The VarSys Team

FACULTY AND STAFF

Kirk W. Cameron, Ph.D. is a Professor of Computer Science and a Research Fellow in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech. The central theme of his research is to improve power and performance efficiency in high performance computing (HPC) systems and applications. Accolades for his work include NSF and DOE Career Awards, IBM and AMD Faculty Awards, and being named Innovator of the Week by Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine. In 2017-2018, Prof. Cameron held a Distinguished Visiting Fellowship at Queen’s University Belfast from the U.K. Royal Academy of Engineering. He is Director of the stack@cs Center for Computer Systems and the Scalable Performance Laboratory. Kirk is overall VarSys project lead PI and heads the HPC Systems Team.

Ali Butt, Ph.D. is a Professor of Computer Science and a Research Fellow in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech. His expertise includes distributed computing systems, cloud computing, file and storage systems, Internet of Things, I/O systems, and operating systems. Accolades for his work include the NSF Career Award, the NetApp Faculty Award, and multiple IBM faculty Awards. He was also recognized as the “Outstanding New Assistant Professor” for the VT College of Engineering in 2009. Ali is Associate Director of the stack@cs Center for Computer Systems and he leads the Distributed Systems & Storage Laboratory (DSSL). Ali is co-PI on the VarSys project and heads the Cloud Systems Team.

Daphne Yao, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and a Research Fellow in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech. She currently holds the Elizabeth and James E. Turner Jr. ’56 Faculty Fellow in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech and she is also an L-3 Communications Cyber Faculty Fellow at Virginia Tech. Her expertise spans software and system security. Accolades for her work include the NSF Career Award and the Young Investigator Award from the U.S. Army Research Office. She was also recognized as the “Outstanding New Assistant Professor” for the VT College of Engineering in 2010. Daphne is Associate Director of the stack@cs Center for Computer Systems and she leads the Human-Centric Security Group. Daphne is co-PI on the VarSys project and heads the Security Team.

Yili Hong, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Statistics in the College of Science at Virginia Tech. His expertise includes machine learning and engineering applications and statistics. Accolades for his work include the American Statistical Association Physical and Engineering Sciences Award and appointment as a DuPont Young Professor. He leads the Hong Applied Statistics Research Group. Yili is co-PI on the VarSys project and heads the Statistics Team.

Layne Watson, Ph.D. is a Professor of Computer Science and Mathematics in the Colleges of Engineering and Science (respectively) at Virginia Tech. His work lies at the intersection of computer science, mathematics, and engineering. An overarching research goal is creation of sophisticated mathematical software, justified by rigorous mathematical analysis, to attack significant practical engineering and scientific problems. Layne is a Fellow of the IEEE, the National Institute of Aerospace, and the International Society of Intelligent Biological Medicine. Accolades for his work include the Virginia Tech Alumni Award and the College of Engineering Dean’s Award, both for Excellence in Research. Layne has a distinguished history of leading interdisciplinary computational research across disciplines including fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, composite materials, chemical engineering, economics, biology, robotics, computer vision, computer systems, optimal control, circuit design, machine learning, and nonlinear optimization. Layne is co-PI on the VarSys project and heads the Math and Algorithms Team.

Godmar Back, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Computer Science in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech. His research primarily focuses on computer operating systems while his interests also include collaborative work in computer science education and the library sciences. Accolades for his research include the NSF Career Award. For his educational efforts, he was awarded the 2018 ICPC Foundation Coach Award recognizing mentoring excellence resulting in 5 teams in 6 years competing in the World Finals. He leads the Systems Software Laboratory at Virginia Tech. Godmar is co-PI on the VarSys project and heads the Education Team.

Margaret Ellis, M.S. is an Assistant Professor of the Practice of Computer Science in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech. As a passionate teacher of key courses such as problem solving and data structures, her work lies at the intersection of computer science research, computer science education, and challenges of diversity and inclusion in the field. Among other accolades for her teaching efforts she was awarded the 2015 Engineering Inclusive Teaching (EIT) Inclusive Educators Award by Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN). An accomplished entrepreneur and innovator, she received related awards from the regional Roanoke Blacksburg Technology Council in 2010 and 2011 respectively. Margaret contributes substantially to the outreach efforts in the VarSys project and currently leads the Data Analysis and Classification Team of undergraduates creating new protocols for classifying systems for variability.

Amy Loeffler is Operations and Communications Manager for the department of Computer Science in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech. Amy is an accomplished writer and a member of the National Association of Science Writers. As a member of the VarSys team, Amy creates and manages media content and placement. Artifacts of her work include VarSys-related articles, videos, and ongoing social media feed.

GRADUATE STUDENTS

Ali Anwar Computer Science (Ph.D. student, Cloud Systems Team)
Jon Bernard Computer Science (Ph.D. student, HPC Systems Team)
Tyler Chang Computer Science (Ph.D. student, Math and Algorithms Team)
Bo Li Computer Science (Ph.D. student, HPC Systems Team)
Thomas Lux Computer Science (Ph.D. student, Math and Algorithms Team)
Li Xu Statistics (Ph.D. student, Statistics Team)
Xiaodong Yu Computer Science (Ph.D. student, Security Team)

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

Samuel Furman Computer Science (B.S. student, Data Analysis and Classification Team)
Chandler Jearls Computer Science (B.S. student, Data Analysis and Classification Team)
Nicolas Hardy Computer Science (B.S. student, Data Analysis and Classification Team)
Zoe Smith Computer Science (B.S. student, Data Analysis and Classification Team)

ALUMNI

Yue (Kevin) Cheng Computer Science (Ph.D. graduate, Cloud Systems Team) Assistant Professor, Computer Science, George Mason University.
Mariam Umar Computer Science (Ph.D. graduate, HPC Systems Team) Software Architect Intel (Exascale Path Forward).

Uday Ananth Computer Science (M.S. graduate, HPC Systems Team) Technical Staff ViaSat, Inc.
Lance Chao Computer Science (B.S./M.S. graduate, Education Team) Software Engineer Facebook
Safdar Iqbal Computer Science (M.S. graduate, Cloud Systems Team) Software Engineer MixPanel, Inc.
Alex Kedrowitsch Computer Science (M.S. graduate, Security Team) Major, U.S. Army and Instructor, U.S. Military Academy at West Point.