About
Hi, I'm Sam! I'm a third-year PhD student in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, co-advised by Prof. Andy Pavlo and Prof. Todd Mowry. I also collaborate closely with Prof. Jignesh Patel.
My research interests are at the intersection of compilers and database systems, with a specific focus on improving the performance of SQL queries that invoke user-defined functions (UDFs).
Before starting grad school, I worked as a Compiler Engineer at Apple, where I helped ship Metal-accelerated rendering in Blender 3.1. Before that, I did my undergrad at The University of Sydney, Australia.
Publications
The Key to Effective UDF
Optimization: Before Inlining, First Perform Outlining
Samuel Arch, Yuchen Liu, Jignesh M. Patel, Todd C. Mowry, Andrew Pavlo.
VLDB (2025).
Hit the Gym: Accelerating Query Execution to Efficiently Bootstrap Behavior Models
for Self-Driving Database Management Systems
Wan Shen Lim, Lin Ma, William Zhang, Matthew Butrovich, Samuel Arch, Andrew Pavlo.
VLDB (2024).
Dear User-Defined Functions,
Inlining isn’t working out so great for us. Let’s try batching to make our relationship work.
Sincerely, SQL
Kai Franz, Samuel Arch, Denis Hirn, Torsten Grust, Todd C. Mowry, Andrew Pavlo.
CIDR (2024).
Experience
PhD Student, Carnegie Mellon University (2022 - Present).
High-Performance Query Processing Intern, Amazon Redshift (2024)
Compiler Engineer, Apple (2021).
Teaching
15-745: Optimizing Compilers for Modern Architectures. Head TA (Fall 2023).