Network Group Organization - Spring 2003

[Joseph Peters <peters@cs.sfu.ca>]

NETWORK MODELLING GROUP
-----------------------

Group Interests
---------------

The Network Modelling Group is interested in all aspects of networking with a
particular emphasis on modelling and performance evaluation.  Anyone interested
in this research area is welcome to participate.  Graduate students are
particularly welcome.  The group was formed in September 2001 and meets most
Fridays.


Meeting Time and Place
----------------------

The group has outgrown its regular meeting room, so this semester I have booked
ASB 9705 for our weekly meetings.  I have booked the room for Fridays 15:00 to
16:30 starting January 17.  This is a change from the fall semester meeting
time (there were no rooms available earlier than 15:00).  So:

FIRST MEETING - Friday, January 17 at 15:00 in ASB 9705.  Coffee and cookies
will be provided.  Topic - TBA.


Network Modelling Group Reorganization
--------------------------------------

Several weeks ago, some of the faculty of the Network Modelling Group met to
discuss the organization and focus of the group.  We decided that we would try
to group people into clusters based on research interests.  The goal is to get
people working together with the more experienced members helping the less
experienced.  We envision that our group meetings will focus on the interests
of one cluster at a time for a period of several weeks.  During this period,
the cluster would organize the meetings.  The meetings could be a combination
of talks, problem-solving sessions, working through key papers, etc.  We would
like to implement this reorganization as soon as possible.  To this end, I
would like to ask the student members of the group to send me the following
information by next Friday, January 10:

1. Name of your department (Computing Science, Engineering Science, ...) and
   supervisor (or temporary supervisor)
2. Your degree program and an indication of how far along you are
   Examples: "M.Sc., finished all but 1 course, have chosen thesis area X but
   have not yet found a specific topic", or, "In second semester of M.Sc.,
   looking for a topic"
3. One or more phrases describing your general interests
   Examples: "ad hoc networks", or "traffic modelling"

When I have all of the information, I will meet with the faculty to organize
the clusters.  Of course, we will ask everyone if they are happy with the
clusters and anyone can choose to be a member of any cluster.  There is no
constraint on how many clusters a person joins, but there is an expectation
that every member of a cluster will be an active member.  Students who are
"looking for a thesis topic" will be expected to join at least one cluster and
to participate actively.


Group e-mail List
-----------------

This seems like a good time to clean up the e-mail list (net-model@sfu.ca) of
the Network Modelling Group (currently close to 50 addresses).  There are
several "external" members of the group (i.e., not faculty or students at SFU)
and a number of "inactive" members (who have not attended meetings for a long
time, or ever).  I would like to ask all members, except students who respond
to the request for information above, to let me know if you would like to
remain on the e-mail list.

Thanks,
Joseph Peters