Welcome to the SPEAR (Systems for Performance, Energy, And Resiliency) team's web page!

The team conducts research spanning various areas of parallel and distributed systems including cluster management, interconnection networking, performance modeling and simulation, power and energy efficiency, and fault tolerance. Our mission is to unify systems and AI, where we are committed to creating software systems to expedite AI applications (Sys4AI) and exploring advanced AI technologies to tackle critical research challenges in computer systems (AI4Sys).





Faculty ​
Current Students
  • Xin Wang (Ph.D., expected 2023 )
  • Melanie Cornelius (Ph.D., 1/2019- )
  • Matt Dearing (PhD., 8/2021-)
  • Zhong Zheng (PhD, 5/2022 - )

SPEAR Alumni
  • Boyang Li (Ph.D., 7/2023, co-advise with Mike Papka).
  • Dr. Yao Kang (Ph.D. 12/2022),  Nvidia.
  • Dr. Yuping Fan (Ph.D. 12/2021, co-advised with Mike Papka, Bill Allcock, Paul Rich at Argonne), Facebook.
  • Dr. Sean Wallace (Ph.D. 5/2017, co-advised with Mike Papka at ALCF), Cray Inc.
  • Dr. Xu Yang (Ph.D. 5/2017), Amazon.
  • Dr. Eduardo Berrocal (Ph.D. 5/2017), Intel.
  • Dr. Li Yu (Ph.D. 2016), Google Inc.
  • Dr. Zhou Zhou (Ph.D. 2016), Salesforce.
  • Dr. Jingjin Wu (Ph.D. 2013), UESTC (first employment)
  • Dr. Wei Tang (Ph.D. 2012), Google Inc.
  • Dr. Ziming Zheng (Ph.D. 2012), HP-Vertica (first employment)
  • Dr. Yawei Li (Ph.D. 2008), Google Inc.(first employment)

  • Dustin Favorite (MS, 1/2021 - 5/2022) (Project: CQSim/CQGym)
  • Naunidh Singh (MS, 1/2021 - 5/2021) (Project: CQSim/CQGym)
  • Peixin Qiao (MS, 8/2016-5/2020 )
  • Sirisha Cherala (MS, 1/2019-5/2019)
  • Melanie Cornelius (MS, 8/2018-12/2018) 
  • Huaxia Wang (MS 2014)
  • Yu Wang (MS 2014)
  • Yongen Yu (MS 2013)
  • Dongxu Ren (MS 2012)
  • Jiexing Gu (MS 2009)
  • Prashasta Gujrati (MS 2008)
  • Jung-Min Lee (MS 2006)
  • Zongjie Cui (MS 2005)
  • Prathibha Deshikachar (MS 2004)

  • Hannah Greenblatt (BS/MS, 1/2021 - 5/2023) (Project: SEEr-planning)
  • Ian Dougherty (BS/MS, 1/2023- 5/2023)
  • Shambhawi Sharma (BS/MS, 1/2023 - 5/2023)
  • Hunter Negron (BS/MS, 1/2022 - 12/2022) (Project: SEEr-planning)
  • Zhong Zheng (BS/MS, 8/2021 - 5/2022)
  • Sahil Sharma (BS/MS, 9/2019- 5/2021) (Project: DNPC)
  • Avery Peck (BS/MS, 1/2020- 12/2020)
  • Sergio Servantez (BS, 1/2019-5/2019) 
  • Zhen Huang and Black Ehrenbeck (BS, 1/2019-5/2019)
  • Sergio Servantez (BS, 8/2018-12/2018 )
  • Zhen Huang, Blake Ehrenbeck, Brianna Bransfield (BS, Student Cluster Competition at SC2018, 8/2018-11/2018 )
  • Zhen Huang (BS, CS Scholarship, 1/2018-5/2018 )
  • Blake Ehrenbeck (BS, NSF REU, 7/2017-9/2017)
  • Arushi Rai (BS, NSF REU, 7/2017-9/2017)
  • Shreyas Moudgalya (BS, 10/2016-11/2016)
  • Aleksandra Kukielko (BS, NSF REU, 5/2016-8/2016)
  • Jia Hao He (BS, NSF REU, 2/2016-3/2016)
  • Tarun Gidwani (BS, NSF REU, 8/2014-10/2014)
  • Asad Patel (BS, NSF REU, 8/2014-12/2014)
  • Runran Wang (BS, REU summer, 2010)
  • Kunlun Guo (BS, REU summer, 2010)
  • Janusz Nosek (BS, REU summer, 2009)
  • Soo Min Park (BS, 2007)

​Visiting Scholars
  • Yin Liang, Associate Professor of Jiangsu Normal University, (3/2013-3/2014)
  • Jin-Min Yang, Professor of Hunan University, (12/2014- 6/2015)
  • Ying Xu, Associate Professor of Hunan University, (9/2017-11/2017)
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                                Contact
                                                Email: zlan AT uic.edu
                                                Phone: 312.996.3422

                                Address
                                                851 S. Morgan Street, #809
                                                Chicago, IL 60607
                                               
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ZHILING LAN