This proposal requests funding to assist approximately 10 US-based graduate students to attend the 2009 USENIX Annual Technical Conference, the premier forum for advanced professionals from academic and industrial backgrounds to meet and discuss the latest research in systems software. USENIX?09 will be held in San Diego, CA from June 14?19, 2009. The conference will consist of 3 days of training and a 3-day technical program. In addition to attending the conference events, students receiving assistance will serve as scribes for the conference sessions to write summaries for a later issue of ;login: magazine, will be required to attend the Student Birds-of-a-Feather session to interact with senior members of the research community specifically interested in meeting students in a casual and informal atmosphere, and will be strongly encouraged to present posters and works in progress as part of the selection process.
Intellectual Merits. The goal of the conference is to bring together researchers from across the networking and systems community ? including computer networking, security, cloud computing, and operating systems ? to foster cross-disciplinary approaches and to address shared research challenges. This cross-disciplinary emphasis makes it well-suited as a target for student participation.
Broader Impacts. Participation in USENIX?09 and similar conferences is a valuable and important part of the graduate school experience. It provides students with the opportunity to interact with more senior researchers in the field, and exposes students to leading work in the field. The support requested in this proposal will enable the participation of students who would otherwise be unable to attend the conference.
