CNI CONNECT

Monthly Newsletter from CNI

Issue - November 2025

Upcoming Talk

We welcome an exciting lineup of speakers this month, featuring leading researchers from India and abroad.

Nov 7: Dr. Koulik Khamaru, Purdue University
Nov 11: Dr. Gautam Dasarathy, Arizona State University
Nov 13: Dr. T. G. Venkatesh, IIT Madras
Nov 18: Dr. Srinivas Shakkottai, Texas A&M University
Nov 21: Dr. Kumar Vijay Mishra, University of Maryland
Nov 25: Dr. Harish Guruprasad Ramaswamy, IIT Madras

For more details, talk titles, and abstracts, visit the CNI Seminar Series page.

The workshop was organized to celebrate Prof. P. Vijay Kumar’s 70th birthday and his remarkable contributions to coding and information theory, the hybrid workshop featured 20 talks by leading experts from India and abroad. With over 140 participants, the event covered cutting-edge topics in coding theory, cryptography, neural decoders, DNA storage, and group testing—bridging theory, computation, and biology through vibrant academic exchange.

CNI Awarded Fellowship to 7 PhD and 7 MTech Students

CNI is inviting applications for the following openings in the Distributed Systems Lab:

Research Associate: For experienced professionals and fresh graduates planning to get into systems research.

Research Intern: For students who are interested in experimental research in systems/networks while pursuing their studies.

More details at the CNI opportunities page.

A Random Walk from Small-World Phenomena to Web-Scale Search

Dr. Krishnaswamy (Principal Researcher, Microsoft India) explored the journey from small-world network concepts to scalable algorithms that power modern vector search. He discussed how Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search (ANNS) enables efficient information retrieval at web scale, forming the backbone of today’s search and generative AI systems.

On Pricing for Routing and Flow-Control in Payment Channel Networks

Prof. Bruce Hajek (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) discussed algorithms for efficient pricing and routing in blockchain-based payment channel networks. He introduced DEBT control, a joint routing and flow-control protocol that optimizes network performance under steady-state demand, highlighting advances in decentralized transaction efficiency and long-term network stability.

Leveraging Multi-Paradigm Simulation for Decision Support: Case Studies in Public Health and Healthcare Systems

Prof. Saurabh Jain (IIT Bombay) illustrated how simulation paradigms—Discrete Event, Agent-Based, and System Dynamics—enhance data-driven decision-making in healthcare. Through case studies on pandemic policy modeling and VR-based medical training, he showcased how multi-paradigm simulations can improve policy design, training effectiveness, and decision support in complex socio-technical systems.

RIS-assisted NOMA communication under phase and SIC imperfections

Prof. Abhinav Kumar (IIT Hyderabad) discussed how hardware and interference imperfections affect RIS-assisted NOMA systems. He presented analytical bounds and user pairing algorithms that enhance spectral efficiency and demonstrated how hybrid OMA-NOMA designs improve performance under real-world constraints.