[mat-wg] [TMA 2022 PhD School] Network Intelligence and Measurements - SIGCOMM Travel Grants Available

TL;DR:

* PhD school in Internet Measurements in Network Intelligence
* SIGCOMM travel grants available! (please send to your students)
* Application deadline: April 22nd, 2022
* School dates: June 27th and 28th, 2022
* Location Enschede, NL.
* https://tma.ifip.org/2022/phd-school/



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10th TMA PhD School
Network Intelligence and Measurements
June 27th and 28th, 2022
Enschede, The Netherlands
https://tma.ifip.org/2022/phd-school/


After the interruption of the last two editions of the TMA PhD school 
due to the COVID pandemic, we are extremely happy to announce the 10th 
TMA PhD School, organized by the University of Twente in Enschede, The 
Netherlands, together with the 6th Network Traffic Measurement and 
Analysis Conference.

Under the theme Network Intelligence and Measurements, the 10th TMA PhD 
School will include 4 tutorials, by 5 distinct lecturers, over a 2 days 
program. Lectures are accompanied by related practical lab sessions, 
where students have the opportunity to put into practice learned notions.

Thanks to SIGCOMM, we will offer a significant number of travel grants, 
see the details below.

Registration and Deadlines
Registrations are now open, you can apply at 
https://hotcrp.info.ucl.ac.be/tma2022phd/. As the PhD school is popular, 
we encourage students to register early. Our goal is to admit as many 
students as possible but we do note that we have limited room availability.

Application deadline: April 22nd at 23:59 UTC
Tentative decision notification: April 29th

PhD School Speakers
The list of speakers for the 10th TMA PhD school includes:

Anna Brunstorm is a Full Professor and Research Manager for the 
Distributed Systems and Communications Research Group at Karlstad 
University. She will familiarize the students with experimentation and 
measurements methodologies for next generation mobile networks, based on 
her vast experience on applied research. She will also give hands-on 
training on testbeds and analytics approaches, stemming from her 
numerous contributions in projects such as H2020 MONROE, NEAT or 5GENESIS.

Emile Aben is a System architect at the RIPE NCC, Netherlands. The 
lecture will provide an overview of the RIPE Atlas Internet data 
collection system along with a review of the addressed use-cases. In the 
related lab students will be asked to design and lunch experiments on 
the Atlas measurement platform, and to process the collected data to 
address some given problem.

Thymen Wabeke and Thijs van den Hout are research engineers with SIDN 
Labs (.nl registry). They research how machine learning (ML) 
applications can increase the security of the internet and the Domain 
Name System (DNS). The lecture will focus on operationalizing a ML 
model. There are several challenges involved in this process, such as 
efficiently collecting ground truth labels, analysts needing to 
understand model inferences, and monitoring model performance so you 
know when it fails and needs updating. The lecture will include a 
hands-on training, so that participants can try out some techniques 
immediately.

Pedro Casas is a Senior Scientist at the Austrian Institute of 
Technology, where he acts as Research Lead in AI4NETS (AI/ML for 
Networking). He will present a broad overview on the application of 
AI/ML to network data analysis problems, including network security, 
anomaly detection, and Quality of Experience (QoE) monitoring. The 
lecture provides an introduction to the basics of AI/ML, going from more 
traditional applications to newer paradigms, including deep learning, 
graph-based learning, generative models, explainable AI, learning in 
adversarial scenarios, and more. The ultimate goal of the lecture is to 
motivate – for the newcomers, and to strengthen – for those already in 
the field, the research in AI4NETS.

The PhD School program will include 4 poster sessions where students can 
present their own (ongoing) PhD work to other students and to the 
lecturers, and receive individual feedback from them. Poster sessions 
will take place during breaks.

The program will also include an informal interactive session between 
students and the speakers, with the explicit goal of fostering 
“vertical” interaction between students and the speakers, and 
“horizontal” interaction between the students themselves. Students will 
have the opportunity to interview the speakers, asking for their expert 
opinion on general aspects (non-technical) of the current research 
dynamics in the field of traffic monitoring and analysis (e.g., how they 
see the prospective development of a particular research topic in the 
near future, or what are the key ingredients that drive the success of 
an experimental measurement platform, etc).

The PhD school program will include social activities on both days, 
where students, lecturers and attendees of the main TMA conference will 
have the opportunity to interact informally.

A social dinner would be organized on the second day.

How to apply and Travel Grants
The price for registration for the TMA 2022 PhD school will be fixed 
soon and will be below 250 Euro. This fee will be levied on all 
attending students, also those receiving travel grants, as the travel 
grant rules from our sponsors require us to ask for a small own investment.

In order to apply, please submit the following as a single PDF document:

the title and abstract of your poster (in the fields required by the 
submissions system)
a current CV with contact information and e-mail address
a short personal statement, including: i) a description of the research 
subject followed by the student, and (ii) information that the applicant 
feels is relevant to support his/her application, e.g., why the PhD 
School attendance is important to the applicant’s research and career 
development;
In case you also want to apply for optional travel support, we ask you 
to also include:

a letter from your advisor which should: (i) confirm the applicant’s 
good standing in the institution; (ii) explain why the applicant would 
benefit from attending the TMA PhD School
the estimated expenses for attending the TMA PhD School (total, and 
breakdown by travel and lodging), and an indication of which cost items 
would need to be covered by the grant; if the applicant will be unable 
to attend the school without a travel grant, they should explain why 
this is the case (in this case the advisor’s letter should additionally 
explain the current funding status of the applicant and why the 
applicant is in need of the travel grant)
The organization will prioritize awarding of travel grants to students 
who will be unable to attend without a grant, and additionally based on 
diversity and the region from which the applicant has to travel, to 
ensure representation from traditionally underrepresented regions. In 
special cases, where the registration fee is also prohibitive, the 
organization may decide to waive the fee at its discretion.

Any decision made by the organization regarding attendance and awarding 
of travel grants is final. We note that reimbursements of travel grants 
may take up to several months to complete.

Important Notes
Please pay attention to the following details about the student travel 
grant application and reimbursement process:

The School will admit a limited number of students.
Students enrolled in PhD study programs will receive preference both in 
the admission to the School and the travel grant awarding.
Students admitted to the school are encouraged to attend the TMA conference.
We expect a student travel grant will significantly offset air fare and 
shared hotel accommodation. However, it may not fully cover these 
expenses, since our desire is to maximize participation by students.
In order to obtain reimbursement, you must provide original receipts for 
air fare and hotel expenses, along with boarding passes (plane or train) 
for both outbound and inbound journeys.
All students participating in the School are required to present a 
poster describing their research and to actively engage with all 
activities. Failing to do so will lead to admission rejection.
Please provide complete contact information. You will be notified via 
email, so make sure your email address is correct on your application.
Hope to see you all in Enschede for a fantastic TMA PhD School!