Dr. Lauritz Thamsen | University of Glasgow | Systems

I am a Lecturer in Computer Systems in the School of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow, focusing on distributed computer systems. I am generally keen on making computing more sustainable. To this end, I mostly work on methods and tools that make it easier to create resource-efficient and resilient distributed computer systems, for example through carbon-aware computing in edge and cloud infrastructures. Within the School, I lead the Glasgow Carbon-Conscious Computing (GC₃) lab and I am part of the Glasgow Systems Section (GLASS), among other groups and collaborative research efforts. Beyond the School, I co-lead the joint work on Adaptive Resource Management (ARM) with TU Berlin and started the Distributed Systems Engineering Laboratory (diselab), a collaboration with researchers from TU Berlin and Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI).

Previously, I was a senior researcher in the Distributed and Operating Systems group at TU Berlin, where I lectured on Cloud Computing and Distributed Systems, and a guest professor in the Department of Computer Science at HU Berlin, where I lectured on Data-Intensive Systems. I got my PhD from TU Berlin, working on dynamic resource allocation for distributed dataflows in the BMBF-funded Berlin Big Data Center and the DFG Research Unit Stratosphere under Odej Kao. Before that, I was part of the Software Architecture Group of Robert Hirschfeld and the Research School at HPI. I also worked at SAP Labs in Palo Alto, California, in the Technology Infrastructure Practice group, under Dan Ingalls, and at Signavio in Berlin.

contact

lauritz.thamsen at glasgow.ac.uk
+44 141 330 2000 (x0652)

office

Room S152
Sir Alwyn Williams Bldg

web

twitter: lauritzthamsen
LinkedIn: lauritzthamsen

news

• December 2023: Interested in doing your PhD in Computing Science at Glasgow? Passionate about computer systems as well as sustainability? I am looking for motivated PhD students to work with us on carbon-aware computing, leveraging performance profiling and prediction to reduce the footprint of large-scale data-intensive applications (e.g. big data, scientific workflows, AI/ML, stream processing, FaaS) in cloud/cluster environments. There are several scholarships available and the application deadline is January 31, 2024.
• November 2023: Our paper on a low-carbon federated learning system — operating exclusively on renewable excess energy and spare compute capacity — was accepted at ACM e-Energy 2024.
• October 2023: Kathleen West started as the first PhD student of the GC₃ lab, working with me and Yehia Elkhatib on the carbon-aware execution of scientific workflows.
• September 2023: We are looking for a PhD student for an exciting new sustainable computing project with Barclays.
• August 2023: I joined the School of Computing Science's EDI (Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion) committee.
• July 2023: I spoke at a Cardiff University workshop on Flexible and Zero Carbon Energy Systems for Data Centres, summarizing several recent works I was part of (#1, #2, #3).
• June 2023: We have three interns in the lab over the summer.
• May 2023: I have completed my term on the School of Computing Science's Student Conduct Team and am now moving into a new administrative role, having been named my School's Sustainability Subject Adviser, with the aim of systematically integrating the teaching of sustainable and low-carbon computing into our degree programs.
• March 2023: I am looking to supervise MSci projects on Carbon-Conscious Computing topics in the next academic year. If that sounds interesting to you, please let me know. [1-slide overview]
• February 2023: I presented some of our recent work on carbon-aware scheduling for flexible cloud and edge workloads at the University of Kent. [slides]
• January 2023: HU Berlin's Ulf Leser and I contributed a story to the website of the Workflows Community Initiative on The Elephant in the Data Center – Energy Consumption of Workflow Executions.
• December 2022: We are looking for submissions for a special issue of Wiley's SPE journal on Benchmarking, Experimentation Tools, and Reproducible Practices for Data-Intensive Systems from Edge to Cloud by February 28.
• November 2022: The final project proposal I developed as a senior researcher under Odej Kao at TU Berlin – an individual research grant to the German Research Foundation (DFG) on "C5: Collaborative and Cross-Context Cluster Configuration for Distributed Data-Parallel Processing" – was accepted. The project will run for three years, with funds for one RA position, sustaining our close collaboration to the end of 2025.
• October 2022: I am looking for a PhD student to work with me on carbon-aware computing in edge/cloud infrastructures and I have a School of Computing Science studentship to be allocated. If this sounds interesting to you, please get in touch ahead of the next application deadline (January 31, 2023).
• September 2022: The program for our 2nd TDIS Workshop has been completed with two invited talks. Dr. Ehsan K. Ardestani (Meta) will talk about HW/SW co-design for AI workloads at Meta. Dr. Tian Guo (WPI) will share her experience with cloud-based distributed training and edge support for mobile AR. Personally, I co-authored a workshop paper towards testing the energy consumption and carbon footprint of ML-based IoT applications with colleagues from Cyprus and Germany.
• September 2022: Dr. Angelos Marnerides and I have started to teach the basics of Networking and Operating Systems ("NOSE2") to around 280 undergrad students at the University of Glasgow.
• August 2022: We were able to accept several interesting papers for our 2nd International Workshop on Testing Distributed Internet of Things Systems (TDIS), which will take place on September 27, co-located with IEEE IC2E 2022.
• August 2022: The 28th International European Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing (Euro-Par) is taking place as a hybrid event at the University of Glasgow end of the month. It is in large part being organized by the School of Computing Science's System Section. I am helping as local chair. The program is made up, there is still time to register online to take part in-person or on zoom, and there is also a full paper we are presenting on "Renewable-Aware Admission Control for Delay-Tolerant Cloud and Edge Workloads".
• July 2022: I gave a talk on "Adaptive Resource Allocation for (Bioinformatics-)Workflows" in the Computing Science-orientated July event of the Glasgow Computational Biology Community, presenting recent results of the DFG Collaborative Research Center FONDA. [slides]
• July 2022: Our paper "Phoebe: QoS-Aware Distributed Stream Processing Through Anticipating Dynamic Workloads" won the Best Paper Award at the 2022 IEEE International Conference On Web Services (ICWS).
• July 2022: Jointly with Jossekin Beilharz from the Operating Systems and Middleware group at Hasso Plattner Institute, I gave a guest lecture on "IoT Systems for Critical Urban Infrastructures" in the lecture series of the European teaching network ide3a, presenting ongoing research projects and our idea for an IoT testing framework.
• June 2022: In the upcoming academic year I will be teaching two courses for undergrad students (Level 2) in the Computing Science programs at the University of Glasgow: Networks and Operating Systems Essentials (jointly with Dr. Angelos Marnerides) and Systems Programming (jointly with Dr. Yehia Elkhatib).
• May 2022: I am looking for a PhD student to join me in Glasgow, where I recently started on a permanent academic post, to set up a new Computer Systems lab in the Systems Section of the School of Computing Science. As new and early-career faculty I am currently receiving priority for one of the School of Computing Science studentships. If you are interested in doing your PhD with me at the University of Glasgow, please get in touch.
• April 2022: I pitched my research focus in a 5-minute "Zoomposium" talk to the College of Science & Engineering of the University of Glasgow. [slides] [recording]
• April 2022: We are organizing our International Workshop on Testing Distributed Internet of Things Systems (TDIS) again with IEEE IC2E this year. If your work involves testing, simulation, or modeling of software systems for edge-cloud infrastructures (or other emerging distributed compute architectures of the IoT), we will be super happy about your contribution to our workshop and do have a great PC ready to review the submitted papers.
• March 2022: I gave the first full research lecture in the School of Computing Science's new seminar series on Low-Carbon and Sustainable Computing, presenting several recent works on „Scheduling and Placement for Low-Carbon Edge/Cloud Computing“. [slides] [recording]
• March 2022: I started as a new Lecturer in the School of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow and I am looking for research students and new collaborators in the area of resource-efficient and resilient distributed computer systems.
• February 2022: I successfully wrapped up my guest professorship at HU Berlin, where I was substituting for Ulf Leser in the Department of Computer Science and in the context of the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Center FONDA, teaching two new courses on Data-Intensive Systems / Data Engineering.
• January 2022: We are calling for workshops and tutorials for IEEE IC2E 2022, which will take place in Northern California from September 27 to 30. If your work is related to cloud computing, consider submitting a workshop or a tutorial proposal.

collaborations

• Academic and industry collaborations: If you are interested in making distributed computer systems more efficient and sustainable with me, let me know.
• Student and project supervision: I am always looking to work with motivated research students. Please have a look here and get in touch.
• Community service: I am available for scientific community service in areas such as edge and cloud computing, data-intensive systems, and sustainable computing.