UNH-IOL: A Unique, Hands-on Education for Graduate School

The UNH-IOL offers an opportunity that most graduate students never get to experience: hands-on learning with cutting edge technologies. More so than with undergraduate studies, the realm of graduate research is typically entirely theoretical. Complementary to the classroom, here at the lab, students have the opportunity to perform research on actual devices. Staffed by full-time employees and graduate students, we are able to forge relationships with vendors that most graduate students never get exposed to. This affords the benefits of accessing prototype hardware and software that may not be available outside of our special relationships for years in some cases.

Prototype devices often times arrive at the UNH-IOL with developer interfaces that are never made available to the general public. This gives students an unprecedented ability to implement theory on real hardware. Here are some examples of how past students applied theory to perform testing on new technologies:

1. Zarick, R.; Hagen, M.; Bartos, R.; , "The impact of network latency on the synchronization of real-world IEEE 1588-2008 devices," Precision Clock Synchronization for Measurement Control and Communication (ISPCS), 2010 International IEEE Symposium on , vol., no., pp.135-140, Sept. 27 2010-Oct. 1 2010 doi: 10.1109/ISPCS.2010.5609788 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5609788&isnumber=5609759

2. Hagen, M.; Zarick, R.; , "Performance Evaluation of DCB's Priority-Based Flow Control," Network Computing and Applications (NCA), 2011 10th IEEE International Symposium on , vol., no., pp.328-333, 25-27 Aug. 2011 doi: 10.1109/NCA.2011.58 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6038627&isnumber=6038577

At a more conceptual level, working everyday on the cutting edge of technologies provides our graduate students with a bountiful opportunity for exposure to new areas of research as well. Are you a second year graduate student looking for a thesis? Take a look at any one of the lab’s brand new groups that are working on technologies that do not even exist in the market yet such as Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) or Audio Video Bridging (AVB).

Having a year-round position as a graduate student at UNH provides additional benefits, such as the ability to accelerate your program. With the new summer class, CS 780/880, IT 780 Data Center Networks, you can get a head start on the classes you need to complete, while simultaneously learning about some of the cutting edge areas tested at the UNH-IOL. In this class we will cover both hands-on experiments with equipment as well as a literature survey of some of the most recent research in this area.

If you’re interested in learning more about the unique, hands-on experience available to graduate students at the UNH-IOL, please Contact Us

MIkkel Hagen, Senior Engineer