Minghao Xie

Engineering 2 · 1156 High St · CA 95064 · (831) 515-8143 · mhxie@ucsc.edu

I am a third-year computer engineering Ph.D. student at Baskin School of Engineering, UC Santa Cruz. Before, I got my B.E. degree in Computer Science from Sichuan University, China.

I am fortunate to be advised by Chen Qian and Heiner Litz. My research interests revolve around computer networks and systems. My current work focuses on flash storage disaggregation within data centers as part of the Center for Research in Storage Systems (CRSS) at UCSC. I enjoy building real systems that are scalable, deliver high performance and which are easy to use.


Recent Projects

LESS: A Latency-aware Ephemeral Storage System for Data-intensive Serverless Applications [github]

CRSS Project
  • Built a serverless storage system with ReFlex4ARM in Python
  • Designed an SLO-enforced flow-based scheduler for serverless jobs, using Ray framework to scale up the controller performance
  • Developed C++ and Python version of asynchronous storage client
  • Implemented the cloud-native workloads with the proposed system and deployed the system with Terraform in AWS
Jan 2020 - May 2021

Evaluating 100Gbps Flash Disaggregation on ARM SoC [poster] [github]

CRSS Project
  • Provide a portable flash disaggregation software (across DPDK/SPDK versions & different architectures)
  • Explore the differences between ARM and x86
  • Achieve a state-of-the-art throughput with better TCO
Sep 2018 - Dec 2019

Explore A SDN-based In-Network Caching Technique in ICN (PI)

Top-Notch Talent Research Training Program
  • Improved the performance of in-network caching technique in ICN;
  • Enabled SDN features to simplify the compatibility/management/policy.
Apr 2017 - Mar 2018

Publications

  • Shi, S., Yu, Y., Xie, M., Li X., Li, X., Zhang, Y. & Qian, C. (2020) Concury: A Fast and Light-weight Software Cloud Load Balancer. In conference of the ACM Symposium on Cloud Computing 2020 (SOCC 2020). [Link]
  • Xie, M., Qian, C., Litz, H. (2020) ReFlex4ARM: Supporting 100GbE Flash Storage Disaggregation on ARM SoC. OCP Future Technologies Symposium 2020. Poster session in San Jose, CA. [Link]

Skills

Programming Languages
Development and Operations
Frameworks, Libraries, and Tools
Workflow
  • Test-Driven Development
  • Agile Development & Scrum
IO Development
  • SPDK (Storage Performance Development Kit)
  • DPDK (Data Plane Development Kit)
Others
  • Document Writing: LaTex, Markdown
  • Networking Tools: Wireshark, Mininet, iPerf3

Interests

Apart from being a researcher, I spend my weekends reading. I like reading sci-fi, economics, and other popular books. I'm fond of the hard sci-fi written by Isaac Asimov and Cixin Liu.

For outdoor activities, I enjoy hiking and traveling, especially to the places with beautiful natural landscapes. I'm so glad that living in UCSC makes me hike every day. I like playing ball games and jogging as well.

Last but not least, I am a Sunday painter who is trying to transform the style from realistic to fantastic (not abstract). The painter I respect most is Camille Pissarro.


Honors & Awards

  • ACM SOSR (Symposium on SDN Research) 2020 Student Travel Grant, San Jose, Mar 2020
  • Computer Science Star (1.5%), College of Computer Science, Sichuan University, June 2018
  • Outstanding graduate (2.5%), College of Computer Science, Sichuan University, May 2018
  • 1st Class - Top-Notch Talents Scholarship (1%), College of Computer Science, Sichuan University, Nov 2017
  • National Scholarship (1.5%), Sichuan University, Nov 2016
  • 1st Class - Integrated Scholarship (2%), College of Computer Science, Sichuan University, Oct 2016
  • 1st Place & 3rd Prize - China Students Service Outsourcing Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, Sichuan University & China, Sep 2016

Teaching

CSE120(TA): Computer Achitecture, 21 Winter, 20winter

Office hour: Tue 8:30am - 9:30am, via ZOOM
Discussion sections:
  • Mon 8:00am - 9:05am, via ZOOM
  • Tue 6:30pm-7:45pm, via ZOOM

CMPE110(TA): Computer Achitecture, 19winter