Chengming Zhang

Chengming Zhang is a tenure-track assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Houston. He recently completed his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Indiana University in May 2024, where he was a member of the HiPDAC group working on building efficient and scalable deep learning systems under the advisement of Prof. Dingwen Tao. He has extensive industry research experience with multiple projects at Microsoft Research, Meta Reality Labs, and Argonne National Laboratory.

His educational background includes:

• Ph.D. in Computer Engineering, Indiana University (May 2024)

Dr. Zhang's research focuses on creating efficient machine learning systems that can operate effectively across diverse hardware platforms. His work bridges the gap between theoretical algorithms and practical implementation with particular emphasis on efficient machine learning systems for training and inference on parallel, distributed, and heterogeneous hardware; AI algorithm-hardware co-design, particularly for GPU architectures; effective efficiency algorithms including model compression, data efficiency, and parameter-efficient tuning; and large-scale deep learning applications such as Large Language Models, Agents, and Image/Video Generation systems.

His publication record demonstrates a consistent focus on optimizing deep learning systems through hardware-aware approaches. The majority of his work centers around making deep learning more efficient through techniques like model compression, hardware-algorithm co-design, and memory optimization. His research spans both theoretical algorithm development and practical system implementation, with publications in top-tier conferences including the International Conference on Supercomputing, PPoPP, and AAAI. A notable trend in his work is the emphasis on practical efficiency - not just theoretical improvements but solutions that deliver real-world performance gains on actual hardware.

Dr. Zhang is actively building his research group at the University of Houston and has secured significant computational resources for his lab, including multiple high-performance computing servers worth a total of $130K (two 8-Ada6000 servers and one dual-4090 servers).