The Chemical Reaction Between AI and Data System Research

Professor Zhichao Cao at ECE 2026 Spring Colloquium

In this talk, Professor Zhichao Cao will explore the symbiotic relationship between AI and data systems, showing how Large Language Models (LLMs) both automate data systems and drive new data system designs. He will present two representative projects: (1) StorageXTuner, the first LLM agent–driven framework that automatically tunes performance for diverse data systems such as RocksDB, LevelDB, MySQL, and CacheLib, outperforming traditional tuning methods; (2) M2Cache, a system that makes LLM inference sustainable and accessible on outdated or low-end hardware through a co-design of dynamic mixed-precision inference and a predictive multi-level cache across HBM, DRAM, and SSDs, greatly improving efficiency and reducing carbon footprint. Finally, Cao will conclude with his vision for future research at the intersection of AI and data systems.