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Sujaya MaiyyaView profile

Assistant Professor

• Distributed Systems
• Database Systems
• Data Privacy
• +3 more

Sujaya Maiyya is an Assistant Professor at the Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo. Prior to this, she completed a postdoc at Cornell University and earned her PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on distributed systems, databases, and privacy/security, particularly in designing secure and efficient data management systems. She leads projects on oblivious databases, trusted execution environments (TEEs), and scalable privacy-preserving systems. Education: PhD in Computer Science, University of California, Santa Barbara (2018) MSc in Computer Science, University of California, Santa Barbara (2017) BE in Information Science, PESIT Bangalore (2014) Research Interests: Distributed systems, database privacy, oblivious datastores, genomics data security, and secure computation using TEEs. Her work emphasizes practical solutions for privacy-preserving storage and query processing, including tunable-privacy mechanisms and fault-tolerant ORAM systems. Awards and Grants: CFI/ORF Infrastructure Grant (2024-2029) NCC Research Awards (2024-2028) NSERC Discovery Grant (2023-2027) MIT EECS Rising Stars (2021) Teaching: Courses include CS348 (Introduction to Databases) and CS848 (Privacy Enhancing Data Systems). She emphasizes foundational concepts and system internals in database design and secure systems. Professional Service: Chair of Ontario Database Day (2024), PC member for SIGMOD, EDBT, VLDB, and ICDE. Frequent reviewer for journals like TKDE and DKE.

• Storage Systems
• Persistent Memory
• Key-Value Stores
• +4 more

Oana Balmau is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science at McGill University, where she leads the Data-Intensive Storage and Computer Systems Laboratory (DISCS Lab). She also holds a status-only appointment at the University of Toronto and serves as a working group chair for MLPerf Storage. Her research focuses on creating storage infrastructure that enables fast and energy-conscious insights from data, with particular emphasis on storage and persistent memory technologies for machine learning, data science, and edge computing workloads. Dr. Balmau's research interests span computer systems, with specific focus on: Design and implementation of efficient key-value stores Storage systems for machine learning workloads Edge computing infrastructure Persistent memory technologies Performance optimization of data-intensive systems Her recent work has led to significant contributions in storage benchmarking through the MLPerf Storage benchmark and in edge computing frameworks. The MLPerf Storage benchmark has become an industry standard for evaluating storage performance in machine learning environments, while her work on hierarchical edge computing addresses security and performance challenges in distributed edge environments. Her publications show consistent high-impact contributions to top systems venues, with recent work focusing on processing-in-memory virtualization, stream processing reconfiguration, and efficient data preprocessing pipelines. Dr. Balmau has received numerous awards for her research, including: SEC 2024 Best Paper Award for "Falcon: Live Reconfiguration for Stateful Stream Processing on the Edge" MLCommons Hero Award 2023 for leadership as MLPerf Storage working group chair ACM SIGOPS Dennis M. Ritchie Doctoral Dissertation Award 2021 Honorable Mention CORE John Makepeace Bennett Award 2021 for the best Computer Science doctoral dissertation in Australia and New Zealand USENIX ATC 2019 Best Paper Award for "SILK: Preventing Latency Spikes in Log-Structured Merge Key-Value Stores" As an educator, Dr. Balmau teaches courses on advanced computer systems, operating systems, and principles of computer systems design at McGill University. She has served on program committees for top systems conferences including SOSP, SIGMOD, FAST, and EuroSys, and has co-organized workshops on resource-efficient machine learning and edge computing. She leads the DISCS Lab, which focuses on two main research directions: Systems for ML (including the MLPerf Storage benchmark) and Edge computing (including frameworks for fast and secure edge computing in hierarchical edge environments).

Jelle HellingsView profile

Assistant Professor

• Resilient Systems
• High-Performance Data Management
• Database Theory
• +10 more

Jelle Hellings is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computing and Software at McMaster University , Canada. His research focuses on high-performance large-scale data management systems with a strong theoretical and algorithmic component, including resilient systems (blockchains) , graph databases , and external-memory algorithms . He previously worked as a Postdoc Scholar at the University of California, Davis and earned his PhD from Hasselt University in Belgium. Education: Doctor of Sciences in Computer Science (2018), Hasselt University Master of Science in Computer Science and Engineering (2011), Eindhoven University of Technology His research interests include scalable resilient systems with Byzantine fault tolerance, database theory, graph query languages, constraints on graph data, and external-memory algorithms for large graph datasets. He has authored numerous high-impact publications on blockchain-based resilient systems, query optimization in graph databases, and theoretical advancements in relation algebra expressiveness. Hellings actively contributes to academic service through program committee memberships and tutorial organization, and he currently teaches courses on future resilient databases and foundational computer science topics.

Tianzheng WangView profile

Associate Professor

• Database Systems
• Operating Systems
• Parallel Programming
• +5 more

Tianzheng Wang is an Associate Professor and Director of the Dual-Degree and Partnerships Programs at the School of Computing Science, Simon Fraser University. His research focuses on database systems, transaction processing, parallel and distributed computing, and embedded systems. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Toronto (2017) and a BSc in Computing from Hong Kong Polytechnic University (2012). Research Interests: Database systems optimized for modern hardware, parallel programming, synchronization, and distributed architectures. His work emphasizes high-performance transaction processing and efficient indexing techniques, with applications in cloud and embedded systems. Awards: ACM SIGMOD Best Paper Award (2025), IEEE TCSC Early Career Award (2019), and multiple distinguished reviewing recognitions (SIGMOD/VLDB 2021-2024). His research has been integrated into systems like Amazon Redshift and DragonflyDB. Teaching: Leads courses such as CMPT 454 (Database Systems II), CMPT 300 (Operating Systems), and special topics in databases. Actively mentors graduate and undergraduate students in research projects. Labs & Collaborations: Heads the Data-Intensive Systems Lab, part of SFU's Data Science and Systems groups. Collaborates on tools like PiBench for persistent memory benchmarking and contributes to open-source projects like CoroBase and Tabular.

Andrew WarfieldView profile

Adjunct Professor

• Computer Systems Software
• Virtualization
• Distributed Storage
• +3 more

Andrew Warfield is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and a Senior Principal Engineer at Amazon. His research focuses on computer systems software, including virtualization, distributed storage, security, and high-availability systems. He previously held roles as Associate Professor at UBC, CTO at Coho Data, and Technical Director at Citrix Systems. His work has led to projects like Remus (high-availability replication), Tralfamadore (execution analysis), and secure hypervisor development with Xen. Warfield's education includes a PhD from the University of Cambridge's Computer Laboratory, where he researched I/O device virtualization under Steven Hand. He has held visiting roles at Intel Research Cambridge and internships at AT&T Research and Nortel Networks. Research Grants: Supported by Intel Research, NSERC, Network Appliance, and the Communications Security Establishment. Professional Activities: Technical Advisory Board Member at Teradici, and involvement in program committees for conferences like HotOS, EuroSys, and FAST. His research emphasizes practical systems, aiming to bridge the gap between theoretical computer science and real-world applications. Notable contributions include innovations in storage for virtualized environments, secure hypervisor architectures, and disaster-tolerant systems like SecondSite. Warfield is affiliated with UBC's Department of Computer Science and maintains active collaboration with industry partners. Though currently not actively recruiting students, his prior mentorship has influenced many in systems research.

Sergey GorbunovView profile

Associate Professor

• Cryptography
• Network Security
• Blockchain Technology
• +4 more

Sergey Gorbunov is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo . He holds a Ph.D. from MIT (2015), an M.Sc. and H.B.Sc. from the University of Toronto (2012 and 2011, respectively). His research focuses on Cryptography, Network Security, Blockchain Technology, Secure Protocols, and Privacy-Preserving Systems . He explores advanced cryptographic techniques for decentralized systems, privacy-enhancing technologies, and secure communication protocols. His work includes pioneering contributions to blockchain security (e.g., mitigating front-running attacks, enhancing transaction privacy) and foundational cryptographic tools like homomorphic encryption and multi-signature schemes. Recent publications emphasize resilient consensus mechanisms, anonymous payment channels, and efficient cryptographic primitives for distributed systems. Notable projects include Astrape (anonymous payment channels), Algorand Agreement (fast Byzantine consensus), and StealthDB (encrypted SQL databases). His research bridges theoretical cryptography with practical applications in secure computing and decentralized technologies.

• Signal Processing
• Communications
• Bioimaging
• +5 more

Amir Asif is a Professor at the Lassonde School of Engineering, York University, and concurrently serves as Vice President, Research and Innovation. His academic leadership roles include Dean of the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science at Concordia University (2014-2020). He specializes in signal processing, communications, and their applications in healthcare, power grids, and distributed systems. Asif holds a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University and a Harvard certification in executive leadership. Education: PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University (1996) MS, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University (1993) BSc, University of Engineering and Technology Lahore (1990) Harvard Certificate in Leadership for Senior Executives (2018) Research Interests: Asif’s work spans signal processing for medical imaging (e.g., ultrasound elastography), smart grid optimization, and cybersecurity in power systems. His recent publications address hydrogen energy systems, EMG-based gesture recognition, and resilient control frameworks against cyberattacks. Grants & Leadership: He leads NSERC-funded projects on federated learning and resilient algorithms. He chairs the Ontario Council of University Research and serves on TRIUMF Innovations and the Richmond Hill Board of Trade. His grants include SSHRC funding for equity initiatives and NSERC support for distributed signal processing. Teaching & Mentorship: Asif has supervised over a dozen graduate students and taught courses like Digital Communications and Statistical Signal Processing Theory. Notable advisees include Arash Mohammadi (PhD, 2014) and Nick Sajadi (PhD, 2017).

Trevor BrownView profile

Associate Professor

• Concurrent Data Structures
• Lock-Free Algorithms
• Transactional Memory
• +4 more

Trevor Brown is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science department at the University of Waterloo, affiliated with the Cheriton School of Computer Science. He leads the Multicore Lab and specializes in concurrent data structures, non-blocking algorithms, and memory management. His research bridges theory and systems, focusing on practical implementations of lock-free trees, transactional memory, and techniques for non-uniform memory architectures. Education includes a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Toronto and a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Mathematics from York University. Research interests center on concurrent systems, with recent work exploring hardware-accelerated indexing, memory reclamation techniques, and performance anomalies in microbenchmarks. His publications demonstrate consistent innovation in parallel computing, with articles frequently appearing at top conferences like PPoPP, SPAA, and DISC. Sustainable energy research includes optimizing hybrid power systems and battery storage solutions. Awards include multiple best paper/artifact recognitions at SPAA and PPoPP, teaching excellence honors, and nominations for the Governor General’s Gold Medal. Extensive advising includes 13+ graduate students and PDFs, with research grants exceeding $965K from NSERC, Huawei, and CFI. He directs the Multicore Lab, developing open-source tools like SetBench for rigorous performance benchmarking.

Bettina KemmeView profile

Professor

• Distributed Systems
• Cloud Computing
• Database Systems
• +5 more

Bettina Kemme is a Professor in the School of Computer Science at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. She leads the Distributed Information Systems Lab (DISL) and specializes in large-scale data management, distributed systems, and cloud computing. Her academic roles include teaching COMP 512 (Distributed Systems) and COMP 421 (Database Systems). Education: Diplom (M.Sc. equivalent) in Computer Science, Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen, Germany (1996) PhD in Computer Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland (2000) Research Interests: Distributed systems, cloud-native data management, in-database analytics (AIDA project), monitoring-as-a-service frameworks, and scalable pub/sub systems for online games. Current projects focus on integrating machine learning with databases, cloud performance monitoring using SDN, and sustainable data systems for data science. Lab & Collaborations: Leads the Distributed Information Systems Lab (DISL) with active projects in distributed databases, cloud computing, and game systems. Collaborates on EU-Canada initiatives like the SustainSys program for sustainable data infrastructure. Advising: Supervises PhD and M.Sc. students in topics like monitoring frameworks (Mona ElSaadawy), in-database ML (Winnie He), and distributed systems (Maximilian Schiedermeier). Alumni include over 50 researchers from PhD candidates to undergraduate researchers.

Roie LevinView profile

Assistant Professor

• Approximation Algorithms
• Online Algorithms
• Submodular Functions
• +5 more

Roie Levin is an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University's Department of Computer Science. He received his PhD in Algorithms, Combinatorics and Optimization from Carnegie Mellon University in 2022, advised by Anupam Gupta. Prior to that, he worked at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (2015-2017) and earned dual BSc degrees in Computer Science/Applied Mathematics and Mathematics from Brown University (2015). Before joining Rutgers, he was a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow at Tel Aviv University under Niv Buchbinder. Current Role: Assistant Professor in Computer Science Academic Training: PhD (2022) CMU, BSc (2015) Brown University Postdoctoral: Fulbright Fellow at Tel Aviv University Levin's research focuses on approximation algorithms for uncertain environments (online/dynamic/streaming models) and submodular function optimization. His work spans theoretical foundations and practical implementations across distributed systems, geometric constraints, and reinforcement learning paradigms. Teaching includes graduate and undergraduate algorithms courses (CS 344, CS 513) with emphasis on problem-solving techniques, computational complexity, and modern algorithmic trends. His publications showcase expertise in online algorithms, submodular optimization, and approximation theory with applications in clustering, caching, and machine learning. The 2025 articles demonstrate continued exploration of online consistency and contention resolution, while 2023-2024 works focus on submodular optimization under uncertainty and dynamic environments. Earlier publications (2015-2017) cover semantic parsing, geometric approximation, and planar graph optimization. Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow Levin's research connects theoretical guarantees with practical implementations, bridging classical algorithm design with modern machine learning applications. His recent work explores primal-dual methods in online settings and robust subspace approximation techniques for streaming data environments.

Ken SalemView profile

Professor

• Database Systems
• Distributed Systems
• Cloud Computing
• +2 more

Ken Salem is a Professor at the Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo. His research focuses on database systems, distributed systems, cloud computing, and storage management. He has supervised 12 PhD students to completion, with graduates now working at companies like Google, Qualcomm, and SAP. His research interests include: Database system architecture and optimization Distributed transaction processing Cloud-based data management Energy-efficient computing Storage systems and hardware interactions Recent publications show strong focus on transactional systems, durability mechanisms, and cloud-native database architectures. His work consistently appears in top-tier venues like VLDB, SIGMOD, and IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering. Key projects include: SHADOW systems for high availability DimmStore for memory power optimization NoSE for NoSQL schema design RemusDB for transparent database availability

Jessica OlivaresView profile

Assistant Professor

• Supply Chain Management
• Supply Chain Disruptions
• Industry 5.0
• +3 more

Jessica Olivares is an Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management at the Shannon School of Business, Cape Breton University. Her expertise spans supply chain resilience, digital twins, and Industry 5.0, with a focus on mitigating disruptions in global networks. Dr. Olivares contributes to both academic research and practical solutions for sustainable supply chain management. Her academic credentials include: B.S. in Industrial Engineering, University of the Americas Puebla (UDLAP), Mexico M.S. in Industrial Engineering, University of the Americas Puebla (UDLAP), Mexico Ph.D. in Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, University of Windsor, Canada Dr. Olivares' research centers on supply chain management, with specific interests in disruption recovery, digital twin applications, and sustainable design. She explores how Industry 5.0 principles can humanize smart manufacturing while enhancing resilience. Her work addresses critical gaps in perishable food supply chains and resource distribution during crises, integrating risk assessment with technological innovation to build robust systems. Her recent publications (2021-2025) show a strong emphasis on digital twins for supply chain resilience, with increasing attention to sustainability and multi-objective optimization. She has pioneered frameworks for recovery from major disruptions, including pandemic impacts, and investigates energy-aware scheduling in manufacturing. Her scholarship bridges theoretical models with real-world applications in food systems and global networks. No scientific awards were documented in the available sources. Information on graduate student supervision and research funding was not provided, though her active publication record suggests engagement in scholarly mentorship and potential grant-supported projects. No details about laboratories or research teams were mentioned.

Ali José MashtizadehView profile

Associate Professor

• Operating Systems
• Distributed Systems
• Storage Systems

Ali José Mashtizadeh is an Associate Professor at the Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo. His research focuses on operating systems, distributed systems, and storage, with expertise in system reliability, network optimization, and concurrent programming. Education: Ph.D., Computer Science, Stanford University (2017) M.S., Computer Science, Stanford University (2017) M.Eng., Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT (2007) B.S., Electrical Engineering, MIT (2006) His research centers on designing scalable and reliable systems, with recent publications exploring TCP network frameworks, in-memory data persistence, and microsecond-scale scheduling. Key themes include optimizing tail latency, neutralization-based memory reclamation, and fault-tolerant distributed services. His articles consistently demonstrate innovations in low-latency networking, operating system architecture, and cloud infrastructure, with recent emphasis on serverless benchmarks and processor customization. No scientific awards or advising relationships are detailed in the provided materials.

Bin GuoView profile

Assistant Professor

• Parallel and Distributed Computing
• Graph Algorithms
• Graph Mining
• +5 more

Bin Guo is an Assistant Professor at the Computer Science Department of Trent University (since Jan. 2024) and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Computing & Software Department of McMaster University. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from McMaster University (2023) and an MSc in Applied Computer Science from Winnipeg University (2018). His research focuses on parallel/distributed computing, graph algorithms, and computer security for data analytics, with notable contributions to federated k-core decomposition and secure distributed algorithms. He teaches courses in database systems, operating systems, and computer security at Trent University and has taught at McMaster University. Education: PhD in Computer Science, McMaster University (2023) MSc in Applied Computer Science, Winnipeg University (2018) Research Interests: Parallel and Distributed Computing Graph Algorithms and Mining Computer Security & Privacy Federated Learning Concurrent Data Structures Advising & Grants: Current advisees: Gregory Prouty, Michael Abiona, Syed Zarif Past advisees: Igor Jardim-Martins, Issec Lee Funding sources: Graduate Teaching Assistantships, Research Fellowships, Trent University Research Development Grants Labs & Teams: Leading research projects in parallel graph algorithms and federated security algorithms Collaborating with McMaster University on PhD/Master's co-supervision

Kaisong HuangView profile

Researcher

• Database Engines
• Transaction Processing
• Data Storage Management
• +3 more

Kaisong Huang is a Researcher at the University of Calgary , where he leads the Data Systems and Infrastructure Lab (DSIL) . His work bridges database systems with modern hardware innovations, focusing on performance optimization and storage technologies. PhD, Computer Science, Simon Fraser University (Sep 2020 - May 2025) MMath, Computer Science, University of Waterloo (Sep 2018 - Aug 2020) BEng, Software Engineering, Nanjing University (Sep 2014 - Jun 2018) Huang's research spans database engines , transaction processing , data storage management , resource disaggregation , and AI/LLM-driven database systems . His work includes optimizing latency in database systems, leveraging non-volatile memory, and addressing cross-engine transaction consistency. Recent publications highlight trends in hardware-aware DBMS design, persistent memory indexing, and SSD performance trade-offs. Huang has received prestigious recognitions, including: ACM SIGMOD Best Paper Award (2025) ACM SIGMOD Student Travel Award (2025) ACM SIGMOD Research Highlight Award (2023) Simon Fraser University (SFU) Graduate Fellowship (2020-2024) SFU Computing Science Travel Awards (2022, 2025) SFU Professional Development Grant (2025) He actively contributes to academic service as: PC member for SIGMOD 2026, ICDE 2026, CIKM 2023-2025, VLDBJ 2025-2026 Reviewer for SIGMOD 2022 and the Journal of Systems Architecture Committee member for the SIGMOD Availability Committee