The Google Research Scholar Program was established in 2021 and is focused on funding research conducted by early-career professors in fields relevant to Google’s interests. Categories for the 2023 scholars include everything from Privacy to Quantum Computing to Health. Apostolaki won in the Networking category for “fine-grained network telemetry via multivariate time series imputation.” The award comes with a gift of $60,000 to support her research.

Network monitoring, also called network telemetry, is critical for safeguarding the reliability, performance and security of networks. But as data and link speeds increase, conventional hardware approaches to fine-grained monitoring become cost-prohibitive. Inspired by a technique called image superresolution, in which machine learning models recover high-resolution images from low-resolution ones, Apostolaki has proposed recovering fine-grained network monitoring from their coarse-grained counterparts using generative machine learning and formal methods. If successful, this approach will dramatically change network management, as network operators will have access to monitoring tools of unprecedented quality at no additional cost.

Apostolaki joined the Princeton faculty in August 2022 after a one-year postdoctoral position at Carnegie Mellon University. She earned her Ph.D. from ETH Zurich in 2021.  While a graduate student, she uncovered key vulnerabilities in blockchain networks that stem from the insecurity of internet routing, and she designed strategies to mitigate those vulnerabilities. She was named a Rising Star in Computer Networking and Communications by N2Women. Earlier this year she won a Commendation for Outstanding Teaching from Princeton’s School of Engineering and Applied Science.