Francis Yan

For More Information

• Francis Yan's website

Education

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Stanford University, 2020
• B.S. in Computer Science (Yao Class), Tsinghua University, 2015
• B.A. in Economics, Tsinghua University, 2015

Biography

Francis Y. Yan is an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), with an affiliate appointment in Electrical & Computer Engineering. His research focuses on building and optimizing networked systems with practical machine learning (ML), ranging from developing large-scale systems and research platforms that lay the foundation for applying ML, to devising practical ML algorithms with mechanisms that improve their real-world deployability in systems and networks. Before joining UIUC, Francis was as a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research Redmond.

Academic Positions

• Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Jan 2025 -- Present
• Affiliate Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Jan 2025 -- Present
• Adjunct Professor of Computer Science, Aug 2024 -- Jan 2025
• Senior Researcher, Microsoft Research Redmond, Aug 2020 -- Jan 2025

Research Interests

• Networked Systems
• Computer Networks
• Machine Learning for Systems and Networking

Other Outside Service

• Program Committee Member, USENIX NSDI 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026
• Program Committee Member, ACM SIGCOMM 2024
• Artifact Evaluation Chair, ACM SIGCOMM 2024
• Program Committee Chair, ACM/IRTF Applied Networking Research Workshop 2023
• Award Committee Member, IRTF Applied Networking Research Prize (2022--2025)

Research Honors

• USENIX NSDI Outstanding Paper Award (2024)
• APNet Best Paper Award (2022)
• Applied Networking Research Prize (2021)
• USENIX NSDI Community Award (2020)
• USENIX ATC Best Paper Award (2018)