Kurtis Heimerl

Contact info:

Office: CSE2 240

Location: Computer Science & Engineering
University of Washington
Box 352350
Seattle, WA 98195-2350

Phone: (206) 616-6605

email: kheimerl@cs.washington.edu

I'm Kurtis Heimerl, Assistant Professor at the University of Washington. I work with the wonderful students in the Change and ICTD groups. I work broadly on the space of technology for poverty alleviation, specifically Internet Access. I have published widely, including top conferences such as ICTD, CHI, CSCW, MobiCom, and NSDI. I was a recipient of the 2014 MIT “35 under 35” award, the 2018 UW early career Diamond Award, and won “Best Paper” awards at CHI, COMPASS, and DySPAN and two "Community Awards" at NSDI. I occasionally publish on the UWCSE ICTD Blog

My major research focus is on the topic of improving rural Internet access, with a focus on cellular technologies. Our goal is to empower communities to solve their own communication issues, be those issues of agency (as in community cellular, enabling local, community-owned cellular networks) or in repair (as in our work exploring repair ecosystems in the Philippines). This research is currently working on making LTE appropriate for community use. In a past life I co-founded a company to commercialize this type of research, called Endaga, which then joined Facebook.

Our second research focus is on issues of environmental sustainability and conservation. We are currently working with a convervancy in Kenya on developing tools for community engagement.

I advise the following students and postdocs:

Spencer Sevilla (postdoc) working on community LTE.
Esther Jang (grad) on rural repair.
Matt Johnson (grad) on distributed LTE.
Matt Ziegler (grad) on conservation. Co-advised with Richard Anderson.
Sudheesh Singanamalla (grad) on distributed telecom and payment systems. Co-advised with Richard Anderson

And have the following alumni from our group:

Kushal Shah (masters) on big data and development. Now at Grab.
Rowan Phipps (undergrad) on cellular security. Onto proper security research in the security and privacy lab.
Pathirat Kosakanchit (undergrad) on community LTE with Spencer. Focusing on her 5th year masters at UW.

Publications

Also see my profiles on: Google Scholar or ACM DL.

2020

	Accept the Risk and Continue: Measuring the Long Tail of Government https Adoption Sudheesh Singanamalla, Esther Jang, Richard Anderson, Tadayoshi Kohno, Kurtis Heimerl. ACM Internet Measurment Conference (IMC) '20 Measured HTTPS adoption in government websites, specifically those outside of the highly used top million datasets. Conference Paper
	Can Phones Build Relationships? A Case Study of a Kenyan Wildlife Conservancy's Community Development Matt Ziegler, Morgan Wack, Nancy Ingutia, Ian Muiruri, Nicholas Njogu, Kennedy Muriithi, William Njoroge, James Long, Kurtis Heimerl. The Third ACM Conference on Computing & Sustainable Societies (ACM COMPASS) '20 Explored the use of USSD in assisting a rural conservancy in connecting to nearby communities. Conference Paper Best Paper Award
	Connecting Isolated Communities: Quantitative Evidence on the Adoption of Community Cellular Networks in the Philippines Niall Keleher, Mary Claire Barela, Joshua Blumenstock, Cedric Festin, Matthew Podolsky, Erin Troland, Arman Rezaee, and Kurtis Heimerl. Eleventh International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) '20 Measured impacts of various social indicators against network takeup. Conference Paper
	Hanging Gardens of Babylon: Reframing Urban Agriculture as an Opportunity for Social Engagement Joseph Breda, Esther Jang, Kurtis Heimerl, and Shwetak Patel. Self-Sustainable CHI '20 Discussed building systems for urban agriculture through a social engagement lens. Workshop Paper

2019

	Trust and Technology Repair Infrastructures in the Remote Rural Philippines: Navigating Urban-Rural Seams Esther Han Beol Jang, Philip Garrison, Ronel Vincent Vistal, Maria Theresa D. Cunanan, Mia Theresa Perez, Philip Martinez, Matthew William Johnson, John Andrew Evangelista, Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed, Josephine Dionisio, Mary Claire Aguilar Barela, Kurtis Heimerl. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction: Vol. 3, Issue CSCW, Article 99. 2019 Explored the successes and failures in rural repair in the extremely remote coves of Aurora. Conference Paper, Diversity and Inclusion Award
	Deep Learning for Automatically Detecting Sidewalk Accessibility Problems Using Streetscape Imagery Galen Weld, Esther Jang, Aileen Zeng, Anthony Li, Kurtis Heimerl, Jon Froehlich. 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS) '19 Leveraged RNNs to automatically classify sidewalk occlusions. Conference Paper, Best Student Paper Award
	Experiences: Design, Implementation, and Deployment of CoLTE, a Community LTE Solution Spencer Sevilla, Matthew Johnson, Pathirat Kosakanchit, Jenny Ting Liang, Kurtis Heimerl. The 25th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (MobiCom) '19 Shared experiences deploying CoLTE, our community LTE solution in Indonesia. Conference Paper
	DEMO: CoLTE, An All-in-One Community LTE Network Spencer Sevilla, Matthew Johnson, Pathirat Kosakanchit, Jenny Ting Liang, Kurtis Heimerl. The 25th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (MobiCom) '19 Demoing CoLTE. Demonstration
	An Assessment of SMS Fraud in Pakistan Fahad Pervaiz, Rai Shah Nawaz, Muhammad Umer Ramzan, Maryem Zafar Usmani, Shrirang Mare, Kurtis Heimerl, Faisal Kamiran, Richard Anderson, Lubna Razaq. The Second ACM Conference on Computing & Sustainable Societies (ACM COMPASS) '19 Measured and evaluated the SMS fraud ecosystem in Pakistan. Conference Paper
	Scaling Community Cellular Networks with CommunityCellularManager Shaddi Hasan, Mary Claire Barela, Matthew Johnson, Eric Brewer, Kurtis Heimerl. 16th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI) '19 Developed and deployed CommunityCellularManager, a cloud system allowing telecoms to partner with and deploy community cellular networks. Conference Paper, Community Award
	Fresh Insights: User Research Towards a Market Information Service for Bihari Vegetable Farmers Matthew Ziegler, Lokesh Garg, Shailesh Tiwary, Aditya Vashistha, Kurtis Heimerl. Tenth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) '19 Investigated the use and development of price information systems in Buxar, Bihar. Conference Paper

2018

	dLTE: Building a more WiFi-like Cellular Network (Instead of the Other Way Around) Matthew Johnson, Spencer Sevilla, Esther Jang, Kurtis Heimerl. HotNETS '18 Discussed dLTE, a fully distributed form of LTE. Workshop Paper
	Connecting Communities through Mobile Networks: The VBTS-CoCoMoNets Project Mary Claire Barela, Josephine Dionisio, Kurtis Heimerl, Manuel Victor Sapitula, Cedric Angelo Festin. Global Information Society Watch 2018: Community Networks Explained the context and deployments of our Philippine GSM networks. Book Chapter
	Building Community LTE Networks with CoLTE Spencer Sevilla, Pathirat Kosakanchit, Matthew Johnson, Kurtis Heimerl. The community network manual : how to build the Internet yourself Provided a manual for the installation and operation of CoLTE. Book Chapter
	Designing Sustainable Rural Infrastructure Through the Lens of OpenCellular Kashif Ali, Kurtis Heimerl. Communications of the ACM, August 2018 Discussed the design of OpenCellular for rural contexts. Invited Article
	ThinSIM-based Attacks on Mobile Money Systems Rowan Phipps, Shrirang Mare, Peter Ney, Jennifer Rose Webster, Kurtis Heimerl. First ACM conference on Computing & Sustainable Societies (COMPASS) '18 Explored Thin-SIM based mobile money attacks and found that most STK and USSD applications are vulnerable. Conference Paper
	Crowdsourcing Rural Network Maintenance and Repair via Network Messaging Esther Jang, Mary Claire Barela, Matt Johnson, Philip Martinez, Cedric Festin, Margaret Lynn, Josephine Dionisio, Kurtis Heimerl. ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) '18 Examined the readiness of a rural Philippine community to infrastructure self-repair. Conference Paper

2017

An Investigation of Phone Upgrades in Remote Community Cellular Networks
Kushal Shah, Philip Martinez, Emre Tepedelenlioglu, Shaddi Hasan, Cedric Angelo Festin, Joshua Blumenstock, Jo Dionisio, Kurtis Heimerl.
International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) '17
Examined the factors that influence LTE phone adoption in the Philippines and Indonesia.
Conference Paper

Unplanned Obsolescence: Hardware and Software After Collapse
Esther Jang, Matt Johnson, Edward Burnell, Kurtis Heimerl.
Proceedings of the 2017 Workshop on Computing Within Limits
Explored how long hardware and software would function after societal collapse.
Workshop Paper

2016

Towards Building a Community Cellular Network in the Philippines: Initial Site Survey Observations
Mary Claire Barela, Mae Sincere Blanco, Philip Martinez, Miguel Carlo Purisima, Kurtis Heimerl, Matthew Podolsky, Eric Brewer, Cedric Angelo Festin.
International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) '16
Explored potential CCN sites in the Philippines.
Conference Note

2015

Analysis of Smartphone Adoption and Usage in a Rural Community Cellular Network
Kurtis Heimerl, Anuvind Menon, Shaddi Hasan, Kashif Ali, Eric Brewer, Tapan Parikh.
International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) '15
Analyzed smartphone adoption in a rural Indonesian community.
Conference Note

A Longitudinal Study of Local, Sustainable, Small-Scale Cellular Networks
Kurtis Heimerl, Shaddi Hasan, Kashif Ali, Eric Brewer, Tapan Parikh.
Information Technologies & International Development (ITID) '15
A longitudinal analysis of a community cellular network in Papua, Indonesia.
Invited Journal Article

2014

Rescue Base Station
Ibrahim Ghaznavi, Kurtis Heimerl, Umar Muneer, Abdullah Hamid, Kashif Ali, Tapan Parikh, Umar Saif.
5th Annual ACM Symposium on Computing for Development (DEV)
Developed a quick setup GSM cellular solution for disaster-affected regions.
Conference Paper

GSM Whitespaces: An Opportunity for Rural Cellular Service
Shaddi Hasan, Kurtis Heimerl, Kate Harrison, Kashif Ali, Sean Roberts, Anant Sahai, Eric Brewer
IEEE Dynamic Spectrum Access Access Networks (DySPAN) '14
Implemented and evaluated GSM Whitespace, a system for shared spectrum access of the GSM cellular bands.
Conference Paper, Best Paper Award

2013

An Experiment in Reducing Cellular Base Station Power Draw With Virtual Coverage
Kurtis Heimerl, Shaddi Hasan, Kashif Ali, Tapan Parikh, Eric Brewer
4th Annual Symposium on Computing for Development (DEV)
Evaluated virtual coverage in the context of a real-world deployment in rural Papua, Indonesia
Conference Paper

Local, Sustainable, Small-Scale Cellular Networks
Kurtis Heimerl, Shaddi Hasan, Kashif Ali, Eric Brewer, Tapan Parikh
International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) '13
Developed and deployed a small-scale rural cellular network in Papua, Indonesia, showing that it is economically sustainable and benefits the local population
Conference Paper

Expanding Rural Cellular Networks with Virtual Coverage
Kurtis Heimerl, Kashif Ali, Joshua Blumenstock, Brian Gawalt, Eric Brewer.
10th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI) '13
Demonstrated and implemented a novel technique for saving power in rural cellular networks, called "Virtual Coverage"
Conference Paper, Community Award

Poster and Demonstration of Expanding Rural Cellular Networks with Virtual Coverage
Kurtis Heimerl, Kashif Ali, Joshua Blumenstock, Brian Gawalt, Eric Brewer
10th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation Demonstrations(NSDI)
Demonstration of Virtual Coverage
Demonstration

Convergence of Position Auctions under Myopic Best-Response Dynamics
Matthew Cary, Aparna Das, Benjamin Edelman, Ioannis Goitis, Kurtis Heimerl, Anna Karlin, Scott Kominers, Claire Mathieu, Michael Schwarz
ACM Transactions on Economics and Computation '13
Journal Paper

2012

Communitysourcing: Engaging Local Crowds to Perform Expert Work Via Physical Kiosks
Kurtis Heimerl, Brian Gawalt, Kuang Chen, Tapan Parikh, Björn Hartmann
ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) '12
Developed and evaluated CommunitySourcing; the use of physical kiosks to engage local crowds of users to perform high-value work for localized rewards
Conference Paper, Best Paper Award

Communitysourcing: Engaging Local Crowds to Perform Expert Work Via Physical Kiosks
Kurtis Heimerl, Brian Gawalt, Kuang Chen, Tapan Parikh, Björn Hartmann
Interactivity at ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) '12
Demonstration of CommunitySourcing
Demonstration

How Users Understand Cellular Infrastructure
Kurtis Heimerl, Tapan Parikh
Interviewed people from both developed, developing, urban and rural areas about their understanding of cellular infrastructure
Technical Report

2010

A Case Study on Designing Interfaces for Multiple Users in Developing Regions
Kurtis Heimerl, Janani Vasudev, Kelly G. Buchanan, Tapan Parikh, Eric Brewer
1st Annual Symposium on Computing for Development (DEV)
Developed and deployed a single display groupware solution in a low-income school in Bangalore, India
Conference Paper

Metamouse: Improving Multi-user Sharing of Existing Educational Applications
Kurtis Heimerl, Janani Vasudev, Kelly G. Buchanan, Tapan Parikh, Eric Brewer
International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) '10
Developed, deployed, and evaluated a novel single-display groupware technology supporting existing educational games in developing regions
Conference Paper

The Village Base Station
Kurtis Heimerl, Eric Brewer
ACM Workshop on Networked Systems for Developing Regions (NSDR) '10
Proposed the use of OpenBTS for bringing cellular coverage to rural areas
Workshop Paper

2009

Message Phone: A User Study and Analysis of Asynchronous Messaging in Rural Uganda
Kurtis Heimerl, RJ Honicky, Eric Brewer, Tapan Parikh
ACM Workshop on Networked Systems for Developing Regions (NSDR) '09
Conducted field study of mPhone asynchronous voice system
Workshop Paper

Metamouse: Multiple Mice for Legacy Applications
Kurtis Heimerl, Divya Ramachandran, Joyojeet Pal, Eric Brewer, Tapan Parikh
Demo at International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD)
Demonstration of basic Metamouse features and technology
Demonstration

Metamouse: Multiple Mice for Legacy Applications
Kurtis Heimerl, Divya Ramachandran, Joyojeet Pal, Eric Brewer, Tapan Parikh
Work In Progress at Computer-Human Interaction (CHI)
Conducted user study on Metamouse in Bangalore, India
Work in Progress

Transforming Community-based Healthcare with CommScape
Kuang Chen, Kurtis Heimerl, Tapan Parikh, Christine Robson, Beth Trushkowsky
Technical Report

Enabling Innovation Below the Communication API
Ganesh Ananthanarayanan, Kurtis Heimerl, Matei Zaharia, Michael Demmer, Teemu Koponen, Arsalan Tavakoli, Scott Shenker, Ion Stoica
Technical Report

2007

Greedy Bidding Strategies for Keyword Auctions
Matthew Cary, Aparna Das, Benjamin Edelman, Ioannis Giotis, Kurtis Heimerl, Anna R. Karlin, Claire Mathieu, Michael Schwarz
ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce 2007
Conference Paper

Teaching

Autumn 2020: CSE 550: Systems for All.

Spring 2020: CSE 599: Computing for Social Good.

Winter 2020: CSEP 561: Network Systems PMP.

Autumn 2019: CSE 461: Computer Networks.

Autumn 2018: CSE 461: Computer Networks.

Winter 2018: CSE 461: Computer Networks.

Autumn 2017: CSEP 590:Information and Communication Technology and Development (ICTD) PMP.

Winter 2017: CSE 461: Computer Networks.

Autumn 2016: CSE 599:Information and Communication Technology and Development (ICTD).

Press/Awards/News

2020

We won a PIT-UN Grant to build distributed cellular infrastructure!

Tim Althoff, See-Kiong Ng and I were awarded an NSF EAGER grant to study social good with Grab in Southeast Asia. Thanks NSF!

Matt Ziegler and team were awarded best paper at COMPASS 2020!

Decided to start putting PC engagements on here. On the MobiSYS, Symposium on Edge Computing, ACM COMPASS, CHI, and ACM ICTD Program Committes. Submit things!

2019

Katharina and I won a Facebook grant to work on Perceptions of internet-based technologies among rural and urban Americans.

People are building technology that could survive the apocalypse
Fast Company, November 2019

We were recognized for our contribution to diversity and inclusion at CSCW 2019!

We won a Best Student Paper award at ASSETS 2019!

Village Base Station Project
ANC Early Edition, April 2019

We won a Community Award at NSDI 2019!

Pat Kosakanchit and Rowan Phipps both earned a Honorable Mention from the Computing Research Association’s Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awards for their research in our lab.

Observing a community network in the Philippines through a gendered lens
GenderIT.org, January 2019

Deploying community cellular networks in rural barangays in the Philippines
Rising Voices, January 2019