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Amazon announced the adoption of random graphs as their new default data center network architecture. The framework is based on Illinois' Jellyfish project, which began in 2012 and had a radical approach: taking carefully planned, symmetrical structures and doing the opposite via complete randomization of the network topology.  That project was led by CS professor Brighten Godfrey, then-CS PhD students Ankit Singla (currently staff software engineer at Google) and Chi-Yao Hong (now director at Google), and then-researcher of HP Labs Lucian Popa, (current Databricks VP of Engineering). Godfrey recalls giving a talk on the project at a major networking company and then being approached by senior engineers. "They told me, 'Everything you just said is completely counterintuitive to everyone in this building," Godfrey said. "Now, Amazon's team has taken the random network idea, solved the problems related to practical routing and cabling, and deployed it." 

Saugata Ghose, CS assistant professor, has received the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award for his project, "CAREER: Enabling Ultra-Low-Cost Cloud-Free Data Processing at the Edge." Considered the NSF's most prestigious award, it offers support to early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.