Yi GAI   Ph.D. Candidate Autonomous Network Research Group Department of Electrical Engineering - System Viterbi School of Engineering University of Southern California Email: ygai AT usc DOT edu Office Phone: (213)740-3759 Office Address: RTH 419 University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089
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Bio

I received my B.E. and M.S. degrees from Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China in 2005 and 2007, respectively.

Research Interests

• Online Learning Algorithms, Stochastic Network Optimization, Machine Learning, Intelligent Distributed Algorithms for Wireless Networks
• Applications of Learning Algorithms via Cognitive Radio, Web Search, Internet Advertising, Massive Data Management and Exploration, Multi-Agent Systems, Energy Distribution Networks, Social Economical Networks
• Dynamic Resource Allocation, Dynamic Spectrum Access, Cognitive Radio Networks
• Network Game Theory, Algorithmic Game Theory and Economics
• Mobile Computing, Wireless Sensor Networks, Wireless Healthcare Networks, Wireless Networks and Communications

Education

• 08/2007 - Present
  • Ph.D. candidate in Computer Engineering/Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
  • In Autonomous Network Research Group, under the supervision of Prof. Bhaskar Krishnamachari.
  • Minor: Computer Science
  • GPA: 4.0/4.0
• 08/2005 - 07/2007
  • M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing , P. R. China
• 08/2001 - 07/2005
  • B.E. in Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing , P. R. China

Industry Experience

• 05/2009 - 08/2009
  • Summer Intern, Bosch Research and Technology Center, Palo Alto, California, USA
  • In Wireless Technologies Research Team, under the supervision of Dr. Yuan Tian
  • Performed physical layer channel quality measurements to evaluate the feasibility and performance of Bluetooth based wireless body area network (WBAN) solutions.
• 05/2008 - 08/2008
  • Summer Intern, Bosch Research and Technology Center, Palo Alto, California, USA
  • In Wireless Technologies Research Team, under the supervision of Dr. Abtin Keshavarzian
  • Research on converge-cast algorithms for energy-effcient wireless sensor network.

Teaching Experience

• EE 555: Broadband Network Architecture, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California
• EE 450: Introduction to Computer Networks, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California
• Fundamentals of Applied Information Theory, Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University
• Network Performance Evaluation, Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University

Publications

1. Yi Gai, Bhaskar Krishnamachari and Rahul Jain, "Combinatorial Network Optimization with Unknown Variables: Multi-Armed Bandits with Linear Rewards and Individual Observations", IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, vol. 20, no. 5, 2012.
2. Yi Gai, Bhaskar Krishnamachari and Mingyan Liu, "Online Learning for Combinatorial Network Optimization with Restless Markovian Rewards", to appear in the 9th Annual IEEE Communications Society Conference on Sensor, Mesh and Ad Hoc Communications and Networks (SECON), Seoul, Korea, June, 2012.
3. Yi Gai and Bhaskar Krishnamachari, "Online Learning Algorithms for Stochastic Water-Filling", Information Theory and Applications Workshop (ITA 2012), San Diego, USA, February, 2012.
4. Amotz Bar-Noy, Yi Gai, Matthew P. Johnson, Bhaskar Krishnamachari and George Rabanca, "Knapsack Games and the Truth but not the Whole Truth", under submission.
5. Wenhan Dai, Yi Gai and Bhaskar Krishnamachari, "Efficient Online Learning for Opportunistic Spectrum Access", IEEE INFOCOM 2012, Mini Conference, Orlando, USA, March, 2012.
6. Yi Gai, Bhaskar Krishnamachari and Mingyan Liu, "Rested Multi-Armed Bandits for Combinatorial Matching", submitted to Machine Learning.
7. Yi Gai, Hua Liu and Bhaskar Krishnamachari, "A Packet Dropping Mechanism for Efficient Operation of M/M/1 Queues with Selfish Users", submitted to IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control.
8. Wenhan Dai, Yi Gai, Bhaskar Krishnamachari and Qing Zhao, "The Non-Bayesian Restless Multi-Armed Bandit: A Case of Near-Logarithmic Strict Regret", submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theory.
9. Yi Gai, Bhaskar Krishnamachari and Mingyan Liu, "On the Combinatorial Multi-Armed Bandit Problem with Markovian Rewards", IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM 2011), Houston, USA, December, 2011.
10. Yi Gai and Bhaskar Krishnamachari, "Decentralized Online Learning Algorithms for Opportunistic Spectrum Access", IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM 2011), Houston, USA, December, 2011.
11. Naumaan Nayyar, Yi Gai and Bhaskar Krishnamachari, "On a Restless Multi-Armed Bandit Problem with Non-Identical Arms", Allerton Conference on Communication, Control and Computing, Urbana, USA, September, 2011.
12. Yi Gai, Shankar Ganesan and Bhaskar Krishnamachari, "The Saturation Throughput Region of p-Persistent CSMA", Workshop on Information Theory and Applications (ITA 2011), San Diego, USA, February, 2011.
13. Wenhan Dai, Yi Gai, Bhaskar Krishnamachari and Qing Zhao, "The Non-Bayesian Restless Multi-Armed Bandit: a Case of Near-Logarithmic Regret", the 36th International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP 2011), Prague, Czech Republic, May, 2011.
14. Yi Gai, Hua Liu and Bhaskar Krishnamachari, "A Packet Dropping-Based Incentive Mechanism for M/M/1 Queues with Selfish Users", the 30th IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM 2011), Shanghai, China, April, 2011. (Acceptance rate: 15.9% = 291/1823 )
15. Yi Gai, Bhaskar Krishnamachari and Rahul Jain, "Learning Multiuser Channel Allocations in Cognitive Radio Networks: A Combinatorial Multi-Armed Bandit Formulation", IEEE Symposium on International Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks (DySPAN 2010), Singapore, April, 2010.
16. Yi Gai, Hua Liu and Bhaskar Krishnamachari, "An Incentive Mechanism for M/M/1 Queues with Selfish Users", IEEE INFOCOM Conference on Computer Communications Workshops, San Diego, USA, March, 2010.
17. Pai-Han Huang, Yi Gai, Bhaskar Krishnamachari and Ashwin Sridharan, "Subcarrier Allocation in Multiuser OFDM Systems: Complexity and Approximability", IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC 2010), Sydney, Astralia, April, 2010.
18. Peter D. Ungsunan, Chuang Lin, Yang Wang, and Yi Gai, "Network Processing Performability Evaluation on Heterogeneous Reliability Multicore Processors using SRN Model", IPDPS 2009 Workshop on Performance Modeling, Evaluation, and Optimization of Ubiquitous Computing and Networked Systems, Rome, Italy, May, 2009.
19. Peter D. Ungsunan, Chuang Lin, Xiangzhen Kong, and Yi Gai, "Improving Multi-Core System Dependability with Asymmetric Reliability Cores", the 3rd International Conference on Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems (CISIS 2009), Fukuoka, Japan, March, 2009.
20. Peter D. Ungsunan, Chuang Lin, Yi Gai, and Xiangzhen Kong, "Improving Network Processing Dependability with Heterogeneous Reliability Cores", the 2009 International Conference on Communication Software and Networks (ICCSN 2009), Macau, China, February, 2009.
21. Tianshi Gao, Lin Zhang, Yi Gai and Xiuming Shan, "Load-Balanced Cluster-Based Cooperative MIMO Transmission for Wireless Sensor Networks", IEEE International Symposium on Wireless Communication Systems (ISWCS 2007), Trondheim, Norway, October, 2007.
22. Yi Gai, Lin Zhang and Xiuming Shan, "Energy Efficiency of Cooperative MIMO Communications with Data Aggregation in Wireless Sensor Networks", IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC 2007), Hong Kong, China, March, 2007.

Technical Reports

• Yi Gai, Bhaskar Krishnamachari and Rahul Jain, "Combinatorial Network Optimization with Unknown Variables: Multi-Armed Bandits with Linear Rewards", USC CENG Technical Report, CENG-2010-9.
• Yi Gai, Bhaskar Krishnamachari and Mingyan Liu, "On the Combinatorial Multi-Armed Bandit Problem with Markovian Rewards", USC CENG Technical Report, CENG-2010-12.
• Pai-Han Huang, Yi Gai, Bhaskar Krishnamachari and Ashwin Sridharan, “Sub-carrier allocation for OFDM systems: complexity, approximability and algorithms”, USC CENG Technical Report, CENG-2009-3.

Thesis

• Master Thesis: Energy-efficient Wireless Sensor Networks with Cooperative MIMO Techniques, Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University
• Bachelor Thesis: FLOWS: Flexible Low-cost Wireless Sensor Network Platform, Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University (Excellent B.E. Thesis Award of Electric Engineering Department)

Selected Awards

• USC Center for Applied Mathematical Sciences (CAMS) Prize for Excellence in Research with A Substantial Mathematical Component, 2011
• ACM SIGMETRICS Student Travel Grant, 2011
• Oakley Fellowship, University of Southern California, 2011-2012
• WiSE Merit Fellowship, University of Southern California, 2011-2012
• Finalist of Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship, 2011
• WiSE Travel Grant, University of Southern California, 2011
• Viterbi Fellowship in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, 2009-2011
• Honorable Mention Student Paper Award, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, 2010
• Annenberg Graduate Fellowship in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, 2007-2009
• Guanghua Scholarship for Excellent Academic Performance, Tsinghua University, 2006
• Excellent B.E. Thesis Award of Electric Engineering Department, Tsinghua University, 2005
• Scholarship for Academic Excellence, Tsinghua University, 2004
• Scholarship for Academic Excellence, Tsinghua University, 2003
• Scholarship for Academic Excellence, Tsinghua University, 2002
• Grand Award of 52nd International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), San Jose, California, 2001

Professional Activities

• Invited Reviewer for:

  IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (JSAC), ACM Wireless Networks (WINET), IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks, Radioengineering Journal, European Transactions on Telecommunications, ETRI Journal, IEEE SECON 2012, IEEE ICC 2012, IEEE SECON 2011, IEEE WCNC 2011, IEEE ICC 2011, ICDCN 2011, MCECN 2010, IEEE PIMRC 2010, IEEE SECON 2010, IEEE WCNC 2010, IEEE Globecom 2007, IEEE ICC 2007

• TPC Member, IEEE PIMRC 2012
• Session Chair, IEEE Globecom 2011
• Student Member of IEEE
• Student Member of ACM
• Student Member of SIAM
• Volunteer of DCOSS 2010, Santa Barbara
• Volunteer of INFOCOM 2010 TPC Meeting, Los Angeles

Miscellaneous

• Hobbies: Playing Piano, Hiking, Traveling, Swimming
• My Photos