NINeS 2026: Pods: HKUST

The HKUST NINeS pod will offer an informal environment to watch, share, and discuss the NINeS programme. It will consist of a mix of in-person talks by senior and junior people, shared viewing of the NINeS programme, and lively discussions throughout.

The day will start with an introduction to the NINeS programme, and a vote to decide which presentations are viewed. It will conclude with a wrap-up discussion, and a drinks social event on the HKUST campus. The pod will be organised by Zili Meng and Gareth Tyson.

Agenda

Time (HKT)	Event
9:30	Welcome and Voting for Papers
10:00	NINeS Presentation Session 1
11:00	Henry Hong Xu (CUHK) Keynote: Hyper-Scale AI Infrastructure: Efficiency, Reliability, and Beyond
12:00	Lunch
13:30	Mini-presentations and research pitches
14:30	Coffee Break
15:00	NINeS Presentation Session 2
16:00	NINeS Presentation Session 3
17:30	Close
18:00	Social event

Keynote Information

Speaker: Henry Hong Xu Title: Hyper-Scale AI Infrastructure: Efficiency, Reliability, and Beyond

Abstract: We have witnessed extraordinary development of AI over the recent years. One driving force behind this stride is the hyper-scale infrastructure that empowers the large machine learning models with tens of thousands of accelerators like GPU and high-speed interconnects. Utilizing and managing AI infrastructure is often the bottleneck to real-world use of AI. In this talk, I will share some recent systems we have built (and deployed in production in some cases) that help people train and serve their models faster, and identify faults and root causes more easily.

Bio: Hong Xu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research area is computer networking and systems, particularly machine learning systems and data center networks. His work has received best paper awards from ACM SIGCOMM 2022, IEEE ICNP 2023 and 2015, among others. He has also received multiple collaborative research awards from industry and distinguished reviewer/editor awards from the community. He is a senior member of ACM and IEEE, and an associate editor of ACM TOCS and IEEE TNSE.

Registration

Attendance is free. If you would like to attend, please register here: https://forms.gle/326VKbnEEntKamRx9

Mini-presentation slots

We will be running a mini-presentation session, consisting of short 5-minute research “pitches”. The 5-minutes could be used to introduce your own research, or even a new idea that you would like community feedback on.

If you would like to give a 5-minute mini-presentation, please add your details here:
https://forms.gle/ZQyLM8xegHduoJmu7

Pod Location