Fabián E. Bustamante
Professor
Computer Science
Northwestern University
Computer Science
Northwestern University
The principle of science, the definition, almost, is the following: The test of all knowledge is experiment. Experiment is the sole judge of scientific 'truth'. But what is the source of knowledge? Where do the laws that are to be tested come from? Experiment, itself, helps to produce these laws, in the sense that it gives us hints.
My research makes the Internet observable from the outside. The infrastructure the world depends on, from submarine cables and transit networks to DNS and cloud platforms, is increasingly concentrated, opaque, and run by parties with little reason to disclose how it works or fails. My group develops methods and systems to see it anyway, often by turning systems that already exist into measurement instruments, and we are careful about where that view ends. We tend to find our own problems: much of our work is a first look at something that mattered before anyone was measuring it. Current areas include Internet resilience, digital sovereignty and dependency, submarine cable infrastructure, DNS, and content delivery.
I lead the AquaLab research group at Northwestern. See the group site for our full publication list, current and former group members, and news.
Fabián E. Bustamante is a Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University and Co-founder and Chief Science Officer at Kealu, Inc. Previously, he was Director of Research at Phenix Real Time Solutions (2016–2024), a Chicago-based startup specializing in real-time video streaming at scale.
He earned his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to that, he studied and taught at Universidad Nacional de La Patagonia San Juan Bosco (Argentina), where he earned both a 3-year and 5-year degree in computer science.
His research makes the Internet's hidden infrastructure observable from the outside, often by turning existing systems into measurement instruments; his group's open-source systems have been used by over 1.5 million people. Fabián is a senior member of ACM and IEEE, and a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, multiple Google Faculty Research Awards, and the Science Foundation of Ireland's E.T.S. Walton Visitor Award.
Los Pumas'
passion
