Zixuan Yi, a doctoral student in computer and information science, bridges the gap between learning methods and real-world system constraints utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning.
1 min. read
Businesses are embracing systems powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for efficiency; these tools promise to make time-consuming processes more efficient.
Yi’s research tackles a thorny problem in data management: query optimization, the task of quickly retrieving data relevant to a user—or AI agent—request.
“By bridging the gap between learning methods and real-world system constraints, I aim to create adaptive, automated solutions that continuously optimize performance and meet evolving user needs,” says Yi, who came to Penn Engineering in 2023.
Working with her advisers Ryan Marcus, assistant professor in CIS, and Zachary Ives, Adani President’s Distinguished Professor and department chair, Yi recently co-authored a paper introducing LimeQO, which optimizes multiple queries collectively rather than in isolation, unlocking substantial performance improvements across large workloads.
One of Yi’s biggest contributions is viewing learned query optimization as a so-called “offline exploration problem.” Her work essentially moves costly exploration tasks from the critical “hot” path of production database servers to cheaper and more readily available general computing resources. This allows a database to execute learning tasks “in the background,” without interfering with regular operation.
“We want to guarantee that no query regresses or gets worse,” Yi says. “By framing the problem through this new lens, we created an approach that not only improves efficiency, but also ensures reliability in real-world deployment.”
Understanding order to disorder at the atomic scale opens possibilities for next-generation electronic devices
A Penn team has developed insight into the chemical and geometric mechanisms underlying the synthesis of new 2D materials, paving the way for next-gen devices, biomedical applications, and cleaner, quicker energy conversion and storage.
Penn buildings achieve LEED certifications, showcasing commitment to sustainability
Three recent building projects at the University of Pennsylvania have earned LEED Platinum, Gold, and Silver certifications, underscoring Penn’s ongoing commitment to sustainable design and construction.
OpenAI, DeepSeek, and Google vary widely in identifying hate speech
Neil Fasching and Yphtach Lelkes of the Annenberg School for Communication have found dramatic differences in how large language models classify hate speech, with especially large variations for language about certain demographic groups, raising concerns about bias and disproportionate harm.
