Akhilesh Gupta

Master of Science in Computer Science
Stanford University
akhilesh[dot]gupta[at]stanford[dot]edu

About Me

I am a first year Masters student at the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University. I graduated from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi with a Bachelor of Technology degree in Computer Science. I am an awardee of the Honda Young Engineer and Scientist Award 2007-08 by Honda Foundation. I am currently working with the Image, Video and Multimedia Systems Group at Stanford University on a novel video streaming paradigm.

Academic Interests

Computer Networks, Internet Architecture and Mobile Computing

Internships

IBM Research Lab, Enforcing Security Policies in Enterprise Mobile Devices using Multiple Personas (Jun-Aug 2009)


Supervisor: Prof. Anupam Joshi, Dr. Gopal S Pingali
The Android platform has been customized for a proof-of-concept implementation of enforcing enterprise security policies in mobile devices based on multiple modes in the device. The switching mechanism between modes includes an authentication mechanism with the enterprise server. Specific radio interfaces and enterprise storage get enabled/disabled based on the policies for the current mode of the device.

Google R&D Centre, Google Desktop Gadget Designer (May-July 2008)


Supervisor: Mr. Rajesh Chandrashekaran
Google Desktop is a popular desktop search application by Google. It includes a sidebar containing gadgets for useful online content. Developers around the world design gadgets for the sidebar using the Google Desktop Gadget Designer. Due to the extensive Gadget API, developers found it difficult to remember object names, properties and methods for programming in the designer. To overcome this challenge, I implemented auto-completion for programming in the Google Desktop Gadget Designer. I reduced development time significantly by developing novel algorithms for fast and accurate auto-completion for the Gadget API as well as for Javascript objects.

EPFL Switzerland, SEM Image Analysis (May-July 2007)


Supervisor: Prof. Karen Scrivener
I implemented robust and efficient algorithms for processing of images obtained from Scanning Electron Microscopy. The project also included the development of a streamlined Graphical User Interface for the application of these algorithms and analysis of results. I achieved 20% increase in processing efficiency over existing licensed commercial software. The application has been successfully deployed and in use by over 10 personnel in the lab.

Projects

Flattening Internet Topology: Commercial Wide Area Networks(WANs) (Aug 2008 - May 2009)


Supervisor: Dr. Anirban Mahanti
In this project, we analyze the deployment and expansion of Wide-Area Networks (WANs) by large Content Providers (CPs) like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo and determine their geographical distribution. We analyze the trend of bypassing Tier-1 ISPs (Transit Providers) and deployment of edge-cache servers directly inside ISP networks by large CPs.
We have built our study upon a previous work which showed the existence of such WANs for some major CPs. Towards fulfilling these goals, we have used the geographically distributed Scriptroute testbed and analyzed tcptraceroute (sr-rockettrace) paths to the networks of 50 CPs from 50 servers distributed across 32 countries around the world. Our results show that large scale WANs are being adopted by many major CPs which could result in a departure from the existing Internet hierarchy and flatten the Internet topology. This may result in numerous other consequences to users, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), CPs and network researchers. The establishment and expansion of these WANs might help in reducing the load on Internet backbones, improve quality of service for the end users and result in efficient deployment of latest technologies like IPTV and VoIP. On the other hand, it might pose a threat to net neutrality, dry up Tier-1 ISP revenues and prevent small CPs from competing on a level playing field. We present an initial measurement of the effects on the end user experience.

AdHoc Network Implementation with Authenticated Message Exchange Service (Jan-Apr 2009)


Supervisor: Prof. B N Jain
Our AdHoc network simulates an environment in which a network is automatically set up between nodes with the view to communicate with each other in a secure manner. The routing algorithm used for setting up the AdHoc network is AODV. One of the nodes acts as the Key Distribution Centre (KDC) which provides session keys to communicating parties. The nodes wishing to communicate discover the KDC using the Service Location Protocol (SLP). The key distribution takes place in a secure manner using the Triple-DES encryption algorithm between the KDC and the participating nodes. The sender uses this key to generate a MAC using the HMAC encoding scheme with SHA1 as the hashing algorithm. This helps the receiver to authenticate the source of the message.

Characterization of Pseudo-Offline Social Networks (Jan-Apr 2008)


Supervisor: Dr. Anirban Mahanti, Dr. Amitabha Bagchi
Pseudo offline social networks are online databases of real world ties or collaborations. IMDB (network of movie artists) and DBLP (research collaboration network) are two examples. Studying these networks can provide us with a new understanding of how people interact in the real world vis-�-vis the online world. This may also lead to innovative designs for online social networks based on a thorough insight on real-world social phenomena.
This project presents a study and analysis of the structural properties of the network of collaborations between computer science research authors called DBLP. It also presents measures of the productivity of an author and factors which may impact it. We have also been able to rank a substantial portion of DBLP conferences and journals and determine the distribution of papers published in high ranked conferences vs. low ranked conferences. We have discussed detailed methodology and tools developed for this purpose for easier study of similar pseudo offline social networks. A technique has been developed to sample large datasets such as that of IMDB for the extension of this study to them. The DBLP data set that we analysed contains around 600,000 authors with around 1 million links between them. For temporal analysis, data from the year 1975 to 2007 has been examined.

Multi-Threaded, Secure Network File Server (Mar-Apr 2008)


Supervisor: Dr. Kolin Paul
The file server was designed to interact with clients via network messages. We achieved a high degree of robustness, better security features through AES encryption and the ability to handle multiple clients very efficiently.

Networked Multiplayer Game (Sep-Nov 2006)


Supervisor: Dr. Kolin Paul
The Project is a multiplayer game involving a biochemical attack on a metropolitan mall. A 3rd person view of the action field is shown with an illusion of depth imparting a 3D feel to the scene. A TCP Client Server model is used for initiating connections between server and clients. The in-game communication is based on UDP P2P model, making it immune to server failures. We delivered complete gaming experience through real-time chatting, configurable controls and scrolling maps.

Technical Skills

Courses

Computer Science

Mathematics

Achievements

References

Prof. Anupam Joshi


Professor, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
anupam[dot]joshi[at]in[dot]ibm[dot]com

Dr. Anirban Mahanti


Senior Researcher, NICTA, Australia
anirban[dot]mahanti[at]nicta[dot]com[dot]au

Mr. Rajesh Chandrashekaran


Software Engineer, Google
rajeshc[at]google[dot]com

Interests and Links

I harbor an interest in Literature and Dramatics. I have undertaken courses on Indian Writing in English, Contemporary Fiction, Modern Fiction and Dramatics and directed two English stage plays. I have also pursued various adventure sports like White-Water Rafting, Para-Sailing and Rappelling. I am also picking up Lawn Tennis.

Site Statistics

Total site hits

wordpress visitor counter