John Lions Distinguished Lecture

In a world where technology plays an ever-increasing role in our future, discover how computer science can help address the challenges we face in government, society, and our everyday lives.

Tune in to a thought-provoking talk by Haibo Chen, Distinguished Professor of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

The relevance of systems research is often measured by its impact on industry practices. This talk revisits the lessons and experiences of conducting systems research crossing academia and industry by the speaker, who has spent around 8 years with various systems projects such as HarmonyOS NEXT and its open-source version OpenHarmony. It then uses HarmonyOS NEXT as a case to illustrate the potential of systems research to drive tangible innovations in the intersection of academia and industry.

HarmonyOS NEXT explores many brave research ideas into practice, including microkernel-based architecture, distributed mobile computing and AI integration. By examining its architecture, features, and development process, this talk aim to identify key factors contributing to its success and to extract lessons for future collaborations between researchers and practitioners. By showcasing the potential of HarmonyOS NEXT, the speaker hopes to encourage further exploration of how academic insights can be translated into innovative approaches for complex systems challenges.

Haibo Chen is a Distinguished Professor of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where he founds and directs the Institute for Parallel and Distributed Systems (IPADS). His main research areas are operating systems, distributed systems and the application of formal methods. He received Best Paper Awards from SOSP, ASPLOS, EuroSys and VEE, Test of Time Award from DSN, Best Paper Honorable Mention and Research Highlight Award from SIGMOD, Honorable Mention of The Dennis M. Ritchie Thesis Award (Advisor) from SIGOPS. He currently serves on the editorial board member of contributed articles and co-chairs the Regional Special Sections of Communications of the ACM and co-chairs the program committee of EuroSys 2025. He is the founding chair of the technical steering committee of OpenHarmony, an open-source operating system deployed on hundreds of millions of devices. Haibo is an ACM Fellow and IEEE Fellow, and chairs ACM SIGOPS.

This lecture series has been established in honour of the life of John Lions, a previous Associate Professor at the School of Computer Science and Engineering. John was well-known for his impactful teachings and for his line-by-line commentary of the Unix V6 source code, also referred to as the ‘Lions Book’ which became the ‘The Most Famous Suppressed Manuscript in Computer History.

As a pioneer of the open-source movement, John Lions not only shaped the world of computer science, but also the lives of his students, colleagues and world leaders in the industry today.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Leighton Hall, John Niland Scientia Building, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia