University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
UIUC, located in Urbana-Champaign, the twin cities of Illinois, is a public research university in the United States. Among the alumni and professors, 30 have won Nobel Prizes and 25 have won Pulitzer Prizes. Its engineering majors are well-known around the world, and almost all of them are ranked in the top 10 in the United States, including electrical, civil, materials, environment, and computer scienceAccounting majors are ranked among the top three in the United StatesThe Information Science (iSchool) program has been ranked first in the United States for many years. UIUC alumni have created or participated in the creation of world-renowned companies and IT products such as Tesla, Oracle, YouTube, PayPal, AMD, and YELP, as well as programming languages such as J**Ascript and Swift.
Instructor Profile
I received my B.S. from Zhejiang University, my Ph.D. in Computer Science from UCLA, and my Ph.D. in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) before I am now an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at UIUC. During my Ph.D. and post-Ph.D., I did a lot of pioneering work in the field of robustness and security of AI and neural networks, and dozens of articles were published in the top conferences of Neurips, ICML, ICLR and other machine Xi, with more than 10,000 citations. I have created several open source software projects at the same time, among which alpha-beta-crown is one of the best tools for formal verification of neural networks, winning first place in the International Neural Network Verification Competition (VNN-COMP) for three consecutive years (2021, 2022, 2023), beating teams from Stanford University, Oxford University, and other teams from all over the world. I initiated the ICML Workshop on Formal Verification of Machine Learning (2022, 2023), which was the first workshop on formal verification at the Mechanical Xi Summit. My research has been supported by IBM PhD Fellowship, Schmidt Futures AI2050 Early Career Fellowship, etc.
Personal homepage:Research Interests
The general direction of laboratory research is to build trustworthy machine Xi systems in key systems (such as airplanes and unmanned vehicles), open the black box of AI models, and give the public the confidence to trust AI. For example, if AI is used to replace pilots in airplanes, how do we assure passengers that AI is reliable?In the context of the widespread application of AI large models, how to ensure that they can be used safely in society and bring less negative impact is a very important research problem for many years to come. My research approach focuses on theoretical analysis and insights, but also on the usefulness and scalability of algorithms, as well as their applications and impacts.
At present, the specific research directions are as follows:
1.Trustworthy machine learning Xi including the robustness, security, fairness, and interpretability of models, as well as the privacy, generalization, and uncertainty of machine Xi algorithms
2.Formal verification for machine learning, especially how to prove that deep neural networks meet strict formal specifications, and further improve the effectiveness of formal verification methods in AI models.Xi For students who are interested in transforming the algorithm into a toolbox with greater practical impact, we can further improve our alpha-beta-crown neural network verifier and let it be used in larger models and more applications, and gain far more influence than one or two articles
3.Mathematical optimization and program verification methods: how to apply these methods to trusted machine Xi and how to use machine Xi to improve the performance of traditional methods
4.The combination of machine learning Xi and computer security, such as the study of the security issues of machine Xi in the fields of computer software, autonomous systems (such as unmanned vehicles), and cyber-physical systems (CPS).
5.It is a trustworthy interdisciplinary discipline Xi machine science, especially machine science, Xi engineering fields with great application prospects, such as control theory, power system, robotics, etc.
Admissions Criteria:
The most important thing is to have enthusiasm and interest in scientific research, the ability to solve and explore problems independently, and the patience and determination to do the strongest in your own research field. My projects are both theoretical and application-oriented, so if you have a solid foundation in mathematics and physics, or have very strong programming and engineering skills, you can find a project that suits you.
In addition to students in the Xi direction of AI machine science, students with interdisciplinary backgrounds are especially welcome to join (such as software engineering, programming languages, formal methods, cyberphysical systems, computer security, etc.). It is not required to have published **, nor is it required to have research experience in the directions listed above, but it is still required to have a strong ability to read literature and quickly learn Xi new directions.
Ph.D. applicants need to submit an application through the UIUC official ** and mention my name in the application** and materials (if you have already submitted an application, you can contact me directly by email so that I can find your materials from the system). Please apply for both the ECE and CS programs (I will enroll in both programs) so that you have a better chance of being admitted. No matter which program you are admitted to, you can choose me as your supervisor, and it will have no impact on the research project. If you are interested in Postdoc and Inter, please contact me by email, indicating the time when you can start and end your work, with your CV, transcript and research statement.
School and laboratory advantages
In terms of schools, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is world-renowned for its computer science, computer engineering, and AI. The school's Faculty of Engineering has a very strong background and tradition, and it is easy to find opportunities to collaborate with experts in various fields.
csrankings: #2 in ai and all areas
u.s. news 2023: #5 in computer science (tie with university of washington)
u.s. news 2023: #5 in computer engineering (tie with university of washington)
At the same time, my research group currently has sufficient research funding and computing resources, and is currently recruiting several PhD students. Here you can get my full guidance, learn from my rich Xi experience in research and engineering, and I am happy to communicate with students regularly. I have done relevant Xi and research in many companies such as Google Deepmind, Microsoft Research, IBM Research, Amazon, etc., and I have also had in-depth cooperation with other school laboratories such as MIT, Columbia, UCLA, etc., and have extensive contacts with academia and industry, which is very helpful for students to find practical Xi, post-doctoral studies, and future career choices. The research direction of the group has been communicated and cooperated with a number of companies, especially our neural network verification toolbox may have great commercial prospects.
In terms of living, the cost of living (rent + food) at UIUC is much lower than that of other large cities in the United States (such as New York and Los Angeles), and student RA salaries have also been ** recently, with a considerable monthly disposable income. Although the school is located in a small city, it is very convenient for Chinese students, there are several supermarkets in China, Chinese restaurants and takeaways are also very common, and I personally think that the level of Chinese food is even higher than that of the Los Angeles Bay Area. A two-hour drive to Chicago on weekends or holidays allows you to enjoy a variety of recreational activities in addition to your Xi.
How to apply
Application link: Please apply for both ECE and CS programs, and mention my name in the application** and materials (if you have already submitted an application, you can contact me directly by email so that I can find your materials from the system).
email：[email protected] (Please include your CV, transcripts, and a brief description of your research interests in your email.) Please write down the start and end times clearly for Xi).