Chen is a senior Ph.D. student in the iQua research group, jointly supervised by Professor Frank R. Kschischang. He received his M.Sc. degree from the University of Toronto in 2009, and his B.Eng. degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2006.
He is interested in designing better networking systems using ideas from information theory, coding theory, and theoretical computer science. His current research focuses on applying network coding to improve the performance of various networking systems, such as wireless networks and peer-to-peer streaming systems. In his spare time, he enjoys learning math (especially, abstract algebra) and solving math puzzles. He also practices meditation and Tai Chi regularly.
Chen was the recipient of the 2011 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad by the China Scholarship Council.
Zimu did his undergraduate program at the Department of Computer Science at Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, P.R. China, and received his B.Engr. degree in July 2007. In September 2007, Zimu joined the iQua research group, and he has completed his M.A.Sc. degree in December 2009, and is continuing to pursue his PhD degree in the group.
During his undergraduate life, Zimu kept excellent academic records, especially in math and computer science courses and ranked top 3% in his department. Based on his solid background, Zimu worked on various programming and research projects, such as “Research and Implementation of Automatic Meta-Information Extraction for Chinese Documents without Dictionary Support” (Jiangsu Province Science Research Fund Candidate). His undergraduate thesis, which won an Excellent Thesis Award at Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, focused on secure data transmission in the Internet.
Currently, his research interests focus on statistical study on the large-scale peer-to-peer applications and design of algorithms for distributed systems. In particular, he is interested in deriving insights from extensive measurements and statistical studies of real-world commercial live streaming applications, and improving performance and quality of peer-to-peer video-on-demand systems.
In his spare time, he devotes his efforts on the maintenance of iQua’s computing resources, and enjoys writing code in various scripting and programming languages.
Wei joined the iQua research group as a Ph.D. candidate in 2010, jointly supervised by Professor Ben Liang. He received his B. Engr. degree with graduate honor and M. Engr. degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2007 and 2010, respectively, both in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Wei has a general research interest in wireless and P2P networks, with special focus on network algorithm design and performance analysis. He enjoys applying mathematical tools in neighboring fields such like economics, game theory and machine learning to model open network problems and propose feasible solutions.
Wei also loves to see how technology is delivered to the industry to benefit real world. He has been actively involved in technology incubation and enjoyed his time at Microsoft Research Asia and Microsoft Server and Tool Business.
Jun joined the iQua research group at the University of Toronto as a Ph.D candidate in September 2012. Before coming to Canada, he spent seven wonderful years at Fudan University, located in Shanghai, China, where he received his B.S. and M.S. degree both in Computer Science, in 2009 and 2012, respectively.
Jun is interested in coding theory and distributed storage systems. His current research focuses on answering how to store data and how to repair data with low time, bandwidth and disk I/O consumptions in large-scale distributed storage systems, by applying mathematical tools such as coding theory and graph theory.
Jun enjoys reading, traveling and jogging in his spare time. He is also a fan of motor sports, especially of Formula One.
Yiwei is currently a M.A.Sc. student in the iQua research group. He received his B.Engr. degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, P.R.China in July 2010.
During his undergraduate studies, Yiwei has held the Excellent Academic Scholarship for a period of three years. His undergraduate thesis focused on the topic of physical-layer network coding in the Institute of Wireless Communication and Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He has also been working on 3GPP/LTE during his internship at Spreadtrum Communications Co., Ltd, which is one of the largest IC designing companies in China.
Currently, Yiwei focuses on the study of multi-party video conferencing applications. His interests are to derive insights from extensive measurements in a real-world environment, and to explore the feasibility of using network coding in conferencing applications, in order to improve overall application performance.
Heng is currently pursuing his M.A.Sc. degree in the iQua research group as a first-year graduate student. He holds two Bachelor’s degrees, both from University of Toronto: one from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and another from the Department of Computer Science. Heng has also been a Teaching Assistant for several undergraduate courses, covering topics that include engineering economics, Java programming, and C programming.
In his leisure time, Heng enjoys playing basketball, where he plays in the Hart House regularly. He also likes to go to the movies, especially superhero ones from Marvel or DC comics. Because Heng comes from China, he also enjoys trying different cuisines in different restaurants in Chinatown.
Li is currently a first-year M.A.Sc. student in the iQua research group at the University of Toronto. She received her B.Engr. degree from the Department of Computer Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, in July 2012.
During her undergraduate years, Li achieved excellent academic performance, especially in courses of mathematics and major fundamentals, ranking the top 3% among four hundred students. In the summer of 2011, she received an opportunity to take an internship at Baidu, Inc. in Beijing, the largest search engine provider in China. In her final year, she joined the research group of “Cloud Datacenter & Green Computing/Communications” in her university, actively involved in the thesis project of analyzing the tradeoff between power and performance in datacenter networks. She also took some volunteer work such as organizing scientific lectures.
In her spare time, she enjoys swimming, singing and traveling, to explore and appreciate the beauty of life.
