Hari Balakrishnan is recognized for the broad impact to society of his fundamental discoveries in wired and wireless networking, mobile sensing, and distributed systems. By focusing his research on the application of technology to solve large societal problems, Balakrishnan’s work has made millions of people safer and has made the Internet and wireless communications more efficient and robust.
Balakrishnan’s discoveries frequently set the stage for major shifts in the scientific and technological trajectory of networking systems.
His significant contributions include his influence in mobility and wireless through both his research and entrepreneurship. Balakrishnan’s pioneering research at MIT on the CarTel mobile sensing system to collect and draw inferences from sensors on mobile devices led to his latest successful entrepreneurial endeavor, CMT, which he founded with Bill Powers and Sam Madden. With a mission to make the world’s roads and drivers safer, CMT helps millions of people around the world drive more carefully and reduces road crashes, which are the leading cause of death for children and young adults worldwide.
Balakrishnan was among the first to deeply understand the interactions between wireless and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which helps applications exchange data, at a time when wireless and mobility were nascent research disciplines. His research explaining causes of poor wireless TCP performance established the gold standard for understanding the topic and led to improved performance that billions of network users enjoy today.
Balakrishnan’s research on wide-area networks is also highly influential. His foundational work in scalable distributed architectures, overlay networks, and Internet congestion control has been key to building out the robust network and web infrastructure that billions rely on today.
