Computing Science associate professors Funda Ergun and Petra Berenbrink
will be two of the principal investigators working to improve our
understanding of the new types of networks that have become so important
in our lives. Their team has won a Pacific Institute for the
Mathematical Sciences Collaborative Research Award (PIMS CRG), the first
time this award, which typically is awarded to mathematics proposals,
has been given to a purely computing science group of
researchers.

Ergun and Berenbrink will work collaboratively with three other
Western Canada universities - University of Victoria, University of
Calgary and University of British Columbia. Their research focus will
be on examining communication and computations for the next generation
of networks that have to analyze big data, operate within new power and
memory constraints, and deal with the increasingly social nature of
networks. Although the research is more theoretical than applied, one
potential outcome is greater efficiency when data mining.

In addition to allowing for collaborative research to begin, the
award funding will be used to hire post-doctorate students, hold two
conferences and a speakers series over the next three years.