Browse Active Research Projects
Undergraduates can participate in projects for credits by registering in CS 4974 or 4994. Consult the Faculty Advisor or Research Supervisor before you register for this course.
Participation on a VTURCS project could also lead to an honors thesis for CS majors interested in graduating with honors.
Can't find anything that piques your curiousity? Don't be afraid to check out the Computer Science faculty list for someone who has a research interest you'd like to know more about. They might just have something for you.
Building a Linux Cluster
Faculty Advisor- Danesh Tafti
Research Supervisor
Description of Work- Update an existing linux cluster. Requires reconfiguration with OSCAR. The hardware is in place but needs to be reconfigured with updated software and OS. Great opportunity to get hands on experience in building clusters.
Application Instructions
Project URL- http://www.hpcfd.me.vt.edu
Area(s) of Research- Networking, Parallel Computation, Software Engineering, Systems
Compensation- Work for Pay
Contact- dtafti@vt.edu
Characterizing Virtual Machine Performance
- Faculty Advisor
- W. Feng
- Research Supervisor
- M. Gardner
- Description of Work
- In the past year, virtual computing on physical resources has become in vogue at major companies throughout the U.S. The aim of this project is to do a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the different virtual machine environments out there, e.g., qemu, VMware, Xen, and so on.
- Application Instructions
- E-mail a resume to feng@cs.vt.edu. Optional, but preferred, materials include unofficial undergraduate transcript and a brief one-paragraph statement of what interests you about this project.
- Project URL
- http://
- Area(s) of Research
- Networking, Systems
- Compensation
- Negotiable
- Contact
- feng@cs.vt.edu
EPIC
- Faculty Advisor
- Adrea Kavanaugh
- Research Supervisor
- Adrea Kavanaugh
- Description of Work
- The EPIC project is an investigation by the Center for Human-Computer Interaction of the use and impact of community computer networking in Blacksburg and Montgomery County supported by NSF. Undergraduate research assistants could help this summer with interview data analysis (using NVIVO software), survey data processing (using SPSS), and/or session logging analysis. If you are interested, please contact Andrea Kavanaugh (kavan@vt.edu or 231-1806)
- Application Instructions
- Contact Andrea Kavanaugh (kavan@vt.edu or 231-1806)
- Project URL
- http://epic.cs.vt.edu
- Area(s) of Research
- Human-Computer Interaction, Networking
- Compensation
- Negotiable
- Contact
- kavak@vt.edu
Interdiscplinary Projects in Computational Science/Bioinformatics
- Faculty Advisor
- Eunice Santos
- Research Supervisor
- Eunice Santos
- Description of Work
- Ever wondered how Computer Science interacts with other science and engineering disciplines? What does CS have to do with Protein Folding? If you're interested, we have projects that will give you insights into the interdisciplinary nature of CS. Projects span the combination of CS with problems in bioinformatics, computational biology/chemistry, and computational physics.
- Application Instructions
- see Dr. Santos
- Project URL
- http://www.cs.vt.edu/~santos
- Area(s) of Research
- Bioinformatics, Networking, Theory
- Compensation
- Negotiable
- Contact
- santos@cs.vt.edu
Investigating the Application of Pervasive Computing Concepts to Teaching and Learning
- Faculty Advisor
- Scott Midkiff
- Research Supervisor
- William (Bill) Plymale
- Description of Work
- The focus of this project is to learn how pervasive computing concepts and technologies can be used to enhance the areas of teaching, learning, and other university experiences. Pervasive computing concepts will be studied, and realized using hardware prototyping and development kits. Team-based projects will associate pervasive computing concepts with real-life student experiences at Virginia Tech. Sun Microsystem's SunSpots, Arduino controller and development environment, Crossbow and Sentilla/Moteiv motes, and the Processing programming system will be used for hands-on work.
- Application Instructions
- Please contact Bill Plymale (plymale@vt.edu) with an expression of interest. Include a current resume and/or a list of technical courses taken and any other relevant experiences.
- Project URL
- Area(s) of Research
- Databases, Human-Computer Interaction, Networking, Systems
- Compensation
- Work for Credit
- Contact
- plymale@vt.edu
Parallel/Distributed Modeling and Tools
- Faculty Advisor
- Eunice Santos
- Research Supervisor
- Eunice Santos
- Description of Work
- This project is focused on determining the best way to model a system/network in order to predict performance and to incorporate important metrics into code design. Furthermore, it is important to be able to develop a performance and visualization tool set implementing these concepts. Projects span from theoretical modeling, scheduling algorithms all the way to tool design & implementation. Students will have access to a heterogeneous cluster.
- Application Instructions
- see Dr. Santos
- Project URL
- http://www.cs.vt.edu/~santos
- Area(s) of Research
- Theory, Networking, Parallel Computation
- Compensation
- Negotiable
- Contact
- santos@cs.vt.edu
Securing a Gigabit Network with a Playstation
- Faculty Advisor
- Dimitris Nikolopoulos
- Research Supervisor
- Description of Work
- We will use the microprocessor of a Sony Playstation 3 (known as the Cell Broadband Engine) to perform multi-gigabit rate network packet processing to filter unwanted incoming traffic and outgoing sensitive information.
- Application Instructions
- Background in operating systems, parallel programming and networking is desirable but not necessary.
- Project URL
- http://
- Area(s) of Research
- Networking, Parallel Computation, Systems
- Compensation
- Negotiable
- Contact
- dsn@cs.vt.edu
The Sockets Benchmark Suite
- Faculty Advisor
- W. Feng
- Research Supervisor
- T. Scogland
- Description of Work
- Create a sockets benchmark suite that provides a number of tests, either with TCP, UDP, or SCTP: 1. Two-process performance: Latency, Bandwidth, Bidirectional bandwidth, Connection time. 2. Multi-process performance: Hot-spot, fan-in, fan-out. 3. External CPU usage measurement utility (by reading samples from the proc file system). 4. Rate-controlled bandwidth and packet loss measurements (UDP only).
- Application Instructions
- E-mail a resume to feng@cs.vt.edu. Optional, but preferred, materials include unofficial undergraduate transcript and a brief one-paragraph statement of what interests you about this project.
- Project URL
- http://
- Area(s) of Research
- Networking, Systems
- Compensation
- Negotiable
- Contact
- feng@cs.vt.edu