Ping Zhou

Introduction

Ping Zhou is a Ph.D. candidate of Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Pittsburgh. Before joining Pitt in January 2008, he worked as Software Engineer in Intel (Shanghai) for about 4 years on several media product projects. During his work in Intel, Ping Zhou received many awards for his distinguished contribution and accomplishments, and was ranked Outstanding in every year's performance review. He also submitted 4 Intel Invention Disclosure during the period.

Ping Zhou got his BS and MS degree in Computer Science from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He started programming on Apple II computer when he was 12, and got China National Certification of Software Engineer at the age of 17.

Ping Zhou's research topic includes new memory technology (e.g. Phase Change Memory, STT-RAM, Memristor). He is participating the PCM research group in Pitt.

Ping Zhou has passed his PhD dissertation defense on November 22nd, 2011 and is waiting for the paperwork from his committee.

Recent Updates

• 2011/12/12 - Ping Zhou completed the requested thesis revision and got 3 out of 5 signatures from the committee. He is waiting for the committee to complete his graduation paperwork.
• 2011/11/22 - Ping Zhou passed his PhD dissertation defense. The title of his dissertation is "Towards Successful Application of Phase Change Memories: Addressing Challenges from Write Operations".
• 2011/6/17 - Ping Zhou's paper "MRAC: A Memristor-based Reconfigurable Framework for Adaptive Cache Replacement" was accepted as a poster by The 20th International Conference on Parallel Architectures and Compilation Techniques (PACT).
• 2011/5/18 - Ping Zhou passed his PhD proposal exam.
• 2010/10 - Ping Zhou passed all three PhD comprehensive exams (VLSI Design, Computer Architecture, Compiler Design).
• 2010/5 - Ping Zhou started internship as Software Engineer at Videon Central.
• 2010/4/15 - Ping Zhou was awarded Outstanding Teaching Assistance.
• 2010/4/7 - Ping Zhou passed his PhD preliminary exam (which has been postponed twice from January due to schedule conflict and severe weather).
• 2009/12/8 - Ping Zhou's paper "Fine-Grained QoS Scheduling for PCM-based Main Memory Systems" was accepted by The 24th IEEE International Parallel & Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS-2010).
• 2009/11/24 - Ping Zhou's joint paper with Benjamin Lee et al. "Phase Change Technology and the Future of Main Memory" was accepted by IEEE Micro's Top Picks from Computer Architecture Conferences (January/Febuary 2010).
• 2009/11/2 - Ping Zhou gave a presentation on his paper "Energy Reduction for STT-RAM Using Early Write Termination" in ICCAD-2009 main conference.
• 2009/7/26 - Ping Zhou's paper "Energy Reduction for STT-RAM Using Early Write Termination" was accepted by IEEE/ACM 2009 International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD-2009). [ppt]
• 2009/6/22 - Ping Zhou gave a presentation on his paper "A Durable and Energy Efficient Main Memory Using Phase Change Memory Technology" in ISCA-2009 and attended panel discussion on new memory technologies. [pptx]
• 2009/2/24 - Ping Zhou's paper "A Durable and Energy Efficient Main Memory Using Phase Change Memory Technology" was accepted by The 36th International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA-2009).
• 2008/9/26 - Ping Zhou's paper "Frequent Value Compression in Packet-based NoC Architectures" was accepted by 14th Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference (ASP-DAC 2009).

Education

• Current Ph.D. student in Computer Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Expected to graduate in December 2011; Advisor: Jun Yang
• M.S. in Computer Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, P. R. China, March 2004; Advisor: Jinyuan You
• B.S. in Computer Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, P. R. China, June 2001

Professional

Research

• Ping Zhou, Bo Zhao, Youtao Zhang, Jun Yang, Yiran Chen "MRAC: A Memristor-based Reconfigurable Framework for Adaptive Cache Replacement", to appear as poster, The 20th International Conference on Parallel Architectures and Compilation Techniques (PACT), Oct. 2011.
• Ping Zhou, Yu Du, Youtao Zhang, Jun Yang, "Fine-Grained QoS Scheduling for PCM-based Main Memory Systems", The 24th IEEE International Parallel & Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS-2010), April 2010. (acceptance rate: 127/527=24%)
• Benjamin Lee, Ping Zhou, Jun Yang, Youtao Zhang, Bo Zhao, Engin Ipek, Onur Mutlu, Doug Burger, "Phase Change Technology and the Future of Main Memory", IEEE Micro, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 143-143, January/February 2010. [PDF]
• Ping Zhou, Bo Zhao, Jun Yang, Youtao Zhang, "Energy Reduction for STT-RAM Using Early Write Termination", IEEE/ACM 2009 International Conference on Computer-Aided Design, pp. 264-268, November 2009 (ICCAD-2009, acceptance rate: 115/438=26%) [PDF] [ppt]
• Ping Zhou, Bo Zhao, Jun Yang, Youtao Zhang, "A Durable and Energy Efficient Main Memory Using Phase Change Memory Technology", The 36th International Symposium on Computer Architecture, pp. 14-23, June 2009 (ISCA-2009, acceptance rate: 43/210=20%) [PDF] [pptx]
• Ping Zhou, Bo Zhao, Yu Du, Yi Xu, Youtao Zhang, Jun Yang, Li Zhao, "Frequent Value Compression in Packet-based NoC Architectures", 14th Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference, pp. 13-18, January 2009 (ASP-DAC 2009, acceptance rate: 116/355=33%)
• Intel Invention Disclosure: Index-Based PVR and Trick Mode, Ping Zhou and Wei Hu, submitted in 2007
• Intel Invention Disclosure: A Fast-Boot Solution in Embedded System using Dual Ramdisk, Ping Zhou and Wei Hu, submitted in 2007
• Intel Invention Disclosure: A New Remote Software Upgrade Solution for Dual-Ramdisk Embedded System, Ping Zhou and Wei Hu, submitted in 2007
• Intel Invention Disclosure: Dual-Image Firmware Upgrade for IP-STB, Ping Zhou and Wei Hu, submitted in 2004

Courses Taken in Pitt

• Compiler Design
• Software Engineering
• Computer Architecture 1
• Introduction to VLSI Design
• Advanced VLSI Design
• Computer Architecture: Special Topics
• Graduate Seminar

Teaching Assistance in Pitt

• ECE 0142: Computer Organization (Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2010)
• ECE 0132: Digital Logic (Spring 2009, Fall 2009)

Awards

• University of Pittsburgh: Outstanding Teaching Assistance Award (2010)
• Intel: Ranked Outstanding in every year's Intel performance review (2005, 2006, 2007)
• Intel: Division Recognition Award (2004, 2006, 2007)
• Intel: Spontaneous Recognition Award (2006/12, 2007/5, 2007/7)
• Intel: Olo River Production Launch Award (2007)
• Intel: Project Completion Award (2005)
• Shanghai Jiao Tong University: Exceptional Student (2000)
• Shanghai Jiao Tong University: Outstanding Student (1998)
• Shanghai Jiao Tong University: Scholarship winner (1997~2000)

Projects

• Intel: IP/DVB Set-Top-Box based on Intel CE2xxx Media Processor
• Intel: IP/DVB Set-Top-Box based on Intel embedded IA platform
• Intel: Toshiba HD-DVD based on Intel embedded IA platform
• Intel: Digital Media Adapter using Intel Xscale processor and ESS media processor
• Intel: Digital Media Gateway using Intel Xscale processor and SigmaDesign media processor
• Intel: Remote Gaming project using Intel Xscale processor and SigmaDesign media processor
• Course Project: VLSI implementation of cache coherence protocol
• Course Project: Out-of-order core simulator (Tomasulo algorithm)
• Course Project: Compiler design (lexical analysis, syntax analysis, semantic tree)

Skills

• Expert in embedded system
• Expert in new hardware power-on and low-level development (ARM and x86)
• Strong development skills, proficient with C/C++, assembly and Bash programming
• Experienced with Java, Python, HTML, LATEX, Octave
• Familiar with Linux kernel and device driver development
• Familiar with ARM and x86 architecture
• Knowledge in streaming and multimedia technology
• Experienced with various simulators (Simics, GEMS, PTLsim, SimpleScalar)
• Knowledge in VLSI design and Verilog

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