Section 1Acknowledgements

They say that raising a child takes a village. Having some experience with both, I would assert that so does a doctorate. This has been a very long journey and I could not have done it without the love, help, and support of so many.

This thesis is dedicated to the two women who made it possible: the one I succeeded and the one who succeeds me.

The former is my mom Maria Verou, whose life inspired this journey, yet she never got to see it. She was fearless, a genuine trailblazer. In 1976 — a time most Greek women did not even go to college — she moved halfway across the world to follow her dream of doing research at MIT. Her groundbreaking research helped solve real problems, yet she only published her work in her Master’s thesis [1] as life forced her to return to Greece, cutting her PhD short.

I grew up hearing her recount her years at MIT as intense but also the most wonderful, most intellectually stimulating time of her life, and as a little girl I dreamed of following in her footsteps. For decades she longed to go back and finish what she started but never took the leap again, until on January 4th, 2013, it was finally too late. Shortly after, I uprooted my life and career to pursue my own dreams of research — before I also ran out of time. As a tribute to her memory, the programming language at the core of this thesis is named after her (Mavo = Maria Verou).

The latter is my daughter Zoe, who has been with me for half of this journey. Through a strange turn of events, my pregnancy of her saved my life, and thus without her this thesis would not exist — as neither would I. Raising a child does make pursuing a PhD harder, but also a lot more meaningful. I love you, Zoe. Sorry for all the time I had to spend on this instead of playing with you.

To my husband Chris, who has been my support system for almost this entire journey. Thank you for moving halfway across the world to be with me and being there for me through thick and thin. I love you.

To my advisor, David Karger, in whom I found a mentor and a friend. I would have never reached the finish line without you. Thank you for believing in me, treating me like an equal, for being there to guide me when I needed you, and for giving me space and freedom when I didn’t. You made me a researcher.

To my thesis committee members, Arvind Satyanarayan and Sam Madden, for their patience, flexibility, valuable feedback, guidance, and approachable demeanor. You made a very stressful process a lot more bearable.

To my fellow Haystackers, past and present that we have spent time with: Eirik Bakke, Amy X. Zhang, Farnaz Jahanbakhsh, Tarfah Alrashed, Nouran Soliman, Theia Henderson, Luke Murray, Jumana Almahmoud, Soya Park. I already miss our office laughs, impromptu brainstorming sessions, brunches, and surprise birthday parties.

Eirik, thank you for welcoming me to the group, introducing me to the ins and outs of grad school, for being such a fun officemate for my first two years, and for always being willing to give (and take) feedback. And for SUS.

Amy, thank you for making the process of writing my first paper less scary by being a fantastic co-author, for teaching me so much about academic writing, and for being such a well-organized co-instructor for our class.

Tarfah, thank you for being one of the kindest, most giving people I have ever met, a wonderful co-author, and a great friend.

To my mentees and students, who have taught me as much as I have taught them, and especially Dmitry Sharabin, for being Mavo’s biggest fan, a tireless maintainer for that and many related projects, and a wonderful apprentice who has helped me immensely, including on some of the typesetting of this thesis. You rarely find people so eager to absorb knowledge, and it has been a pleasure seeing him grow over the years. Also to Barish Namazov, who has been a great student and later TA, co-author, and collaborator.

To my friends who provided the warmth of a family away from home, and the fun that made all the hard work feel worth it.

I was so incredibly fortunate to meet some of them on the first few days, at MIT orientation: Judith, Sirma, David, Viirj, Valerio, Thras, Lukas, Tal, Martin, Alexandros, Prashan, aka The Warehouse People (WHP), from the MIT dorm many of us lived in during our first year. Making such good friends so early on turned a scary experience into a fun adventure that we all went through together. And we grew together too: we have now been through each other’s thesis defenses, weddings, births, and many other life events, happy and sad. At this point most of us have been scattered around the world, but whenever we meet again, it feels like no time has passed.

Being so furtunate once was already unlikely, what are the odds of being so fortunate twice? And yet, on our daughter’s first day of school, we met our friends Ana and Filip who immediately felt like long lost family to all of us, and their daughter Eva soon became almost like a sister to Zoe. They have supported us through health scares, deadlines, disappointments, and celebrations.

This thesis would not have been possible without funding sources from various fellowships and companies. I was fortunate to be the recipient of several fellowships (Paris Kanellakis, George and Marie Vergottis, Thomas G. Stockham Jr) and I am grateful to the families who set up these funds, and to MIT who selected me among hundreds of other candidates. I would also like to thank Wistron Corporation and NSF for funding parts of this work. It would also not have been possible without all the people who participated in my user studies and who sat down to be interviewed by me — thank you.

Last but not least, to Travis Chase and Dave Gandy for offering me a job so exciting it gave me the strength to finally wrap this PhD up, spread my wings, and leave MIT’s protective cocoon. Thank you for believing in me without expecting me to jump through hoops like a circus animal. I can’t wait to start.

How lucky have I been.