Kurtis Heimerl

Connecting Communities Through Mobile Networks: A Case Study of Implementing Community Cellular Networks in the Philippines
Mary Claire Barela, Maria Theresa Cunanan, Cedric Angelo Festin, Kurtis Heimerl, Esther Jang, Matthew William Johnson.
Chapter in Introduction to Development Engineering
Discussion on the VBTS-CoCoMoNets project as an exemplar of Development Engineering.
Book Chapter

Telechain: Bridging Telecom Policy and Blockchain Practice
Sudheesh Singanamalla, Apurv Mehra, Nishanth Chandran, Himanshi Lohchab, Seshanuradha Chava, Asit Kadayan, Sunil Bajpai, Kurtis Heimerl, Richard Anderson, Satya Lokam.
The Fifth ACM Conference on Computing & Sustainable Societies (ACM COMPASS) '22
Developed and deployed an anti-spam blockchain system in India.
Conference Paper

A value-added IoT service for cellular networks using federated learning
Adnan Noor Mian, Syed Waqas Haider Shah, Sanaullah Manzoor, Anwar Said, Kurtis Heimerl, Jon Crowcroft.
Computer Networks, 2022
Explored a new framework for federated learning within a cellular network.
Journal Paper

Oblivious DNS over HTTPS (ODoH): A Practical Privacy Enhancement to DNS
Sudheesh Singanamalla, Suphanat Chunhapanya, Jonathan Hoyland, Marek Vavruša, Tanya Verma, Peter Wu, Marwan Fayed, Kurtis Heimerl, Nick Sullivan, and Christopher Wood.
The 21st Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium, 2021
Developed Oblivious ODoH, a privacy enhanced DNS service.
Conference Paper, Best Student Paper

“How’s Shelby the Turtle today?” Strengths and Weaknesses of Interactive Animal-Tracking Maps for Environmental Communication
Matt Ziegler, Michael Quinlan, Zage Strassberg-Phillips, Manasi Shah, Lauren Vreeken, Karen Goodfellow, Jes Lefcout, Richard Anderson, and Kurtis Heimerl.
Proceedings of the 4th ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies
Conducted a series of user studies exploring the use of animal tracking websites.
Conference Paper, Best Paper Honorable Mention

When Borders Blur - Overcoming Political Limits with Computing in Truly Global Societies
Emmanuel Azuh Mensah, Sudheesh Singanamalla, Richard Anderson, and Kurtis Heimerl.
Proceedings of the 2021 Workshop on Computing Within Limits
Explored what a world without borders would look like, from a passport perspective.
Workshop Paper

Network Capacity as Common Pool Resource: Community-Based Congestion Management in a Community Network
Matthew Johnson, Esther Jang, Frances O'Rourke, Rachel Ye, Kurtis Heimerl.
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction: Vol. 5, No CSCW1, Article 61. 2021
Investigated methods for local congestion management with a rural Oaxacan community.
Conference Paper

Whale Watching in Inland Indonesia: Analyzing a Small, Remote, Internet-Based Community Cellular Network
Matthew Johnson, Jenny Liang, Michelle X. Lin, Sudheesh Siganamalla, and Kurtis Heimerl.
Proceedings of the Web Conference 2021
Measured network use in an Indonesian CN. Found a few 'whale' anchor tenants and discussed the implications of this finding.
Conference Paper

Voices from the last mile: The place of emotions in the social impact analysis of access to communication
Josephine C. Dionisio, John Andrew G. Evangelista, Kurtis Heimerl, Cedric Angelo M. Festin.
A Philippine Journal of Communication, Media, and Society
Exploration of emotional terms used by participants in the social impact analysis of a CCN.
Journal Paper

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 Measurement 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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