ME..

Hello, for the unacquainted. I am a final year grad student. Hopefully, I have seen the last of madison winters.

RESEARCH ..

I am part of the Database Group . I am generally interested in query optimization and evaluation. I work with Prof. Dewitt on the N³ project ( N³ stands for No Money, No Ideas, No Research impact).
Here is a brief summary of some of my work.

• Buffer pool aware Query Optimization : Current query optimizers assume that all data is disk resident while optimizing queries. With increasing main memory sizes, this could lead to sub-optimal plans. As part of ongoing work, I am looking at how the query optimizer can be made 'aware' of the contents of the buffer pool.
  
• Fractured Mirrors : With disk storage becoming practically free, Mirroring is likely to be preferred to RAID-5 systems used today. I proposed a new mirroring scheme in which the mirrors are not physically but logically identical. The query optimizer can choose the appropriate copy to use based on the query at hand.
• Progress bar for SQL queries : Last summer, I was an intern at MSR and worked on the interesting problem of providing a progress bar like interface for SQL queries. I prototyped an initial solution in SQLServer.

MISC..

• I really like playing the violin ( Indian classical style ). Here's a picture of one of the costliest violins in the world..Not mine..I only have a copy of it..
• Here is a set of interesting stuff to read ...
  • Database research retrospective
  • Quotes et al