Amine (أمين) Mhedhbi

School of Computer Science University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario

About Me

The overarching goal of my research is to build data systems capable of efficient and scalable query processing. My Ph.D. research focuses on developing novel query processing, optimization, and storage techniques for querying graph-structured relations. To that end, I have been designing and implementing GraphflowDB, an in-memory analytical DBMS which allows me to rethink core DBMS components e.g., physical operators, cost model, and cardinality estimator. From Oct. 2021 to Jun. 2022, I was part of initiating a rewrite of GraphflowDB into Kùzu, a usable DBMS. Kùzu is under active development and has an incredible team behind it.

I have completed two summer internships (2021 and 2022) at Microsoft Research expanding my work into transactional processing and cloud infrastructure. On the transactional processing side, I researched optimizations to locking protocols under contention for data-sharing DBMSs. On the cloud infrastructure side, I worked on orchestration of Database-as-a-Service tenants during automatic cluster upgrades.

During my Ph.D., I was partially suppported by a Microsoft Research Fellowship and by a David R. Cheriton Scholarship.

Publications

• Modern Techniques for Querying Graph-Structured Relations: Foundations, System Implementations, and Open Challenges [PDF]
  Amine Mhedhbi, Semih Salihoglu
  In Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment (PVLDB) in Tutorial Track 2022.
• Columnar Storage and List-based Processing for Graph Database Management Systems [PDF] [Code] [BibTeX]
  Pranjal Gupta, Amine Mhedhbi, Semih Salihoglu
  In Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment (PVLDB) 2021.
• Optimizing One-time and Continuous Subgraph Queries using Worst-Case Optimal Joins [PDF] [Code] [BibTeX]
  Amine Mhedhbi, Chathura Kankanamge, Semih Salihoglu
  In ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS) 2021.
• A+ Indexes: Tunable and Space-Efficient AdjacencyLists in Graph Database Management Systems [PDF] [BibTeX]
  Amine Mhedhbi, Pranjal Gupta, Shahid Khaliq, Semih Salihoglu
  In IEEE International Conference on Data Engineering (ICDE) 2021.
• LSQB: A Large-Scale Subgraph Query Benchmark [PDF] [Code] [BibTeX]
  Amine Mhedhbi, Matteo Lissandrini, Laurens Kuiper, Jack Waudby and Gábor Szárnyas
  In Joint Workshop on Graph Data Management Experiences & Systems (GRADES) and Network Data Analytics (NDA) 2021.
• Optimizing Subgraph Queries by Combining Binary and Worst-Case Optimal Joins [PDF] [Code] [BibTeX]
  Amine Mhedhbi, Semih Salihoglu
  In Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment (PVLDB) 2019.
• The Ubiquity of Large Graphs and Surprising Challenges of Graph Processing: Extended Survey [PDF] [BibTeX]
  Siddartha Sahu, Amine Mhedhbi, Semih Salihoglu, Jimmy Lin, M. Tamer Özsu
  In VLDB Journal (VLDBJ) 2019.
• The Ubiquity of Large Graphs and Surprising Challenges of Graph Processing [PDF] [BibTeX]
  Siddartha Sahu, Amine Mhedhbi, Semih Salihoglu, Jimmy Lin, M. Tamer Özsu
  In Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment (PVLDB) 2018. (Best Paper Award)
• Graphflow: An Active Graph Database [PDF] [BibTeX]
  Chathurah Kankanamge, Siddartha Sahu, Amine Mhedhbi, Jeremy Chen, and Semih Salihoglu
  In ACM Special Interest Group on Management of Data (SIGMOD) Conference in Demo Track 2017.

Invited Talks

• Taming Large Intermediate Results for Joins over Graph-Structured Relations
  
  • DATA lab at Northeastern University, Nov. 2022.
    
  • Huawei-University of Edinburgh Joint Lab, Apr. 2022.
    
  • Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), May. 2022.
    
• Taming Large Intermediate Results using Factorization: A system perspective
  
  • Factorized Databases Workshop by University of Zurich, Aug. 2022.
    

Misc.

• Fostering Experiential Partnerships with Theatre and Mental Health: Realistic Family Therapy Training for Psychology and Acting Students [TXT]
  Dillon Browne, Rebecca Zehr, Amine Mhedhbi, Andrew Houston
  In University of Waterloo Teaching and Learning (UWTL) Conference 2022.
• Occasional improviser with Laughs On Tap (LoT) and previously with Threate on the Edge (TOTE)
• Ex-football freestyler with compilation of performances between 2007-2010.

Last updated Nov. 2022.