The FABRIC team is excited to announce Dr Nik Sultana as our first FABRIC Ambassador. Nik Sultana is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Illinois Institute of Technology. His research interests revolve around building better distributed systems focused on performance, flexibility, and security.
Nik and his team are avid users of FABRIC for both teaching and research. The team presented their work on teaching networking using FABRIC at SIGCSE 2025. Most recently, their paper on Patchwork was accepted at IMC 2025. Patchwork is a network profiler built for (and on) the FABRIC testbed itself, and it was used to carry out a study of FABRIC’s network traffic. Those interested can learn more at Patchwork’s project site and its dashboard.
Nik also leads the CREASE project which develops observability and debugging tools for testbed networks. In both Patchwork and CREASE, Nik’s team has been developing the idea of using FABRIC to host user-run services for other FABRIC users. The team has used FABRIC for several other projects – including a collaboration with Fermilab and ESnet to evaluate in-network processing for large-scale experiments, and a collaboration with AMD/Xilinx to prototype security ideas for Science DMZ networks. Earlier, the team used FABRIC to evaluate a prototype software network switch they designed to help safeguard networks.
In his role as a FABRIC Ambassador, Nik will assist the FABRIC team in evaluating new features on FABRIC. FABRIC Ambassadors help researchers learn more about FABRIC and its features through hosting annual local or virtual gatherings, presenting at KNIT workshops and community webinars, and identifying user success stories. Additionally, FABRIC Ambassadors engage students in active learning on the FABRIC portal by leading tutorials and identifying opportunities for students to present their work.
”I am delighted and honored to serve as a FABRIC Ambassador,” said Nik. “FABRIC has been instrumental for my work as a researcher, mentor, and teacher. In addition to providing resources for research, FABRIC introduced me and my students to a welcoming community of innovators. Propelled by FABRIC’s resources and community, it’s a joy to see my team members excel, and several team members have received awards for their work. Building on FABRIC also helps students learn practical skills for their future careers. To date, well over a hundred students at my university have used FABRIC for research or as part of a course I teach.” To learn more about the FABRIC Ambassador Program, please read our blog.