Just over two weeks ago, we wrapped up the Second Asia-Pacific Workshop on Networking (APNet’2018) in the campus of Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. This is my first time co-chairing a workshop (or a conference), and the scale of APNet’2018 — over 170 registrants — gave me a new appreciation for the challenges in pulling off a successful, large meeting. APNet aims to bring together the very best researchers in computer networking and systems to a live forum in the Asia-Pacific region discussing and debating innovative ideas at their early stages; APNet’2018 was a rousing success in that regard. Just in its second iteration, APNet is now bigger than many long-running networking venues.

This year, we experimented with the program to find a balance between looking forward and learning from the past. The first day included a keynote from Zhi-Li Zhang, 10 presentations, and a poster session. The second day consisted of six excellent experience talks from the industry — specifically, Bytedance, Tencent, Microsoft, Intel, Alibaba, and Huawei — as well as five talks from this year’s SIGCOMM with lead authors from the Asia-Pacific region. Both sessions were followed by panels with an open-ended format to inspire the attendees, many of whom were students. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of their questions; clearly, they came prepared. The feedback on our program so far is overwhelmingly positive, and I hope APNet will continue this program format as a tradition. 

There are several groups of people who made APNet’2018 a success story. On the organization side, the members of the organizing committee, especially Dan and Wenfei, made it really easy for Kun and I to focus only on the program and nothing else. On the program side, we were fortunate to have 34 PC members from 28 institutions across 12 countries who helped us select 10 excellent papers. A third group of people in the backend, perhaps the most important ones, are the volunteers on the field who took care of every details. Finally, we had a great group of sponsors who kept the lights on and funded the awards! 

There are two more groups without whom APNet wouldn’t have been possible. First, the authors: we received many submissions from within and outside the Asia-Pacific region, suggesting a growing acceptance of APNet as a prestigious venue. The topics included many hot topics in networked systems, ranging from datacenter networking and NFV to RDMA and deep learning. The second group includes the attendees who kept the workshop engaging and lively by generating thought-provoking discussions.

On a personal note, I must thank Kun for being an excellent co-chair who made it fun. Although we never worked together before, I can foresee many years of collaboration and friendship in the future! I’d also like to thank Kai to convince me to be a part of such an experience. Finally, many thanks to all the new friends and acquaintances I made in this trip.

My trip to APNet came at a cost: because of visa requirements and time overlaps in applying for visas, I cannot attend SIGCOMM this year. While I will miss my friends, I am still glad that I made it to China. The earnest excitements of students and the rapid advances in local industry made me super-excited about the future of networking and computer science in the east.