访谈: Deborah Estrin

Interview: Deborah Estrin

Deborah Estrin 是纽约市康奈尔科技学院计算机科学教授，也是魏尔康奈尔医学院公共卫生教授。她是康奈尔科技学院 Health Tech Hub 的创始人，以及非营利创业公司 Open mHealth 的联合创始人。她于1985年获得麻省理工学院计算机科学博士学位，1980年获得加州大学伯克利分校学士学位。Estrin 早期的研究集中在网络协议设计，包括多播和域间路由。2002年，她创建了由国家科学基金会资助的加州大学洛杉矶分校嵌入式网络感知科学与技术中心（CENS，http://cens.ucla.edu/）。CENS 开辟了多学科计算机系统研究的新领域，从环境监测的传感器网络到公民科学的参与式感知。她目前专注于移动健康和小数据，利用移动设备和数字交互的普及性来进行健康和生活管理，相关内容见她2013年TEDMED演讲。Estrin教授是美国艺术与科学院（2007年）和美国工程院（2009年）的当选院士。她是IEEE、ACM和AAAS的会士。她是首位ACM-W Athena讲师（2006年），荣获Anita Borg Institute女性创新奖（2007年），入选WITI名人堂（2008年），并分别获瑞士洛桑联邦理工学院（EPFL，2008年）和乌普萨拉大学（2011年）的荣誉博士学位。

Deborah Estrin is a Professor of Computer Science at Cornell Tech in New York City and a Professor of Public Health at Weill Cornell Medical College. She is founder of the Health Tech Hub at Cornell Tech and co-founder of the non-profit startup Open mHealth. She received her Ph.D. (1985) in Computer Science from M.I.T. and her B.S. (1980) from UC Berkeley. Estrin’s early research focused on the design of network protocols, including multicast and inter-domain routing. In 2002 Estrin founded the NSF-funded Science and Technology Center at UCLA, Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS http://cens.ucla.edu.). CENS launched new areas of multi-disciplinary computer systems research from sensor networks for environmental monitoring, to participatory sensing for citizen science. Her current focus is on mobile health and small data, leveraging the pervasiveness of mobile devices and digital interactions for health and life management, as described in her 2013 TEDMED talk. Professor Estrin is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007) and the National Academy of Engineering (2009). She is a fellow of the IEEE, ACM, and AAAS. She was selected as the first ACM-W Athena Lecturer (2006), awarded the Anita Borg Institute’s Women of Vision Award for Innovation (2007), inducted into the WITI hall of fame (2008) and awarded Doctor Honoris Causa from EPFL (2008) and Uppsala University (2011).

请描述您职业生涯中最令人兴奋的几个项目。最大的挑战是什么？challenges?

Please describe a few of the most exciting projects you have worked on during your career. What were the biggest

90年代中期，我在南加州大学和ISI工作时，有幸与Steve Deering、Mark Handley和Van Jacobson等人共同设计多播路由协议（特别是PIM）。我试图将多播的许多架构设计经验应用于生态监测阵列的设计中，那是我首次认真对待应用和多学科研究的时刻。我对在社会与技术领域共同创新的兴趣，正是我最新研究领域——移动健康——的驱动力。这些项目的挑战和问题领域一样多样，但它们共同点是：在设计与部署、原型与试点之间迭代时，我们必须保持清醒，确认问题定义是否准确。这些问题都不能通过分析、仿真甚至实验室构建实验来解决。它们挑战了我们在复杂问题和背景中保持清晰架构的能力，并要求广泛的协作。

In the mid-90s at USC and ISI, I had the great fortune to work with the likes of Steve Deering, Mark Handley, and Van Jacobson on the design of multicast routing protocols (in particular, PIM). I tried to carry many of the architectural design lessons from multicast into the design of ecological monitoring arrays, where for the first time I really began to take applications and multidisciplinary research seriously. That interest in jointly innovating in the social and technological space is what interests me so much about my latest area of research, mobile health. The challenges in these projects were as diverse as the problem domains, but what they all had in common was the need to keep our eyes open to whether we had the problem definition right as we iterated between design and deployment, prototype and pilot. None of them were problems that could be solved analytically, with simulation or even in constructed laboratory experiments. They all challenged our ability to retain clean architectures in the presence of messy problems and contexts, and they all called for extensive collaboration.

您认为未来无线网络和移动性将发生哪些变化和创新？

What changes and innovations do you see happening in wireless networks and mobility in the future?

在本采访的前一版本中，我说过我从不太相信预测未来，但我推测智能手机越来越强大，成为许多人的主要上网设备，可能会终结功能机（即非可编程仅用于语音和短信的手机）的时代——如今看来这确实如此。我还预测嵌入式SIM卡会继续普及，使各种设备能够以低数据速率通过蜂窝网络通信。虽然确实如此，我们还看到许多设备和“物联网”采用嵌入式WiFi及其他低功耗、短距离连接方式接入本地集线器。当时我未预见到大规模消费可穿戴设备市场的出现。下次采访发布时，我预计个人应用会广泛利用物联网和其他数字痕迹数据。

In a prior edition of this interview I said that I have never put much faith into predicting the future, but I did go on to speculate that we might see the end of feature phones (i.e., those that are not programmable and are used only for voice and text messaging) as smart phones become more and more powerful and the primary point of Internet access for many—and now not so many years later that is clearly the case. I also predicted that we would see the continued proliferation of embedded SIMs by which all sorts of devices have the ability to communicate via the cellular network at low data rates. While that has occurred, we see many devices and “Internet of Things” that use embedded WiFi and other lower power, shorter range, forms of connectivity to local hubs. I did not anticipate at that time the emergence of a large consumer wearables market. By the time the next edition is published I expect broad proliferation of personal applications that leverage data from IoT and other digital traces.

您如何看待网络和互联网的未来？

Where do you see the future of networking and the Internet?

我认为回顾过去和展望未来都很有意义。之前我指出，命名数据和软件定义网络的发展将促成更易管理、可演进且功能更丰富的基础设施，更广泛地说，是将架构角色提升到网络栈更高层。互联网初期，架构主要在第4层及以下，应用多为孤立或单一整体。现在数据与分析主导传输层。软件定义网络（SDN）的采用超出我预期，很高兴看到本书第7版专门介绍了SDN。然而，从更高层看，我们的主要应用越来越多生活在“围墙花园”中，无论是移动应用还是大型消费者平台如Facebook。随着数据科学和大数据技术的发展，它们可能帮助将这些应用从孤岛中拉出，连接更多应用和平台。

Again I think its useful to look both back and forward. Previously I observed that the efforts in named data and software-defined networking would emerge to create a more manageable, evolvable, and richer infrastructure and more generally represent moving the role of architecture higher up in the stack. In the beginnings of the Internet, architecture was layer 4 and below, with applications being more siloed/monolithic, sitting on top. Now data and analytics dominate transport. The adoption of SDN (which I’m really happy to see is featured in this 7th edition of this book) has been well beyond what I ever anticipated. However, looking up the stack, our dominant applications increasingly live in walled gardens, whether mobile apps or large consumer platforms such as Facebook. As Data Science and Big Data techniques develop, they might help to lure these applications out of their silos because of the value in connecting with other apps and platforms.

在职业生涯中，哪些人给您带来过启发？

What people inspired you professionally?

我想到了三个人。首先是Dave Clark，互联网社区的幕后英雄。我很幸运在早期见证了他作为IAB和互联网治理“组织原则”的作用；他是达成粗略共识和代码运行的“祭司”。其次是Scott Shenker，他的聪明才智、正直和坚持令我敬佩。我努力达到但很少能拥有他那样清晰的问题和解决方案定义。他总是我在大事小情上首选咨询的人。第三是我的姐姐Judy Estrin，她有创造力和勇气将理念和概念推向市场。没有像Judy这样的人，互联网技术绝不会如此改变我们的生活。

There are three people who come to mind. First, Dave Clark, the secret sauce and under-sung hero of the Internet community. I was lucky to be around in the early days to see him act as the “organizing principle” of the IAB and Internet governance; the priest of rough consensus and running code. Second, Scott Shenker, for his intellectual brilliance, integrity, and persistence. I strive for, but rarely attain, his clarity in defining problems and solutions. He is always the first person I e-mail for advice on matters large and small. Third, my sister Judy Estrin, who had the creativity and courage to spend her career bringing ideas and concepts to market. Without the Judys of the world the Internet technologies would never have transformed our lives.

您对想从事计算机科学和网络工作的学生有什么建议？

What are your recommendations for students who want careers in computer science and networking?

首先，夯实学术基础，同时积累尽可能多的真实工作经验。在寻找工作环境时，选择你真正关心的问题领域，并加入能让你学习的聪明团队。

First, build a strong foundation in your academic work, balanced with any and every real-world work experience you can get. As you look for a working environment, seek opportunities in problem areas you really care about and with smart teams that you can learn from.