Mahmoud Abo Khamis

Mahmoud Abo Khamis

Associate Professor of Computer Science

Tutorial Fellow, Wadham College

E: mahmoud.abokhamis@cs.ox.ac.uk

T: +44 1865 287366

Room 307, Wolfson Building, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QD
United Kingdom

Themes:

• Data, Knowledge and Action
• Algorithms and Complexity Theory

See Also:

• My CV
• Research Highlights

Interests

My research interests include:

• Database systems and theory
• Query optimization and evaluation
• Graph algorithms
• Information theory
• In-database machine learning

My research vision is for query optimization to guide automated algorithm design — with the ultimate goal of the query optimizer becoming a universal algorithm designer: one that takes in any problem definition and automatically generates an optimal algorithm for it. See this for more details and examples from my prior research.

My research has been recognized with two ACM PODS Test-of-Time Awards, in 2025 and 2026; three Best Paper Awards, at ACM SIGMOD 2025 and ACM PODS 2022 and 2016; three ACM SIGMOD Research Highlight Awards; three ACM PODS Distinguished Paper Awards; and the 2016 Best CSE Dissertation Award from SUNY Buffalo. My work has also received several invitations to the Journal of the ACM, ACM STOC, TheoretiCS, and ACM TODS.

Biography

I am an Associate Professor of Computer Science and a Tutorial Fellow at Wadham College since September 2026. Prior to Oxford, I was a Senior Computer Scientist at Relational AI, 2017 - 2026; a Visiting Research Scientist at the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, UC Berkeley, Aug 2023 - Dec 2023; and a Senior Database Engineer at LogicBlox, 2015 - 2017.

I received my Ph.D. and M.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 2016 and 2012 respectively.

I am on the Editorial Board of ACM TODS. I have also been regularly serving on the program committees of ACM PODS and ICDT among others, where I received two Distinguished PC Member awards.

See also

My CV

Selected Publications

View AllManage publications

• Query Optimization and Evaluation via Information Theory

  Abo Khamis‚ Mahmoud‚ Hung Q. Ngo and Dan Suciu

  In Companion of the 45th Symposium on Principles of Database Systems. Pages 2–17. New York‚ NY‚ USA. 2026. Association for Computing Machinery.

  Details about Query Optimization and Evaluation via Information Theory | BibTeX data for Query Optimization and Evaluation via Information Theory | DOI (10.1145/3788852.3805595) | Link to Query Optimization and Evaluation via Information Theory

• LpBound: Pessimistic Cardinality Estimation Using ℓp−Norms of Degree Sequences

  Haozhe Zhang‚ Christoph Mayer‚ Mahmoud Abo Khamis‚ Dan Olteanu and Dan Suciu

  In Proc. ACM Manag. Data. Vol. 3. No. 3. June, 2025.

  Details about LpBound: Pessimistic Cardinality Estimation Using ℓp−Norms of Degree Sequences | BibTeX data for LpBound: Pessimistic Cardinality Estimation Using ℓp−Norms of Degree Sequences | DOI (10.1145/3725321) | Link to LpBound: Pessimistic Cardinality Estimation Using ℓp−Norms of Degree Sequences

• Convergence of datalog over (Pre−) Semirings

  Abo Khamis‚ Mahmoud‚ Hung Q. Ngo‚ Reinhard Pichler‚ Dan Suciu and Yisu Remy Wang

  In J. ACM. Vol. 71. No. 2. April, 2024.

  Details about Convergence of datalog over (Pre−) Semirings | BibTeX data for Convergence of datalog over (Pre−) Semirings | DOI (10.1145/3643027) | Link to Convergence of datalog over (Pre−) Semirings