David Ke Hong Research Scientist Meta Platforms, Inc. (formerly known as Facebook, Inc.) E-mail: Google Scholar | GitHub | LinkedIn

Biography

Ke (David) is a research scientist in the Core Systems team at Meta (formerly known as Facebook). His current work focuses on building resilient distributed systems that power Meta’s geo-replicated infrastructure.

He earned his PhD in Computer Science and Engineering (advisor Prof. Z. Morley Mao) from University of Michigan. His thesis focuses on validating reliability and performance properties of mobile systems and emerging autonomous vehicle platforms using systematic software engineering techniques, including runtime profiling, program analysis and formal methods.

He received an MPhil (Master of Philosophy) and bachelor degree (first-class honour) in Computer Science and Engineering from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). His prior research also includes performance diagnosis and acceleration of Android systems, traffic engineering in software-defined networks, network and compute acceleration of cloud data centers.

Education

• University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering
  2014 - 2019 EECS Department, CSE Division
  
• The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong
  MPhil in Computer Science and Engineering
  2011 - 2013 Department of Computer Science and Engineering
  
• The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong
  BEng in Computer Science, Computer Engineering (first class honours)
  2007 - 2011 Department of Computer Science and Engineering
  

Research Work

• Safeguarding autonomous vehicle (AV) software platforms:
  1) Developed automated program analysis and instrumentation infrastructure to verify and enforce safety policy compliance in AV software (e.g., Baidu Apollor, Autoware). [SIGMETRICS 2021 paper]
  2) Developed customized program analysis and instrumentation infrastructure for AV software platforms (e.g., Baidu Apollo, Autoware) to discover security vulnerability and enforce policy-based permission control to mitigate cyberattacks against AV systems. [EuroS&P 2020 paper][Homepage][2019 MTRAC award]
• Protocol customization: Program analysis and transformation to localize and disable optional vulnerable features in network and system protocol implementation for attack surface reduction. [FEAST 2017 paper]
• Mobile performance diagnosis: Lightweight trace collection on mobile platforms and systematic, automated machine learning based characterization approach to facilitate root cause diagnosis of performance issues with mobile apps. [Internet-QoE 2016 paper][Media coverage], [MOBILESoft 2019 paper]
• Hybrid SDN: Incremental deployment of SDN in enterprise and ISP network systems for centralized traffic engineering. [SOSR 2016 paper][Patent]
• Mobile performance acceleration: Accelerating mobile applications through flip-flop replication. [MobiSys 2015 paper][Homepage]
• CASN: A cluster-area sensor network for cluster management and security enhancement in data centers. [MASS 2013 paper]
• WSTCP: Wirelessly Assisted TCP for High-Bandwidth Data Center Networks. [MPhil Thesis]
• VOLUME (Virtual On-Line Unified Memory Environment): A distributed virtual memory that unifies the physical memory and disk resources on many compute nodes and form a system-wide data substrate to support large-scale in-memory computation. [CloudCom'13 paper]
• Layer Zero (L0): A general-purpose substrate for cloud computing. [Zhiqiang's PhD Thesis]

Publications

Journal papers

• Qingzhao Zhang, David Ke Hong, Ze Zhang, Qi Alfred Chen, Scott Mahlke, Z. Morley Mao. A Systematic Framework to Identify Violations of Scenario-dependent Driving Rules in Autonomous Vehicle Software. In Proc. of the ACM on Measurement and Analysis of Computing Systems, Volume 5, Issue 2, Article 15, June 2021.
• Mark Gordon, David Ke Hong, Peter Chen, Jason Flinn, Scott Mahlke, Z. Morley Mao. Accelerating Mobile Applications through Flip-Flop Replication. In GetMobile: Mobile Computing and Communications, Volume 19, Issue 3, July 2015.

Conference & workshop papers

• Qingzhao Zhang, David Ke Hong, Ze Zhang, Qi Alfred Chen, Scott Mahlke, Z. Morley Mao. A Systematic Framework to Identify Violations of Scenario-dependent Driving Rules in Autonomous Vehicle Software. In Proc. of the 47th International Conference on Measurement and Modeling of Computer Systems (ACM SIGMETRICS 2021). Jun. 14-18, 2021. Beijing, China.
• David Ke Hong, John Kloosterman, Yuqi Jin, Yulong Cao, Qi Alfred Chen, Scott Mahlke, Z. Morley Mao. AVGuardian: Detecting and Mitigating Publish-Subscribe Overprivilege for Autonomous Vehicle Systems. In Proc. of the 5th IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy (EuroS&P 2020). Sep. 7-11, 2020. Genova, Italy.
• David Ke Hong, Ashkan Nikravesh, Z. Morley Mao, Mahesh Ketkar, Michael Kishinevsky. PerfProbe: A Systematic, Cross-Layer Performance Diagnosis Framework for Mobile Platforms. In Proc. of the 2019 IEEE/ACM 6th International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems (MOBILESoft 2019). May 25-26, 2019. Montréal, Canada.
• David Ke Hong, Qi Alfred Chen, Z. Morley Mao. An Initial Investigation of Protocol Customization. In Proc. of the ACM CCS Workshop on Forming an Ecosystem Around Software Transformation (FEAST 2017). Nov. 3, 2017. Dallas, TX.
• Ashkan Nikravesh, David Ke Hong, Qi Alfred Chen, Harsha V. Madhyastha, Z. Morley Mao. QoE Inference Without Application Control. In Proc. of the ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on QoE-based Analysis and Management of Data Communication Networks (Internet-QoE). Aug. 26, 2016. Florianópolis, Brazil. Media coverage in The Conversation.
• David Ke Hong, Yadi Ma, Sujata Banerjee, Z. Morley Mao. Incremental Deployment of SDN in Hybrid Enterprise and ISP Networks. In Proc. of the 2nd ACM Symposium on SDN Research (SOSR 2016). Mar. 14-15, 2016. Santa Clara, CA.
• Mark Gordon, David Ke Hong, Peter Chen, Jason Flinn, Scott Mahlke, Z. Morley Mao. Accelerating Mobile Applications through Flip-Flop Replication (Best Paper Award). In Proc. of the 13th International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services (MobiSys 2015). May 18-22, 2015. Florence, Italy. Best paper award.
• Zhiqiang Ma, Ke Hong, Lin Gu. VOLUME: Enable Large-Scale In-Memory Computation on Commodity Clusters. In Proc. of the 5th IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing Technology and Science (CloudCom 2013). Dec. 2-5. 2013. Bristol, UK. [Errata]
• Ke Hong, Shuo Yang, Zhiqiang Ma, Lin Gu. A Synergy of the Wireless Sensor Network and the Data Center System. In Proc. of the 10th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad-hoc and Sensor Systems (MASS 2013). Oct. 14-16, 2013. Hangzhou, China.

Poster

• Shuo Yang, Ke Hong, Lin Gu. Poster Abstract: Involving a Sensor Network System in Core Datacenter Management Functions. In Proc. of the 2012 IEEE/ACM 3rd International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems (ICCPS ’12). Apr. 17-19, 2012. Beijing, China.

Thesis

• Ke Hong. Performance, Security, and Safety Requirements Testing for Smart Systems Through Systematic Software Analysis. PhD Thesis. May 2019.
• Ke Hong. A Synergy of Wireless Sensor Networks and Data Center Systems. Thesis for Master of Philosophy. Dec. 2013.

Honors and Awards

• Member of AVGuardian team for Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization (MTRAC) Award (Advanced Transportation Program), 2019
  
• ACM MobiSys Best Paper Award, 2015
  
• ACM CCS Workshop Student Travel Grant, 2017
  
• Rackham Conference Travel Grant, 2017, 2019
  
• HKUST UGC Research Travel Grant, 2013
  
• HKUST Postgraduate Scholarship, 2011 - 2013
  
• First Class Honors Degree for Bachelor of engineering, 2011
  
• University Scholarship, 2007 - 2011
  

Professional Services

• Technical Program Committee Member for the 9th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems 2022 (MOBILESoft 2022) (Technical Papers track, Industry Forum track)
• External Reviewer for the 22nd Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS 2022)
• Artifact Evaluation Committee Member for the 28th ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (SOSP 2021), the 22nd Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS 2022), the 17th European Conference on Computer Systems (EuroSys 2022)
• Journal Reviewer for IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, IEEE Communication Letters, IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience.
• Student Volunteer for ACM SIGCOMM 2013, D-CLOUD 2011

Teaching

Ke worked as a teaching assistant or instructor for the following courses at UMich and HKUST.

• EECS545: Machine Learning (Winter 2016)
• COMP2611: Computer Organization (Spring 2013)
• COMP4611: Design and Analysis of Computer Architectures (Fall 2012)
• HKUST Summer Math Course -- Basic Calculus and Linear Algebra (Summer 2012)
• COMP2711: Discrete Mathematical Tools for Computer Science (Spring 2012)
• COMP4622: Computer Communication Networks II (Fall 2011)

Talks and Demos

• AVGuardian: Detecting and Mitigating Publish-Subscribe Overprivilege for Autonomous Vehicle Systems. Presentation at the 5th IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy (EuroS&P 2020). Sep. 10, 2020. Virtual event. [Talk]
• PerfProbe: A Systematic, Cross-Layer Performance Diagnosis Framework for Mobile Platforms. Presentation at the 2019 IEEE/ACM 6th International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems (MOBILESoft 2019). May 25, 2019. Montréal, Canada. [Slides]
• Performance, Security, and Safety Requirements Testing for Smart Systems Through Systematic Software Analysis. PhD thesis defense at UMich. May 15, 2019. Ann Arbor, MI. [Slides]
• An Initial Investigation of Protocol Customization. Presentation at the ACM CCS Workshop on Forming an Ecosystem Around Software Transformation (FEAST 2017). Nov. 3, 2017. Dallas, TX. [Slides]
• A Synergy of Wireless Sensor Networks and Data Center Systems. MPhil thesis defense at HKUST. Dec. 17, 2013. Hong Kong, China. [Abstract] [Slides]
• A Synergy of the Wireless Sensor Network and the Data Center System. Presentation at the 10th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad-hoc and Sensor Systems (MASS 2013). Oct. 14-16, 2013. Hangzhou, China. [Slides]
• Layer Zero: An Efficient Platform for Cloud Computing. Demo at China Hi-Tech Fair 2012 (CHTF 2012). Nov. 16-21, 2012. Shenzhen, China. [Poster (in Chinese)]

Work Experience

• Research Fellow, EECS Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 06/2019 - 06/2020
  - Researched on program analysis and formal verification to validate security & safety of autonomous vehicle software
  - Led commercialization of the developed technologies supported by MTRAC award
  - Published reserch papers to IEEE EuroS&P 2020 and ACM SIGMETRICS 2021
  
• Strategic CAD Labs Research Intern, Intel Corporation, Folsom, CA 05/2016 - 09/2016
  - Developed an app and OS-layer runtime profiling and statistical characterization prototype to diagnose performance problems with Android apps and applied it to guide the performance problem analysis and fixing in popular Android apps
  - Published the work at the 6th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems (MOBILESoft 2019)
  
• HP Labs Networking Research Associate, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Palo Alto, CA, 06/2015 - 10/2015
  - Designed a hybrid software-defined networking architecture for enterprise and ISP network systems
  - Published the work at the 2nd ACM Symposium on SDN Research (SOSR 2016)
  
• Research Assistant, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, HKUST, 02/2013 - 05/2013
  - Designed and implemented a secondary index for an exascale key-value storage system KV+
  - Developed tutorials for Layer Zero and a web interface for KV+
  
• Teaching Assistant, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, HKUST, 09/2011 - 05/2013
  - Conducted tutorials and labs of various courses for CSE majors
  - Instructed linear algebra for freshmen in CSE department
  
• Junior Research Assistant, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, HKUST, 07/2011 - 08/2011
  - Administrated a Xen-based research cluster
  - Developed software VRS – a Xen-based virtual machine reservation system
  

Software

• VRS - Virtual Machine Reservation System.
  - A Xen-based virtual machine reservation system.
• klog - An In-memory Kernel Logging Library. [Homepage]
  - An easy-to-use and efficient in-memory Linux-based kernel logging library.
• A Xen Hypervisor-based Traffic Sniffer. [Homepage]
  - A network traffic sniffering module inside Xen's hypervisors.