University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: May 11, 2006

By JESSICA KELTZ
Reporter Contributor

Computer scientist Sheng Zhong says that coming from his native China to the United States to study was really his only choice because the world's most cutting-edge research is conducted here.

Sheng Zhong says coming to the United States from his native China to study computer science was his only choice because the most cutting-edge research is done here.
PHOTO: NANCY J. PARISI

"The U.S. is clearly leading in computer science worldwide," says Zhong, who's finishing his first academic year at UB as an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Zhong moved to the U.S. in 1999, after earning bachelor's and master's degrees from Nanjing University in China, to pursue a Ph.D. at Yale University. He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science at Rutgers University before coming to UB last August.

Most of Zhong's research throughout those early years focused on issues of cryptography and computer security. While he still works in those areas, he says his current research looks more at economic incentives that motivate computing behavior, and how to best manipulate individual computing behavior to benefit users collectively.

Zhong's research project, "Incentive-Compatible Protocols," is supported by three years of funding from the National Science Foundation's Cyber Trust.

He explains that some wireless networks require that users' computers "help" each other in order for data to travel. But battery power and bandwidth are finite, and the rational user will want to use his machine's computing power to benefit himself, not someone else on the network.

"But if nobody helps others, the network just cannot be run," he points out. In a recent paper, Zhong shared theories on how to design a network that would encourage that sharing. Over the past three years, he says that other academics have cited his paper 169 times.

"I was pretty happy to see that," he says of the research citings, but adds, "We're still at the research level. We're not developing products that can be used by consumers."

Zhong's work is a combination of theoretical and experimental study, with more emphasis on the theoretical side. As with most computer scientists, he does not design the products consumers ultimately use. Instead, he says, his work "makes future products possible."

Zhong says that most researchers who focus on the experimental side will build off the theories of people like himself and develop a protocol, then experiment with it. They'll build something that other scientists can use that does what they set out to do, but would not really suit the average consumer.

"The code we're using is not that complete," he says. "It cannot be directly used by consumers, but it illustrates aspects of our design."

He explains that the versions scientists use do not feature graphic interfaces, for example, and they do not have features that make mistakes easy to correct. When researchers debut these incomplete codes, other scientists continue to build from them for a few years, and if the idea is feasible, manufacturers may take interest at that stage, he says.

Researchers occasionally develop a product themselves, Zhong notes, but that is not the norm. For example, Google started out as "just kind of a toy developed by a couple of students at Stanford," he says. The students published a paper on it, as researchers would typically do, but then decided to turn their "toy" into something consumers could use and created a company to launch it.

"That's not a typical story for academic people," he says. "If you want to have time to continue your research, establishing a company might be too much work."

Zhong says he interviewed for positions at eight universities, but chose to come to UB because of its collegial work atmosphere. While some schools may offer more prestige and better research funding, he believes that over the long term, working with supportive colleagues will prove more beneficial to his career.

"I feel like the colleagues here, especially my senior colleagues, are very supportive," he says. "They value my research and they think I'm doing the right thing. That's very important for a junior researcher like me. Without their support, I just can't go that far."

Zhong adds that his teaching duties of one course per semester also made UB a good choice.

"I think the teaching load is reasonable here compared to other institutions," he says.

Zhong describes teaching as "something I enjoy" that helps him look at his research from new perspectives.

"I like to interact with students," he says, adding that he worked as a teaching assistant at Yale for seven or eight semesters. "Teaching them something gives me a sense of achievement."

Zhong is married, but lives alone in Amherst. His wife, a student in Alberta, Canada, plans to finish her studies soon and join him here. So far, he says, he feels he's settled in well Western New York, which he sees as similar in many ways—particularly climate—to Connecticut and New Jersey, where he previously lived.

"It's not that difficult for me to adjust my lifestyle here," he says.