Student travel support is provided to the Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI) conference due to the benefits to the communities and to the areas of Network Technology and Systems (NeTS) and Computer Systems Research (CSR).
Intellectual Merit: After the significant success of its first four meetings, Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI) has become a very strong conference that fuses the research areas of networking and systems. It has developed a strong focus on implementation and experience. Most importantly, the cross-disciplinary emphasis of NSDI makes it well-suited for student participation. NSF student travel support not only is beneficial to the symposium, but also to students from diverse backgrounds.
Broader Impact: This support creates educational opportunities for graduate students interested in interdisciplinary research in systems and networks. NSDI is a small single track conference so the students interact significantly with more senior researchers at the leading edge of both fields. Diversity of participation in parallel with technical strength of participation is an important goal of the travel funding. In the report for last year's travel support, the fund was able to support a group consisting of 50% female students and 20% institutions not usually represented. A number of the student participants have papers to present, but in addition, students are engaged with volunteer activities as documented in last year's report.
