My research addresses the problem of designing efficient communication algorithms in optical networks employing wavelength-division multiplexting (WDM). Although many of these problems are NP-complete in general, my collaborators and I have obtained efficient optimal algorithms for a number of important special cases and approximation algorithms for many of the general problems. We have also recently examined on-line versions of these problems using competitive analysis. This work is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation.

A number of Harvey Mudd and off-campus students have taken an active role in this and prior research projects, resulting in a number of student co-authored research papers. The following students have participated in funded summer research to date: Eli Brandt ('95), Tom Hehre ('96), Kevin Watkins ('97), Andrew Hutchings ('98), Mark Reyes ('98), Dominic Mazzoni ('99), Ranjith Rajagopalan ('99), Janet Davis ('99), William Williams ('99), Jascha Swisher ('00), Peter Boothe ('00), Greg Rae ('00), and Jeff Hartline ('01), Kurt Dresner ('02), Ethan Drucker ('02), Katie Ray ('02), Ed Miller ('03), Dustin Barnard ('03), Wesley Turner ('03), Will Chang ('04), Ian Ferrel ('04), Adrian Mettler ('04), Brian Tagiku ('05), Tim Carnes ('05), David Buchfuhrer ('06), Laura Elisa Celis ('06), Esteban Molina-Estolano ('06), Ben Birnbaum (Washington University, '06), Karyn Benson (Wellesley University, '06).