Position:  Postdoctoral Research Associate

Current Institution:  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Abstract:  Coordinating Caching and Computation in Networks

To provide robustness to degradation of service and effective and reliable networked communications with consideration of the physical layer, it is required to have an understanding of the fundamental limits of reliable communications in networks. Using multi-hop Wi-Fi links for long backhaul connections can possibly be a cost-effective solution for rural connectivity. To this end, I have been developing reliable routing protocols, capacity-achieving recoding with delay guarantees for multi-hop wireless networks. Currently, my research focuses on caching for computation, using some of the most recent results in information theory to devise a theoretically motivated look at the central problem of coordinating computation and caching in networks. I have also investigated the trade-off between delay and rate in wireless networks with imperfect feedback. This approach has brought together signal flow techniques to the area of coding, melding two areas that have hitherto been quite separate. The results permit analysis of the perennially vexing problem of accounting accurately for delay when coding. While my core competence is in networking, communications, and optimization, I also worked on content caching in device-to-device networks and explored topics such as the Internet of Things and biology. My internship experience with industry (Huawei and Bell Laboratories) has been very prolific and resulted in several journal publications. My Postdoctoral appointment is funded by a grant I received from a DARPA program, MIT, Northeastern University, and BBN on wireless networking. I am the lead inventor of a patent-pending technology.

Bio:
Derya Malak is a postdoctoral research associate at MIT and Northeastern University, working with Professor Muriel Medard and Professor Edmund Yeh.  She received a PhD in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2017, where she was supervised by Professor Jeffrey G. Andrews and affiliated with the Wireless Networking and Communications Group.  Previously, she received master’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Koc University in Turkey in 2013, and a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering (with minor in Physics) from the Middle East Technical University in Turkey in 2010.  She held summer internships at Huawei Technologies Plano TX and Bell Laboratories Murray Hill, NJ.  She received the Graduate School Fellowship from the University of Texas at Austin between 2013-2017.  She held a visiting position at Macquarie University in Australia.