Yicong Huang

Information Systems Group, University of California, Irvine.

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2059 Donald Bren Hall

Irvine, CA 92617

Yicong Huang is a 6th-year Ph.D. candidate at the Information Systems Group (ISG), Computer Science department, University of California, Irvine. He is set to graduate in June 2025. Guided by Dr. Chen Li, he specializes in big data management, data processing systems, and machine learning systems. He received his B.S. in Computer Science from University of California, Irvine as well.

Yicong’s journey includes vital contributions to the Texera project—an interactive workflow-based big data analytics system, showcasing extensive coding expertise and groundbreaking research. His publications in prestigious database venues, such as VLDB and SIGMOD, showcase standout works including Udon, an interactive UDF debugger for dataflow systems; IcedTea, a time-travel debugging tool for dataflow systems; Pasta, an optimizer for pipelining schedules; and CORE, a machine learning acceleration framework for streaming data. His interdisciplinary reach spans venues such as TOCHI, PNAS Nexus, JAMIA, AMIA, and PloS ONE.

Beyond academia, Yicong’s expertise is refined through research internships at Bytedance and VISA, contributing to projects like the HTAP database and windowed aggregation operators, leading to system patents and papers. Notably, his leadership skills shine through managing collaborative research projects and mentoring over 40 students. Yicong received fellowships including the 2024 Graduate Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship and the 2023 Public Impact Fellowship.

Education

Work

  • 2024.06 - 2024.09
    Software Engineer Intern
    Observe Inc.
    • Contributed to the development of a dataset transformer for log store analytics, especially focusing on window maintenance of live data streams.
    • Investigated the use of Snowflake Time Travel to optimize data partitioning and clustering for transformed datasets.
  • 2022.06 - 2022.09
    Research Intern
    VISA Inc.
    • Developed real-time window aggregation framework with out-of-order event support.
    • Designed space-efficient, versatile list for in-memory raw-event storage.
    • Proposed out-of-order handling algorithms, outperforming existing Flink designs.
  • 2020.06 - 2020.09
    Research Intern
    ByteDance Inc.
    • Worked on an HTAP database to support instant query on the real-time data.
    • Implemented TP (MySQL) metadata to AP (Kudu) schema conversion.
    • Integrated lock-free data structure for heap implementation.

News (Selected)

Nov 15, 2024 Our paper “IcedTea: Efficient and Responsive Time-Travel Debugging in Dataflow Systems” is accepted by VLDB 2025!
Oct 29, 2024 Our paper “DS4ALL: Teaching High-School Students Data Science and AI/ML Using the Texera Workflow Platform as a Service” is accepted by Data Science Education K-12: Research to Practice Conference (DSE-K12’25)!
Aug 31, 2024 I attended VLDB 2024 in Guangzhou, China, presenting the research paper for Texera, the system we have been building for the past 8 years!
Aug 6, 2024 Our paper “Pasta: A Cost-Based Optimizer for Generating Pipelining Schedules for Dataflow DAGs”, is accepted by SIGMOD 2025!
Jun 13, 2024 I attended SIGMOD 2024 in Santiago, Chile, presenting a research paper and a demo for Udon, the line-by-line UDF debugger on big data systems. Our demonstration won the Best Demo Runner Up Award!

Publications

2025

  1. VLDB
    IcedTea: Efficient and Responsive Time-Travel Debugging in Dataflow Systems
    Shengquan Ni, Yicong Huang, Zuozhi Wang, and Chen Li
    Proc. VLDB Endow., 2025
    To appear
  2. DSE-K12
    DS4ALL: Teaching High-School Students Data Science and AI/ML Using the Texera Workflow Platform as a Service
    Jiadong Bai, Xiaozhen Liu, Anthony Cuturrufo, Alexander Kundu Taylor, Jeehyun Hwang, and 7 more authors
    In Data Science Education K-12: Research to Practice Annual Conference, Feb 2025
  3. SIGMOD
    Pasta: A Cost-Based Optimizer for Generating Pipelining Schedules for Dataflow DAGs
    Xiaozhen Liu, Yicong Huang, Xinyuan Lin, Avinash Kumar, Sadeem Alsudais, and 1 more author
    In Proceedings of the ACM SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Data (SIGMOD), Feb 2025
    To appear

2024

  1. VLDB
    Texera: A System for Collaborative and Interactive Data Analytics Using Workflows
    Zuozhi Wang, Yicong Huang, Shengquan Ni, Avinash Kumar, Sadeem Alsudais, and 4 more authors
    Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment (PVLDB), Feb 2024
  2. SIGMOD (Demo)
    Demonstration of Udon: Line-by-line Debugging of User-Defined Functions in Data Workflows
    Yicong Huang, Zuozhi Wang, and Chen Li
    In Companion of the 2024 International Conference on Management of Data, SIGMOD/PODS 2024, Santiago AA, Chile, June 9-15, 2024, Feb 2024
  3. ICDE (Workshop)
    Data Science Tasks Implemented with Scripts versus GUI-Based Workflows: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
    Alexander K. Taylor, Yicong Huang, Junheng Hao, Xinyuan Lin, Xiusi Chen, and 2 more authors
    In 40th International Conference on Data Engineering, ICDE 2024 - Workshops, Utrecht, Netherlands, May 13-16, 2024, Feb 2024
  4. fncir
    Brain image data processing using collaborative data workflows on Texera
    Yunyan Ding, Yicong Huang, Pan Gao, Andy Thai, Atchuth Naveen Chilaparasetti, and 3 more authors
    Frontiers in Neural Circuits, Feb 2024

2023

  1. SIGMOD
    Udon: Efficient Debugging of User-Defined Functions in Big Data Systems with Line-by-Line Control
    Yicong Huang, Zuozhi Wang, and Chen Li
    Proc. ACM Manag. Data, Feb 2023
  2. PNAS Nexus
    Understanding underlying moral values and language use of COVID-19 vaccine attitudes on twitter
    Judith Borghouts, Yicong Huang, Sydney Gibbs, Suellen Hopfer, Chen Li, and 1 more author
    PNAS nexus, Feb 2023
  3. The marketing and perceptions of non-tobacco blunt wraps on Twitter
    Joshua Rhee, Yicong Huang, Sadeem Alsudais, Shengquan Ni, Avinash Kumar, and 2 more authors
    Substance Use and Misuse, Feb 2023
  4. TOCHI
    Wording Matters: the Effect of Linguistic Characteristics and Political Ideology on Resharing of COVID-19 Vaccine Tweets
    Judith Borghouts, Yicong Huang, Suellen Hopfer, Chen Li, and Gloria Mark
    Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, Feb 2023

2022

  1. VLDB (Demo)
    Demonstration of Collaborative and Interactive Workflow-Based Data Analytics in Texera
    Xiaozhen Liu, Zuozhi Wang, Shengquan Ni, Sadeem Alsudais, Yicong Huang, and 2 more authors
    Proc. VLDB Endow., Feb 2022
  2. VLDB
    Optimizing Machine Learning Inference Queries with Correlative Proxy Models
    Zhihui Yang, Zuozhi Wang, Yicong Huang, Yao Lu, Chen Li, and 1 more author
    Proc. VLDB Endow., Feb 2022
  3. VLDB (Demo)
    Demonstration of Accelerating Machine Learning Inference Queries with Correlative Proxy Models
    Zhihui Yang, Yicong Huang, Zuozhi Wang, Feng Gao, Yao Lu, and 2 more authors
    Proc. VLDB Endow., Feb 2022
  4. arXiv
    Reshape: Adaptive Result-aware Skew Handling for Exploratory Analysis on Big Data
    Avinash Kumar, Sadeem Alsudais, Shengquan Ni, Zuozhi Wang, Yicong Huang, and 1 more author
    CoRR, Feb 2022
  5. AMIA
    Public Opinions toward COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates: A Machine Learning-based Analysis of U.S. Tweets
    Yawen Guo, Jun Zhu, Yicong Huang, Lu He, Changyang He, and 2 more authors
    In AMIA 2022, American Medical Informatics Association Annual Symposium, Washington, DC, USA, November 5-9, 2022, Feb 2022
  6. Medical Oncology
    c-myc-mediated upregulation of NAT10 facilitates tumor development via cell cycle regulation in non-small cell lung cancer
    Zimu Wang, Yicong Huang, Wanjun Lu, Jiaxin Liu, Xinying Li, and 3 more authors
    Medical Oncology, Feb 2022

2021

  1. JAMIA
    Why do people oppose mask wearing? A comprehensive analysis of U.S. tweets during the COVID-19 pandemic
    Lu He, Changyang He, Tera L. Reynolds, Qiushi Bai, Yicong Huang, and 3 more authors
    J. Am. Medical Informatics Assoc., Feb 2021
  2. PloS One
    The social amplification and attenuation of COVID-19 risk perception shaping mask wearing behavior: A longitudinal twitter analysis
    Suellen Hopfer, Emilia J Fields, Yuwen Lu, Ganesh Ramakrishnan, Ted Grover, and 4 more authors
    PloS one, Feb 2021