Google Research awarded Dr. Srinivasan Parthasarathy a Google Research Award to investigate hashing algorithms for semi-structured and structured data. Hashing algorithms, used for data storage and in encryption, take large amounts information which vary in length and transform them into a specific element, a hash value. This result can then be used to evaluate and/or organize a profusion of datum from various sources according a specific set of requirements. Dr. Parthasarathy's research team will investigate the theoretical significance of this work together with the practical application, which, is that the conversion enhances the ability to process and store masses of structured information ranging from XML documents to social network data efficiently and succinctly.
Srinivasan, more casually known as Srini, directs the Data Mining Research Laboratory. His lab seeks to develop efficient and novel algorithms for managing and analyzing complex data. His primary research interests are in data mining/machine learning, high performance computing and database systems. Srini received the NSF CAREER award and Department of Energy Early Career awards in 2004, and his work has received six best paper awards or similar honors from leading conferences in the field including the ACM SIGKDD Best Applications Paper award in 2007 and the VLBD Best Paper Award in 2005. He joined CSE in Autumn 2000. He has mentored ten PhD graduates, four in academia and the remainder in industrial research labs such as Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and IBM.
Google has long held that a prominent facet of its mission is to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." To that end they created the Google Research Awards. They are granted to the academic community so Google may assist all pursuits of relevant innovative research wherever it may occur. Google is extremely selective and the gift is more than just monetary. From their website: "Participants in the awards program are expected to have a primary contact at Google through whom they can discuss research directions, provide progress updates, engage in knowledge transfer, etc. Google maintains an academic environment that we would like to share with our award recipients, so we invite them to visit our facilities, to give talks related to their work, and to engage in discussions with our research groups. By sharing new ideas and key insights, we hope that both Google and award recipients will find mutual benefits. After the research is completed, we sometimes invite award recipients for more visits to further discuss their work."