I am a PhD student in David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. I am studying in Database Research Group under the supervision of Prof. Ken M. Salem. Hopefully, I will be graduating by the end of 2009.

My research interests are Self Tuning Database Management Systems (DBMS) and Storage Systems. Specifically, we are trying to automate and facilitate both Database Physical Design of a given DBMS and the configuration of the underlying storage subsystem accordingly.

During my studies, I've encountered several challenges, used several tools, implemented hundreds lines of codes, revised/altered/debugged a variety of open source/proprietary programs and tools. Some of my work includes

• Adding new functionalities to Postgres
• Using and altering several HP tools developed for HP Labs Storage System Project
• Hacking Linux, writing device drivers, etc.
• Developing software programs/tools using C/C++/Java.
• Writing scripts (Perl and shell programming) and Makefiles to conduct various experiments and gather the results

It is not feasible to share all of these experiences here but in "Research & Publications" and "Tech Corner" sections you can find some of them that I found valuable to share.