About Me
I am a second year PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, advised by Prof. M. Tamer Özsu. I am currently visiting UC Berkeley, hosted by Prof. Aditya Parameswaran. I am a member of the Data Systems Group at Waterloo and the EPIC Lab at Berkeley.
My research focuses on building and optimizing data systems for LLM workloads, understanding the performance challenges that arise when data systems process LLM-based queries, and designing techniques to address them.
News
- Feb 2026 — Visiting UC Berkeley, hosted by Prof. Aditya Parameswaran
Publications
The Duality between Large Language Models and Data Management Systems
M. Tamer Özsu, Kerem Akillioglu, and Xiangru Jian
IEEE Data Engineering Bulletin, Vol. 50, No. 1, pp. 40-58, 2026. [PDF]
Research Challenges in Relational Database Management Systems for LLM Queries
Kerem Akillioglu, Anurag Chakraborty, Sairaj Voruganti, and M. Tamer Özsu
Applied AI for Database Systems Workshop (AIDB), VLDB 2025. [PDF]
Optimizing Data Systems for LLM Workloads
Kerem Akillioglu
PhD Workshop, VLDB 2025. [PDF]
Experience
Previously, I completed my Master's in Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, where my thesis focused on query optimization for streaming graph data management systems. Before my Master's, I had research internships at Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), University of Waterloo, and Bekaert R&D Centre (China). Also, I worked as a software engineer for a year at Admost.
Funding and Awards
- David Johnston Award, University of Waterloo
- International Doctoral Student Award, University of Waterloo
- Waterloo Graduate Scholarship, University of Waterloo
- Fully Funded Thesis Based Master's Program, University of Waterloo
- International Master's Award of Excellence Scholarship, University of Waterloo
- Merit Scholarship, Covers Tuition Costs, Sabanci University
Teaching
I worked as a Teaching Assistant for the following courses:
- CS638 (Principles of Data Management and Use), University of Waterloo
- CS338 (Computer Applications in Business: Databases), University of Waterloo
- CS240 (Data Structures and Data Management), University of Waterloo
- CS114 (Principles of Computing for Science), University of Waterloo
- IF100 (Computational Thinking), Sabanci University
- NS101 (Science of Nature) & NS102, Sabanci University
Service
- Reviewer (Demo Track), ACM Conference on AI and Agentic Systems (ACM CAIS) 2026
- Program Committee, Ontario Database Symposium 2024, 2025