• Generalizable and Composable Multi-Model Embedding Translation
  International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 2026. (Spotlight)
  Beining Yang and Yang Cao


• Vector Linking via Cross-Model Local Isometric Consistency
  International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 2026.
  Ziying Chen, Yang Cao, He Sun, Beining Yang and Tianjian Yang


• Integrating Vector Databases across Embedding Models
  ACM SIGMOD Conference on Management of Data (SIGMOD), 2026. (SIGMOD 2026 Best Paper - Honorable Mentions)
  Beining Yang, Yang Cao and Yang Ren

Graph computations

• One Graph, Many Sources: Automating Vectorization Safely
  SIGMOD Record Research Highlights (SIGMOD Record), 2026. (Invited)
  Wenyue Zhao, Yang Cao, Peter Buneman, Jia Li and Nikos Ntarmos


• Shifting Transaction Isolation on Graphs: From Systems to Data
  Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment, Volume 18 (VLDB), 2025
  Wenzhi Fu and Yang Cao


• Automating Vectorized Distributed Graph Computations
  ACM SIGMOD Conference on Management of Data (SIGMOD), 2025. (SIGMOD Research Highlight Award )
  Wenyue Zhao, Yang Cao, Peter Buneman, Jia Li and Nikos Ntarmos


• MITra: Populating Graph Traversal Algorithms
  The 41st IEEE International Conference on Database Engineering (ICDE), demo, 2025.
  Wenyue Zhao, Jia Li, Yang Cao and Nikos Ntarmos


• MITra: A Framework for Multi-Instance Graph Traversal
  Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment (VLDB) 2023.
  Jia Li, Wenyue Zhao, Nikos Ntarmos, Yang Cao and Peter Buneman


• Extracting Graphs Properties with Semantic Joins
  The 38th International Conference on Database Engineering (ICDE), 2023.
  Yang Cao, Wenfei Fan, Wenzhi Fu, Ruochun Jin, Weijie Ou and Wenliang Yi


• From Think Parallel to Think Sequential
  SIGMOD Record 47(1): 15-22, 2018 (SIGMOD Research Highlight Award ).
  Wenfei Fan, Yang Cao, Jingbo Xu , Wenyuan Yu, Yinghui Wu, Chao Tian, Jiaxin Jiang, and Bohan Zhang
  

• Parallelizing Sequential Graph Computations
  ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS), 2018
  Wenfei Fan, Yinghui Wu, Jingbo Xu , Wenyuan Yu, Jiaxin Jiang, Zeyu Zheng, Bohan Zhang, Yang Cao and Chao Tian
  

• Parallelizing Sequential Graph Computations
  ACM SIGMOD Conference on Management of Data (SIGMOD), 2017 (the Best Paper Award).
  Wenfei Fan, Yinghui Wu, Jingbo Xu , Wenyuan Yu, Jiaxin Jiang, Zeyu Zheng, Bohan Zhang, Yang Cao and Chao Tian
  

• Relaxing Graph Pattern Matching With Explanations
  The ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM), 2017.
  Jia Li, Yang Cao, Shuai Ma
  

• Virtual Network Mapping in Cloud Computing: A Graph Pattern Matching Approach
  The Computer Journal, 2017, Vol 60(3) (invited)
  Yang Cao, Wenfei Fan and Shuai Ma


• Approximating Graph Pattern Queries Using Views
  The ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM), 2016.
  Jia Li, Yang Cao and Xudong Liu


• Making Pattern Queries Bounded in Big Graphs
  The 31st International Conference on Data Engineering (ICDE), 2015.
  Yang Cao, Wenfei Fan, Jinpeng Huai, Ruizhe Huang


• Virtual Network Mapping: A Graph Pattern Matching Approach
  The 30th British International Conference on Databases (BICOD), 2015.
  Yang Cao, Wenfei Fan and Shuai Ma


• Strong Simulation: Capturing Topology in Graph Pattern Matching
  ACM Transaction on Database Systems (TODS)
  Shuai Ma, and Yang Cao, Wenfei Fan, Jinpeng Huai, Tianyu Wo


• Distributed Graph Pattern Matching
  The 21st International World Wide Web Conference (WWW), 2012
  Shuai Ma, Yang Cao, Jinpeng Huai, and Tianyu Wo


• Capturing Topology in Graph Pattern Matching
  The 38th International Conference on Very Large Data Bases (VLDB), 2012
  Shuai Ma, Yang Cao, Wenfei Fan, Jinpeng Huai, Tianyu Wo

In-database model explanation

• Relative Keys: Putting Feature Explanation into Context
  ACM SIGMOD Conference on Management of Data (SIGMOD), 2024.
  Shuai An and Yang Cao


• Counterfactual Explanation at Will, with Zero Privacy Leakage
  ACM SIGMOD Conference on Management of Data (SIGMOD), 2024.
  Shuai An and Yang Cao


• Towards On-database Contextual Model Explanation
  The 41st IEEE International Conference on Database Engineering (ICDE), demo, 2025.
  Shuai An and Yang Cao

Transactions and Caching

• Shifting Transaction Isolation on Graphs: From Systems to Data
  Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment, Volume 18 (VLDB), 2025
  Wenzhi Fu and Yang Cao


• Transaction Scheduling: From Conflicts to Runtime Conflicts
  ACM SIGMOD Conference on Management of Data (SIGMOD), 2023.
  Yang Cao, Wenfei Fan, Weijie Ou, Rui Xie and Wenyue Zhao


• Making Cache Monotonic and Consistent
  Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment, Volume 16 (VLDB), 2022
  Shuai An and Yang Cao


• Competitive Consistent Caching for Transactions
  The 38th IEEE International Conference on Data Engineering (ICDE), 2022.
  Shuai An, Yang Cao and Wenyue Zhao

Data-driven query optimization

• Querying Shared Data with Security Heterogeneity
  ACM SIGMOD Conference on Management of Data (SIGMOD), 2020.
  Yang Cao, Wenfei Fan , Yanghao Wang, Ke Yi


• Bounded Evaluation: Querying Big Data with Bounded Resources
  International Journal of Automation and Computing, 2020 (invited).
  Yang Cao, Wenfei Fan and Tengfei Yuan


• Block as a Value for SQL over NoSQL
  45th International Conference on Very Large Data Bases (VLDB), 2019.
  Yang Cao, Wenfei Fan, Tengfei Yuan


• Bounded Query Rewriting Using Views
  ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS), 2018. (invited).
  Yang Cao, Wenfei Fan, Floris Geerts, Ping Lu


• Data Driven Approximation with Bounded Resources
  The 43rd International Conference on Very Large Data Bases (VLDB), 2017.
  Yang Cao and Wenfei Fan
  

• BEAS: Bounded Evaluation of SQL Queries
  ACM SIGMOD Conference on Management of Data (SIGMOD) demo, 2017.
  Yang Cao, Wenfei Fan, Yanghao Wang, Tengfei Yuan, Yanchao Li and Laura Yu Chen.
  

• Is Big Data Analytics beyond the Reach of Small Companies?
  Data Analysis and Knowledge Discovery, Sept. 2017 (invited).
  Yang Cao, Wenfei Fan, and Tengfei Yuan
  

• An Effective Syntax for Bounded Relational Queries
  ACM SIGMOD Conference on Management of Data (SIGMOD), 2016.
  Yang Cao and Wenfei Fan


• Bounded Query Rewriting Using Views
  ACM Symposium on Principles of Database Systems (PODS), 2016.
  Yang Cao, Wenfei Fan, Floris Geerts, and Ping Lu


• Querying Big Data by Accessing Small Data
  ACM Symposium on Principles of Database Systems (PODS), 2015.
  Wenfei Fan, Floris Geerts, Yang Cao, Ting Deng and Ping Lu


• Bounded Conjunctive Queries
  The 40th International Conference on Very Large Data Bases(VLDB), 2014.
  Yang Cao, Wenfei Fan, and Wenyuan Yu

Data quality

• Pattern Functional Dependencies for Data Cleaning
  The 46th International Conference on Very Large Data Bases (VLDB), 2020.
  Abdulhakim Qahtan, Nan Tang, Mourad Ouzzani, Yang Cao and Michael Stonebraker


• ANMAT: Automatic Knowledge Discovery and Error Detection through Pattern Functional Dependencies
  ACM SIGMOD Conference on Management of Data (SIGMOD), demo, 2019.
  Abdulhakim Qahtan, Nan Tang, Mourad Ouzzani, Yang Cao and Michael Stonebraker


• On the Data Complexity of Relative Information Completeness
  Information Systems 45:18-34, 2014
  Yang Cao, Ting Deng, Wenfei Fan, Floris Geerts


• Determining the Relative Accuracy of Attributes
  ACM SIGMOD Conference on Management of Data (SIGMOD), 2013
  Yang Cao, Wenfei Fan, and Wenyuan Yu