Fan Lai

Dr. Fan Lai is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where he leads research at the intersection of Machine Learning, Systems, and Computer Networking. His work focuses on building practical systems for efficient GenAI applications across cloud and planetary scales, with real-world adoption by companies like Meta, LinkedIn, and Cisco.

• Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Michigan (2023)
• Previous Roles: Systems Research@Google, Meta AI

Research areas include:

• Cloud ML Systems (LLMs, Image/VideoGen, DLRMs)
• Collaborative Learning (Federated Learning, Edge-Cloud ML, Hyperscale Training)
• ML for Systems (Resource Management, Network Optimization)

Recent publications span top conferences like SOSP'25, MICRO'25, MLSys'25, SIGMOD'25, covering topics from LLM serving to distributed training compression. Awards include ACM SIGOPS Honorable Mention, David J. Kuck Dissertation Prize, and ML and Systems Rising Stars.

Teaching includes CS 498: Machine Learning Systems and CS 598: Systems for GenAI. Actively mentoring PhD and MS students in ML systems research, with prior mentees transitioning to institutions like Princeton and UW.