Dr. Marwan M. KRUNZ

In early 2009, I started planning for my upcoming 6-month sabbatical, which was to commence in January 2010. I set high expectations of what I should get out of it. This was going to be my second sabbatical leave. As in my first sabbatical (at INRIA-Sophia Antipolis, France, and HP Labs, Palo Alto), I wanted a highly engaging research environment in a culturally rich location. Very few places satisfied the criteria, and IMDEA Networks Institute was at the top of the list. It was a fruitful visit by all accounts.

My visit started in March 1, 2010. I split my time between IMDEA Networks Institute and the University of Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M), which offered me a Visiting Chair of Excellence (“Cátedra de Excelencia”) position. I collaborated with researchers from both organizations on topics related to fairness aspects of transporting TCP traffic over multi-hop wireless mesh networks (with Professor Albert Banchs and Dr. Jaume Barcelo) to minimizing the energy consumption in such networks. I also had many discussions with Ph.D. students, postdoctoral researchers, senior researchers/professors, visiting researchers, and candidates for research positions. For a recently established research organization, IMDEA Networks’ level of dynamism was quite impressive.

In addition to my research activities, I also participated in the teaching of a graduate-level course at UC3M (Mobile Systems Communications). This course is offered to UC3M students as well as students from the University Politécnica de Cataluña campus. I gave a total of 8 hours of teaching and met with students outside the lecture. My lectures focused on cognitive radio communications, directional antennas, power-controlled protocols for ad hoc networks, and other topics. It was a pleasant experience, as it allowed me to interact directly with various graduate students.

When reflecting upon the structure and operation of IMDEA, one observation stands out: The strikingly aggressive path that the founders and directors of this institute have taken to make IMDEA a top-tier research organization. I was already familiar with various European universities and research institutions, and came to Madrid expecting something similar. Yet, the place surprised me with its unconventional operation (at least, relative to other European research institutes). Adopting proven strategies to create and sustain a high-quality research environment, the directors of IMDEA Networks Institute embarked on a relentless effort to attract top-talent from all over the world. I was involved in various recruiting efforts, and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of interviewed candidates (which included graduates and postdocs from top-five US universities). I was also involved in various efforts to establish guidelines for promotion and tenure, merit raises, and evaluation of graduate research assistants. Rather than sticking to any rigid approach, IMDEA’s directors opted to extract the best aspects of any given approach, and adapting them to the specificities of IMDEA’s environment. In my opinion, this is a guaranteed formula for success. I foresee a steep-slope progression in the quality and ranking of this place.