My fond memories of ASPLOS'14

That was my first time to attend ASPLOS. Previously I also attended some other top conferences such as OSDI and ISCA, but I find ASPLOS is very special.

First, ASPLOS is a conference with multiple disciplines. It is really amazing to see researchers from Architecture, PL and OS communities to get together, and to communicate with each other. I believe this kind of communication would improve our understanding towards our own research areas, while providing a good opportunity for us to know about the whole software/hardware stack, and to understand the real problems from the reality. This is really important for the current research. For example, our lab is doing research in Non-Volatile Memory. To efficiently utilize these new memories, we need to rethink almost every aspect of a computer system, from the programming model, operating system, to the architecture. Thus, attending ASPLOS is really beneficial to me.

Although I didn't present any paper at ASPLOS, I did give a short talk about my crazy idea in the WACI session. Previously I have never heard of such sessions from other conferences. Actually I was surprised to know that as a top tier conference, ASPLOS encourages and emphasizes on those wild ideas, and it has been a tradition for a long time! From the WACI session, I learned some interesting ideas from other presenters, and I really enjoyed the process of talking on the stage. I really appreciate the chance given by ASPLOS WACI to make me there.

I also find the debating is interesting and impressive. Although the general-purpose team won, I am still a believer in specialized architecture, since I do believe that optimization on some special/common case will gain better performance/resource utilization.

Over all, I did have a great time at ASPLOS'14. The organization of this conference is terrific! The organizers are so considerate to provide us with an opportunity to play curling and skating. I am a good skater, but it was my first time to try curling (and yes, it was much more difficult to play than it seems on the TV). So I really appreciate the efforts those organizers put in this conference. It is you guys who made this great conference happen, so successfully!

Thank you so much for such a good conference and the opportunity for me to be part of it. I am really looking forward to the next one!