Northwestern CS Welcomes 10 New Postdoctoral Fellows
Postdocs will focus on a range of research areas including algorithms, machine learning, data visualization, and theory
The Northwestern computer science department welcomes the following postdoctoral fellows to its team:
PhD adviser: Muhammad Hamad Alizai
Postdoc mentor: Josiah Hester
Ahmed’s research focuses on providing system support for battery-less embedded devices, which will serve as a basic block in building a sustainable future for computing. His thesis shows how novel techniques at the compiler, run-time, and hardware level can significantly impact the device’s efficiency when running on ambient energy. He is also interested in systems that enable novices and hobbyists to develop applications for battery-less devices. In addition, he is broadly interested in wearable computing, mobile health, and low-power wireless sensors. Ahmed received a PhD in computer science and an MS from Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan.
PhD adviser: J.I Alvarez-Hamelin and Amogh Dhamdhere
Postdoc mentor: Fabian Bustamante
Carisimo’s research focuses on studying internet infrastructure and its impact on users. His research interests include the deployment and strategies of content delivery networks, internet exchange points, and interdomain network congestion that affect the quality of experience. At Northwestern, Carisimo works with Bustamante and Paul Barford, professor of computer sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to understand the criticality of submarine cable networks for internet ecosystems in various countries. Carisimo received a Doctor of Engineering and an MS and BS from University of Buenos Aires in Argentina.
PhD adviser: Tim Roughgarden
Postdoc mentors: Samir Khuller and Aravindan Vijayaraghavan
Chatziafratis joins to work on theory, clustering, and machine learning (ML). He is a visiting faculty researcher in the market algorithms group at Google Research New York, where he focuses on approximation algorithms and ML theory. He received a PhD in computer science from Stanford University and a diploma in electrical engineering and computer science from the National Technical University of Athens in Greece.
PhD adviser: Thomas Rothvoss
Postdoc mentor: Samir Khuller
Davies’s research at Northwestern will shift to beyond worst-case analysis algorithms and will work in the Institute for Data, Econometrics, Algorithms, and Learning (IDEAL). Her prior doctoral research focused on the design of approximation algorithms for scheduling and resource allocation problems. Davies earned a PhD in math from the University of Washington, an MS from University Illinois at Chicago, and a BS from Carnegie Mellon University.
PhD adviser: Zhanpeng Jin
Postdoc mentor: Nabil Alshurafa
Gao’s research interests focus on mobile, wearable computing, human-computer interaction, and biometrics. He joins as a postdoctoral fellow in Alshurafa’s Health Aware Bits Lab (HABitsLab) to work on ubiquitous computing and mobile health. Gao received a PhD in computer science and engineering from University at Buffalo, an MS from the Stevens Institute of Technology, and a BS from the University of Electrical Science and Technology of China.
PhD adviser: Wenwen Dou
Postdoc mentors: Jessica Hullman, Matthew Kay, and Steven Franconeri
Karduni’s research lies at the intersection of human-computer interaction and computational social science, and explores interactions between individuals, communities, and social media. He joins to study and develop novel platforms and techniques for combating misinformed, polarized, and flawed conversations on social media. Karduni received a PhD in computing and information systems and an MS at University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and a BA from University of Mazandaran, Iran.
PhD advisers: Erik D. Demaine and Julian Shun
Postdoc mentor: Samir Khuller
Liu’s research focuses on parallel and distributed graph algorithms, scheduling algorithms, and dynamic algorithms/data structures. She has worked on a variety of problems in these domains including k-core decompositions, subgraph counting, maximal independent set, (\Delta + 1)-coloring, and near-linear time scheduling. She will be joining the Northwestern CS Theory Group in February 2022. Liu is a final year PhD candidate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she received a MEng and BS.
PhD adviser: Jack Lutz
Postdoc mentor: Konstantin Makarychev
Stull's research focuses on theoretical computer science. His primary interest is the application of tools from theoretical computer science to mathematics. Stull joins from Iowa State University, where he served as a computer science lecturer. Prior to that, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Inria Nancy-Grand Est Research Centre, France, where he researched computability theory. Stull received a PhD in computer science from Iowa State University and a BS from University of Texas at Austin.
PhD adviser: David H. Laidlaw
Postdoc mentor: Matthew Kay
Yang will join the MU Collective Lab at Northwestern University as a postdoctoral fellow in 2022 to work on data visualization of probabilistic forecasts, supported by an NSF/CRA Computing Innovation Fellowship. Yang is expected to earn a PhD in computer science from Brown University this fall with a thesis on immersive analytics and perceptual modeling for data visualization. She received an MS from Tufts University and a BEng from Shandong University, China.
PhD adviser: Samir Khuller
Postdoc mentor: Samir Khuller
Yang’s research focuses on scheduling problems: the well-established problems and the emerging variants originating from cloud computing. He is also broadly interested in graph algorithms, discrete optimization, and stochastic optimization. Yang joined the Northwestern CS Theory Group in 2021 after earning a PhD from the University of Maryland, College Park. He received a BEng from Tsinghua University, China.