Scholarship

Computer Science Professor

Cal is currently the Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University. Before arriving at Georgetown in 2011, he was at MIT, where he received his PhD working with Nancy Lynch in the Theory of Distributed Systems group, and spent two years as a postdoctoral associate working with Hari Balakrishnan in the Networks and Mobile Systems group. His academic research focuses on distributed algorithm theory, with a particular interest in what can and cannot be solved in challenging settings, such as communication networks with unknown participants or changing topologies, or biological systems.

More recently, Cal’s also become involved in the emerging discipline of digital ethics. He is one of the founding members of Georgetown’s Center for Digital Ethics and the inaugural Director of the College of Art and Science’s new Computer Science Ethics and Society major.

Find out more about Cal’s general audience writing here.

For additional details on Cal’s academic career, see his CV.

Cal’s academic email address: [email protected]
(To contact Cal about his non-academic writing, please see the contact page)

Selected Academic Publications

Recent

Smoothed Analysis of Information Spreading in Dynamic Networks

Michael Dinitz, Jeremy Fineman, Seth Gilbert, and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC). October, 2022. Winner of Best Paper Award.

Preparing for Disaster: Leveraging Precomputation to Efficiently Repair Graph Structures Upon Failures

Calvin Newport, Nitin Vaidya, and Alex Weaver.
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Parallelism in Algorithms and Architectures (SPAA). July, 2022.

Contention Resolution with Predictions

Seth Gilbert, Calvin Newport, Nitin Vaidya, and Alex Weaver.
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). July, 2021.

Asynchronous Gossip in Smartphone Peer-to-Peer Network

Calvin Newport, Alex Weaver, and Chaodong Zheng.
Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Sensor Systems (DCOSS). July, 2021.

A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload

Cal Newport.
Portfolio Books (Penguin Random House). March, 2021. New York Times bestseller. [Read More]

On Simple Back-Off in Unreliable Radio Networks

Seth Gilbert, Nancy Lynch, Calvin Newport and Dominik Pajak.
Theoretical Computer Science 806: 489-508. February, 2020.

2019

The Capacity of Smartphone Peer-to-Peer Networks

Michael Dinitz, Magnus M. Halldorsson, Calvin Newport and Alex Weaver
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC). October, 2019.

On Bioelectric Algorithms

Seth Gilbert, James Maguire, and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the International Symposium on
Distributed Computing (DISC). October, 2019.

Distributed Minimum Degree Spanning Trees

Michael Dinitz, Magnus Halldorsson, Taisuke Izumi, and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). July, 2019.

Random Gossip Processes in Smartphone Peer-to-Peer Networks

Calvin Newport and Alex Weaver
Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems (DCOSS). May, 2019.

Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

Cal Newport.
Portfolio Books (Penguin Random House). February, 2019. New York Times bestseller. [Read More]

2018

On Simple Back-Off in Unreliable Radio Networks

Seth Gilbert, Nancy Lynch, Calvin Newport and Dominik Pajak
Proceedings of the International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS). December, 2018. Winner of Best Paper Award.

Approximate Neighbor Counting in Radio Networks

Calvin Newport and Chaodong Zheng
Proceedings of the International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS). December, 2018.

Fault-Tolerant Consensus with an Abstract MAC Layer

Calvin Newport and Peter Robinson
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC). October, 2018.

Brief Announcement: On Simple Back-Off in Complex Radio Networks

Seth Gilbert, Nancy Lynch, Calvin Newport nd Dominik Pajak
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC). October, 2018.

Smoothed Analysis of Dynamic Networks

Michael Dinitz, Jeremy Fineman, Seth Gilbert and Calvin Newport.
Distributed Computing 31(4): 273-287. August, 2018.

Contention Resolution on a Fading Channel

Jeremy Fineman, Seth Gilbert, Fabian Kuhn, and Calvin Newport.
Distributed Computing (2018). doi:10.1007/s00446-018-0323-9
First Online: February 1, 2018

2017

An Efficient Communication Abstraction for Dense Wireless Networks

Magnus Halldorsson, Fabian Kuhn, Nancy Lynch and Calvin Newport.
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC). October, 2017.

Gossip in a Smartphone Peer-to-Peer Network

Calvin Newport.
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). July, 2017.
Full version: pdf format

Symmetry Breaking with Noisy Processes

Seth Gilbert and Calvin Newport.
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). July, 2017.

Leader Election in a Smartphone Peer-to-Peer Network

Calvin Newport.
Proceedings of the IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS). May, 2017.
Full version: pdf format

Load Balancing with Bounded Convergence in Dynamic Networks

Michael Dinitz, Jeremy Fineman, Seth Gilbert and Calvin Newport.
Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM). April, 2017.

2016

Searching Without Communicating: Tradeoffs Between Performance and Selection Complexity

Christoph Lenzen, Nancy Lynch, Calvin Newport and Tsvetomira Radeva.
Distributed Computing (2016). doi:10.1007/s00446-016-0283-x
First Online: September 19, 2016.

How to Discreetly Spread a Rumor in a Crowd

Mohsen Ghaffari and Calvin Newport.
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC). September, 2016.
Full version: pdf format

Who are you? Secure Identities in Ad Hoc Networks

Seth Gilbert, Calvin Newport, and Chaodong Zheng
Distributed Computing 30(2): 103-125. April, 2017.

Contention Resolution on Multiple Channels with Collision Detection

Jeremy Fineman, Calvin Newport, and Tonghe Wang.
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). July, 2016.

Contention Resolution on a Fading Channel

Jeremy Fineman, Seth Gilbert, Fabian Kuhn, and Calvin Newport.
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). July, 2016.
Invited for Journal Submission.

Leader Election in Unreliable Radio Networks

Mohsen Ghaffari and Calvin Newport.
Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP). July, 2016.

Deep Work: On Focused Success in a Distracted World

Cal Newport.
Grand Central (Hachette). January, 2016. National bestseller. 1,500,000+ copies sold. [Read More]

2015

Bounds for Blind Rate Adaptation

Seth Gilbert, Calvin Newport, and Tonghe Wang.
Proceedings of the International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS). December, 2015.

The Computational Power of Beeps

Seth Gilbert and Calvin Newport.
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC). October, 2015.
Full version: pdf format

Smoothed Analysis of Dynamic Networks

Michael Dinitz, Jeremy Fineman, Seth Gilbert and Calvin Newport.
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC). October, 2015.
Invited for Journal Submission.
Full version: pdf format

Efficient Communication in Cognitive Radio Networks

Seth Gilbert, Fabian Kuhn, Calvin Newport and Chaodong Zheng.
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). July, 2015.

A (Truly) Local Broadcast Layer for Unreliable Radio Networks

Nancy Lynch and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). July, 2015.

The (Surprising) Computational Power of the SDN Data Plane

Calvin Newport and Wenchao Zhou
Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM). April, 2015.

2014

A Disruption-Resistant MAC Layer for Multichannel Wireless Networks.

Henry Tan, Chris Wacek, Calvin Newport, and Micah Sherr
Proceedings of the International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS). December, 2014.

Making Wireless Algorithm Theory More Useful

Magnus Halldorsson and Calvin Newport
ACM SIGACT News 45(3): 72 – 74. September, 2014.

Radio Network Lower Bounds Made Easy

Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC). October, 2014.
Full version: ArXiv

Lower Bounds for Structuring Unreliable Radio Networks

Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC). October, 2014.
Full version: ArXiv

Who are you? Secure identities in ad hoc networks

Seth Gilbert, Calvin Newport, and Chaodong Zheng
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC). October, 2014.

Consensus with an Abstract MAC Layer

Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). July, 2014.
To download the full version: pdf format

Trade-offs between Selection Complexity and Performance when Searching the Plane without Communication

Christoph Lenzen, Nancy Lynch, Calvin Newport and Tsvetomira Radeva
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). July, 2014.

Multi-Message Broadcast with Abstract MAC Layers and Unreliable Links

Mohsen Ghaffari, Erez Kantor, Calvin Newport and Nancy Lynch
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). July, 2014.

Fair Maximal Independent Sets

Jeremy Fineman, Calvin Newport, Micah Sherr, and Tonghe Wang
Proceedings of the IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS). May, 2014.

Membership Detection Using Cooperative Data Mining Algorithms

Calvin Newport, Lisa Singh, and Yiqing Ren
Proceedings of the SIAM International Conference on Data Mining (SDM). Short Paper; April, 2014.

Aggregation in Smartphone Sensor Networks

Nimantha Baranasuriya, Seth Gilbert, Calvin Newport, and Jayanthi Rao.
Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems (DCOSS). May, 2014.

Mapping Physician Twitter Networks: Describing How They Work as a First Step in Understanding Connectivity, Information Flow, and Message Diffusion

Ranit Mishori, Lisa Singh, Brendan Levy, and Calvin Newport.
Journal of Medical Internet Research 16(4): 2014.

Structuring Unreliable Radio Networks

Keren Censor-Hillel, Seth Gilbert, Fabian Kuhn, Nancy Lynch, and Calvin Newport.
Distributed Computing 27(1): 1 – 19. February, 2014.

2013

Broadcast in the Ad Hoc SINR Model

Sebastian Daum, Seth Gilbert, Fabian Kuhn, and Calvin Newport.
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC). October, 2013.

The Cost of Radio Network Broadcast for Different Models of Unreliable Links

Mohsen Ghaffari, Nancy Lynch, and Calvin Newport.
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). July, 2013.

Maximal Independent Sets in Multichannel Radio Networks

Sebastian Daum, Seth Gilbert, Mohsen Ghaffari, Fabian Kuhn, and Calvin Newport.
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). July, 2013.

Brief Announcement: Fair Maximal Independent Sets in Trees

Jeremy Fineman, Calvin Newport, and Tonghe Wang.
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). July, 2013.

Brief Announcement: A Shorter and Stronger Proof of an $\Omega(D\log{n/D})$ Lower Bound on Broadcast in Radio Networks

Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). July, 2013.

Prioritized Gossip in Vehicular Networks

Alejandro Cornejo, Calvin Newport, Subha Gollakota, Jayanthi Rao, and T.J. Giuli
Ad Hoc Networks 11(1): 397 – 409. January, 2013.

2012

Optimal Broadcast in Shared Spectrum Radio Networks

Mohsen Ghaffari, Seth Gilbert, Calvin Newport and Henry Tan.
Proceedings of the International Conference on Principle of Distributed Sytems (OPODIS). December, 2012.

Efficient Symmetry Breaking in Multi-Channel Radio Networks

Sebastian Daum, Fabian Kuhn, and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC). October, 2012.

Bounds on Contention Management in Radio Networks

Mohsen Ghaffari, Bernhard Haeupler, Nancy Lynch, and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC). October, 2012.

Aggregation in Dynamic Networks

Alejandro Cornejo, Seth Gilbert, and Calvn Newport
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). July, 2012.

Leader Election in Shared Spectrum Networks

Sebastian Daum, Seth Gilbert, Fabian Kuhn, and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). July, 2012.

2011

The Abstract MAC Layer

Fabian Kuhn, Nancy Lynch, and Calvin Newport
Distributed Computing, 24(3): 187-296. November, 2011.
To download the paper: pdf format

Modeling Radio Networks

Calvin Newport and Nancy Lynch
Distributed Computing 24(2): 101-118 October, 2011.
To access electronic version: click here.

Leveraging Channel Diversity to Gain Efficiency and Robustness for Wireless Broadcast

Shlomi Dolev, Seth Gilbert, Majid Khabbazian and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC). September, 2011.
To download the paper: pdf format

Engineering the Virtual Node Layer for Reactive MANET Routing

Jiang Wu, Nancy Griffeth, Calvin Newport, Nancy Lynch
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Network Computing and Applications (NCA). August, 2011

Structuring Unreliable Radio Networks

Keren Censor-Hillel, Seth Gilbert, Fabian Kuhn, Nancy Lynch, and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). June, 2011.
To download the paper: pdf format

Improving Wireless Network Performance Using Sensor Hints

Lenin Ravindranath, Calvin Newport, Hari Balakrishnan, and Sam Madden
Proceedings of the USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI). March, 2011.

2010

“Extra-Sensory Perception” for Wireless Networks

Lenin Ravindranath, Calvin Newport, Hari Balakrishnan, and Sam Madden
Proceedings of the ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks (HOTNETS). October, 2010.
To download the paper: pdf format

Prioritized Gossip in Vehicular Networks

Alex Cornejo and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the ACM SIGACT/SIGMOBILE International Workshop on Foundations of Mobile Computing (POMC). Invited for Journal Submission. September, 2010.
To download the paper: pdf format

Broadcasting in Radio Networks with Unreliable Communication

Fabian Kuhn, Nancy Lynch, Calvin Newport, Rotem Oshman, and Andrea Richa
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). July, 2010.
To download the paper: pdf format

Securing Every Bit: Authenticated Broadcast in Radio Networks

Dan Alistarh, Seth Gilbert, Rachid Guerraoui, Zarko Milosevic and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Parallelism in Algorithms and Architectures (SPAA). June, 2010.
To download the paper: pdf format

2009

The Abstract MAC Layer

Fabian Kuhn, Nancy Lynch, and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC). Nominated for Best Paper and Best Student Paper Award. Invited for Journal Submission. September, 2009.
To download the paper: pdf format

Modeling Radio Networks

Calvin Newport and Nancy Lynch
Proceedings of the International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR). Invited for Journal Submission. September, 2009.
To download the paper: pdf format

Distributed Computation on Unreliable Radio Channels

Calvin Newport
Ph.D. thesis, MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. September, 2009.
To download the thesis: pdf format

The Wireless Synchronization Problem

Shlomi Dolev, Seth Gilbert, Rachid Guerraoui, Fabian Kuhn and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). August, 2009.
To download the paper: pdf format

Brief Announcement: Hardness of Broadcasting in Wireless Networks with Unreliable Communication

Fabian Kuhn, Nancy Lynch and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). August, 2009.
To download the paper: pdf format

Using Virtual Infrastructure to Adapt Wireline Protocols to MANET

Jiang Wu, Nancy Griffeth, Nancy Lynch, Calvin Newport, and Ralph Droms
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Network Computing and Applications (NCA). Winner of Best Paper Award. July, 2009
To download the paper: pdf format

Reliable Distributed Computing on Unreliable Radio Channels

Calvin Newport
The MobiHoc S3 Student Workshop (Invited). May, 2009
To download the paper: pdf format

Interference-Resilient Information Exchange

Seth Gilbert, Rachid Guerraoui, Darek Kowalski, and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM). April, 2009
To download the paper: pdf format

On the weakest failure detector ever

by Rachid Guerraoui, Maurice Herlihy, Petr Kouznetsov, Nancy Lynch, and Calvin Newport
Distributed Computing 21(5): 353-366 2009
To download the paper: pdf format

Of Malicious Motes and Suspicious Sensors: On the Efficiency of Malicious Interference in Wireless Networks

by Seth Gilbert, Rachid Guerraoui and Calvin Newport
Theoretical Computer Science 410(6-7): 546-569 2009
To access online version: click here.

2008

Secure Communication Over Radio Channels

by Shlomi Dolev, Seth Gilbert, Rachid Guerraoui and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). August, 2008.
To download the paper: pdf format

Consensus and Collision Detectors in Radio Networks

by Gregory Chockler, Murat Demirbas, Seth Gilbert, Nancy Lynch, Calvin Newport and Tina Nolte
Distributed Computing, 21(1): 55–84 June, 2008.
To access electronic version: click here.

2007

Experimental evaluation of wireless simulation assumptions

by Calvin Newport, David Kotz, Yougu Yuan, Robert S. Gray, Jason Liu, and Chip Elliott
SIMULATION: Transactions of The Society for Modeling and Simulation International, 83(9): 643–661 September, 2007.
To access electronic version: click here.

Provably Secure Ciphertext Policy ABE

by Ling Cheung and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the 14th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS). October, 2007.
To download the paper: pdf format

Gossiping in a Multi-Channel Radio Network: An Oblivious Approach to Coping with Malicious Interference

by Shlomi Dolev, Seth Gilbert, Rachid Guerraoui, and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC). September, 2007.
To download the paper: pdf format

On the weakest failure detector ever

by Rachid Guerraoui, Maurice Herlihy, Petr Kouznetsov, Nancy Lynch, and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). Invited for Journal Submission. August, 2007.
To download the paper: pdf format

Collusion-Resistant Group Key Management Using Attribute-Based Encryption.

by Ling Cheung, Joseph A. Cooley, Roger Khazan, and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the International Workshop on Group-Oriented Cryptographic Protocols. July, 2007.
To download the paper: pdf format

The Virtual Node Layer: A Programming Abstraction for Wireless Sensor Networks

by Matthew Brown, Seth Gilbert, Nancy Lynch, Calvin Newport, Tina Nolte, and Michael Spindel
Proceedings of the International Workshop on Sensor Network Architecture (WWSNA). April, 2007.
To download the paper: pdf format

2006

Of Malicious Motes and Suspicious Sensors: On the Efficiency of Malicious Interference in Wireless Networks

by Seth Gilbert, Rachid Guerraoui, and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the International Conference On Principles Of Distributed Systems (OPODIS). Invited for Journal Submission. December, 2006.
To download the paper: pdf format

The Virtual Node Infrastructure Approach to Programming Cyber-Physical Systems

Nancy Lynch and Calvin Newport
NSF Workshop on Cyber-Physical Systems. October 2006.
To download the paper: pdf format

Consensus and Collision Detectors in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

by Calvin Newport
MIT Masters Thesis. Advisor: Nancy Lynch (Co-advisor: Gregory Chockler). June 2006.
To download the thesis: pdf format

2005

A Middleware Framework for Robust Applications in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

by Gregory Chockler, Murat Demirbas, Seth Gilbert, and Calvin Newport
Proceedings of the Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing. September, 2005 (Invited).
To download the paper: pdf format

Consensus and Collision Detectors in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

by Gregory Chockler, Murat Demirbas, Seth Gilbert, Calvin Newport, and Tina Nolte
Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC). July, 2005
To download the paper: pdf format

Reconciling the Theory and Practice of (Un)Reliable Wireless Broadcast

by Gregory Chockler, Murat Demirbas, Seth Gilbert, Nancy A. Lynch, Calvin Newport, and Tina Nolte
Proceedings of the International Workshop on Assurance in Distributed Systems and Networks (ADSN). June, 2005
To download the paper: pdf format

Reconciling the TheoEmpirical Validation of Wireless Models in Simulations of Ad Hoc Routing Protocolsry and Practice of (Un)Reliable Wireless Broadcast

Jason Liu, Yougu Yuan, David M. Nicol, Robert S. Gray, Calvin C. Newport, David Kotz, and Luiz Felipe Perrone
Simulation, Volume 81, Issue 4, Pages 307-323, April 2005.
To access electronic version: click here.

2004

Experimental Evaluation of Wireless Simulation Assumptions

by David Kotz, Calvin Newport, Robert S. Gray, Jason Liu, Yougu Yuan, and Chip Elliott
Proceedings of the ACM International Symposium on Modeling, Analysis and Simulation of Wireless and Mobile Systems. Full version listed as “Recommended Reading” at the Wireless Ad Hoc Networks Bibliography. October 2004.
To download the paper: pdf format

Outdoor Experimental Comparison of Four Ad Hoc Routing Algorithms

Aaron Fiske, Jason Liu, Christopher Masone, Susan McGrath, and Yougu Yuan
Proceedings of the ACM International Symposium on Modeling, Analysis and Simulation of Wireless and Mobile Systems. Finalist for Best Paper Award. October 2004.
To download the paper: pdf format

Simulation Validation using Direct Execution of Wireless Ad-Hoc Routing Protocols

by Jason Liu, Yougu Yuan, David M. Nicol, Robert S. Gray, Calvin C. Newport, David Kotz, and Luiz Felipe Perrone
Proceedings of the Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Simulation (PADS). May 2004.
To download the paper: pdf format

Simulating Mobile Ad Hoc Networks: a Quantitative Evaluation of Common MANET Simulation Models.

by Calvin Newport
Senior Honors Thesis. Advisor David Kotz. Dartmouth College Technical Report (TR2004-504), 2004.
To download the thesis: pdf format

2003

The Mistaken Axioms of Wireless-Network Research

by David Kotz, Calvin Newport, and Chip Elliott
Dartmouth College Technical Report (TR2003-467), 2003
To download the paper: pdf format