Yang Cao Reader School of Informatics University of Edinburgh IF-4.32A, Informatics Forum 10 Crichton Street, Edinburgh EH8 9AB, Scotland, UK Tel: +44 (0) 131 651 5619 Email: yang.cao@ed.ac.uk

Research Interests

Publications

PhD Students

Teaching

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I'm a Reader in the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh. I also hold a research fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng). My research focuses on the fundamentals, design and optimisation of database systems, including the intersection between databases and machine learning, like this and this.

I have specifically been working on the following topics (check my Publications for more details):

• Vector databases (Question: Is vector database really a database? Can it share data? check this for our answer)
• In-database model explanation
• Rethinking classic database concepts:
  • graph transactions (rethinking transaction isolation for graphs: not all vertices are equal, nor is isolation on graphs)
  • transactional caching (making cache transactional); deterministic concurrency control
  • Queries: query optimisation under cardinality/degree constraints (a.k.a. bounded evaluation)
  • Data quality: integrity constraints generalized for data quality
• Graph computing frameworks: graph auto-vectorization/parallelization frameworks; graph transactions

Teaching

• INFR10080 -- Introduction to Databases: 2025/2026
• INFR11269 -- Machine Learning Systems (Data module): 2024/2025

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Openings available: Multiple PhD studentships and post-doc positions are available. Please send me your CV if interested.