Interests

I am drawn to problems that touch on control systems, decentralization, and usable and practical systems, which taken together have led me to networking. I enjoy systems thinking and the problems that come along with it. Outside of systems, I am very interested in computer science education and pedagogy.

News

• Apr 12, 2026:I'm co-organizing a workshop at CAIS on AI Discovery in the Wild, submit by May 4th!
• Mar 2, 2026:Our framework for AI-driven discovery, SkyDiscover, is released
• Jan 10, 2026:I'll be giving a 45-minute talk on Decentralizing SDN at NANOG 96 in February
• Dec 16, 2025:Our paper on bandwidth allocation for autonomous vehicles will appear at NINeS '26
• Dec 9, 2025:Our paper on Input Validation will appear at NSDI '26
• Dec 6, 2025:My interview on Berkeley and AI systems appears in a (Russian-language) documentary
• Oct 1, 2025:Our paper arguing for model-free network verification will appear in HotNets '25
• Apr 5, 2025:I will be lecturing Intro to CS in Jamaica this summer as part of JamCoders
• ... (older news removed)

Publications

• Not Too Soon for Just-in-Time Systems: Challenges and Opportunities
  Shu Liu*, Alexander Krentsel*, Shubham Agarwal*, Mert Cemri*, Ziming Mao, Soujanya Ponnapalli, Alexandros G. Dimakis, Sylvia Ratnasamy, Aditya Parameswaran, Ion Stoica.
  Under Submission, Conference paper

• SkyDiscover: A Flexible Framework for AI-Driven Scientific and Algorithmic Discovery
  Shu Liu*, Mert Cemri*, Shubham Agarwal*, Alexander Krentsel, et. al.
  Ongoing research...
  [ Blog Post | Code release ]

• DeTE: Decomposed Traffic Engineering for the WAN
  Rahul Bothra, Alexander Krentsel, Saptarshi Mandal, Brighten Godfrey, Sylvia Ratnasamy, Rob Shakir, R. Shrikant.
  Under Submission, Conference paper

• TURBO: Utility-Aware Bandwidth Allocation for Cloud-Augmented Autonomous Control
  Peter Schafhalter*, Alexander Krentsel*, Hongbo Wei, Joseph E Gonzalez, Sylvia Ratnasamy, Scott Shenker, Ion Stoica.
  NINeS 2026, Virtual
  [ Paper | Slides | Video | Conference Program ]

• CrossCheck: Input Validation for WAN Control Systems
  Alexander Krentsel, Bharath Modhipalli, Rishabh Iyer, Isaac Keslassy, Sylvia Ratnasamy, Anees Shaikh, Rob Shakir.
  NSDI 2026, Renton, WA
  [ Paper ]

• Towards Accessible Model-Free Verification
  Alexander Krentsel, Oliver Ye, Anthony Tafoya, Xuqian Ma, Sylvia Ratnasamy, Anees Shaikh.
  HotNets 2025, College Park, MD
  [ Paper | Slides | Conference Program ]
  

• Barbarians at the Gate: How AI is Upending Systems Research
  Audrey Cheng, Shu Liu, Melissa Pan, Zhifei Li, Bowen Wang, Alexander Krentsel, Tian Xia, Mert Cemri, Jongseok Park, Shuo Yang, Jeff Chen, Lakshya Agrawal, Aditya Desai, Jiarong Xing, Koushik Sen, Matei Zaharia, Ion Stoica.
  Arxiv 2025
  [ Arxiv | Under Submission, Conference paper ]

• Managing Bandwidth: The Key to Cloud-Assisted Autonomous Driving
  Alexander Krentsel*, Peter Schafhalter*, Joseph E Gonzalez, Sylvia Ratnasamy, Scott Shenker, Ion Stoica.
  [ Arxiv ]

• The Case for Validating Inputs in Software-Defined WANs
  Alexander Krentsel, Rishabh Iyer, Isaac Keslassy, Sylvia Ratnasamy, Rob Shakir, Anees Shaikh.
  HotNets 2024, Irvine, CA
  [ Paper | Slides | Video | Conference Program ]

• A Decentralized SDN Architecture for the WAN
  Alexander Krentsel, Nitika Saran, Bikash Koley, Subhasree Mandal, Ashok Narayanan, Sylvia Ratnasamy, Ali Al-Shabibi, Anees Shaikh, Rob Shakir, Ankit Singla, Hakim Weatherspoon.
  SIGCOMM 2024, Sydney, Australia
  [ Paper | Slides | Poster | Patent 1 | Patent 2 | Conference Program ]

• The Sky is the Limit: Cloud-Assisted Autonomous Driving via Service Tiers
  Alexander Krentsel, Peter Schafhalter, Joseph E Gonzalez, Sylvia Ratnasamy, Scott Shenker, Ion Stoica.
  Compound AI Systems Workshop, Databricks Data + AI Summit 2024
  [ Extended Abstract | Poster | Workshop Program ]

Talks

• CrossCheck: Input Validation for WAN Control Systems

  • Apr 29, 2026 - Google, Sunnyvale, CA
  • Apr 30, 2026 - UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
  • May 4, 2026 - NSDI 2026, Renton, WA

• Principles for Autonomous System Design: OpenClaw Deepdive [ Slides | Video ]

  • Mar 30, 2026 - NEXT, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
  • Apr 8, 2026 - Google Research, Sunnyvale, CA

• Decentralizing Software Defined Networking: The Hidden Complexities of SDN & What We Can Do About Them [ Slides | Video ]

  • Feb 2, 2026 - NANOG 96, San Francisco, CA
  • Apr 28, 2026 - Meta, Menlo Park, CA

• Towards Accessible Model-Free Verification [ Slides ]

  • Nov 6, 2025 - UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
  • Nov 17, 2025 - HotNets 2025, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
  • Dec 2, 2025 - Google, Sunnyvale, CA

• The Case for Validating SDN Inputs [ Slides | Video ]

  • Oct 31, 2024 - UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
  • Nov 12, 2024 - Google, Sunnyvale, CA
  • Nov 19, 2024 - HotNets Conference, UC Irvine, CA

• Narrative Building for Career Pivots [ Slides ]

  • May 17, 2025 - Accel Retreat, Santa Cruz, CA

• Grad School 101: What, Why, and How [ Slides ]

  • Oct 16, 2024 - Berkeley, CA

• Decentralizing the SDN WAN Control Plane [ Slides ]

  • Jul 30, 2024 - Google, Sunnyvale, CA
  • Aug 8, 2024 - SIGCOMM Conference, Sydney, Australia
  • Aug 12, 2024 - KAIST, Daejeon, South Korea
  • Nov 4, 2024 - University of Houston, TX
  • Nov 20, 2024 - SF Systems Meetup, San Francisco, CA

• From Google to Berkeley PhD, Systems Research, and Teaching [ Video ]

  • May 2024 - Thinking about Computers Podcast, Berkeley, CA

• Lessons Learned from a 10-Year Cal Journey [ Slides ]

  • Apr 20, 2024 - UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

• How to Write Letters of Recommendation [ Slides ]

  • Dec 22, 2022 - Googler-in-Residence Summit, Washington, DC
  • Oct 9, 2023 - Googler-in-Residence Summit, San Francisco, CA
  • Aug 19, 2024 - Google, Sunnyvale, CA

• Ethics Questions are Everywhere in Computer Science [ Slides ]

  • Nov 3, 2022 - Fisk University, Nashville, TN

Teaching

• Su '26: Lecturer, AddisCoder: Accelerated Intro to CS, Ethiopia [ upcoming ]
• Su '25: Lecturer, Jamcoders: Accelerated Intro to CS, Jamaica [ Materials (Week 1) ]
• Su '23: Lecturer, AddisCoder: Accelerated Intro to CS, Ethiopia [ Materials (Week 2) ]
• Fa '22: Head TA, CS168: Internet Architecture, UC Berkeley
• Fa '21: Lecturer, CSCI100: Intro to Computer Science, Howard University [ Syllabus | Videos | Slides ]
• Sp '21: TA, CS106A Online: Code-in-Place, Stanford
• Sp '20: TA, CS106A Online: Code-in-Place, Stanford
• Sp '19: TA, CS189/CS289: Machine Learning, UC Berkeley
• Fa '18: TA, CS168: Internet Architecture, UC Berkeley
• Sp '18: TA, CS61B: Data Structures and Algorithms, UC Berkeley [ New Project Designed ]
• Sp '17: TA, EE16A: Introduction to Electrical Engineering, UC Berkeley
• Fa '16: TA, EE16A: Introduction to Electrical Engineering, UC Berkeley

Music

Outside of research and teaching, I occasionally perform on violin with friends in classical and contemporary ensembles.

• Feb 15, 2026 MAQAMAT (90s Arabic Tarab) — BATS Theatre, SF, CA [ Event ]
• Dec 18, 2025 Four Quarters Quartet (Beethoven String Quartet Op. 132) — Hôtel Biron, SF, CA [ Event ]
• Dec 15, 2025 Lunar Noon (Experimental Indie Pop) — Back Room, Berkeley, CA [ Event ]
• Nov 14, 2025 Four Quarters Quartet (Beethoven String Quartet Op. 132) — tiat, SF, CA [ Event | Video ]
• Oct 24, 2025 Lunar Noon (Experimental Indie Pop) — RGB House, SF, CA [ Event ]
• Oct 1, 2025 UC Berkeley Noon Concert (Franck Violin Sonata) — Hertz Hall, Berkeley, CA [ Event | Video ]
• Aug 3, 2025 MAQAMAT (Arabic Tarab) — BATS Theatre, SF, CA
• Aug 2, 2025 Two Quarters Duo (Wedding Music) — Brazilian Room, Berkeley, CA
• May 30, 2025 Three Quarters Trio (Wedding Music) — Memorial Church, Stanford, CA
• May 25, 2025 MAQAMAT (Arabic Tarab) — BATS Theatre, SF, CA [ Event ]
• Oct 27, 2024 MAQAMAT (Arabic Tarab Medleys) — BATS Theatre, SF, CA [ Event ]