Curriculum Vitae

Yifan Zhu

(λ xyz . z@y.x) edu rochester yifanzhugithub.com/schrodingerzhuORCID 0009-0000-6718-7787

Education

University of Rochester

Ph.D. in Computer ScienceRochester, NY, USA

Advised by Prof. Chen Ding. Research focuses on modern cache systems and compiler optimization, specifically constructing mathematical models to bridge memory reuse and execution parallelism.

Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen

Bachelor of EngineeringShenzhen, Guangdong, China

MGPA 3.8+ (Rank 5). Annual Dean's List student (2018–2022) with academic scholarships. Recipient of the “Outstanding Graduate” award, the institution's highest academic honor.

Work Experience

Software Engineer (Intern)

Google LLCSunnyvale, CA, USA

Member of the Compiler Toolchain Team. Continuing development of the LLVM libc open-source project, enhancing the baremetal heap allocator with new data structures and static and runtime analysis tools.

Compiler Engineer (Intern)

NVIDIA CorporationSanta Clara, CA, USA

Member of the Compiler Frontend Team. Explored tile-based programming models in C++ and developed advanced compiler optimizations and intermediate representation designs using the MLIR framework.

Database Kernel Engineer (Intern)

PingCAP, Inc.Shanghai, China

Member of the Analytical Storage Group for TiFlash, TiDB's columnar analytical engine. Designed and implemented a configurable on-disk file storage format and a portable SIMD execution framework. Refactored the core compilation toolchain to prepare TiFlash for public open-source release.

Teaching Experience

CSC244/444 · Graduate TA

Machine Reasoning12 students

CSC252/452 · Graduate TA

Computer Organization62 students

Projects

LLVM

★ 39.2k · 2022 — present

Modular and reusable compiler and toolchain technologies. Maintainer forllvm-libc (pthread), overseeing POSIX thread support and core C library implementations. Active contributor to subprojects including ThinLTO and libc optimization.

SnMalloc

★ 1.9k · 9.3M downloads · 2020 — present

Experimental high-performance memory allocator by Microsoft Research Cambridge. Author and maintainer of the official Rust bindings,snmalloc-rs, achieving over 9.3M downloads on crates.io.

TiFlash

★ 1.0k · 2021 — 2022

Columnar analytical storage engine for TiDB. Designed and implemented a configurable on-disk storage format and portable SIMD execution framework. Refactored the compilation toolchain to enable its open-source release.

Paguroidea

★ 55 · 2024 — present

Fused parser generator with transparent semantic actions, enabling efficient parsing with a clean separation of syntax and semantics.

Reussir

★ 22 · 2025 — present

MLIR-based reuse analysis framework for functional languages. Exploring token-based memory reuse analysis and regional mutability, bridging the MLIR compiler ecosystem with functional programming.

Star and download statistics are from GitHub and crates.io on July 8, 2026.

Publications

  1. Deriving Symbolic AET using Cache Identity EquationFangzhou Liu, Yifan Zhu, Yekai Pan, Chen Ding, Yanghui Wu.HIPS 2026
  2. Sawtooth Wavefront Reordering: Enhanced CuTile FlashAttention on NVIDIA GB10Yifan Zhu, Yekai Pan, Chen Ding.GPGPU 2026
  3. AutoLALA: Automatic Loop Algebraic Locality Analysis for AI and HPC KernelsYifan Zhu, Yekai Pan, Yanghui Wu, Chen Ding.CoRR 2026
  4. Fully Symbolic Analysis of Loop Locality: Using Imaginary Reuse to Infer Real PerformanceYifan Zhu, Yekai Pan, Chen Ding, Yanghui Wu.CoRR 2026
  5. Data Access Complexity: Monotonicity and ProportionalityChen Ding, Yifan Zhu.MEMSYS 2025
  6. CalibQuant: 1-Bit KV Cache Quantization for Multimodal LLMsInsu Han, Zeliang Zhang, Zhiyuan Wang, Yifan Zhu, Susan Liang, Jiani Liu, Haiting Lin, Mingjie Zhao, Chenliang Xu, Kun Wan, Wentian Zhao.LCFM 2025
  7. Paguroidea: Fused Parser Generator with Transparent Semantic ActionsYifan Zhu, Quartic Cat, Boluo Ge, Shaotong Sun.CC 2024
  8. Measuring Data Access Latency in Large CPU CachesShaotong Sun, Yifan Zhu, Xingzhi Ye, Chen Ding.MEMSYS 2024
  9. Parallel Loop Locality Analysis for Symbolic Thread CountsFangzhou Liu, Yifan Zhu, Shaotong Sun, Chen Ding, Wesley Smith, Kaave Seyed Hosseini.PACT 2024
  10. Scalable CP Decomposition for Tensor Learning using GPU Tensor CoresZeliang Zhang, Zhuo Liu, Susan Liang, Zhiyuan Wang, Yifan Zhu, Chen Ding, Chenliang Xu.CoRR 2023

Professional Service

Honors and Awards

Fellowships and Grants

Computer Science Department Ph.D. Student Stipend

Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of Rochester