US-India Program for Exploratory Experiences for Researchers and Students (PEERS)
The objective of this proposal is to organize a workshop focusing on ways to foster research and collaboration between Indian and US scientists in the area of distributed systems and networks, and to retain and encourage students to pursue advanced degrees in computer science. The workshop is being organized in conjunction with ICDCN 2009 (International Conference on Distributed Computing and Networking) at Hyderabad, India during January 3-6, 2009. A panel of 8-10 US and Indian scientists are to be invited to meet over two days and develop a set of recommendations for effective collaboration and refine them via interactions with other ICDCN participants. A comprehensive report on the recommendations will be generated and submitted to NSF. The workshop is planned to be followed up with activities to develop concrete collaboration proposals with the help of NSF Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE).
Both US and India are facing unique challenges in terms of interest of students in Computer Science and engineering discipline. This workshop intends to address some of these via collaborative programs and by exploiting the unique strengths of each country so that both can benefit and learn from each other. The collaboration is expected to lead to sustained activities where senior and junior researchers and graduate students in Computer Science from both India and US will benefit from exchange visits, student co-advising and other collaborative programs. The resulting synergy will help us recruit and retain better students in our advanced degree in computer science and help improve the participation of women and minorities.
