Bell Labs Computing Sciences Research Center

We've recently reorganized Bell Labs. Some people in the former Computing Sciences Research Center have moved to the Mathematics Research Center and some to other labs. The new home page is at www.bell-labs.com and the following material is kept only for archival purposes.

Our center conducts research in selected areas of computer science by studying computational problems and building new systems. Some current activities include operating systems, distributed computing, algorithms, formal methods, internet-related security and systems, cryptography, architecture, scientific computing, computational geometry, programming languages, user interfaces, and software design.

We are part of Bell Labs, innovating for Lucent Technologies. Our company is a treasure trove of research problems, just waiting to be mined. We often build prototype systems, develop special purpose tools and languages, and pursue joint projects. Our work results in fundamental ideas and innovative tools, and is based on both individual research efforts and synergistic collaborations. Projects can last from weeks to decades.

General information

What it's like to work here; employment
Index of home pages: pictorial, textual
Directions to Murray Hill, New Jersey
Software distributed through netlib.bell-labs.com
Bell Labs Research Software Distribution Web Site
Our internal home page (for local users)
A pointer to some of our alumni.

What we are working on today

Systems and networking:

Network security, e.g., Factotum, Cryptyc
Design and analysis of high-speed cellular wireless systems, e.g., a hardware/software demonstration of HSDPA, a 3G/4G real-time emulator called SHREWD, and the Base Station Router (BSR)
Plan 9 distributed operating system
Internet traffic analysis, e.g., statistical traffic modeling
System support for application mobility

Scientific computing:

Mirage, a data analysis and visualization tool
Design tools for optimizing topology, utilization, and control dynamics for optical fiber networks, e.g., FROG
Ocelot design tool for cellular wireless
PDEs, linear algebra, approximation, optimization

Theoretical studies:

Algorithms and optimization
Theoretical and practical cryptography
Formal methods

Programming languages and program analysis:

Static analysis of software (e.g., Orion, Uno)
Delta-X: data integrity checking
Software model checking, e.g., Verisoft
Analysis of information flow in programs

And lots of other things!: See the individual homepages for a glimpse of some of the other projects that are being pursued in our center.

Some highlights of the past

We're generally more interested in the future than in the past, but since you asked.... The things to the right have been produced by the people in our center over the last few decades. Most will need little explanation.

Doug McIlroy presented a nice lecture on the history of computing at Bell Labs.

Old technical reports, papers, and bibliography from our center.

AMPL, a modeling language and tool
Unix and the C and C++ programming languages
Spin (a formal verification system)
SML/NJ implementation of the ML language
Uucp, Yacc, Lex, Make, AWK, Grep, Troff et al, ...
Datakit and PathStar (switches), Xunet (a cross-country T3 network)
Belle (former world computer chess champion)
Hobbit (a microprocessor chip)
Blit, Gnot (graphics terminals)
Firewall