Winter 2025
Gavin Cianciolor
Gavin started at the lab just over a year ago and has quickly become an active tester and active developer in that time. His efforts have mostly revolved around the compliance tool efforts for the Single Pair Ethernet technology in the Embase group where he is one of the reasons the new Python-base “BitPyer” tools are off the ground and running to control the BitPhyer FPGAs. He has helped with the creation of the test tools needed for 100Base-T1 PCS, has gotten the 100Base-T1 BitPhyer Automation board up and running and has gotten us to the point where PCS has nearly switched from the Link Instruments device to an FPGA solution through BitPhyer. He also has greatly helped BitPhyer projects across the different speeds of SPE, 1000Base-T1 with RGMII and 10Base-T1S PCS. His work ethic and effort in these areas have made him an invaluable member of Embase, not only as a tester but as a developer of the BitPhyer Python Tool (BitPyer), assisted with BitPhyer integration into Violett, and building out the development environment to speed up software development for the new BitPhyer tools. With the passion for solving problems in the development of tools, testing, his general attitude towards the bigger picture, all alongside being a great team member he is well deserving of an IOL Star Award.
Manit Mahajan
Manit joined IOL in 2022 as a high school intern, working on the DPDK Lab's "Results Dashboard," a website that DPDK developers use to monitor CI testing results. He quickly moved past his initial responsibilities, becoming the lead full stack developer responsible for front end, back end, REST API, and deployment procedure. He - almost single handedly - transitioned the dashboard to a containerized deployment, leveraging automation to reduce human overhead (and human error). And, all the while he was attacking technical debt on the project, bringing performance improvements to the dashboard, and patching security vulnerabilities. All of our users experience the value Manit has brought to IOL every time they make use of the DPDK Dashboard. This year, Manit has continued to grow, bringing his eagerness and attention to detail to other aspects of the DPDK lab project. When a patch is needed, whether it be for one of our public CI scripts repos, or our internal DPDK pipelines repo, we know that Manit will dig into the problem, and deliver a result which demonstrates a good attention to detail and a commitment to his work. He is only a freshman in college, but his significant influence on the team makes it seem like he is more senior. It is a great pleasure to work alongside someone who produces such high quality work, whilst bringing a friendly, positive attitude to the workplace. Thank you and congratulations Manit!
Oliver Willis
Oliver has shown exemplary dedication to his work over the last several years as a UNH-IOL employee and has been an integral part of every team he has been a part of. He is an incredibly bright and innovative person, who has seemingly an endless bounty of positive energy that he brings to the lab. Over the years, he has progressed from being a test technician, script developer, lead script developer, team lead, and now a blockchain developer. Oliver is always learning and sharpening his skills, ranging from front-end to back-end, running hackathon projects, and creating new tools for the Datacenter team. In addition to his technical expertise, Oliver consistently takes the initiative to mentor and support his colleagues, creating a collaborative work environment. His knack for adapting to new challenges and technologies has been crucial in driving innovation across the lab, from streamlining testing processes with new tools, to diving deep into blockchain technology. Oliver’s contributions have elevated the performance of his teams and will have a lasting positive impact on the lab as a whole.
David Scarborough
David joined the IPv6 Testing team in late 2022, and has since become one of its most experienced and valuable technicians. His ability to quickly adapt to new concepts and tools meant he was able to learn a wide variety of test services that we have in IP. Not only has David tested dozens of implementations for the core IPv6 RFCs, he’s also worked on testing home gateways and USP agents, services that very few technicians in IP are able to complete. Recently, David has stepped into more of a mentorship/leadership role, helping to train new team members in the (sometimes mysterious) ways of IPv6 testing. In addition to David’s success in testing, he’s also contributed to several development efforts, both in IP and around the lab. In particular, his work on updating our online resume binder system has demonstrated a level of self-organization and dedication to completing a project that’s rare among hackathon projects. That project’s success will have a lasting impact on the careers of those who are able to use it because of David’s hard work. The experience that he’s accumulated and shared over the last two years has been a huge benefit to us in IP, and by extension, the IOL as a whole. David’s accomplishments during his time here are worthy of an award on their own, but when combined with David’s positive attitude towards his work, and willingness to learn and help others with a smile, David is more than deserving of an IOL star..
Jilly Sticca
Jilly is the most senior member and de-facto leader of our IPv6 Packages team, even though she has only been working here for less than two years. She was our first hire directly onto the Packages team–rather than transferring from the IPv6-testing team–and thus had no prior IPv6 networking exposure. Regardless, she was able to learn the fundamental networking concepts and complicated development practices and make meaningful contributions extremely fast. Jilly joined the Packages team just as the rest of the team graduated and left the IOL, leaving her to spearhead development and lead her new teammates on her own with minimal experience. Jilly took on this role eagerly and established herself as an astounding leader to those around her, even when concepts were still new to her. Currently, she is assisting in the development of an interoperability test specification for DHCPv6, which is an incredibly impressive feat for someone with her level of experience. Her labwide involvement is also highly admirable; she constantly volunteers to assist with events, write blogs, and participate in other labwide activities when possible. Jilly is truly a model IOL employee, an imperative member of the IPv6 Packages team, and extremely well deserving of an IOL star.
