I’m a system researcher at Google. I’m excited to work in SystemsResearch@Google, collaborating with groups across Google Cloud and DeepMind. My work is supported by my managers David Culler and Hank Levy.
Previously, I completed my Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2022, advised by Andrea and Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau. I obtained my bachelor’s degree from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2016.
Research
My research at Google addresses two LM challenges hyperscalers face:
- Language Model. I optimize serving efficiency by leveraging model features (like activation sparsity) and maximizing system and hardware efficiency.
- Large Memory. I optimize memory efficiency across the Google fleet through enabling tiering that are easy to specialize and deploy.
I contribute to Google’s open-source gemma.cpp project.
In my PhD, I wrote a series of stories (aka papers) on memory efficiency. Now, I’m working on new ones at Google—but, you know, system stories take time.
Publications
SLAP: Segmented Reuse-Time-Label Based Admission Policy for Content Delivery Network Caching
Ke Liu, Kan Wu, Hua Wang, Ke Zhou, Peng Wang, Ji Zhang, Cong Li
TACO’2024: ACM Transactions on Architecture and Code Optimization [paper]
Arya: Arbitrary Graph Pattern Mining with Decomposition-based Sampling
Kan Wu*(co-first author), Zeying Zhu*, Zaoxing Liu
NSDI’2023: 20th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation [paper]
SLAP: An Adaptive, Learned Admission Policy for Content Delivery Network Caching
Ke Liu, Kan Wu, Hua Wang, Ke Zhou, Ji Zhang, Cong Li
IPDPS’2023: 37th International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium [paper]
WiscSort: External Sorting for Byte Addressable Storage
Vinay Banakar, Kan Wu, Yuvraj Patel, Kimberly Keeton, Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau, Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau
VLDB’2023: 49th International Conference on Very Large Data Bases [paper]
Evolving System Stack for Persistent Memory: Device Characterization, Caching, and Sharing Perspectives
Kan Wu
Ph.D. Thesis : University of Wisconsin-Madison [paper]
NyxCache: Flexible and Efficient Multi-tenant Persistent-Memory Caching
Kan Wu, Kaiwei Tu, Yuvraj Patel, Rathijit Sen, Kwanghyun Park, Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau, Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau
FAST’2022: 20th USENIX Conference on File and Storage Technologies [paper] [slides] [video]
Cornus: Atomic Commit for Cloud DBMS with Storage Disaggregation
Zhihan Guo, Xinyu Zeng, Kan Wu, Wuh-Chwen Hwang, Ziwei Ren, Xiangyao Yu, Mahesh Balakrishnan, Philip A. Bernstein
VLDB’2022: 48th International Conference on Very Large Data Bases [paper]
The Storage Hierarchy is Not a Hierarchy: Optimizing Caching on Modern Storage Devices with Orthus
Kan Wu, Zhihan Guo, Guanzhou Hu, Kaiwei Tu, Ramnatthan Alagappan, Rathijit Sen, Kwanghyun Park, Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau, Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau
FAST’2021: 19th USENIX Conference on File and Storage Technologies [paper] [slides] [video] [code]
The Storage Hierarchy is Not a Hierarchy: Optimizing Caching on Modern Storage Devices with Orthus
Kan Wu et al.
NVMW’2021: 12th Non-Volatile Memories Workshop [paper]
Releasing Locks As Early As You Can: Reducing Contention of Hotspots by Violating Two-Phase Locking
Zhihan Guo, Kan Wu, Cong Yan, Xiangyao Yu
SIGMOD’2021: ACM SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Data [paper]
Read as Needed: Building WiSER, a Flash-Optimized Search Engine
Jun He, Kan Wu, Sudarsun Kannan, Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau, Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau
FAST’2020: 18th USENIX Conference on File and Storage Technologies [paper]
Towards an Unwritten Contract of Intel Optane SSD
Kan Wu, Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau, Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau
HotStorage’2019: 11th USENIX Workshop on Hot Topics in Storage and File Systems [paper] [slides] [code]
Exploiting Intel Optane SSD for Microsoft SQL Server
Kan Wu, Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau, Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau, Rathijit Sen, Kwanghyun Park
DaMoN, SIGMOD’2019: ACM SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Data [paper]
Experience
Senior Software Engineer
SystemsResearch@Google
2022 - Now
Affiliate Research Assistant
Microsoft Gray System Lab
2018 - 2021
Software Engineering Intern
VMware
2019 Summer
Undergrad Research Assistant
Chinese University of Hong Kong
2016
Service
USENIX FAST’25 PC
USENIX ATC’25 PC
USENIX ATC’24 PC
USENIX HotStorage’24 PC
SOSP’24 Proceedings Chair
SOSP’23 Student Research Committee, Poster Committee
ACM TOS’2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 reviewer
VLDBJ’2023 reviewer