Steven Dong Wins First Place in ACM SIGCOMM Student Research Competition
By Krista Burns
Electrical and computer engineering student Steven Dong earned first place in the ACM SIGCOMM Student Research Competition (SRC) at the ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communication (SIGCOMM) conference in August 2026.
Steven, a Ph.D. student in electrical and computer engineering, is advised by Vyas Sekar, the Tan Family Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His winning research, titled “DeePCAP: Enabling High-Fidelity and Cost-Efficient Archival Packet Trace Storage,” addresses the challenges of storing network packet traces at scale while preserving their usefulness for future analysis.
Networks generate enormous amounts of data about how information moves between computers, but saving all of that information for years can be extremely expensive. Researchers and network operators often need this historical data to understand problems and manage networks, but they may have to delete it or keep only simplified summaries because of storage costs. Steven’s research introduces DeeP-generative Compression of Archived Packets (DeePCAP), a system designed to store network data more efficiently while preserving the details that matter most. Instead of saving every piece of data, DeePCAP uses machine learning to create a compact representation that can be used to recreate realistic network activity when needed. The system also measures how accurately the stored information can answer the kinds of questions researchers and network operators actually ask about their networks. Initial results show that DeePCAP can provide higher-quality information while using storage more efficiently than existing approaches.
“I’m deeply honored to receive this recognition from ACM SIGCOMM and to have the opportunity to share this work with the broader networking research community,” says Steven. “This award is especially meaningful because it recognizes the potential of DeePCAP to address a practical challenge that has limited our ability to preserve and learn from network data over the long term.”
The ACM SIGCOMM SRC provides undergraduate and graduate students with a forum to present original research to a panel of judges and conference attendees at prominent ACM-sponsored and co-sponsored conferences. As the first-place winner at SIGCOMM, Steven will advance to the ACM Grand Finals of the Student Research Competition, where he will compete against winners from other ACM conferences.