Shirish Hemant Phatak

Hi,

I was the Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Engineering at Tacit Networks, Inc, a startup focussed on wide area file sharing (WAFS) solutions. In May 2006, Tacit was acquired by Packeteer, Inc. I am now at Packeteer as the CTO for WAFS Products.

I am also working part time on my PhD with the DATAMAN Research Group which is a part of the Department of Computer Science, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. I am working under Dr. Badri Nath on Application Support for Disconnected Client-Server Systems.

Research Interests:

Networked Storage
Distributed Filesystems
Mobility
Databases
Networking
Web and XML
E-Commerce and Web based Transactions
Opportunistic Protocols for Mobile Environments
Complexity theory
Combinatorics

Resume ( Word ) ( Postscript ) ( PDF ) ( HTML )

Publications and Technical Reports

Web&: An Architecture for Non-Interactive Web.

Multiversion Reconciliation for Mobile Databases.

Data Warehousing Alternatives for Mobile Environments.

Data Partitioning for Disconnected Client Server Databases.

Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation in Disconnected Databases.

Transaction-centric Reconciliation in Disconnected Databases.

Opportunistic FTP.

Internal document, DATAMAN Lab.

Bounded Locking for Optimistic Concurrency Control.

An Architecture for Mobile Databases.

Database Server Organization for Handling Mobile Clients.

Awards

National Talent Search Scholarship (1987-1993)

Gold medal for standing first in all of B.E. at SGS Insititute of Technology and Sciences, Indore, India (1993)

CMC Gold medal for standing first in M. Tech, Computer Science and Engineering, IIT, Mumbai, India (1995)

Excellence Fellowship at Rutgers University (1995-1997)

Projects

Disconnected Client Server Architectures (PhD Thesis): My PhD thesis involves the study of various approaches for handling disconnection in client server environments. In particular, I have focussed on two distinct application areas: databases and the web.
- Mobile Client-Server Databases: This involves a study of various problems that crop up due to the introduction of client mobility (especially disconnection) into client server database systems. My main focus has been on hoarding and the reconciliation problem.
- An Architecture for Non-interactive Web Transactions (Web&) (joint work with Dr. Liviu Iftode): In this project we are prototyping a service based architecture for hosting non-interactive web tasks in the network. Our emphasis is on e-commerce applications. The project involves prototyping using Java, XML and JDBC. Our ultimate goal is to support heterogenous disconnectable devices on the frontend and provide web based transactional services on the backend. The project overview is available here and a preliminary white paper is available here.
Dynamic ClassLoader Package : This is an offshoot of the Web& project. I have implemented a class loader package which allows dynamic reloading of class files if they change on disk. This allows us to run the web transaction engine without restarting whenever we modify a class file. However, the implementation is fairly general and I am distributing it with the hope that it will be useful. I would appreciate any feedback. The readme file for the package is here and the jar file which includes the classes, sources and test code is here.

ADA Project (Project Engineer) : This project involved the implementation of a simulation platform for ADA (Aeronautical Development Agency). The emphasis of the project is to create a highly flexible multimedia environment in C and C++ using low cost components. My responsibilities included development and integration of the sound module for the system. I also performed system administration for the SCO based system and supervised a team of students.

On Search Versus Decision (MTech Project): This project was my MTech project at Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay. In this project we examined reductions from the search versions of NP-complete problems to their decision versions. My project supervisor was Prof. Sundar Vishwanathan.

Simulation and Analysis of a Multiprocessor based Real Time System (B.E. final year project): This project involded myself and another classmate. Together we developed an G/G/n queueing model for a multiprocessor based real time system. The model was solved using a recursive analytic technique. The model was then verified using a simulation study of the system. This analysis was later used in a PhD thesis.

Fuzzy Expert System Shell (B.E. third year project): Wrote a fuzzy expert system shell along with three other classmates. The shell is now in use at S.G.S Institute of Technology and Sciences, Indore, India as a backend for a fuzzy process control system. The shell is unique in that it uses both backward and forward chaining techniques. First, backward chaining is used to do an "approximate" match, then forward chaining is used on the approximate match set to instantiate possibility and certainty values and prune false matches.

Wrote a program to compute parameters for a gear cutting machine for hypoid gears. The program is now in use in industry to compute settings for gear cutting machines. The program can compute both the settings as well as the corrections.

Miscellaneous projects at IITB: During my time at IIT, Bombay, I also worked on a bunch of miscellaneous projects as a member of the SigSYS group. This was in addition to my regular course projects and MTech project. I was responsible for maintaining the TeX/LaTeX distribution and upgrading from LaTeX 2.09 to LaTeX 2e which involved writing a bunch of LaTeX packages. I also co-maintained the local emacs, gdb and gcc deployment. Since the architecture of our primary server "kailash" was non-standard, this also involved a bit of porting. I also co-created the first IITB Computer Science and Engineering homepage, which was one of the first web pages in India on the Word Wide Web.

System Administration, CCL-EOHSI: I am currently a part time system administrator at the CCL-EOHSI labs, where I help maintain a set of Solaris boxes (Creator 3Ds and Sun Ultra II servers) and a bunch of windows boxes. I have helped install many of these machines. I have also set up the UNIX/Windows internetworking using samba and assisted in the installation of an Oracle database.

Graduate Assistant, Dataman Labs: Aside from my primary research functions as a graduate assistant, my duties include system and network administration of Linux and Windows boxes. These include 4 Linux desktops, 4 Windows desktops and 20 or so x86 laptops. As a part of these duties I have spent considerable time installing and hacking Linux. Currently, I also manage procurement of equipment for lab. In addition, I am also supervising a group of students on the Web& project.

Licensing and Patent Consultant, Office of Corporate Liason and Technology Transfer, Rutgers: I also provide information technology related licensing and patent consultancy services to the Office of Corporate Liaison and Technology Transfer at Rutgers. This involves consulting for the office regarding interpretation, validation and commercial potential of invention disclosures, drafting of patent applications, identification of potential partners and licensees for various technologies and negotiation of licensing contracts. I am the only student ever to provide such services to Rutgers.

Other Interests

Financial Marketplace: I keep myself current with happenings in the financial market place. I have actively traded stocks, equity options, index options, futures and options on futures since August 1998. I am fascinated with all aspects of financial instruments that are actively traded in the market. The next major step on my agenda (when I have enough money!) is currency trading. One of my ongoing projects is to learn the mathematical models for various financial instruments, starting with the derivation of Black-Scholes model for derivatives.

Swimming: I thoroughly enjoy swimming. I have taken a bunch of classes offered at Rutgers both at advanced beginner and intermediate levels. As a result I know all the major strokes: freestyle, backstrokes: simple and the back crawl, breaststroke, sidestroke and the butterfly. One of my ongoing projects is to refine my butterfly stroke, which I just learnt and to master the freestyle.

Ballroom and Latin Dancing: I love to dance! I started just over a year ago, and since then I have taken a bunch of classes at Rutgers. In the process I have learnt the basics of the standard dances (waltz, foxtrot, tango, quickstep and some vienese waltz), the latin dances (rumba, chacha, mambo, swing/jive, samba, merengue) and others (salsa, hustle, west coast swing, lindy hop and hip hop/funk). I am also a regular at the Rutgers Ballroom Dance Club meetings and a member of the Rutgers Ballroom Dance Team. On my agenda this summer is international foxtrot and rumba, international latin technique and international standard technique . My favourite dance so far is the samba followed closely by other latin dances. However, I am slowly developing a great deal of interest in the smooth dances, especially tango and waltz. My ongoing project this summer is to learn international style variations of various dances.
Rutgers had its first inter-collegiate ballroom competition on March 4, 2000. The web page for the competition is here. I designed and implemented the backend for the online registration system which can be found here. This implementation involved considerable amount of PHP3 coding and a simple file system based database implementation in PHP3. I participated in the competition at intermediate (silver) level.

Books: I enjoy reading. It is the most relaxing hobby I have. I read almost anything, as long as it is in English!

Theoretical Physics: Physics has always been one of my favourite subjects. I have started reading tensor geometry texts in an attempt to teach myself the mathematics of the General Theory of Relativity. Recently, I have also started reading Quantum Mechanics texts.

Music: I enjoy listening to music. My favourite category is Hindi film music, especially songs from old movies. I prefer songs with a hindustani classical tilt. In the past I have learnt tabla (Indian Drums) and some guitar (though I am very bad at playing the guitar :( ). I also taught myself a little bit of harmonium. I am in the (perenially) ongoing process of teaching myself the electronic keyboard.

Bridge: I learnt to play bridge using natural counting in my undergraduate days. After a long hiatus I picked up the game in the US and learnt some aspects of the precision system. Currently I am a bit rusty, but with some coaxing I should be able to to play a decent game!

Martial Arts: Martial arts are amongst my all time favourites. I am an avid fan of martial arts movies. I also have a blue belt in Karate (which does not amount to much :( ).

Movies: I love watching movies, both in Hindi and English! Whenever possible I try to catch all good movies in the theatres, otherwise I definitely watch them when they are out on Video. I also like almost all genres: I particularly enjoy comedies, dramas, action and science fiction.

Chatting (arguing?) with friends: This is my perenial favourite. All through my college life I have spent countless days and nights talking and arguing with friends about everything and nothing...

Address and Phone Numbers

	Home	Office
	218 Berger Street, Somerset, NJ 08873	Department of Computer Science Frelinghuysen Road, Busch Campus Rutgers, the State University Piscataway, NJ 08855
	(732) 545 4341 Res	(732) 445 2706 / 6721 Dataman Lab (732) 445 6722 Fax

phatak@cs.rutgers.edu