Qirui Tian - ECE PhD Student of the Month - April 2025
Qirui Tian is a Ph.D. candidate supervised by Dr. Qing Liu in the ECE Department at NJIT. Qirui joined Dr. Liu's lab in September 2021 and has research that focuses on High-Performance Computing (HPC), data reduction, I/O and storage systems.
What would you say that could be the next big thing in your area of research?
In the research field of data reduction, error-bounded compression with adaptive precision could become the next breakthrough. Traditional error-bounded compression methods typically rely on globally or locally fixed error thresholds, whereas adaptive precision compression can dynamically adjust precision allocation according to the characteristics of different data regions. This approach ensures scientific computing accuracy while achieving a higher compression ratio and more efficient I/O performance. Particularly in HPC and large-scale scientific simulations, adaptive error control can significantly reduce storage and communication overhead, enabling larger-scale and higher-fidelity simulations. Furthermore, integrating this approach with data analysis and machine learning tasks allows compression methods to dynamically optimize data storage and transmission strategies based on application needs, further enhancing the efficiency of scientific data processing.
Your advisor, Dr. Qing Liu has in-depth collaboration with national research labs. How do you find their unique resources helpful to your research?
Dr. Liu has extensive experience in close collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The national lab provides access to cutting-edge computational resources, such as the Frontier supercomputer, which is instrumental in conducting large-scale and data-intensive experiments. This real-world high-performance computing environment has given me a deeper understanding of HPC systems. Collaborating with him allows me to optimize my methodologies and leverage state-of-the-art HPC technologies for advancing scientific discoveries.
External advisors are often invited to join the research meetings of your group. How do you find their advice inspiring to your research?
We often discuss with external advisors in our research meetings. They work in a field that is different from, yet closely related to, ours. They can offer unique insights from perspectives I am less familiar with, which helps broaden my horizons and enables me to think more comprehensively about research problems. In specific experiments, they can sometimes provide more precise solutions. I believe such exchanges are highly beneficial and can create a 1+1>2 effect.