Francis Yan
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Education
- Ph.D. in Computer Science, Stanford University, 2020
- M.S. in Computer Science, Stanford University, 2020
- B.S. in Computer Science (“Yao Class”), Tsinghua University, 2015
- B.A. in Economics, Tsinghua University, 2015
Biography
Francis Y. Yan is an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with an affiliate appointment in Electrical & Computer Engineering. Before joining UIUC, he was a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research Redmond. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University and completed his undergraduate studies at Tsinghua University (Yao Class) and MIT. His research lies at the intersection of machine learning and networked systems.
Academic Positions
- Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Jan 2025 – Present
- Affiliate Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Nov 2025 – Present
- Adjunct Professor of Computer Science, Aug 2024 – Jan 2025
- Senior Researcher, Microsoft Research Redmond, Aug 2020 – Jan 2025
Research Interests
- Networked systems
- ML for systems
- Systems for ML
- Video systems
Research Areas
Teaching Honors
- List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students (Spring 2025)
Research Honors
- USENIX NSDI Outstanding Paper Award (2024)
- APNet Best Paper Award (2022)
- IRTF Applied Networking Research Prize (2021)
- USENIX NSDI Community Award (2020)
- USENIX ATC Best Paper Award (2018)
Recent Courses Taught
- CS 438 (ECE 438) - Communication Networks
- CS 538 - Advanced Computer Networks