7 years – Many European universities: 3 years – Often no Ph.D. program

  • Ph.D. students vs. research assistants
  • Advanced classes
  • Size of Systems group(s)

– Isolation

  • Funding constraints

– Grant/contract 2-3 years vs. 4-6 year projects – Major conferences every 1.5 to 2 years

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European weaknesses

  • Industry relations

– No Ph.D. student internships – Lack of Ph.D. employment – Limited cooperation with universities – Systems research inside industrial research labs – Sabbaticals of staff from industry in academia rare

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Recommendations - Systems community

  • Get organized
  • Improve student mobility

– Internships in labs, other groups

  • Networking

– EuroSys 2006 conference - 170 attendees in Leuven – EuroSys 2007 conference in Lisbon – Senior workshops

  • Enhance Ph.D. education

– Authoring workshops – Database of assistantships/scholarships

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Recommendations - institutions

  • Ph.D. programs

– Combine (research) Master’s with Ph.D. program – Be flexible w/ respect to length

  • Output oriented

– Education of the next generation, not cheap labor for the chair

  • Fair payment
  • Appropriate classes (and exams), breadth

– Thesis committees

  • 3 to 4 members
  • External member(s)

– Allow internships

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Recommendations - institutions

  • Faculty

– Hire from the outside – Assistant professor model

  • Independent, principal investigator
  • Advisor of Ph.D. students
  • Attractive for the best talent

– Realistic expectations

  • Building systems labor-intensive
  • Publications one way to disseminate knowledge
  • 1 significant publication > 10 “write-only” papers
  • Teaching load < 15 hrs (preparation + contact hrs)

– Tenure-track model

  • At least 6 years to establish record
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Recommendations - industry

  • Get involved
  • Hire Ph.D.s

– The right ones

  • Offer internships
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Concluding remarks

  • Systems crucial for European industry,

society and academia

  • Long range and short range steps
  • Become a member

– Encourage your colleagues – Send your Systems faculty to EuroSys conferences and workshops

www.eurosys.org