Lei Yang

About me

I am a cofounder and the CTO of MegaLabs, a start-up that is building MegaETH, the first Real-Time Blockchain. I recently finished my PhD in Computer Science at MIT, advised by Mohammad Alizadeh. I was part of the Networks and Mobile Systems Group (NMS) of MIT CSAIL. My thesis is on efficient consensus and synchronization for distributed systems. I received my SM from MIT in 2020 and my BS in Computer Science from Peking University in 2018.

I love designing and building systems that are robust, performant, and easy to use. My current research focuses on computer network problems in the setting of blockchains. Some examples are DispersedLedger, a framework for building BFT state machine replication protocols that run fast on fluctuating networks; Rateless IBLTs, a family of universal and near-optimal rateless codes for reconciling set differences. I have also published on the security aspect of blockchain protocols. My work has been supported by generous gifts from the Ethereum Foundation.

Occasionally, I write about what I do in my blog. When away from the keyboard, I enjoy hiking, cycling, sailing and travelling. Plus, I am a licensed amateur radio operator. My callsign is KC1NOR.

What’s New

Practical Rateless Set Reconciliation (joint work with Yossi Gilad and Mohammad Alizadeh) appeared in SIGCOMM 2024. Full text and code are available.