Keynote 1:

Title: "Efficient DNN Inference Through Edge-Cloud Collaboration"

Abstract:

Deep neural networks (DNN) have been widely adopted in applications such as image segmentation, object recognition, and other computer vision tasks. However, reducing the makespan of DNN inference remains challenging, especially when computations are executed on resource-constrained IoT devices. Computation offloading provides a practical solution by transferring part of the workload from a slow local device to a faster remote cloud server. Since DNN inference typically consists of a multi-stage processing pipeline, a key challenge is determining the optimal layer or stage at which offloading should occur in order to minimize the overall makespan.
Our observations show that local computation time on a mobile device increases approximately linearly with the number of executed DNN layers, whereas offloading time decreases monotonically and follows a convex curve as more layers are computed locally before transmission. Based on this observation, we first study optimal partitioning and scheduling for a single line-structured DNN. We then extend the analysis to multiple line-structured DNNs. For general-structured DNNs represented as directed acyclic graphs, we further discuss heuristic solutions based on a path-based scheduling policy. The proposed methods are validated through real-system implementation. Finally, we examine recent vision applications that rely on edge-cloud collaboration, including systems based on Vision Transformers and large language models.

Bio:

Jie Wu is Chief Scientist of China Telecom and Director of China Telecom Cloud Computing Research Institute. Before he joined China Telecom, he was Laura H. Carnell Professor at Temple University and the Director of the Center for Networked Computing (CNC). His current research interests include mobile computing and wireless networks, routing protocols, network trust and security, distributed algorithms, applied machine learning, and cloud computing. He serves on several editorial boards, including IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking. Dr. Wu is/was general chair/co-chair for IEEE IPDPS'23, ACM MobiHoc'23, and IEEE CCGrid'24 as well as program chair/cochair for IEEE INFOCOM'11 and CCF CNCC'13. He was an IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Visitor, ACM Distinguished Speaker, and chair for the IEEE Technical Committee on Distributed Processing (TCDP). Dr. Wu is a Fellow of the AAAS and a Fellow of the IEEE. He is the recipient of the 2011 China Computer Federation (CCF) Overseas Outstanding Achievement Award. He is a Member of the Academia Europaea.

Keynote 2:

Title: "The Future Internet in the Agent Era"

Abstract:

Fueled by the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, relevant technologies have evolved from machine learning and large models to cutting-edge agent systems. Such evolution has dramatically transformed the mode of scientific research and innovation in various disciplines and exerted profound influences on people's daily lives. This report reviews the rapid developmental course of artificial intelligence technologies, explores AI-enabled ideas for interdisciplinary innovation alongside relevant national development strategies. With network research as an example, it analyzes the fundamental logic of leveraging large models to empower scientific research, and ultimately forecasts emerging opportunities for the Internet amid the agent era.

Bio:

Yong Cui is a Tenured Full Professor in the CS Department at Tsinghua University, Director of Networking Research Institute. He received all degrees at Tsinghua University. He is the winner of the first "Chang Jiang Young Scholars Program" supported by Ministry of Education in China, the National Outstanding Young Scholar of NSFC and the New Century Talents Award of the Ministry of Education.
He served or serves at the editorial boards on IEEE TPDS, IEEE TCC, IEEE Network, IEEE Internet Computing. He also served as the vice general chair of ACM Sigcomm'19 and the vice TPC chair of the ACM TURC 2017. He published over 40 papers at top venues, including Mobicom, NSDI, ToN, TMC and he received several Best Paper Awards. He co-authors 10 Internet standard documents (IETF RFC). He has won the National Science and Technology Progress Award (Second Class) in 2012, the State Technological Invention Award (Second Prize) in 2013 and the National Information Industry Invention Award in both 2004 and 2012. His research interests include mobile computing and data driven networking.