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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoHeader><b><span style='font-size:20.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif'>EE SEMINAR SERIES<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoHeader><b><span style='font-size:20.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><table class=MsoNormalTable border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 align=left width=0 style='width:527.4pt;border-collapse:collapse;margin-left:6.75pt;margin-right:6.75pt'><tr style='height:.25in'><td width=90 style='width:67.5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:.25in'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><strong><i><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'>Speaker:</span></i></strong><i><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'> </span></i><em><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;font-style:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></em></p></td><td width=613 style='width:459.9pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:.25in'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'>Pramod Viswanath, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr style='height:.25in'><td width=90 style='width:67.5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:.25in'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><strong><i><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'>Title:</span></i></strong><i><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'> </span></i><em><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:KO;font-style:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></em></p></td><td width=613 style='width:459.9pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:.25in'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'>Why Blocks and Why Chains; A First Principles (Re)Design of Blockchains</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr style='height:.25in'><td width=90 style='width:67.5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:.25in'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><strong><i><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'>Day:</span></i></strong><i><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'> </span></i><em><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;font-style:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></em></p></td><td width=613 style='width:459.9pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:.25in'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><span class=date-display-single><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'>Thursday, November 29, 2018</span></span><em><b><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif;font-style:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></b></em></p></td></tr><tr style='height:.25in'><td width=90 style='width:67.5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:.25in'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><strong><i><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'>Time:</span></i></strong><strong><i><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></p></td><td width=613 style='width:459.9pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:.25in'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><em><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif;font-style:normal'>4:30 pm</span></em><em><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></em></p></td></tr><tr style='height:.25in'><td width=90 style='width:67.5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:.25in'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><strong><i><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'>Room:</span></i></strong><i><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'> </span></i><em><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif;font-style:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></em></p></td><td width=613 style='width:459.9pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:.25in'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><em><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif;font-style:normal'>B205 Engineering Quadrangle<o:p></o:p></span></em></p></td></tr><tr style='height:.25in'><td width=90 style='width:67.5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:.25in'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><strong><i><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'>Host:</span></i></strong><strong><i><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></p></td><td width=613 style='width:459.9pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:.25in'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><em><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif;font-style:normal'>Prof. Naveen Verma</span></em><em><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></em></p></td></tr><tr style='height:8.85pt'><td width=90 style='width:67.5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:8.85pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><strong><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></strong></p></td><td width=613 style='width:459.9pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:8.85pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><em><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></em></p></td></tr><tr style='height:.25in'><td width=703 colspan=2 style='width:527.4pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:.25in'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><b><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'>Abstract:</span><o:p></o:p></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'>Today's blockchains do not scale in a meaningful way. As more nodes join the system, the efficiency of the system (computation, communication, and storage) degrades, or at best stays constant. Furthermore, the security of the permission less system imposes limitations on the core performance metrics of throughput, latency and reliability. We take a first principle approach to the blockchain ecosystem addressing each of the various components holistically. Our approach is characterized by seeking fundamental limits (those prescribed by the physics of the underlying network) to performance and designing algorithms that attain them. This research is informed by decades of experience in information theory, coding theory, algorithms, wireless communication and packet networks. This talk will highlight key outcomes of this research program, including:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><b><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'>Prism</span></b><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'> (a new consensus algorithm that guarantees information theoretically optimal throughput, latency, reliability), <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><b><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'>Spider</span></b><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'> (a new networking protocol for off-chain payment channels), <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><b><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'>Polyshard</span></b><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'> (a new coded storage architecture), and <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><b><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'>Dandelion</span></b><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'> (a new network privacy layer). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><b><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif'>References: <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif'><a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.08092">https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.08092</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif'><a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.10361">https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.10361</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif'><a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.05088">https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.05088</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif'><a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.07468">https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.07468</a></span><em><b><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;font-style:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></b></em></p></td></tr><tr style='height:.25in'><td width=90 style='width:67.5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:.25in'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><strong><i><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></i></strong></p></td><td width=613 style='width:459.9pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:.25in'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><em><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></em></p></td></tr><tr style='height:.25in'><td width=703 colspan=2 valign=top style='width:527.4pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;height:.25in'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><b><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'>Bio:</span><o:p></o:p></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'>Pramod Viswanath received the Ph.D. degree in EECS from UC Berkeley in 2000. From 2000 to 2001, he was a member of research staff at Flarion technologies, NJ. Since 2001, he is on the faculty at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in Electrical and Computer Engineering, where he currently is a professor. He is a coauthor, with David Tse, of the text Fundamentals of Wireless Communication, which has been used in over 60 institutions around the world. He is coinventor of the opportunistic beamforming method and codesigner of Flash-OFDM communication algorithms adapted into fourth-generation cellular systems.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'>His current research interests are in blockchain technologies from a variety of angles: networking protocols, consensus algorithms, payment channels, distributed coded storage and incentive designs. He is co-founder and CEO of Applied Protocol Research, a startup doing research on blockchain technologies. Applied Protocol Research is staffed by academics (professors, PhDs, and intern graduate students), with a wide variety of backgrounds (EE/CS/ECON covering both theory/systems from different institutions (Berkeley, CMU, Illinois, MIT, Stanford, USC, UW-Seattle).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:9.0pt;mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal:column;mso-height-rule:exactly'><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'>This talk is joint work by the speaker with: Mohammad Alizadeh (MIT), Salman Avestimehr (USC), Giulia Fanti (CMU), Sreeram Kannan (UW-Seattle), Sewoong Oh (Illinois) and David Tse (Stanford).</span><em><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;font-style:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></em></p></td></tr></table><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Cambria",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>