About Me
I am a Computer Science PhD student at MIT, advised by Professor Tim Kraska. I am part of the Data Systems Group within the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).
I am generally interested in computer systems research. My research interests span data systems, distributed systems, and systems for machine learning. I also enjoy thinking about problems at the intersection of systems and human-computer interaction as I strongly believe in the value of creating usable systems software.
Before starting my PhD, I earned my master's degree in Computer Science at the University of Toronto, advised by Professor Gennady Pekhimenko. Before graduate school, I was a Software Engineering student at the University of Waterloo and graduated in 2018.
News
Publications

Blueprinting the Cloud: Unifying and Automatically Optimizing Cloud Data Infrastructures with BRAD
Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment (VLDB), Vol. 17, No. 11., 2024.
@article{brad-yu24, author = {Yu, Geoffrey X. and Wu, Ziniu and Kossmann, Ferdi and Li, Tianyu and Markakis, Markos and Ngom, Amadou and Madden, Samuel and Kraska, Tim}, doi = {10.14778/3681954.3682026}, journal = {{Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment}}, month = {8}, number = {11}, pages = {3629–-3643}, title = {{Blueprinting the Cloud: Unifying and Automatically Optimizing Cloud Data Infrastructures with BRAD}}, volume = {17}, year = {2024}, }

Check Out the Big Brain on BRAD: Simplifying Cloud Data Processing with Learned Automated Data Meshes
Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment (VLDB), Vol. 16, No. 11., 2023. Vision Paper.
@article{brad-kraska23, author = {Kraska, Tim and Li, Tianyu and Madden, Samuel and Markakis, Markos and Ngom, Amadou and Wu, Ziniu and Yu, Geoffrey X.}, doi = {10.14778/3611479.3611526}, journal = {{Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment}}, month = {8}, number = {11}, pages = {3293--3301}, title = {{Check Out the Big Brain on BRAD: Simplifying Cloud Data Processing with Learned Automated Data Meshes}}, volume = {16}, year = {2023}, }

@article{treeline-yu23, author = {Yu, Geoffrey X. and Markakis, Markos and Kipf, Andreas and Larson, Per-Åke and Minhas, Umar Farooq and Kraska, Tim}, doi = {10.14778/3561261.3561270}, journal = {{Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment}}, month = {9}, number = {1}, pages = {99--112}, title = {{TreeLine: An Update-In-Place Key-Value Store for Modern Storage}}, volume = {16}, year = {2022}, }

Habitat: A Runtime-Based Computational Performance Predictor for Deep Neural Network Training
USENIX Annual Technical Conference (USENIX ATC), 2021.
Paper | BibTeX | Talk Video | Project Website
@inproceedings{habitat-yu21, title = {{Habitat: A Runtime-Based Computational Performance Predictor for Deep Neural Network Training}}, author = {Yu, Geoffrey X. and Gao, Yubo and Golikov, Pavel and Pekhimenko, Gennady}, booktitle = {{Proceedings of the 2021 USENIX Annual Technical Conference (USENIX ATC'21)}}, year = {2021}, }

Skyline: Interactive In-Editor Computational Performance Profiling for Deep Neural Network Training
ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST), 2020.
@inproceedings{skyline-yu20, title = {{Skyline: Interactive In-Editor Computational Performance Profiling for Deep Neural Network Training}}, author = {Yu, Geoffrey X. and Grossman, Tovi and Pekhimenko, Gennady}, booktitle = {{Proceedings of the 33rd ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST'20)}}, year = {2020}, }
* Denotes equal contribution.
Demonstrations
Skyline: Interactive In-Editor Performance Visualizations and Debugging for DNN Training
Machine Learning and Systems (MLSys), 2020. Demonstration Track, Non-archival.
TBD Suite: Benchmarking and Profiling Tools for DNNs
Machine Learning and Systems (MLSys), 2019. Demonstration Track, Non-archival.
Awards and Honors
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NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship - Doctoral (NSERC PGS D)
2020 – 2023 -
NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship (NSERC CGS D)
2020 – 2023 (declined) -
NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship – Master's (NSERC CGS M)
2019 – 2020 -
Snap Research Scholarship
January 2019 -
Vector Institute Scholarship in Artificial Intelligence
2018 – 2019 -
Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology (QEII-GSST)
2018 – 2019 -
Wolfond Fellowship
2018 – 2019 -
Sandford Fleming Foundation Award for Academic Excellence
June 2018