Amir Shaikhha receives a Google Fellowship 2017
© 2017 EPFL
Amir Shaikhha, an IC School doctoral student in the Data Analysis Theory and Applications Laboratory of Professor Christoph Koch, has been awarded the distinguished Google Ph.D. Fellowship for 2017 in the area of Structured Data and Database Management.
Amir’s thesis project focuses on using high-level programming languages for systems development, while avoiding any negative impact on performance. His project aims to design a database system, which offers both increased productivity and high performance, as opposed to the existing, monolithic implementations, which are difficult to maintain and extend.
To proceed, he aims to develop DBLAB - a framework to build efficient database systems using high-level programming. The intent is to perform source-to-source compilation and optimize the entire code base of a query engine by converting the high-level Scala code to specialized, low-level C code. The compilation process in DBLAB is performed by a systems compiler, which provides powerful abstractions essential for dealing with the complexity of the optimization effort.
The Google Ph.D. fellowship is a prestigious award given in recognition and support to outstanding graduate students doing exceptional research in Computer Science and related disciplines, shaping and influencing the future of technology.