[Hotstorage-webchair] HotStorage'26 Keynote Address [Photo/Bio/Talk]

Sun Sep 6 13:37:23 EDT 2026

Hi Ali,

Thank you so much for the quick response! We have put the information on our website (https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwww.hotstorage.org%2f2026%2fkeynote-speakers.html&c=E,1,Y17ZCQ0LIxGTZsPCXFKnIQ1JvDYPFh8lZlnH7w3cR_waLL7G0KyNIvqrtVQGZ0MEJpl97wHlMWPlVeBmfkc2KX71UzRoV_ShRyALlL50Dg,,&typo=1). Please do not hesitate to let us know if anything needs to be changed. Looking forward to the talk!

Thanks,
Mai

From: Ali R.Butt <butta at cs.vt.edu>
Date: Saturday, September 5, 2026 at 1:48 PM
To: Zheng, Mai [E CPE] <mai at iastate.edu>
Cc: chairs26 at hotstorage.org <chairs26 at hotstorage.org>, generalchairs26 at hotstorage.org <generalchairs26 at hotstorage.org>, webchair26 at hotstorage.org <webchair26 at hotstorage.org>
Subject: Re: HotStorage'26 Keynote Address [Photo/Bio/Talk]

Hi Mai & Team,

Here is the requested information.

Photo: https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fpeople.cs.vt.edu%2fbutta%2fimg%2farb.jpg&c=E,1,9gHeOG98ZI8VzrdlNIsXMSGiVQGwGSyUd4FPXlBLKZj1LGOKG8GuFFXfjLzk0zIDFsNnfIwupPdL8OVfuYaF1qWXdchj_DpXM2rFh1gKDc8W2YH7drwa&typo=1

Bio: Ali R. Butt is a Professor of Computer Science (and ECE by courtesy) at Virginia Tech, where he leads the Distributed Systems and Storage Laboratory (DSSL) and directs the stack at cs Center for Computer Systems. His research spans cloud and high-performance computing systems, systems support for machine and deep learning applications, and file/I/O/storage systems. He is an ACM Distinguished Member and a recipient of an NSF CAREER Award and NetApp & IBM Faculty Awards. He serves as Associate Editor for ACM Transactions on Storage, and has served as General Chair for ACM HPDC 2023 and PC Co-Chair for USENIX FAST 2028. Outside of research, Ali loves to travel, explore new places, and experience the world through its food, cultures, and people.

Title: Rethinking Cacheability: Storage and Caching Innovation in the AI Era

Abstract: Classical caching exploits skew: some data matters more than the rest, and systems benefit from keeping the important data close. In this talk, I'll argue that AI workloads expose new ways to measure and exploit this skew, tracing a journey of ideas from my group across AI and HPC systems. Can individual training samples be made "cacheable," using their contribution to model convergence to decide what to keep and what to evict? What changes when data and compute are distributed across heterogeneous clients, as in federated learning, and when much of that system's cost lives outside the training loop itself? At LLM scale, what happens when the unit being cached is a tensor moving across GPU memory, host memory, and storage? I'll then connect this thread back to HPC, where I/O behavior can be predicted from historical logs and agentic AI can diagnose bottlenecks directly from system traces. Across these systems, the same underlying idea emerges: understanding what matters—whether data, tokens, activations, or I/O behavior—can enable systems to make better decisions about where to spend scarce resources. I'll close with open questions about how far this importance-driven approach can be pushed as models, training regimes, and hardware hierarchies continue to evolve.

Warm regards,
-ali

> On Sep 4, 2026, at 4:36 PM, Zheng, Mai [E CPE] <mai at iastate.edu> wrote:
>
> Great! Thank you for the quick response!
>
> Thanks,
> Mai
> From: Ali R Butt <butta at cs.vt.edu>
> Date: Friday, September 4, 2026 at 12:07 PM
> To: Zheng, Mai [E CPE] <mai at iastate.edu>
> Cc: chairs26 at hotstorage.org <chairs26 at hotstorage.org>, generalchairs26 at hotstorage.org <generalchairs26 at hotstorage.org>, webchair26 at hotstorage.org <webchair26 at hotstorage.org>
> Subject: Re: HotStorage'26 Keynote Address [Photo/Bio/Talk]
>
> Hi Mai,
>
> I’ll send you all this info by tomorrow at the latest. Looking forward.
>
> -ali (mobile)
>
> On Sep 4, 2026, at 12:24 PM, Zheng, Mai [E CPE] <mai at iastate.edu> wrote:
>
>  Hi Ali,
>
> Thank you again for accepting our invitation to give a keynote! As we finalize the program, would you mind sharing the following information at your convenience?
> • Photo
> • Bio
> • Title and Abstract of the keynote
>   Our web chair can also borrow the Photo/Bio from your public website (https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fpeople.cs.vt.edu%2fbutta%2f&c=E,1,SnyjfaQ_ozzH3NpdJuFLW1YgncVcg0CutziYIJy-Y0dGxjmqW9zx_7Fu6CQ7I4wM9_7stWIJnjaqdX5uJy1GUu1ytQleej9LN2Q-J3OUhbuIsww,&typo=1) to save you some time. If you have newer versions, however, we would be happy to update them accordingly. Please just let us know.
>   Thanks again for your time and support. We are very much looking forward to your keynote! In the meantime, please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
>
> Travis Janssen & Mai Zheng
> HotStorage’26 General Chairs
> https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwww.hotstorage.org&c=E,1,fS6Fq4V9k-tlyXRfL62EdrAbrFc7leLwSPd-Hwb7YL1MXeIXiswOfcF75gStmivKRxw5_is7C3YYkKeiVSeciFZZ5Ei2k5GsQKl39ACrCCjpb55Su4AEBO0,&typo=1
>     From: Zheng, Mai [E CPE] <mai at iastate.edu>
> Date: Saturday, August 15, 2026 at 12:32 AM
> To: Ali R. Butt <butta at cs.vt.edu>
> Cc: chairs26 at hotstorage.org <chairs26 at hotstorage.org>, generalchairs26 at hotstorage.org <generalchairs26 at hotstorage.org>
> Subject: Re: HotStorage'26 Keynote Address [Reminder]
>
> Hi Ali,
>
> Thank you for reaching out! Please feel free to arrange your travel including flights, lodging, etc. as you see fit. We will reimburse you later based on ACM's “Reimbursing Speaker Expenses” policy (https://www.acm.org/special-interest-groups/volunteer-resources/conference-planning/conference-finances). Please note that "Receipts are required for all expenses over $25”  (-:
>
> Thanks again for accepting our invitation. We’re very much looking forward to your talk!
>
> Best,
> Mai
>
>
> On 8/14/26, 5:36 PM, "Ali R. Butt" <butta at cs.vt.edu> wrote:
>
> Hi Mai,
>
> I am working on my flights this weekend, and will plan to be there on 28 and 29 both. Since I start from a small airport, I’ll do this now rather than later to get the best available journey.
>
> Let me know if I arrange my own lodgings and seek reimbursement, or will you guys do that direct for me. Either is ok. I’d need 27-30.
>
> Thank you and excited for the talk,
> -ali
>
>
>
> > On Jul 21, 2026, at 12:14 PM, Zheng, Mai [E CPE] <mai at iastate.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Ali,
> >
> > This is great! Thank you so much for accepting our invitation! We are honored to have you join us! We will follow up with more details once the program is finalized. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or specific requirements.
> >
> > Thanks again, and we are looking forward to hosting you!
> >
> > Best,
> > Travis and MaiFrom: Ali R. Butt <butta at cs.vt.edu>
> > Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2026 10:09 PM
> > To: Zheng, Mai [E CPE] <mai at iastate.edu>
> > Cc: chairs26 at hotstorage.org <chairs26 at hotstorage.org>; generalchairs26 at hotstorage.org <generalchairs26 at hotstorage.org>
> > Subject: Re: HotStorage'26 Keynote Address [Reminder]
> >  Hi Mai and Travis,
> >
> > I am honored to be invited, and happy to accept.
> >
> > Also, thank you for the follow up, the earlier email has fallen through the cracks.
> >
> > Warm regards,
> > -ali
> >
> >
> > > On Jul 21, 2026, at 10:00 AM, Zheng, Mai [E CPE] <mai at iastate.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > Dear Ali R. Butt,
> > > Hope you’ve been well. We're writing to follow up on our invitation for you to serve as a keynote speaker at HotStorage'26, to be held on September 28–29 in Prague, Czechia (https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwww.hotstorage.org%2f&c=E,1,ZHdEu_yccqjHRHOs64E4QyugPbZ4ysfc9LtmiyJDlPZsBAHuYCHukh9AUpbnbTdkEqd_iSk58SIrC4tVi-88PJOdlZDTTp2CJvcCU6_BpUKT4lihBJZdWw,,&typo=1), co-located with SOSP ’26.
> > > We would be delighted to have you join us, and your perspective on storage systems would be a great fit for the program. We realize your schedule is busy, so we wanted to check whether you’ve had a chance to consider the invitation.
> > > If helpful, we're happy to provide any additional details. We would appreciate it if you could let us know your availability at your earliest convenience.
> > > Thank you again for considering this, and we hope we’ll have the chance to host you!
> > >
> > > Best regards,
> > > Travis Janssen & Mai Zheng
> > > On behalf of HotStorage’26 Organizing Committee
> > > https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwww.hotstorage.org&c=E,1,7EAR01OqGVRPpKjNsLZ5OlGbGBIrmyx2TN42vXdrjhuApiKxcjaq1iG8dJ73XH03Pv_e4449t4sVKD_AZr5GitkBAvMmtfRnYQTQcYSMoeTVzMr7wF8OX8UPa1Q,&typo=1
> > >
> > > From: Zheng, Mai [E CPE]
> > > Sent: Tuesday, July 7, 2026 1:12 PM
> > > To: Ali R Butt <butta at cs.vt.edu>
> > > Cc: generalchairs26 at hotstorage.org <generalchairs26 at hotstorage.org>; chairs26 at hotstorage.org <chairs26 at hotstorage.org>
> > > Subject: HotStorage'26 Keynote Address
> > >  Dear Ali R. Butt,
> > >
> > > On behalf of the organizing committee of HotStorage '26, we are writing to invite you to deliver the keynote address at HotStorage '26, taking place September 28–29 in Prague, Czechia (https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwww.hotstorage.org%2f&c=E,1,tB3-PKuzWigFAZU4-USAAcyVvO7OndTuri7r7QxBzX9PfbAbEbgV7ZX0v23PPIf7rgW0aLHNiQ7cAFBmQ14vkWf2hPd9S-hAQ1hNy1SCnFMih9rz&typo=1), co-located with SOSP ’26.
> > >
> > > Your work on storage and I/O systems has had a significant impact on the field, and we believe your perspective would resonate strongly with our community. We would be honored if you would accept our invitation.
> > >
> > > The keynote would run approximately one hour on September 29, the day before the SOSP main conference. We are happy to work around your schedule and accommodate any preferences you may have regarding the format. We will cover your travel and accommodation expenses, and provide an honorarium in accordance with ACM policy as a token of our appreciation.
> > >
> > > If you are interested, we would be delighted to share further details and answer any questions you may have. We would greatly appreciate hearing from you at your earliest convenience, and no later than July 21.
> > >
> > > Thank you for considering our invitation, and for your many contributions to the community!
> > >
> > > Best regards,
> > > Travis Janssen & Mai Zheng
> > > On behalf of HotStorage’26 Organizing Committee
> > > https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwww.hotstorage.org&c=E,1,n2NHyBIahA0V3VMi4c3ARIOrUAA0p9ajeomxTVrASIZjdT_xd1ILpliWNVLu075ASujQw5aTWxEWQvitO8J_rRTmOFONtXFejet4W_xH&typo=1
>
>
>
> --
> Mai Zheng
> Associate Professor
> Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering
> Iowa State University
> https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwww.ece.iastate.edu%2f~mai%2f&c=E,1,Lc4G5iXy3KY7XGyzfBqw1zFe8TEay-dct5Uvm5zayBiw1W5cYfxBRK7Pjy36fJNk1TH7JAD7WRPMJN0VgphXUwfW5nQMZ6FPydDg5arEc9qPAmKKKQ,,&typo=1
>
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.fsl.cs.sunysb.edu/pipermail/hotstorage-webchair/attachments/20260906/2a9465fd/attachment-0001.htm>