Vishal Misra

Vishal Misra

Professor of Computer Science; Vice Dean of Computing and Artificial Intelligence

Vishal Misra’s research is in the broad area of modeling and analysis of complex systems.

His work includes both developing mechanisms that make networks work better and faster, and also investigating the economic models that underpin the Internet and their impact on public policy like Network Neutrality. His approach to research is to incorporate fundamental theories like control theory, queueing theory, information theory, and game theory in the design and analysis of networks.

Vishal has worked extensively in the design and analysis of congestion control mechanisms, both for the Internet as well as for data centers. His work, based on applying classical control theory to a differential equation-based model that he developed for Internet traffic, has found its way into becoming part of the DOCSIS 3.1 standard for cable modems and is being deployed worldwide. He has also played a very active role in the public policy debates related to Network Neutrality and the strong recent regulations passed by the Indian and Canadian regulatory authorities are in line with a definition of Network Neutrality he has proposed.

He received a BTech from IIT Bombay in 1992, and an MS and PhD from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1996 and 2000 respectively. Fellow of IEEE and ACM. He has been awarded a Distinguished Alumnus Award by IIT Bombay (2019) and a Distinguished Young Alumnus Award by UMass-Amherst College of Engineering (2014).

Research Areas

  • Networks and Distributed Systems
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)
  • Causal Inference
  • Economics & Computation
  • Generative AI & Large Language Models (LLMs)
  • Wireless, Embedded & Sensor Systems
  • Cybersecurity
  • Communications
  • Control Systems
  • Information Theory
  • Modeling and Performance Evaluation

Additional Information

  • Professional Affiliations
    • Chair, ACM Sigmetrics
    • ACM Sigcomm
    • IEEE
  • Honors & Awards
    • Distinguished Alumnus Award by IIT Bombay, 2019
    • Fellow, ACM, 2018
    • Fellow, IEEE, 2016
    • Distinguished Young Alumni Award, School of Engineering, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 2014
    • NSF Career Award, DoE Career Award, IBM and Google Faculty Awards
  • Professional Experience
    • Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Columbia University, 2016-
    • CTO, Infinio Systems, 2012-2014
    • CEO Infinio Systems, 2011-2012 
    • Visiting Professor, Telefonica, Barcelona 2009
    • Visiting Professor, Technicolor Labs, Paris 2009
    • Visiting Professor, Inria, Sophia Antipolis 2009
    • Associate Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University, 2005–2016
    • Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University, 2001–2005
  • Education
    • PhD, Electrical Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
    • MS, Electrical Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
    • B Tech, Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay
  • Selected Publications
    • Yibo Zhu, Monia Ghobadi, Vishal Misra and Jitendra Padhye, ECN or Delay: Lessons Learnt from Analysis of DCQCN and TIMELY, Proceedings of 2016 ACM Conference on Emerging network experiment and technology (CoNEXT 2016), December, 2016.
    • Vishal Misra, Routing Money, Not Packets. Revisiting Network Neutrality, Communications of the ACM, Volume 58, Number 6, June, 2015. 
    • Richard T. B. Ma and Vishal Misra, The Public Option: a Non-regulatory Alternative to Network Neutrality, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, Volume 21, pp. 1866 - 1879, December, 2013. 
    • Vishal Misra, Stratis Ioannidis, Augustin Chaintreau and Laurent Massoulie, Incentivizing Peer-Assisted Services: A Fluid Shapley Value Approach, Proceedings of ACM/Sigmetrics, New York, June, 2010
    • Richard T.B. Ma, Dahming Chiu, John C.S. Lui, Vishal Misra and Dan Rubenstein, On Cooperative Settlement Between Content, Transit and Eyeball Internet Service Providers, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, Volume 19, Number 3, June, 2011.
    • Richard T.B. Ma, Dahming Chiu, John C.S. Lui, Vishal Misra and Dan Rubenstein, The Shapley Value: Its Use and Implications on Internet Economics, Allerton Conference on Communication, Control and Computing, September, 2008.
    • C. V. Hollot, Vishal Misra, Don Towsley and Wei-Bo Gong, On Designing Improved Controllers for AQM Routers Supporting TCP Flows, Proceedings of IEEE Infocom, April, 2001
    • C.V. Hollot, Vishal Misra, Don Towsley and Wei-Bo Gong, A Control Theoretic Analysis of RED, Proceedings of IEEE Infocom, April, 2001. 
    • Vishal Misra, Wei-Bo Gong and Don Towsley, Fluid-based Analysis of a Network of AQM Routers Supporting TCP Flows with an Application to RED, Proceedings of ACM Sigcomm, Stockholm, Sweden, August, 2000.