Welcome. I am a member of the Computer Engineering Group in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto. I am also cross-appointed to the Department of Computer Science. I received my M.S. and Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and my B.E. degree in Computer Science from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.

My research interests are in application-layer algorithms in a wide variety of distributed systems, including peer-to-peer and overlay networks, multi-hop wireless networks, and sensor networks. In particular, my research focuses on improving quality and performance in large-scale distributed systems. I believe that high-quality research bridges theory and practice, and proposes practical solutions based on theoretical studies in general or ideal cases. I also enjoy writing actual code, building real systems from scratch, and making them work efficiently.

In particular, my recent and current research efforts focus on two fronts of research topics. First, I am interested in open problems in application-layer overlay networks, towards maximized performance in light of network dynamics. Particularly, I am interested in the use of network coding as a practical means of achieving optimal throughput in multicast sessions. Second, I am interested in open problems in multi-hop wireless networks, including mobile ad hoc and sensor networks, particularly theoretical studies and application-layer solutions.

My dissertation research at the University of Illinois has focused on middleware-level algorithms and architectures to support Quality of Service (QoS) adaptations at the application level. Highlights of the work include the design and development of the Agilos middleware architecture, which assists complex applications to make informed decisions regarding the timing and scale of QoS adaptations, and involves approximately sixty thousand lines of code, developed across a distributed platform. This work has led to the IEEE Communications Society Leonard G. Abraham Prize Paper Award in the Field of Communications Systems in 2000.

iQua research group. I lead the iQua research group at the University of Toronto. A redesigned group web site has been launched in November 2006, with the objective of keeping it elegant, dynamic, informative, and interesting. Of course, much of the content in my personal web pages here will also be in the group web site, but I have always enjoyed the simplicity found in a stack of static web pages.