Yiting Xia

Dr. Yiting Xia is a tenure-track faculty member at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics (MPI-INF), leading the Network and Cloud Systems research group. She previously worked as a research scientist at Facebook and holds a PhD in Computer Science from Rice University (2018) and a B.S. in Telecommunications Engineering from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and Queen Mary University of London (2011). Her research focuses on high-performance and energy-efficient networking for cloud computing, including reconfigurable data center networks, optical communications, and network protocols. Notable contributions include innovations in transport protocols, time synchronization for optical networks, and failure-resilient network design.

• Education:
  • PhD in Computer Science, Rice University, 2018
  • M.S. in Computer Science, Rice University, 2014
  • B.S. in Telecommunications Engineering, BUPT & QMUL, 2011
• Research Interests: Data center networking, optical communications, cloud systems, network protocols, distributed systems, and network security.

Her work bridges theoretical contributions with practical implementations, addressing challenges in latency-sensitive flows, traffic engineering, and system reliability. Awards include the Ken Kennedy-Cray Fellowship and the N2Women Rising Star Award (2021).

She has co-lectured courses on distributed systems and data networks at Saarland University and previously contributed to teaching at Rice University. Key projects include Aurora (for MoE inference optimization), Lighthouse (an open research framework for optical networks), and Occam (a reliable network management system).

• Grants & Projects: Focus on deployable optical network architectures and resilient backbone management during pandemic-driven traffic shifts.
• Labs/Teams: Leads the Network and Cloud Systems group at MPI-INF, collaborating with academia and industry on cutting-edge networking solutions.