Education
FSU computer scientist earns NSF CAREER Award for data compression research
A Florida State University computer scientist has earned one of the most prestigious awards available to early career faculty for developing high-performance computing systems that help researchers more efficiently manage large amounts of data in experiments and theoretical predictions.
Kai Zhao, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, has earned the 2026 Faculty Early Career Development Award, or CAREER Award, from the National Science Foundation, or NSF, for his work helping scientists manage massive amounts of data generated by large-scale simulations, scientific instruments and sensor systems, such as those used in X-ray imaging or to build cosmological models of the universe.
The CAREER Awards Program offers the NSF’s most significant awards in support of early career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models and lead advances in their field. Zhao is the third faculty member from FSU’s Department of Computer Science to earn the award this year, which provides five years of funding to support activities that build a firm foundation of leadership through the integration of research and education.
“Earning the CAREER Award is a huge milestone for me,” Zhao said. “I’m excited that the award supports not only my research but also student mentoring and education over the next five years.”
During research, scientists often spend a great amount of time sorting through data to identify patterns and details that support or disprove their hypothesis. Zhao was inspired by interdisciplinary connections among computer science and other subjects to develop a compression system that makes research and data management for science and engineering more efficient.
“I like working on problems where advances in computer science can accelerate scientific discovery,” Zhao said. “Better data management can help researchers run larger simulations, analyze results faster and make better use of computing resources. My goal is to make storing, moving and analyzing scientific data more efficient without losing information that researchers need.”
Through NSF funding, Zhao will continue developing a streaming-first framework called StreamZ, a data-processing tool designed to handle data that is continuously produced or consumed — such as data gathered in medicine, astrophysics or materials research. StreamZ will reduce the volume of such data by sorting out repeated or unnecessary information so scientists can more easily retrieve the most essential data at the level of detail they need.
“StreamZ addresses one of the most pressing challenges in modern scientific computing — how to efficiently manage massive streams of data from scientific instruments and simulations,” said Weikuan Yu, professor and former chair of the Department of Computer Science. “Kai’s work has the potential to substantially reduce storage costs and accelerate scientific discovery.”
The StreamZ stool is currently a set of compression algorithms, sets of rules that reduce data by removing repeated or extra information, but Zhao will further develop it into a high-performance software that can run on both high-performance computing clusters and personal computers. He’s also exploring how artificial intelligence and large language models can assist in data compression by automatically optimizing compression methods for different scientific applications or computing platforms. Eventually, he hopes to make StreamZ an open-source system that scientists can use in their daily research activities.
Zhao’s award will also support educational and mentorship initiatives by allowing him to hire undergraduate and graduate research assistants to help with laboratory processes while gaining valuable research experience, providing them with necessary skills and knowledge for a successful scientific career.
“Kai has accomplished an extraordinary amount in a very short time,” Yu said. “I’m impressed not only by the quality and quantity of his research products but also by his commitment to mentoring students and building strong research relationships.”
Zhao earned his bachelor’s degree in 2014 from Peking University in Beijing, China and his doctorate in computer science from the University of California, Riverside in 2022. While earning his doctorate, Zhao worked as a student intern at the Argonne National Library, a federally funded, multidisciplinary science and engineering research center in Lemont, Illinois. He joined FSU’s faculty in 2023.
Visit the Department of Computer Science website to learn more about Zhao’s work and department research.
