About Me
I am a Research Scientist at Meta, where I work on recommendation systems and large-scale machine learning model training. My research interests focus on high-performance computing, machine learning, performance optimization, and storage systems, with an emphasis on building scalable, efficient infrastructure for data-intensive workloads. I completed my Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Oregon in 2025, where I was co-advised by Dr. Hank Childs and Dr. Allen D. Malony.
News
- [Dec 2025] Joined Meta as a Research Scientist.
- [Nov 2025] Completed my Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Oregon.
- [June 2025] Joined Meta as a PhD Software Engineer Intern.
- [Nov 2024] Presented my doctoral research at the SC 2024 Doctoral Showcase.
- [June 2024] Joined Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a Computing Graduate Student Intern.
- [Feb 2024] Drilling Down I/O Bottlenecks with Cross-Layer I/O Profile Exploration accepted at IPDPS 2024.
- [June 2023] Joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a Research Intern.
- [Feb 2023] Illuminating the I/O Optimization Path of Scientific Applications accepted at ISC 2023.
- [June 2022] Joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a Research Intern.
Publications
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SmartIO: A Lightweight End-to-End Workflow for Runtime I/O Optimization of HPC Systems
H. Ather, C. Wang, H. Devarajan, H. Childs, and K. Mohror
10th International Parallel Data Systems Workshop (PDSW), 2025 [Paper] -
Drilling Down I/O Bottlenecks with Cross-layer I/O Profile Exploration
H. Ather*, J. L. Bez*, Y. Xia, and S. Byna (*joint first authors)
38th IEEE International Parallel & Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS), 2024 [Paper] -
Exploring code portability solutions for HEP with a particle tracking test code
H. Ather et al.
Frontiers in Big Data, 2024 [Paper] -
Application of performance portability solutions for GPUs and many-core CPUs to track reconstruction kernels
H. Ather et al.
CHEP, 2023 [Paper] -
Illuminating the I/O Optimization Path of Scientific Applications
H. Ather, J. L. Bez, B. Norris, S. Byna
ISC, 2023 [Paper] -
Application in multimedia: from camera to VR
A. Wali, A. Lisan, H. Ather, M. Qasim, M.U. Abid
Multimedia Tools and Applications, 2023 [Paper] -
Drishti: Guiding End-Users in the I/O Optimization Journey
J. L. Bez, H. Ather, and S. Byna
7th International Parallel Data Systems Workshop (PDSW), 2022 [Paper]
Education
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Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Oregon, USA (2025)
Advisors: Hank Childs, Allen D. Malony
Dissertation: Towards End-to-End I/O Analysis and Optimization of HPC Systems - B.S. in Computer Science, FAST–NU, Pakistan (2018)
Awards
- Erwin and Gertrude Juilfs Scholarship for Research Excellence — Dept. of CS, University of Oregon, 2024
- SIGHPC Travel Grant — Supercomputing 2024
Teaching
- CS 422: Software Method I (TA, Fall 2024)
- CS 330: C/C++ and Unix (TA, Spring 2024)
- CS 330: C/C++ and Unix (TA, Winter 2024)
- CS 429/529: Computer Architecture (TA, Winter 2024)
- CS 422: Software Method I (TA, Fall 2023)
- CS 212: Computer Science III (TA, Spring 2021)