Click here to download slides from the September 7, 2023 Red Hat Collaboratory at Boston University Request for Proposals for 2024 Awards presentation. This slide deck is a resource as you develop proposals as it includes additional details on research areas of focus and examples of projects.

Red Hat’s research effort focuses on open source development and systems integration projects that can have a significant impact on technologies deployed in enterprises three to five years from now.  We are especially interested in operating systems, hybrid cloud infrastructure, cloud-native development, integrated cloud services and edge systems development, so proposed projects in these areas are most likely to attract participants from Red Hat.  We also investigate ideas further out on the technology horizon that have significant promise to dramatically change computing systems.  Although we are certainly open to other new ideas, this document gives a summary of areas where we have a special focus through 2024.  More background on Red Hat research projects is available at research.redhat.com.

Research Software Infrastructure for Hybrid Clouds

Build and maintain open repositories, tools and software to advance the OpenShift environment in university research.  Demonstrate POCs that extend the environment as needed for new functional, scalability, and security services in collaboration with university research engineering.  Vastly improve multi-cloud engineering, software, reliability and supportability.  Elastic Secure Infrastructure and HyperShift are examples of current projects in this area.

AI Research in Models, Performance and Operations

Create an open platform for foundation models and their development, as well as open integration with container and VM software development. Research and develop AI-driven performance management for Red Hat Enterprise Linux workloads. Research and develop AI-assisted operations and security at all layers from OS  through multi-cloud application environments. Kernel Tuning for Energy Efficiency is an example of a current project in this area.

Edge Hardware and Software Research

Create software and platforms especially suited to use cases and workloads on small, resource-constrained devices at the farthest edge of the hybrid cloud.  Develop tools to ease software development and integration for accelerators including programmable accelerators like FPGAs and vector accelerators.  Investigate optimal configurations and performance for RISC-V, next generation interconnect standards, and advanced wireless standards.  Projects in the CoDes lab and Unikernel Linux are current examples.

Trust

Build software and hardware to support application and edge security and enable data privacy and protection for operational and experimental data use cases.  There are many techniques under investigation.  Privacy-Preserving Cloud Computing and FHELib are current example projects.