UT Dallas > Computer Science > Alumni > Computer Science graduate helps IBM Improve database architecture

Computer Science graduate helps IBM Improve database architecture

After completing his MS and PhD degrees in Computer Science at UT Dallas, Mustafa Canim started working at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, in Yorktown Heights, NY (mustafa@us.ibm.com).  Since 2011, he has been working on several research projects.

One of these projects is related to the exploitation of modern hardware architectures such as flash and PCM based SSD devices, FPGAs and multi-core CPUs in modern database architectures. The studies conducted in this area have led to numerous patent applications and papers that have been presented at top level conferences. These papers have paved the way for more research in this area and have been cited by numerous papers from all around the world.

Mustafa has also been working on a team performing data and graph analytics, particularly on social graphs. The team has designed and developed a highly scalable distributed graph store. They developed many graph algorithms on top of this architecture and demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed architecture. This project has led to several patent applications and top-level research papers.

“I am glad I pursued my graduate studies at UT Dallas. The graduate level courses I took at UT Dallas, as well as the research I conducted, helped me to pave the career path I have taken so far,” says Mustafa and adds “Without taking these courses it would have been almost impossible to join IBM Research and contribute to the ongoing projects, which require a very deep understanding of the foundations of computer science. I would like to thank all of the professors from whom I took classes and especially my advisor Dr. Murat Kantarcioglu for his continuous support in my career path. Additionally, the colloquiums organized by the computer science department were a great learning experience. I had the chance to meet people from different universities and institutions who were conducting cutting edge research in their areas. I believe these talks have been very helpful to many graduate students in shaping their research paths and following the trends in technology by providing firsthand accounts and insights from innovators conducting groundbreaking research.”

While studying at UT Dallas, Mustafa made many friends and took time to enjoy himself. In reference to some of the unforgettable memories he has from his years at UT Dallas, Mustafa says “UT Dallas has been a place for me to meet a lot of great friends with whom I share countless memories. I never forget the barbecue parties we had together and board games we played afterwards. Dallas has great restaurants representing cuisines from all around the world. It was great fun to try different foods at open buffet restaurants with friends and enjoy big portion plates during lunch breaks.”

The Department of Computer Science at UT Dallas [www.cs.utdallas.edu] is one of the largest CS departments in the United States with more than 750 undergraduate, 500 master, and 125 PhD students.  They are committed to exceptional teaching and research in a culture that is as daring as it is supportive.