His research spans from storage hardware to large-scale data management software, with a focus on system dependability. His work appears in venues such as OSDI, FAST, ASPLOS, ICS, PPoPP, as well as in the media including ZDNet, Slashdot, the RISKS Digest, etc. He is the PI of two NSF research grants and a senior personnel of several NSF education grants. Mai earned his bachelor’s degree from Qingdao University in 2006 and his master’s degree from University of Science and Technology of China in 2009, both in Electronic Science and Technology; he received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from The Ohio State University in 2015.