It continues to be a fascinating time to work in #DistributedSystems! Here's a reading list of 70+ Distributed Systems papers, *all from 2025*! CS525 UIUC Spring 2026 Reading List (new!): go.siebelschool.illinois.edu… (Slides available in "Schedule" in above doc on those dates).

Builders of Home OSs! You're doing it all wrong! Our #CHI2026 paper shows *seams* are important: how users *transition* between control modes: central, app, device...Home OSs ignoring this will fail! #smarthome Paper: dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/37723… W/ students @anna_karanika & Ali Zaidi

"No Magic in Chores". An original song composed+written+performed by my 11 year old niece and 9 year old nephew. I am the villain in the video... (This was our Christmas Day project in 2025) youtu.be/y632p4qRc_k

Stop using CPU Limits! (Yes, it's ok, you can say it aloud now...we have data to back it up...) SoCC 2025 talk by my student Chirag Shetty, with Saurabh Jha and other IBMers. Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2510.10747

CNN quoted me in their article on the recent AWS Outage of Oct 19-20. I used a classroom analogy to explain the race condition in my #DistributedSystems #CS425 class, and CNN picked it up. @siebelschool @uofigrainger @UofIllinois cnn.com/2025/10/25/tech/aws-…

My live musical performance in UIUC's #DistributedSystems class yesterday! A new Timestamps-Snapshot song! @siebelschool @uofigrainger @UofIllinois youtu.be/YHJy22l3qL8

That time last year when I wrote and recorded an entire rap song for my 500-student class. Enjoy! youtu.be/J8OQjfIRfV0 @siebelschool @uofigrainger @UofIllinois #DistributedSystems

My research group at UIUC! PhD, MS, and a couple of undergrads. (Missing a couple of PhD students.) dprg.cs.uiuc.edu/ @siebelschool @UofIllinois #Meadowbrook

Distributed Systems Rap Song! I recorded this last year, to salve researchers'/students' strong reactions to receiving reviews to their paper/project. Enjoy! #distributedsystems #rap #project #reviews #reviewer2

Be sloppy, not precise! When using ML in systems, "sloppification" (wisely) is secret sauce to being fast & effective! For ML Inference Scaling w/ sub-second latency SLOs. W/ student @beomyeolj & IBM Research. At Eurosys '25 doi.org/10.1145/3689031.3696… @EuroSysConf. @IllinoisCDS

It's STILL a fascinating time to be working in Distributed Systems! Here's a reading list of 70+ Distributed Systems papers, *just from 2024*! CS525 UIUC Spring 2025 Reading List (new!): go.siebelschool.illinois.edu… (Slides in "Schedule" in above doc, available on those dates).

IEEE Fellow, as of today! I love all my students and collaborators. @IllinoisCDS @uofigrainger #IEEE siebelschool.illinois.edu/ne…

"The Idea", modeled after "The Voice". 15 minute brainstorming competition, + 2 min pitch. 9 teams. The ideas blew us away! Winner: "iSpy". Second place (two teams tied): "Neural..." and "Registry" (titles snipped for confidentiality). At Systems&Netw. Retreat, @IllinoisCDS .

"But we already have a Quorum!" (Pic taken in my backyard today) #DistributedSystems #Birds #Robins

Do "musical lectures" work? An experiment... My Fall24 class midterm had 5 questions, each worth 20 pts. For 4 of the 5 questions, median score < 20. The 5th q had a median of 20 (ie > 50% students got a perfect score!) That q was on Timestamps, only topic with a song lecture.

#Aurora Borealis Timelapse. Took it outside Champaign #Illinois yesterday. First time seeing #northernlights with naked eyes! youtu.be/-r15nhZw-0I?si=fXEX…

I did a live musical lecture yesterday, ending with a performance of my "Lamport Timestamps Song" in my #DistributedSystems class. I added a bonus verse on yesterday's AI Nobel Prize news. The bonus verse predicted the Chemistry (AI) Nobel prize today! youtube.com/watch?v=5kF_4BDQ…

1K views in the first 48 hours! My new “Distributed Systems Rap Song” Video. (Ok ok, it’s not “viral” like Taylor Swift or anything, but happy that students liked it.)

It's here! My "CS425 Rap Song". Original lyrics, music, and video shot in @uofigrainger & @UofIllinois campus. The song tells the story of the 4 Programming Assignments in my #distributedsystems course @IllinoisCDS (and much more!). CS425 Rap Song: youtu.be/J8OQjfIRfV0

When alumna @happyandslow visited us this week my students and I went out for Peruvian dinner and then our group tradition of ice cream at Jarling’s.