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.