Zikai Liu

I am a second-year doctoral student with Prof. Timothy Roscoe in the Systems Group at ETH Zürich.

I am generally interested in computer systems, including operating systems, architecture, compilers, and software engineering. My other areas of interest include VR/AR, design, photography and ice skating.

My current project is about new programming models and software/hardware co-design on emerging coherent memory systems like CXL. I am also part of the Enzian Project, the Kirsch Project, and the Lauberhorn SmartNIC Project.

Education

Doctoral student in Computer Science
ETH Zürich, Switzerland
November 2023–present
Supervisor: Prof. Timothy Roscoe
Master of Science (MSc) in Computer Science
ETH Zürich, Switzerland
September 2021–September 2023
Thesis: Generating Trustworthy I2C Stacks Across Software and Hardware
Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Computer Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States
Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) in Electronics and Computer Engineering
Zhejiang University, China
Dual degrees, September 2017–June 2021, Highest Honors / Outstanding Graduate
Supervisor: Prof. Steven Lumetta
Thesis: Using Concolic Execution to Provide Automatic Feedback on LC-3

Publications

*Equal contributors

Efeu: generating efficient, verified, hybrid hardware/software drivers for I2C devices
Daniel Schwyn*, Zikai Liu*, Timothy Roscoe
EuroSys'25: 20th European Conference on Computer Systems, March–April 2025
[PDF] [ACM]
Verified fault handling for modern board management controllers
Ben Fiedler, Zikai Liu, David Cock, Timothy Roscoe
FACS'24: 20th Formal Aspects of Component Software, September 2024
[PDF] [Springer]
End-to-End Automation of Feedback on Student Assembly Programs
Zikai Liu, Tingkai Liu, Qi Li, Wenqing Luo, Steven S. Lumetta
ASE'21: 36th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, November 2021
[PDF] [IEEE] [UIUC]

Talks

Generating Trustworthy Hardware/Software I2C Drivers for Board Management Controllers
Daniel Schwyn, Zikai Liu, Timothy Roscoe
seL4 Summit 2024, October 2024
[Video] [Slides]
Caching Results from KLEE’s Independent Solver
Zikai Liu, Steven S. Lumetta
2nd KLEE Workshop, June 2021
[Video] [Slides]

Experience