Oct 5, 2022, 1:45pm to 3pm

Abstract: There is no question that mobile browsers are critical to how users access Internet content today. The question is, is mobile Web performance improving? If so, is the improvement equitable?  Our study find that lower-end phones that are popular in emerging countries see considerably worse Web performance compared to its higher end counterpart. In effect, users who do not wish (or cannot afford) to constantly upgrade their devices are experiencing a slower web. Among the higher-end phones, the overall performance appears to be improving in terms of traditional Web metrics. However, these metrics do not take into account user experience. I will discuss the work in our lab to address both of these issues.

Bio: Aruna Balasubramanian is an Associate Professor at Stony Brook University. She works in the area of networked systems. Her current work consists of two threads: (1) significantly improving Quality of Experience of Internet applications, and (2) improving the usability, accessibility, and privacy of mobile systems. She is the recipient of the SIGMobile Rockstar award, a Ubicomp best paper award, a VMWare Early Career award, several Google research awards, and the Applied Networking Research Prize. She is passionate about improving the diversity in Computer Science and broadening participation. She leads the diversity committee at Stony Brook and is the faculty advisor of the Women in Computer Science (WiCS) and the WPhD group at Stony Brook.