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PhD Students

PhD Students: L - R

Student Track: CSLS
Advisor(s): Horn, Michael
Cohort: September 2018
Email Nicholas

Cohort: September 2024
Email Quinn

Student Track: Systems
Research Area: Quantum Compilation, System Software for Quantum Computing
Cohort: September 2025
Research Statement: I'm a CS PhD student at Northwestern, specializing in quantum compilers and quantum system software. I focus on developing techniques that cut quantum computing costs and make quantum algorithms more practical.
Mu te's Website
Email Mu te

Cohort: September 2023
Email Dang

Cohort: September 2025
Email Yiquan

Student Track: Artificial Intelligence
Cohort: September 2023
Email Muhan

Student Track: Interfaces
Research Area: Computational Imaging, Computational Photography, Computer Vision
Advisor(s): Alexander, Emma
Cohort: September 2023
Expected Graduation Date: June 2028
Research Statement: My research interest is in the field of computational imaging, which lies at the intersection of optics, signal processing, computer vision, and machine learning. Specifically, I am interested in developing physics-based and uncertainty-aware methods to solve inverse problems in computational photography, medical imaging, and astronomical imaging.
Tianao's Website
Email Tianao

Student Track: Systems
Research Area: Networking
Advisor(s): Kuzmanovic, Aleksandar
Cohort: September 2021
Expected Graduation Date: 2026
Research Statement: My research interests are general Networking topics including cloud computing and virtualization. I want to develop networked systems that focus on three perspectives: reducing latency, preserving privacy and utilizing edge servers. Currently, I am working on reducing web page loading time by moving the process of fetching web content from the remote servers to the edge servers.
Yanzhi's Website
Email Yanzhi

Student Track: Systems
Research Area: Databases
Advisor(s): Rogers, Jennie
Cohort: June 2021
Expected Graduation Date: June 2026
Research Statement: Broadly speaking, my research interests focus on security and privacy of computer science including verifiable query evaluation (DB), privacy-preserving machine learning (PPML), etc. In addition, my research heavily relies on cryptographical primitives and protocols from secure multiparty computation and zero knowledge proof.
Xiling's Website
Email Xiling

Student Track: Artificial Intelligence
Research Area: Time Series Prediction, Deep Learning Systems
Advisor(s): Liu, Han
Cohort: September 2019
Research Statement: My research interest is focused on large-scale multi-resolution and multi-horizon time series prediction. More specifically, I am interested in creating generic deep learning models that generate accurate predictions in various time series task settings and deep learning systems that power rapid computational experiments on super large scale time series data.
Weijian's Website
Email Weijian

Cohort: September 2024
Email Xin

Student Track: Systems
Research Area: Networking
Advisor(s): Kuzmanovic, Aleksandar
Cohort: September 2020
Expected Graduation Date: December 2025
Research Statement: My research focuses on the low-latency and cross-layer optimization of networking systems, with an emphasis on deployable designs under Internet constraints. I design protocols that bridge traditionally decoupled layers and build high-performance systems that preserve Internet semantics while adapting to evolving workloads.
Sen's Website
Email Sen

Student Track: Interfaces
Cohort: September 2020
Expected Graduation Date: June 2026
Research Statement: My research interest lies in Computer Science and Cognitive Science, and I'm interested in understanding how the human brain works so that we can learn how to build an intelligent system that can be beneficial to human beings. In addition, I am also interested in thinking about how technology can be beneficial for people's well-being.
Chenghong's Website
Email Chenghong

Cohort: September 2025
Email Xuanyou

Cohort: September 2023
Email Peizhi

Student Track: Theory
Research Area: Scheduling algorithms
Advisor(s): Samir Khuller
Cohort: September 2023
Research Statement: I am interested in studying scheduling problems. Meanwhile, I am curious about learning more theoretical computer science and related math.
Mozhengfu's Website
Email Mozhengfu

Student Track: Interfaces
Research Area: Information Visualization
Advisor(s): Kay, Matthew
Cohort: September 2020
Expected Graduation Date: June 2026
Research Statement: I am interested in (i) taking interdisciplinary best practices toward experiment design and formally modeling human behavior when they interact with novel interfaces/information visualizations, and (ii) leveraging machine learning, specifically transfer learning techniques, to automate the process of evaluating and enhancing user experiences when interacting with novel interfaces/information visualizations.
Sheng's Website
Email Sheng

Student Track: CSLS
Cohort: September 2021
Email Alexandros

Cohort: September 2025
Email Haoran

Cohort: September 2024
Email Shimin

Student Track: Artificial Intelligence
Research Area: Foundation Model
Advisor(s): Yan, Chen
Cohort: September 2022
Expected Graduation Date: June 2027
Research Statement: My research focuses on the learning aspects of AI—to enable efficiency (e.g., quantization robustness [ICML '24] [ICML '25] and parameter-efficient fine-tuning [ICML '25] [NeurIPS '25]) and safety ([USENIX Security '25]) in large language models ([ICLR '25]), large reasoning models, and multi-modal ([ES-FoMo@ICML '25]) environments. I am interested in: Large Foundation Models: Comprehensible Foundation Models, integrating modern Hopfield networks. [ICML '24] Responsible Foundation Models: encompassing jailbreaks, adversarial attacks, and risks associated with scientific foundation models. [USENIX Security '25] [arXiv] [MemFM@ICML '25] Accessible Foundation Models, incorporating PEFT, quantization, and outlier removal for efficient training and enhanced quantization robustness. [ICML '24] [ICML '25] [ES-FoMo@ICML '24] [ES-FoMo@ICML '25] Actionable Foundation Models, featuring the Chain of Thought and Chain of Action methodologies. [ICLR '25] [arXiv] Applications of Large Foundation Models, including Genomic Foundation Models and Human Mobility Foundation Models. [ICML '25] [Information Systems (2025)] [HuMob@SIGSPATIAL '24] [ES-FoMo@ICML '25] [NeurIPS '25] Memory retrieval, memory-enhanced models, and memory editing techniques. [MemFM@ICML '25] [arXiv] I am also broadly interested in the various applications of AI, e.g., Human Mobility ([NeurIPS '25][HuMob@SIGSPATIAL '24]), AI4Sci ([ICML '25]), and AI4Finance.
Haozheng's Website
Email Haozheng

Student Track: Interfaces
Advisor(s): Sam Kriegman
Cohort: January 2024

Student Track: Systems
Research Area: Compilers
Advisor(s): Campanoni, Simone
Cohort: September 2020
Expected Graduation Date: March 2026
Research Statement: I study compilers, specifically looking into new intermediate representations and abstractions. My research aims to broaden the optimization space of compilers through intermediate representations that grant empowering degrees of freedom through strong guarantees. I am broadly interested in static analysis, runtime system co-design, programming languages, and memory models.
Tommy's Website
Email Tommy

Student Track: CSLS
Advisor(s): Worsley, Marcelo
Cohort: September 2019
Email Natalie

Student Track: Computer Engineering
Research Area: Machine Learning
Advisor(s): Zhu, Qi
Cohort: September 2021
Expected Graduation Date: June 2026
Research Statement: I am a second-year PhD student in Computer Engineering and a part of IDEAS Lab at Northwestern University, advised by Dr. Qi Zhu. I am interested in developing learning methods for real-world non-manicured data, especially time-series data. I also want to improve inclusivity in technology. In some of my past works I have developed algorithms to improve the participation of disfluent speakers in voice-assisted technology. During my Masters I also developed hardware support for optical sensors in wearable devices to perform consistently for users of all skin-tones. I have a solid background in IC designing for a large semiconductor company, healthcare technology, and algorithms & machine learning.
Payal's Website
Email Payal

Student Track: CSLS
Cohort: 2022
Expected Graduation Date: 2027
Kritphong's Website
Email Kritphong

Cohort: September 2024
Email Lucas

Student Track: Systems and Networking
Advisor(s): Dinda, Peter
Cohort: September 2022
Email Kirill

Student Track: Artificial Intelligence
Research Area: Natural Language Processing
Advisor(s): Forbus, Kenneth
Cohort: September 2016
Expected Graduation Date: 2025
Research Statement: My research aims to make Natural Language systems easier to debug by having the system ask the user diagnostic questions in natural language. Through a series of such questions, the system will be able to locate the error in its linguistic knowledge and correct it, allowing non-expert users to help improve the system's understanding. I have also done research on cognitively plausible models of reference resolution, and I help maintain the Qualitative Reasoning Group's information kiosk.
Constantine's Website
Email Constantine

Student Track: TSB
Research Area: HCI
Advisor(s): Diakopoulos, Nicholas
Cohort: September 2020
Expected Graduation Date: June 2025
Research Statement: I study and design interactive systems for information seeking and decision making in the newsroom. Specifically, I work at the intersection of Human-computer Interaction (HCI), Natural Language Processing, and Machine Learning, and build configurable and transparent AI tools to help journalists discover + understand newsworthy stories from domain-specific documents, to support decisions about what makes the news.
Sachita's Website
Email Sachita

Student Track: Artificial Intelligence
Research Area: Machine Learning for Audio
Advisor(s): Pardo, Bryan
Cohort: September 2020
Research Statement: I'm a doctoral student in the Department of Computer Science at Northwestern University and a member of the Interactive Audio Lab. I received a BA in Mathematics and Music from Carleton College and an MS in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago. My research interests include adversarial robustness for audio interfaces, music information retrieval, and machine learning techniques for controllable audio generation.
Patrick's Website
Email Patrick

Student Track: TSB
Advisor(s): Horvat, Emoke-Agnes
Cohort: September 2020
Email Katherine

Student Track: Artificial Intelligence
Research Area: Large Language Model, Diffusion Model, Graph Neural Network
Advisor(s): Liu, Han
Cohort: September 2024
Expected Graduation Date: March 2029
Zhenyu's Website
Email Zhenyu

Cohort: September 2023
Email Ilias

Student Track: Systems
Advisor(s): Hardavellas, Nikos
Cohort: September 2022
Email Atmn

Student Track: Artificial Intelligence
Research Area: AI/ML, Deep Learning
Advisor(s): Choudhary, Alok
Cohort: September 2022
Alec's Website
Email Alec

Student Track: Systems
Advisor(s): Dinda, Peter
Cohort: September 2022
Expected Graduation Date: June 2027
Michael's Website
Email Michael

Student Track: Theory
Email Phawin

Cohort: September 2024
Email Emilie

Student Track: Interfaces
Research Area: Human-Computer Interaction
Advisor(s): Josiah Hester & Nabil Alshurafa
Cohort: September 2021
Expected Graduation Date: June 2026
Research Statement: Blaine's research focuses on low-power wireless embedded systems for applied science. He primarily works with wireless sensing technologies for healthcare and environmental applications, examining the barriers to making these systems accessible, including cost, proprietary dependencies, and engineering complexity. By addressing these challenges, he aims to open new opportunities for participation in research, education, and innovation.
Blaine's Website
Email Blaine