About Me
Hello! I’m a third-year Ph.D. student at UC Berkeley, advised by Prof. Matei Zaharia and affiliated with the Sky Computing Lab. I also work closely with Prof. Ion Stoica and Prof. Joey Gonzalez. I design and build efficient and reliable machine learning systems through joint optimization across the systems stack. Broadly, I’m interested in:
- Responsible and efficient frameworks for emerging agent systems, with sustainability as a first-order objective
- Reliably harnessing LLMs to accelerate scientific discovery in systems research and beyond
- Machine learning systems and data center computing
Before coming to Berkeley, I completed my Master’s degree at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), where I was very fortunate to work with Prof. Akshitha Sriraman. My Master’s research centered on developing sustainable resource management techniques for microservices in hyperscale data centers.
I graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering. While there, I was advised by Prof. Steve Mann on wearables for prosopagnosia. In between my academic pursuits, I spent ~3 years as a software engineer at IBM working on Db2 database core engine development, specifically on availability features such as backup, restore, and recovery.
Please feel free reach out for research, collaborations, or a casual chat, especially if you are a junior, disadvantaged, or underrepresented student. The best way to reach me is via email: [melissapan]@berkeley.edu
CV: PDF here, up to Aug 2026.
News
Selected Research Projects
Teaching & Mentorship & Services
I’m passionate about education and supporting the next generation of (computer) scientists, especially students from underrepresented backgrounds.
Teaching:
- Expanding Your Horizons, Creative Coding Workshop (Spring 2025, Spring 2026) - Designed and led a 1-day workshop for girls in the area from grade 5 - 9.
- Invited by Dr. Brad Bass as Guest lectures on sustainable computing and ML systems for University of Toronto’s course ENV360.
- 18-847: Data Center Computing (Spring 2024) - Graduate Teaching Assistant at Carnegie Mellon University
- 18-847: Modern Computer Systems (Fall 2023) - Graduate Teaching Assistant at Carnegie Mellon University
- STEM4Girls Program - Volunteer mentor for middle school girls interested in STEM
Mentorship:
- Berkeley EAAA (2025): PhD application mentoring for underrepresented students
- Berkeley EAAA (2024): PhD application mentoring for underrepresented students
- Regular undergraduate research coffee chats (2024)
- CMU ECE Graduate Mentorship Committee Chair (2024)
Academic Services:
- NeurIPS Reviewer (2026)
- ACM CAIS Reviewer (2026)
- OSDI Artifact Evaluation Committee (OSDI ‘25, OSDI ‘26), ATC ‘25 Artifact Evaluation Committee
Other Services:
- Berkeley EECS Graduate Student Assembly, Co-President for CS (AY 2026 - 2027)
- Berkeley NEXT Meetup Organizer (2026 - present)
- Berkeley Faculty Hiring Student Committee Chair, EECS Graduate Student Assembly, EECS Grads Matter Committee Member (2025)
- Berkeley Programing System Seminar (PS2) Organizer, Summer Edition on Research Agents (2025)
- Berkeley Graduate Woman of Engineering, Career and Professional Develoment Committee (2024, 2025)
- Berkeley CSGE Seminar Chair (2024 - present)
- Berkeley Faculty Hiring Student Committee Member (2024)
Hobbies/interests
- 🧗♀️ I love bouldering: I am a solid V2 climber, my current goal is to climb a V5 route!
- ☕️ My favourite drinks are Iced Americano and Iced Matcha 🍵. I also like making latte art, pattern progress: blob (100%), solid heart (85%), rosetta (20%), ??? (100%).
- 🐶 I love my dog, her name is Paofu. She holds all six level of certifications on behavours and tricks 🎓
- I use emoji exccessively.
This website is last updated: Aug 2026