Eighth Annual UK System Research Challenges Workshop, April 17 – April 19, 2024

Call for Presentations & Participation

We invite you to submit 500 word / 0.5 page abstracts (PDF or plain text) of work for presentation at the next UK Systems Research Challenges workshop. In most cases the main points to include in the abstract are the problem being solved, the new idea or hypothesis being explored in your work, and the current state of the project (e.g., whether you are looking for feedback on an early idea or presenting finished results that others might want to use).

This is the eighth iteration of a workshop bringing together systems researchers from across the UK and beyond, to discuss pressing topics affecting the design and implementation of large-scale systems in a friendly and inclusive setting. We’re interested in presentations that speak to:

innovative mechanisms
lessons learned: experience with large or unusual systems
a viewpoint on a controversial systems topic
a big problem coming over the horizon
and really, anything that would be of interest to the builders of computer systems

Past topics have included everything from system security and architecture, to consensus and engineering, to data visualisation, data centres and the Internet of Things. We aim to be broad and inclusive– if it’s a matter that has bearing on how we design, build, operate and use large-scale computing systems, it’s in scope.

This is an informal workshop without published proceedings. Work is not subject to detailed peer review; we are requesting abstracts only to help us put together the programme and confirm that work is on-topic. In the event of an excess of submissions, preference for presentation slots will be given to Ph.D. students and early career researchers.

Location

Redworth Hall Hotel, Surtees Rd, Newton Aycliffe DL5 6NL
Coach transport will be provided between the venue and Newcastle city centre (Urban Sciences Building, 1 Science Square, Science Central, NE4 5TG)

Key Dates

Abstract submission deadline: 13th March 2024
Acceptance notification and presentation programme: 27th March 2024
Workshop dates: arrival evening 17th April, closing with lunch 19th April

Programme

Wednesday 17th April

16:45 Please report to the ground floor reception of the Urban Sciences Building, Newcastle.

17:00 Coach leaves the Urban Sciences Building, Newcastle.

17:35 Check-in at Redworth Hall.

18:30 Drinks reception

19:00 Dinner in the Great Hall

Thursday 18th April

09:00 Welcome (Tom Spink)

09:10–10:30 Session 1: Distributed Systems and Reproducibility (chair Adam Barker)

Unanimous 2PC: fast, simple, and fault-tolerant distributed transactions, Chris Jensen (University of Cambridge), Antonios Katsarakis (Huawei Research), Heidi Howard (Azure Research, Microsoft), Richard Mortier (University of Cambridge) [abstract] [paper]
Safeguarding your Kafka data with encryption-at-rest, Keith Wall [abstract] [paper]
Why you should care about sheaves, Simon Dobson (University of St Andrews) [abstract] [paper]
On Systems Reproducibility, Iain Dixon (Newcastle University), Matthew Forshaw (Newcastle University), Joe Matthews (Newcastle University) [abstract] [paper]

10:30–11:00 Coffee Break

11:00–12:15 Session 2: Short Talks (chair Simon Dobson)

Achieving Balanced Lock Usage Fairness & Lock Utilization using Wuji-Locks, Xueheng Wang (University of Edinburgh), Leping Li (University of Edinburgh), Yuvraj Patel (University of Edinburgh) [abstract] [paper]
Developing a Modern Kubernetes based Study Management Platform, Hugo Hiden (Newcastle University), Stephen Dowsland (Newcastle University) [abstract] [paper]
Enabling User Control in IoT Device Traffic Management through Enhanced Open-Source MUD Manager Interface, Louis Hatton (University of York), Poonam Yadav (University of York) [abstract] [paper]
New CARD: A Vertically Integrated Teaching Tool for Microarchitecture, Mária Ďuračková (University of Edinburgh), Nigel Topham (University of Edinburgh) [abstract] [paper]
From Internet to Emulator: A Virtual Testbed for Internet Routing Protocols, Joshua Levett (University of York), Poonam Yadav (University of York), Vassilios Vassilakis (University of York) [abstract] [paper]

12:15–13:30 Lunch

13:30–15:10 Session 3: Architecture and OS (chair Tom Spink)

Producing Fast Full-system Emulators from Formal Specifications, Ferdia McKeogh (University of St Andrews), Tom Spink (University of St Andrews), Al Dearle (University of St Andrews) [abstract] [paper]
Hardware just-in-time compilation, Kimberley Stonehouse (University of Edinburgh) [abstract] [paper]
Weaver: Streamlining LLM Inference with Spatial Accelerators, Congjie He (University of Edinburgh), Yeqi Huang (University of Edinburgh), Luo Mai (University of Edinburgh) [abstract] [paper]
A collaborative approach to leverage overlapping-ISA heterogeneous multicore architectures, Jiaxun Yang (University of Edinburgh) [abstract] [paper]
Introducing Page Table Garbage Collection For Faster and Better Memory Utilisation, Karim Manaouil (University of Edinburgh), Antonio Barbalace (University of Edinburgh) [abstract] [paper]

15:10–15:30 Coffee Break

15:30–17:10 Session 4: Containers (chair Poonam Yadav)

Themelios: a model-checked reimplementation of Kubernetes, Andrew Jeffery (University of Cambridge), Richard Mortier (University of Cambridge) [abstract] [paper]
Composing Microservices and Serverless for Load Resilience, Dilina Dehigama (University of Edinburgh), Shyam Jesalpura (University of Edinburgh), Boris Grot (University of Edinburgh) [abstract] [paper]
CoreKube: An Efficient, Autoscaling and Resilient Mobile Core System, Andrew E. Ferguson (University of Edinburgh), Jon Larrea (University of Edinburgh), Mahesh K. Marina (University of Edinburgh) [abstract] [paper]
Serverless Native Analytics Engine, Shyam Jesalpura (University of Edinburgh), Shengda Zhu (University of Edinburgh), Boris Grot (University of Edinburgh), Amir Shaikhha (University of Edinburgh) [abstract] [paper]
Contention resilience in overcommitted serverless deployments, Al Amjad Tawfiq Isstaif (University of Cambridge), Richard Mortier (University of Cambridge) [abstract] [paper]

19:00–21:00 Dinner

21:00–22:00 Lightning Talks (chair Jonathan Dowland)

Short (5 minute) talks on any relevant topic

Friday 19th April

10:00–10:20 Session 5: Security (chair Tom Spink)

Defence Against the Unknown: Preventing Side Channel Attacks You Don’t Know Exist, Gregor Haywood (University of St Andrews) [abstract] [paper]

10:20–10:40 Coffee Break

10:40–12:00 Session 6: Short Talks (chair Paul Ezhilchelvan)

Divert, not Throttle: Colocating Batched Jobs with Online Services in Datacenters, Alan Nair (University of Edinburgh), Antonio Barbalace (University of Edinburgh) [abstract] [paper]
MoE-Infinity: Activation – Aware Expert Offloading for Efficient MoE Serving, Leyang Xue (University of Edinburgh), Yao Fu (University of Edinburgh), Zhan Lu (University of Edinburgh), Luo Mai (University of Edinburgh), Mahesh K. Marina (University of Edinburgh) [abstract] [paper]
Introducing Socio-technical Change in Large-Scale Systems: A Distributed Participatory Design Approach, Abd Alsattar Ardati (University of St Andrews) [abstract] [paper]

COMFORT BREAK 5 mins

InfiniTensor: A Tensor-Friendly, Efficient Parallel Programming Library for Accelerator-Centric Clusters, Yeqi Huang (University of Edinburgh), Congjie He (University of Edinburgh), Luo Mai (University of Edinburgh) [abstract] [paper]
RIPEn at home - Surveying internal domain names using RIPE Atlas, Elizabeth Boswell (University of Glasgow), Colin S. Perkins (University of Glasgow) [abstract] [paper]

12:00–12:30 Wrap-up and discussion

12:30–14:00 Lunch

14:00 Coach departs for Newcastle

Registration and Costs

Including accommodation and meals:

Current students: £60
Standard: £125

We are committed to widen participation and historically underrepresented groups within the Systems community. We recognise the need for individualised support to address barriers to participation. To discuss how we can support you (e.g. through bursaries or reimbursement of reasonable expenses) please contact Angela Craggs.

Organising Committee

Chair

Tom Spink, tcs6@st-andrews.ac.uk, University of St Andrews

Co-Chairs

Adam Barker, adam.barker@st-andrews.ac.uk, University of St Andrews
Derek McAuley, derek.mcauley@nottingham.ac.uk, Nottingham University
Richard Mortier, richard.mortier@cl.cam.ac.uk, Cambridge University
Paul Watson, paul.watson@newcastle.ac.uk, Newcastle University

For any other questions or queries, please contact Tom Spink.