Zhichao Cao is an assistant professor in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence at Arizona State University. He leads the Intelligent Data Infrastructure (IDI) research lab, where he conducts research in the areas of database systems (e.g., key-value stores, graph databases, and timeseries databases), storage systems (e.g., file systems, cloud storage, and deduplication systems), and next-generation data infrastructure (e.g., disaggregated infrastructure, computing-in-X, and wireless datacenter). His research interests also lie in the design and development of data management systems for new memory and storage technologies, such as SMR, IMR, NVM, CXL, RDMA, ZNS, and DNA. Moreover, Prof. Cao’s research also encompasses big data systems, with a focus on the development of query engines for large-scale scientific computing in HPC and storage solutions for AI/ML platforms.

Prior to joining ASU, Prof. Cao worked as a research scientist at Facebook, where he contributed to storage and database research from 2018 to 2021. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Automation from Tsinghua University in 2013 and his doctoral degree in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, in 2020.

Publications

ColdMap: Compaction-Aware Cost-Benefit Zone Cleaning for ZNS-Based Key-Value Stores
Sungjin Byeon, Kyungwook Min, Jaewan Park, Sangyun Lee, Hong-Yeon Kim, Junyoung Han, Joo-Young Hwang, Zhichao Cao, Youngjae Kim
ACM ICS 2026   ·   To Appear
ANCHOR: A Vision for Secure Persistent Key-Value Stores in Disaggregated Data Centers
Viraj Thakkar, Dongha Kim, Hokeun Kim, Zhichao Cao
ACM SeQureDB 2026   ·   To Appear
O^3-LSM: Maximizing Disaggregated LSM Write Performance via Three-Layer Offloading
Qi Lin, Gangqi Huang, Te Guo, Chang Guo, Viraj Thakkar, Zichen Zhu, Jianguo Wang, Zhichao Cao
ACM SIGMOD 2026   ·   To Appear
ProGQL: A Provenance Graph Query System for Cyber Attack Investigation
Fei Shao, Jia Zou, Zhichao Cao, Xusheng Xiao
ICDE 2026   ·   To Appear
Bit-Flip Error Resilience in LLMs: A Comprehensive Analysis and Defense Framework
Yuhang Chen, Zhen Tan, Ajay Kumar Jaiswal, Huaizhi Qu, Xinyu Zhao, Qi Lin, Yu Cheng, Andrew Kwong, Zhichao Cao, Tianlong Chen
EMNLP 2025   ·   01 Nov 2025   ·   https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2025.emnlp-main.528
Unlocking the Unusable: A Proactive Caching Framework for Reusing Partial Overlapped Data
Chang Guo, Norbert Podhorszki, Greg Eisenhauer, Zhiwen Xie, Scott Klasky, Zhichao Cao
ACM HotStorage 2025   ·   10 Jul 2025   ·   https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3736548.3737839
SHIELD: Encrypting Persistent Data of LSM-KVS from Monolithic to Disaggregated Storage
Viraj Thakkar, Dongha Kim, Yingchun Lai, Hokeun Kim, Zhichao Cao
ACM SIGMOD 2025   ·   17 Jun 2025   ·   https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3725354
CPI: A Collaborative Partial Indexing Design for Large-Scale Deduplication Systems
Yixun Wei, Zhichao Cao, David H.C. Du
IEEE Transactions on Computers   ·   08 Dec 2024   ·   https://doi.org/10.1109/TC.2024.3485238
BIZA: Design of Self-Governing Block-Interface ZNS AFA for Endurance and Performance
Shushu Yi, Shaocong Sun, Li Peng, Yingbo Sun, Ming-Chang Yang, Zhichao Cao, Qiao Li, Myoungsoo Jung, Ke Zhou, Jie Zhang
ACM SOSP 2024   ·   04 Nov 2024   ·   https://doi.org/10.1145/3694715.3695953
Can Modern LLMs Tune and Configure LSM-based Key-Value Stores?
Viraj Thakkar, Madhumitha Sukumar, Jiaxin Dai, Kaushiki Singh, Zhichao Cao
ACM HotStorage 2024   ·   08 Jul 2024   ·   https://doi.org/10.1145/3655038.3665954
Can ZNS SSDs be Better Storage Devices for Persistent Cache?
Chongzhuo Yang, Zhang Cao, Chang Guo, Ming Zhao, Zhichao Cao
ACM HotStorage 2024   ·   08 Jul 2024   ·   https://doi.org/10.1145/3655038.3665946
SAS-Cache: A Semantic-Aware Secondary Cache for LSM-based Key-Value Stores
Zhang Cao, Chang Guo, Ziyan Lv, Anand Ananthabhotla, Zhichao Cao
MSST 2024   ·   03 Jun 2024
Prophet: Optimizing LSM-Based Key-Value Store on ZNS SSDs with File Lifetime Prediction and Compaction Compensation
Gaoji Liu, Chongzhuo Yang, Qiaolin Yu, Chang Guo, Wen Xia, Zhichao Cao
MSST 2024   ·   03 Jun 2024
CaaS-LSM: Compaction-as-a-Service for LSM-based Key-Value Stores in Storage Disaggregated Infrastructure
Qiaolin Yu, Chang Guo, Jay Zhuang, Viraj Thakkar, Jianguo Wang, Zhichao Cao
ACM SIGMOD 2024   ·   29 May 2024   ·   https://doi.org/10.1145/3654927
HyzoneStore: Hybrid Storage with Flexible Logical Interface and Optimized Cache for Zoned Devices
Chongzhuo Yang, Baolin Feng, Zhang Cao, Zhichao Cao
ACM DSDE 2024   ·   27 Feb 2024   ·   https://doi.org/10.1145/3653924.3653935
K8sES: Optimizing Kubernetes with Enhanced Storage Service-Level Objectives
Hao Wen, Zhichao Cao, Bingzhe Li, David H.C. Du, Ayman Abouelwafa, Doug Voigt, Shiyong Liu, Jim Diehl, Fenggang Wu
IEEE ICCD 2023   ·   06 Nov 2023   ·   https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCD58817.2023.00041