12th TMA PhD School

Traffic Management and Analysis at All Layers

Following the success of the previous editions, the 12th TMA PhD School will take place on May 21st and 22nd 2024 in Dresden, Germany. The school will include 4 tutorials, by 5 distinct lecturers, over a 2-days program. Lectures are accompanied by related practical lab sessions, where students have the opportunity to put into practice learned notions.

The 12th TMA PhD School will follow a tried and tested format, in which four topics are covered by field-renowned experts both from academia and industry. The topics will be introduced through tutorial-style lectures combined with hands-on lab work. Our topic for 2024 is Traffic Management and Analysis at All Layers. To cover this topic, the programme will cover state-of-the-art methods and tools to extract knowledge from network activity, as well as techniques to take efficient traffic-based actions.

The PhD school program will include social activities on both days, where students, lecturers and attendees of the main TMA conference will have the opportunity to interact informally. A social dinner would be organized.

PhD School Speakers

The list of speakers for the 12th TMA PhD school includes:

  1. Vincenzo De Angelis is an Assistant professor at the University of Calabria, Italy. In 2023 he took the PhD degree at the University Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria. His research interests include IoT security, Privacy, and applied cryptography. He is author of more than 25 papers published in international journals and conference proceedings. He is PC member of a number of conferences and Guest Editor of two special issues in international Journals. His lecture will be about: Man-in-the-middle attacks against IoT devices.

  2. Antonio Montieri is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technologies of the University of Napoli Federico II. He received his Ph.D. degree in Information Technology and Electrical Engineering in April 2020 and his MS Degree in Computer Engineering in July 2015, both from the same University. Antonio serves as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society. He also participates in the editorial board of four further sector journals published by Frontiers, MDPI, and OAE Publishing. He serves as a reviewer for various international conferences and journals. His research interests concern network security, network measurements, (encrypted and mobile) traffic classification, traffic modeling and prediction, and eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) approaches for networks. Antonio has co-authored more than 50 papers in top-notch international journals and conference proceedings. His lecture will be about: Network Traffic Analysis via Machine and Deep Learning: From Theory to Practice.

  3. Sebastiano Miano is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering at Politecnico di Milano since July 2023. Previously, he was post‑doctoral Researcher at the Queen Mary University of London. He obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. degree at Politecnico di Torino, and during his doctoral studies, he was a visiting student at the University of Cambridge, UK, under Prof. Andrew W. Moore, as well as at the EIT Digital Silicon Valley Hub in San Francisco. His research interests cover a broad spectrum of topics in both networks and systems, focusing primarily on the development of mechanisms and architectures to improve host‑based network applications, but with a special interest in eBPF and XDP technologies. His lecture will be about: The eBPF Adventure: Exploring Linux’s Hidden Superpowers.

  4. Angelo Tulumello is a Research Manager at CNIT, Network Assessment, Assurance, and Monitoring (NAAM) Lab since November 2023. He received the M.Sc. degree in Internet Engineering and Ph.D. degree in Electronics Engineering at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. He is co-founder of Axbryd, a research spin-off company focused on the design of network accelerators programmable with the eBPF framework. In his research, he focuses on developing architectures for programmable network dataplanes in hardware, network monitoring, and network security. His lecture will be about: The eBPF Adventure: Exploring Linux’s Hidden Superpowers.

  5. Johann Schlamp is an entrepreneurial scientist and founder of Leitwert, a Internet measurement company. With his team of network researchers, he continuously charts the global routing system using active and passive measurements. Johann studied computer science with a minor in mathematics at Technical University of Munich and received his PhD in 2016. In his thesis, he conducted an evaluation of architectural threats to Internet routing. His research interests lie with interdomain routing, network protocols, critical infrastructures, and Internet measurements. Johann remains a guest scientist at Technical University of Munich and is a lecturer at Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt. He is a long-term Linux addict and a Python fanatic. His lecture will be about: Trace the Wumpus.

Poster Sessions

Every student who registers will be asked to submit a poster about their own current research. Throughout the PhD School, there will be two poster sessions during the lunch break.

The program will also include an informal interactive session between students and the speakers, with the explicit goal of fostering “vertical” interaction between students and the speakers, and “horizontal” interaction between the students themselves. Students will have the opportunity to interview the speakers, asking for their expert opinion on general aspects (non-technical) of the current research dynamics in the field of traffic monitoring and analysis (e.g., how they see the prospective development of a particular research topic in the near future, or what are the key ingredients that drive the success of an experimental measurement platform, etc).

Registration

Registrations are now open, you can apply at https://crp.info.ucl.ac.be/tma2024phd/

As the PhD school is popular, we encourage students to register early. Our goal is to admit as many students as possible but we do note that we might have limited room availability. To foster interaction with the TMA community, students are encouraged to join the TMA Conference in the days following the PhD School. PhD students participating to the school are invited to join the main TMA conference free of charge (except for those participants authors of an accepted paper).

Deadlines:

Application deadline: April 19th at 23:59 CEST
Tentative decision notification: April 24th

How to apply and Travel Grants

The price for registration for the TMA 2024 PhD school is EUR 250,00. This fee will be levied on all attending students, also those receiving travel grants (see below). PhD students participating to the school are invited to join the main TMA conference free of charge (except for those participants authors of an accepted paper/extended-abstract).

In order to apply, please submit the following as a single PDF document:

  • the title and abstract of your poster (in the fields required by the submissions system)

  • a current CV with contact information and e-mail address

  • a short personal statement, including: i) a description of the research subject followed by the student, and (ii) information that the applicant feels is relevant to support his/her application, e.g., why the PhD School attendance is important to the applicant’s research and career development;

In case you also want to apply for optional travel support, we ask you to also include:

  • a letter from your advisor which should: (i) confirm the applicant’s good standing in the institution; (ii) explain why the applicant would benefit from attending the TMA PhD School

  • the estimated expenses for attending the TMA PhD School (total, and breakdown by travel and lodging), and an indication of which cost items would need to be covered by the grant; if the applicant will be unable to attend the school without a travel grant, they should explain why this is the case (in this case the advisor’s letter should additionally explain the current funding status of the applicant and why the applicant is in need of the travel grant);

The organization will prioritize awarding of travel grants to students who will be unable to attend without a grant, and additionally based on diversity and the region from which the applicant has to travel, to ensure representation from traditionally underrepresented regions. Note that this year, different from previous editions, the number (and amount) of available travel grants is limited – grants would be in the order of EUR 500,00. In special cases, where the registration fee is also prohibitive, the organization may decide to waive the fee at its discretion.

Any decision made by the organization regarding attendance and awarding of travel grants is final. Be advised that reimbursements of travel grants may take up to several months to complete.

Notes

Please pay attention to the following details about the student travel grant application and reimbursement process:

  • The School will admit a limited number of students.

  • Students enrolled in PhD study programs will receive preference both in the admission to the School and the travel grant awarding.

  • Students admitted to the school are encouraged to attend the TMA conference.

  • We expect a student travel grant will at least partially offset air fare and shared hotel accommodation, but most probably not in full, since our desire is to maximize participation by students.

  • In order to obtain reimbursement, you must provide original receipts for air fare and hotel expenses, along with boarding passes (plane or train) for both outbound and inbound journeys.

  • All students participating in the School are required to present a poster describing their research and to actively engage with all activities. Failing to do so will lead to admission rejection.

  • Please provide complete contact information. You will be notified via email, so make sure your email address is correct on your application.