Ariful Azad, assistant professor of Intelligent Systems Engineering at the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, has won a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER funding for his proposal, “Scalable Software Infrastructure for Analyzing Complex Networks”
The grant total is $562,352. Azad also received the DOE Early Career Award in 2021.
As principal investigator, Azad will explore interactions among entities that are fundamental to physical, social, and cyber-physical systems worldwide to develop software to better understand those interactions. Potential benefits include improved methods of predicting extreme weather, finding new proteins, and determining how much energy factories will use.
Large-scale networks are prevalent in scientific and business applications, such as protein similarity networks with billions of vertices and trillions of edges.
As networks continue to grow, there is an increasing demand for algorithms and software capable of utilizing large-scale cyberinfrastructure for analyzing massive networks across scientific domains.
“This project addresses this need by developing a software infrastructure consisting of foundational algorithms for scalable, portable, and user-friendly graph analysis, ensuring scalability to trillions of edges, optimal performance on heterogeneous infrastructures, and accessibility for domain scientists,” Azad said. “This software infrastructure directly enhances vital applications in extreme weather prediction, the discovery of novel proteins, and forecasting energy usage in industrial settings.”
The project extends the accessibility of these advanced technologies to students at various academic levels. Integration with university courses, as well as initiatives for high school students and teachers in rural Indiana, would ensure widespread educational impact.
Because of the unpredictable and dynamic nature of networks, the independent development of scalable algorithms and software for each application has become prohibitively expensive as far as time, effort, and research funding. This project addresses that by introducing a general-purpose software infrastructure designed to analyze and learn from complex networks.
“Azad’s NSF CAEER award will be of great benefit to the Intelligent Systems Engineering program, as it will extend the accessibility of the proposed advances technologies to graduate and undergraduate students,” said Beth Plale, chair of department of Intelligent Systems Engineering. “We are also extremely excited about Ariful’s plan to translate his research outcomes into new initiatives for high school students and teachers in rural Indiana.”
Azad’s funding is part of the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Program. It supports early career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education, and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.
The NSF offers grants and supplement funding to early career researchers working on a variety of research areas. Activities should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research.