14th TMA PhD School

Following the success of previous editions, the 14th TMA PhD School will take place on the first two days of the conference in Delft, Netherlands (June 29 and 30). This year’s school continues the well-established and highly appreciated format in which field-renowned experts from both academia and industry deliver tutorial-style lectures paired with hands-on lab sessions. Over the course of a two-day program, students will explore several cutting-edge topics and apply learned concepts in practical exercises.

Our theme for 2026 is Observing the Internet at Scale: Measurements, Security, and the Road to Production. To cover this topic, the program will cover state-of-the-art methods and tools to measure, map, and secure Internet infrastructure at scale – from detecting threats in the wild to validating geolocation, understanding routing resilience, and translating measurement research into production systems.

In addition to the tutorial program, the PhD School will feature a poster session where attending PhD students can present their ongoing research. This session is a great opportunity for participants to receive feedback, exchange ideas with peers and senior researchers, and gain visibility within the networking and measurements community.

The PhD School will also offer a social activity. This activity will provide an opportunity for students, lecturers, and conference attendees to interact in an informal setting.

You can apply here: https://crp.info.ucl.ac.be/tma2026grants/ (see below for details)

PhD School Speakers

The 14th TMA PhD school will features two keynotes by Georgios Smaragdakis and Vasileios Giotsas as well as three tutorials by Oliver Gasser, Mariano Scazzariello and a joint tutorial by Gerardo Viviers and Ondřej Caletka.

Georgios Smaragdakis is a Professor of Cybersecurity at Delft University of Technology, currently appointed as a visiting Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University. He is also a researcher with the Max Planck Institute for Informatics and the Berlin Institute for the Foundations of Learning and Data. In the past, he held research positions at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the MIT Internet Policy Research Initiative, TU Berlin, Boston University, and at research labs, including Akamai, Deutsche Telekom Labs, and Telefonica Research. His research was awarded a European Research Council Starting Grant, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie International Outgoing Fellowship, Best Paper Awards at USENIX Security, ACM SIGCOMM, ACM IMC, ACM CoNEXT, IEEE INFOCOM, and several prizes, including the 2025 USENIX Internet Defense Prize, IETF/IRTF Applied Networking Research Prizes, “Best of Computer Communication Review”, and Communications of the ACM Research Highlights.

Through his keynote, Georgios will share with PhD students his lessons learned from Internet measurement and traffic analysis research, offering a roadmap of approaches that have stood the test of time and a forward-looking perspective on where the field is heading.

Vasileios Giotsas is a Research Engineer at Cloudflare, where he focuses on network measurements and telemetry, the risk assessment and mitigation of topological vulnerabilities of critical Internet infrastructures, and the analysis of Internet routing policies and performance. He also holds a position as Lecturer at the Computer and Communications department of Lancaster University, and has previously worked as a research scientist at the Internet Measurement and Analysis group of TU Berlin and as a postdoctoral researcher at CAIDA, University of California San Diego. His work has been distinguished with the CoNEXT 2015 Best Paper Award and the IETF Applied Networking Research Prize 2016.

Through his keynote, Vasilis will share his perspective on how measurement research translates into real-world production systems at scale, drawing on his experience at the intersection of academic Internet topology mapping, BGP security, and operational challenges at Cloudflare.

Oliver Gasser is Head of Research at IPinfo, having previously led the Internet Security Measurements research group at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, where he received his Ph.D. from the Technical University of Munich in 2019. His research interests span Internet measurements, network security, IPv6, and DNS, and he has received the ACM IMC 2017 Community Contribution Award and the IRTF Applied Networking Research Prize, among other distinctions.

Oliver’s tutorial will introduce students to the foundations of IP geolocation validation using latency measurements – covering speed-of-light constraints, multilateration, and ProbeNet – and guide them through hands-on sessions detecting mislocated RIPE Atlas probes and VPN exit nodes using real-world measurement datasets.

Mariano Scazzariello is a Senior Researcher at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden and a maintainer of the Kathará Framework. His research mainly focuses on high-speed networking and programmable networks. He received his PhD in Computer Networks from Roma Tre University, where he co-developed Kathará, an open-source container-based network emulation system that has become a widely adopted tool for research, education, and operational testing.

Mariano’s tutorial will introduce students to Kathará as a network digital twin, demonstrating how to design, deploy, and experiment with complex Internet topologies – including routing protocols and network functions – in a lightweight, modular, and reproducible environment.

Gerardo Viviers is a Senior Learning & Development Officer at the RIPE NCC. He delivers training courses and webinars for RIPE NCC members, as well as LEAs and governmental organizations. Before joining the RIPE NCC in 2009 as an IP Resource Analyst (IPRA), Gerardo worked at several Internet companies in Argentina and the Netherlands providing technical support and training.. Ondřej Caletka is a Senior System Engineer at the RIPE NCC, where he as a technical expert in the Learning and Development team. His main responsibility includes developing and operating the lab environment for training courses and online learning. Ondřej graduated from Czech Technical University in Prague and worked as network services administrator and developer for the Czech national research and education network CESNET before joining the RIPE NCC. He is also active in local IT communities around open source/free software, and acts as an IPv6 and DNSSEC ambassador, delivering talks and trainings at various events.

Gerardo’s and Ondřej’s tutorial will introduce students to the world-class measurement infrastructure operated by the RIPE NCC, used daily by network researchers, operators, and policymakers worldwide. The session is structured as a hybrid tutorial and hackathon, designed to build genuine research skills rather than simply demonstrate tools. Students will learn about RIPE Atlas, RIPEstat, and RIPE RIS, and they will compete to produce a result about one research challenge track.

Poster Sessions

Every registered student will be asked to present a poster at the PhD school showcasing their current research. Throughout the PhD school, there will be two dedicated poster sessions during the lunch breaks, giving participants time to browse each other’s work.

These sessions offer a valuable forum for discussion and feedback: students can exchange ideas with peers, engage with the PhD School lecturers, and seek expert perspectives on both the technical aspects of their work and broader questions, ranging from emerging research directions in traffic monitoring and analysis to trends across the wider networking and systems community.

Registration

Registrations are now open. You can apply at: https://crp.info.ucl.ac.be/tma2026grants/

Note: this link is used both for registration and for travel grants. You can do both using the same portal.

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 have limited room availability.

Deadlines

Application deadline: April 15, 2026 May 10 May 15, 2026 at 23:59 UTC

Decision notification: May 15, 2026 May 21, 2026

How to apply and Travel Grants

The registration fee for the TMA 2026 PhD school is 270 Euro if you register before June 1st. This fee will be levied on all attending students, also those receiving travel grants, as the travel grant rules from our sponsors require us to ask for a small own investment.

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 their 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. 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. We note that reimbursements of travel grants may take up to several months to complete.

You can find the registration link above.

PhD students who participate in the school are invited to join the main TMA conference free of charge (except for participants who are also an author of a paper or extended abstract that has been accepted to the conference).

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 significantly offset air fare and shared hotel accommodation. However, it may not fully cover these expenses, 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.

Hope to see you all in Delft for a fantastic TMA PhD School!