Make the Impossible Possible: Systems Research and Its Pivotal Role in Big Data

Speaker:        Dr. Lin GU
                Department of Computer Science and Engineering
                Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Title:          "Make the Impossible Possible: Systems Research and
                 Its Pivotal Role in Big Data"

Date:           Monday, 23 March 2015

Time:           4:00pm - 5:00pm

Venue:          Lecture Theatre F (near lifts 25/26), HKUST

Abstract:

Systems research focuses on scientific principles and technological
methods of building computing systems. It thus covers a wide range of
areas including computer architecture, OS, programming languages, networks
and database systems. Seminal results in this category often result in
construction of computing systems that were thought to be impossible to
build or afford, and generate tangible impact on the computer industry
and, sometimes, our society.

In this talk, I will review the development of several technologies to
show how system oriented research and development help solve crucial
problems computer science, and open new frontiers for the IT industry. The
discussions start with early systems, then focus on recent advances in
cloud computing and big data, and conclude with our own experience in the
development of VOLUME, a scalable distributed memory system. Illustrated
by the case studies, I will provide suggestions on several issues in
writing systems papers and distributing software and other research
results.

This seminar is cross-listed under the course series COMP 6770:
Professional Development in Computer Science and Engineering.


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Biography:

Lin Gu is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science and
Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).
He received B.S. from Fudan University, M.S. from Peking University, and
Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. His research interest includes big
data systems, cloud computing, operating systems and wireless sensor
networks. He developed the Virtk (a.k.a. t-kernel) operating system, the
CCMR cloud platform, and VOLUME, a datacenter-scale distributed virtual
memory technology. He currently leads the open-source development of Layer
Zero (c0 and its runtime), a high-performance big data technology. Before
joining HKUST, he worked at the Founder's Group, Microsoft and Google, and
participated in the development of several large-scale systems including
Yahoo Ad system in China and Gmail's global backend system. He has
published more than forty research papers, and participated in
organizational and referee services in more than fifty academic
conferences and journals.