Influenced by the classic teachings of Chinese philosopher Confucius, new University of California San Diego computer science Associate Professor Yufei Ding has traversed continents and crossed cultural divides in pursuit of inspiration, innovation, and higher knowledge. Next up? She hopes to initiate a computation revolution – with the UC San Diego campus as ground-zero.
Ding’s academic journey brought her to the university in the fall of 2023. That’s when the theoretical physicist joined the Jacobs School of Engineering Department of Computer Science and Engineering. She was drawn by the department’s collaborative environment and cutting-edge research.
“The opportunity to work with world-class faculty and talented students in a dynamic and interdisciplinary setting was a significant factor in my decision to move here,” said Ding.
Ding’s research interests lie in the broad fields of domain-specific language design, architecture and compiler optimization, and hardware acceleration. Her current research focuses on building high-performance, energy-efficient, and high-fidelity systems for machine learning (ML) and quantum computing (QC).
Specifically, Ding aims to replicate the critical stages of classical computing development within quantum computing. Describing QC as the new “race to the moon,” Ding believes it holds potential benefits for a variety of computer science domains, such as cryptography, optimization, and machine learning.
Ding’s work also involves close collaboration with hardware teams to improve hardware-software integration.
“By developing advanced systems that optimize software execution across various hardware platforms, we make it easier for developers to achieve peak performance without needing deep hardware knowledge,” said Ding.
Ding is affiliated with the university’s Machine Learning Systems Group, which allows her to collaborate with other experts in the field, leverage shared resources, and contribute to multidisciplinary projects aimed at advancing next-generation systems. She is also the founder of PICASSO Lab, named after Pablo Picasso to highlight the creativity needed by both researchers and artists.
As recent transplants to Southern California, Ding and her family are enjoying San Diego’s year-round activities, diverse cultural scene, and vibrant city life.
“The welcoming community and the strong emphasis on innovation make it an inspiring place to live and work,” she said.
Prior to coming to UC San Diego, Ding was an associate professor at UC Santa Barbara. She is a recipient of an Amazon Research Award (2024), the NSF CAREER Award (2020) and the IEEE Computer Society TCHPC Early Career Researchers Award for Excellence in High-Performance Computing (2019).
By Kimberley Clementi