Shuai Zhao

Shuai Zhao

Researcher in Real-Time Systems

Shuai Zhao’s Homepage

I am an associate professor at Sun Yat-sen University, China. I received both a Ph.D degree and a Ms.C degree at the University of York in 2014 and 2018, respectively, supervised by Prof. Andy Wellings and Prof. Alan Burns. From 2014 to 2018, I was working as a research associate on a range of projects at York with Prof. Iain Bate, Prof. Leandro S. Indrusiak, and Prof. Wanli Chang. Since 2022, I joined the Sun Yat-sen University as an associate professor at Robotic and Intelligence Computing Lab @SYSU, in the Department of Computer Science.

My research interests include embedded and real-time systems, operating systems and domain-specific computer languages. Specifically, my interest lies in the design and verification of complex real-time systems, resource-sharing technology in multi-core systems, deterministic systems, timing-sensitive networks, and safety-critical programming.

Short Bio

Shuai Zhao received a Ph.D. degree in computer science from the University of York in 2018. He is currently an associate professor at Sun Yat-sen University, China. His research interests include scheduling algorithms, multiprocessor resource sharing, schedulability analysis, and safety-critical programming languages. He can be reached at: zhaosh56@mail.sysu.edu.cn.

Services

  • I am a TPC member of DAC’26, RTSS’24, DAC’24, RTSS BP track, RTAS industrial track, Euro DSD
  • I am a frequent reviewer of RTSS, DAC, RTAS, EMSOFT, DATE, LCETS, ICCAD, CODE+ISSS, RTCAS, MICPRO, TCAD, JSA.

Teaching

  • “Compilation Theory” and “Compiler Construction” for 3rd year undergraduates.
  • “Embedded Systems” for 1st year postgraduates.

Awards

  • ACM SIGBED CHINA Rising Star Award, 2025.

  • Outstanding Paper Award, IEEE 46th Real-Time Systems Symposium (RTSS), 2025.

  • Outstanding Paper Award, IEEE 45th Real-Time Systems Symposium (RTSS), 2024.

  • Best Paper Award, IEEE 14th International Symposium on Industrial Embedded Systems (SIES), 2024.

  • Best Paper Award, IEEE 3rd International Conference on Intelligent Technology and Embedded Systems (ICITES), 2023.

  • Best Paper Nomination, IEEE 28th Real-Time and Embedded Technology and Applications Symposium (RTAS), 2022.

  • Best Paper Nomination, Proceedings of the 39th International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD), 2020.

  • Best Paper Nomination, Design, Automation and Test in Europe Conference (DATE), 2020.

  • Departmental Overseas Research Student Award, University of York, 2015.

Publications

Conference Papers

  • [ICML'26] Z Li, Shuai Zhao, C Wu, B Li, K Huang; “UAV2: A Unified and Adaptive Scheduling Framework for UAV Autopilot Systems with Reinforcement Learning”, Forty-Third International Conference on Machine Learning, 2026.

  • [DAC'26] Shuai Zhao, C Jie, Y Liang, M Cui, X Dai, N Chen, “Beyond Exact: Tight WCET Analysis of GPU Kernels with Branch Divergence”, Design Automation Conference, 2026.

  • [DAC'26] Y Zhang, S He, R Gou, M Cui, B Li, Shuai Zhao, K Huang. “Exploiting Dependency and Parallelism: Real-Time Scheduling and Analysis for GPU Tasks”, Design Automation Conference, 2026.

  • [DATE'26] Zhanshang Nie, Wenbo Wang, Xuanming Liu, Yue Zhang, Zhendong Chen, Zirui Wang, Kai Huang, Shuai Zhao; “An Environment-Aware Verification Framework for LLM-Generated Robot Control Programs”, Design, Automation and Test in Europe Conference, Verona, Italy, 2026.

  • [RTSS'25] Shuai Zhao Jieyu Jiang, Shenlin Cai, Yaowei Liang, Chen Jie, Yinjie Fang, Wei Zhang, Guoquan Zhang, Yaoyao Gu, Xiang Xiao, Wei Qin, Xiangzhen Ouyang, Wanli Chang; “Tight Cache Contention Analysis for WCET Estimation on Multicore Systems”, 46th IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium, Boston, US, 2025.

  • [RTSS'25] Shuai Zhao, Yiyang Gao, Zhiyang Lin, Boyang Li, Xinwei Fang, Zhe Jiang, Nan Guan; “Response Time Analysis for Probabilistic DAG Tasks in Multicore Real-Time Systems”, 46th IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium, Boston, US, 2025.

  • [RTSS'25] Nan Chen, Xiaotian Dai, Tong Cheng, Alan Burns, Iain, Bate, Shuai Zhao; “LEFT-RS: A Lock-Free Fault-Tolerant Resource Sharing Protocol for Multicore Real-Time Systems”, 46th IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium, Boston, US, 2025

  • [DAC'25] Renshuang Jiang, Pan Dong, Zhenling Duan, Yu Shi, Xiaoxiang Fang, Yan Ding, Jun Ma, Shuai Zhao, Zhe Jiang; “Unlocking a New Rust Programming Experience: Fast and Slow Thinking with LLMs to Conquer Undefined Behaviors”, Design Automation Conference, 2025, pp. 1-7.

  • [DAC'25] Jie Zhou, Youshu Ji, Ning Wang, Yuchen Hu, Xinyao Jiao, Bingkun Yao, Xinwei Fang, Shuai Zhao, Nan Guan, Zhe Jiang; “Insights from Rights and Wrongs: A Large Language Model for Solving Assertion Failures in RTL Design”, Design Automation Conference, 2025, pp. 1-7.

  • [ICCAD'25] Junhao Ye, Yuchen Hu, Ke Xu, Dingrong Pan, Qichun Chen, Jie Zhou, Shuai Zhao, Xinwei Fang, Xi Wang, Nan Guan, Zhe Jiang; “From Concept to Practice: an Automated LLM-aided UVM Machine for RTL Verification”, International Conference on Computer-Aided Design, 2025, pp. 1-9.

  • [RTSS'24] Shuai Zhao, Hanzhi Xu, Nan Chen, Ruoxian Su, Wanli Chang; “FRAP: A Flexible Resource Accessing Protocol for Multiprocessor Real-Time Systems”, 45th IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium, York, UK, 2024

  • [RTSS'24] Zhe Jiang, Shuai Zhao, Ran Wei, Xin Si, Gang Chen, Nan Guan; “ROTA-I/O: Hardware/Algorithm Co-design for Real-Time I/O Control with Improved Timing Accuracy and Robustness”, 45th IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium, York, UK, 2024

  • [DAC'24] Zhe Jiang; Shuai Zhao; Ran Wei; Yiyang Gao; Jing Li; “A Cache/Algorithm Co-design for Parallel Real-Time Systems with Data Dependency on Multi/Many-core System-on-Chips,” 61th Design Automation Conference, San Francisco, US, 2024.

  • [ASAP'24] Yuanhai Zhang, Shuai Zhao, Gang Chen, Kai Huang; “Fault-tolerant DAG Scheduling with Runtime Reconfiguration on Multicore Real-Time Systems”, IEEE International Conference on Application-Specific Systems, Architectures, and Processors, 2024, pp. 101-109.

  • [ICRA'24] Mingyue Cui, Mingjian Feng, Junhua Long, Daosong Hu, Shuai Zhao, Kai Huang; “A Du-Octree based Cross-Attention Model for LiDAR Geometry Compression”, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2024, pp. 3010-3016.

  • [Internetware'24] Ruoxian Su, Hanzhi Xu, Jieyu Jiang, Shuai Zhao; “Resource-Aware Task Allocation on Mixed-Criticality Systems: a Task-Splitting Approach”, Asia-Pacific Symposium on Internetware, 2024, pp. 135-146.

  • [IROS'24] Han Liu, Tian Liu, Mingyue Cui, Yunxiao Shan, Shuai Zhao, Kai Huang; “An Efficient Position Reconfiguration Approach for Maximizing Lifetime of Fixed-wing Swarm Drones”, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2024, pp. 13722-13728.

  • [SIES'24] Yiyang Gao, Huixuan Yi, Haoran Chen, Xinwei Fang, Shuai Zhao; “A Structure-Aware DAG Scheduling and Allocation on Heterogeneous Multicore Systems”, IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Embedded Systems, 2024, pp. 26-33.

  • [SIES'24] Hanzhi Xu, Ruoxian Su, Jieyu Jiang, Meixuan Zhang, Shuai Zhao; “New Response Time Analysis for PWLP on Multiprocessor Mixed-Criticality Systems”, IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Embedded Systems, 2024, pp. 42-49.

  • [DAC'23] Shuai Zhao; Nan Chen; Yinjie Fang; Zhao Li; Wanli Chang; “A universal method for task allocation on FP-FPS multiprocessor systems with spin locks,” 60th Design Automation Conference, San Francisco, US, 2023.

  • [RTNS'23] Shuai Zhao; Xiaotian Dai; Benjamin Lesage; Iain Bate; “Cache-Aware Allocation of Parallel Jobs on Multi-cores based on Learned Recency,” Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Real-Time Networks and Systems, Dortmund, Germany, 2023, 177-187.

  • [RTNS'23] Benjamin Lesage, Xiaotian Dai, Shuai Zhao, Iain Bate; “Reducing Loss of Service for Mixed-Criticality Systems through Cache- and Stress-Aware Scheduling”, Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Real-Time Networks and Systems, Dortmund, Germany, 2023, pp. 188-199.

  • [RTAS'23] Nan Chen; Shuai Zhao; Ian Gray; Alan Burns; Siyuan Ji; Wanli Chang; “Precise response time analysis for multiple DAG tasks with intra-task priority assignment,” IEEE 29th Real-Time and Embedded Technology and Applications Symposium, San Antonio, US, 2023.

  • [RTSS'23] Yinjie Fang, Shuai Zhao, Yili Guo, Wanli Chang; “Brief Industry Paper: A DAG Generator with Full Topology Coverage”, Real-Time Systems Symposium, 2023, pp. 424-427.

  • [RTAS'22] Nan Chen; Shuai Zhao; Ian Gray; Alan Burns; Siyuan Ji; Wanli Chang; “MSRP-FT: Reliable resource sharing on multiprocessor mixed-criticality systems,” 28th Real-Time and Embedded Technology and Applications Symposium, Milano, Italy, 2022.

  • [ISoLA'22] Xiaotian Dai, Shuai Zhao, Benjamin Lesage, Iain Bate; “Using Digital Twins in the Development of Complex Dependable Real-Time Embedded Systems”, International Symposium on Leveraging Applications of Formal Methods, 2022, pp. 37-53.

  • [DAC'21] Wanli Chang; Shuai Zhao; Simon Burton; Haitong Wang; Ting Chen; Nan Chen; Neil Audsley; “Invited: Hardware/software co-synthesis and co-optimization for autonomous systems,” Design Automation Conference, San Francisco, US, 2021.

  • [RTAS'21] Xiaotian Dai, Shuai Zhao, Iain Bate, Alan Burns, Xing Guo, Wanli Chang; “Brief Industry Paper: Digital Twin for Dependable Multi-Core Real-Time Systems - Requirements and Open Challenges”, Real-Time and Embedded Technology and Applications Symposium, 2021, pp. 313-316.

  • [RTSS'20] Shuai Zhao; Xiaotian Dai; Iain Bate; Alan Burns; Wanli Chang;“DAG scheduling and analysis on multiprocessor systems: exploitation of parallelism and dependency,” Real-Time Systems Symposium, Houston, US, 2020.

  • [DAC'20] Shuai Zhao; Zhe Jiang; Xiaotian Dai; Iain Bate; Ibrahim Habli; Wanli Chang; “Timing-accurate general-purpose I/O for multi-and many-core systems: scheduling and hardware support,” 57th Design Automation Conference, San Francisco, US, 2020.

  • [ICCAD'20] Xiaotian Dai; Shuai Zhao; Yu Jiang; Xun Jiao; Xiaobo Sharon Hu; Wanli Chang; “Fixed-priority scheduling and controller co-design for time-sensitive networks,” Proceedings of the 39th International Conference on Computer-Aided Design, New York, US, 2020.

  • [DATE'20] Wanli Chang; Debayan Roy; Shuai Zhao; Anuradha Annaswamy; Samarjit Chakraborty; “CPS-oriented modeling and control of traffic signals using adaptive back pressure,” Design Automation and Test in Europe Conference, 2020.

  • [ICCD'20] Zhe Jiang; Shuai Zhao; Pan Dong; Dawei Yang; Ran Wei; Nan Guan; Neil Audsley; “Re-thinking mixed-criticality architecture for automotive industry,” 2020 IEEE 38th International Conference on Computer Design, Hartford, US, 2020.

  • [GECCO'19] Shuai Zhao, Piotr Dziurzanski, Michal Przewozniczek, Marcin Komarnicki, Leandro Soares Indrusiak; “Cloud-based dynamic distributed optimisation of integrated process planning and scheduling in smart factories”, Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, 2019, pp. 1381-1389.

  • [LCTES'19] Wanli Chang, Shuai Zhao, Ran Wei, Andy Wellings, Alan Burns; “From Java to real-time Java: a model-driven methodology with automated toolchain”, ACM SIGPLAN/SIGBED International Conference on Languages, Compilers, and Tools for Embedded Systems, 2019, pp. 123-134.

  • [RTCSA'17] Shuai Zhao, Jorge Garrido, Alan Burns, Andy Wellings; “New schedulability analysis for MrsP”, IEEE International Conference on Embedded and Real-Time Computing Systems and Applications, 2017, pp. 1-10.

  • [Ada-Europe'17] Jorge Garrido, Shuai Zhao, Alan Burns, Andy Wellings; “Supporting Nested Resources in MrsP”, International Conference on Reliable Software Technologies - Ada-Europe, 2017, pp. 73-86.

Journal Papers

  • [TCAD] B Li, Z Jin, Shuai Zhao, J Liao, T Liu, H Liu, Y Zhang, K Huang; “E-Navi: Environmental-Adaptive Navigation for UAVs on Resource-Constrained Platforms”, IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, 2026.

  • [TCAD] Y Zhang, Shuai Zhao, K Huang; “DAG Scheduling and Analysis in Multicore Real-Time Systems via Sub-Graph Division”, IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, 2026.

  • [TCAD] Z Jiang, X Wang, Z Guo, R Jiang, P Dong, Shuai Zhao, N Guan; “MCS3: A Mixed-Criticality System with Suspension-awareness and Semi-clairvoyance for Edge Computing”, IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, 2026.

  • [TECS] Dean You, Jieyu Jiang, Xiaoxuan Wang, Yushu Du, Zhihang Tan, Wenbo Xu, Hui Wang, Jiapeng Guan, Ran Wei, Shuai Zhao, Zhe Jiang*; “MERE: Hardware-software co-design for masking cache miss latency in embedded processors”, ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems, 2025.

  • [JSA] Huixuan Yi, Yuanhai Zhang, Zhiyang Lin, Haoran Chen, Yiyang Gao, Xiaotian Dai, Shuai Zhao; “A cache-aware DAG scheduling method on multicores: Exploiting node affinity and deferred executions”, Journal of Systems Architecture, 2025.

  • [JSA] Boyang Li, Siheng Ren, Shuai Zhao, Mingyue Cui, Kai Huang; “FedPillarNet: Unifying personalized and global features for federated 3D LiDAR object detection”, Journal of Systems Architecture, 168, pp. 103584, 2025.

  • [TCAD] Qingqiang He, Nan Guan, Shuai Zhao, Mingsong Lv; “Multipath Bound for DAG Tasks”, IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, 44, pp. 1676-1689, 2025.

  • [T-ASE] Han Liu, Mingxin Wei, Shuai Zhao, Hui Cheng, Kai Huang; “Energy Efficient Scheduling for Position Reconfiguration of Swarm Drones”, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, 22, pp. 8400-8414, 2025.

  • [JSA] Yuanhai Zhang, Shuai Zhao, Gang Chen, Haoyu Luo, Kai Huang; “Timing-accurate scheduling and allocation for parallel I/O operations in real-time systems,” Journal of Systems Architecture, 152, pp. 103158, 2024.

  • [TCAD] Zhe Jiang; Xiaotian Dai; Ran Wei; Ian Gray; Zonghua Gu; Qingling Zhao; Shuai Zhao; “NPRC-I/O: A NoC-based Real-Time I/O System with Reduced Contention and Enhanced Predictability,” IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, 42, pp. 4629-4642, 2023.

  • [JSA] Yuanhai Zhang, Zijin Xu, Yibo Zhang, Nan Guan, Shuai Zhao, Gang Chen, Kai Huang; “FTSC: Fault-tolerant scheduling and control co-design for distributed real-time system”, Journal of Systems Architecture, 140, pp. 102900, 2023.

  • [TPDS] Shuai Zhao; Xiaotian Dai; Iain Bate; “DAG scheduling and analysis on multi-core systems by modelling parallelism and dependency,” IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, 2022, 33, pp. 4019-4038.

  • [TCAD] Zhe Jiang; Shuai Zhao; Ran Wei; Dawei Yang; Richard Paterson; Nan Guan; Yan Zhuang; Neil Audsly; “Bridging the pragmatic gaps for mixed-criticality systems in the automotive industry,” IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, 41, pp. 1116-1129, 2021.

  • [SWEVO] Michal Witold Przewozniczek, Piotr Dziurzanski, Shuai Zhao, Leandro Soares Indrusiak; “Multi-Objective parameter-less population pyramid for solving industrial process planning problems”, Swarm and Evolutionary Computation, 61, pp. 100773, 2021.

  • [TC] Shuai Zhao; Wanli Chang; Ran Wei; Weichen Liu; Nan Guan; Alan Burns; Andy Wellings; “Priority assignment on partitioned multiprocessor systems with shared resources,” IEEE Transactions on Computers, 2020, 70, pp. 1006-1018.

  • [JSS] Shuai Zhao; Jorge Garrido; Ran Wei; Alan Burns; Andy Wellings; Juan A. de la Puente; “A complete run-time overhead-aware schedulability analysis for MrsP under nested resources,” Journal of Systems and Software, vol. 159, pp. 110449, 2020.

  • [TECS] Wanli Chang, Ran Wei, Shuai Zhao, Andy Wellings, Jim Woodcock, Alan Burns; “Development Automation of Real-Time Java: Model-Driven Transformation and Synthesis”, ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems, 19, pp. 43:1-43:25, 2020.

  • [JOCS] Piotr Dziurzanski, Shuai Zhao, Michal Przewozniczek, Marcin Komarnicki, Leandro Soares Indrusiak; “Scalable distributed evolutionary algorithm orchestration using Docker containers”, Journal of Computational Science, 40, pp. 101069, 2020.

  • [JSS] Ran Wei, Tim P. Kelly, Xiaotian Dai, Shuai Zhao, Richard Hawkins; “Model based system assurance using the structured assurance case metamodel”, Journal of Systems and Software, 154, pp. 211-233, 2019.

  • [TECS] Xiaotian Dai, Wanli Chang, Shuai Zhao, Alan Burns; “A Dual-Mode Strategy for Performance-Maximisation and Resource-Efficient CPS Design”, ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems, 18, pp. 85:1-85:20, 2019.

Students

Current

Ph.D. Students: Hui Zheng; Bolun Li

Master’s Students: Ruizhe Gou; Haitong Ding; Kaiwen Yao; Yutong Luo; Zhanshang Nie; Tong Cheng; Zhiyang Lin; Chaowen Wu; Chen Jie; Yaowei Liang; Jieyu Jiang; Meixuan Zhang

Past

Ruoxian Su (OPPO@Foshan); Zhendong Chen (SGCC@Chuzhou); Haoran Chen (XPeng@Guangzhou); Huixuan Yi (JD@Beijing); Shixing Wan (Daimon Robotics@Shenzhen); Hanzhi Xu (Huawei Technologies@Hangzhou); Yiyang Gao (NTU@Singapore)