Working with me

Now since you are here, I want to first thank you for your interest in working with me! It’s the start of many exciting things! Please make sure you read this page carefully to better under my advising philosophy, my research interest and the application process.

Application

The best way to express your interest in working with me is through this google form. I receive a large volumn of emails everyday so it is very easy for me to lose track of applications submitted through email. Therefore, the best way to ensure your application is reviewed is to submit through the google form and I will reach out if there is a fit (of both interest and time).

General Advising Philosophy

Whether you are a PhD student or a visitor/intern, once I decide to work with you on a project, I consider it an adventure where we can explore something interesting together. The most important thing for me is whether we enjoy the time we spend together on a project and whether we can create something that both of us are proud of. I will do my best to make this adventure exciting, and I also hope that you come with similar values.

PhD Students

A PhD is a long (usually 4-6 years) commitment, so it is a long adventure. The ultimate goal of PhD training is to help students become principal investigators (PIs). I know PI is sometimes only viewed as a role in academia. However, to me, it doesn’t matter whether you want to go into industry or academia after graduation. It’s all about helping you develop deep interests in one or several directions and learning the skills to explore them on your own, so that you can lead your future students, team members, or just yourself to create new knowledge and tools for the things you are interested in. Currently, I’m most excited about training advanced user-centric AI agents and building cool HCI systems that can help make our lives easier and better. If you are interested in training models, UT-Austin currently has 600 H200 GPUs (with more on the way), and we are very fortunate to have a large number of GPU hours to do some cool things (thanks to the generous support from TACC). If you are interested in building HCI systems, I have extensive experience in building systems that are actively used by companies, government, and the general public (for example, POTATO and Deliberation.io).

Master’s, Undergraduate, Visitors and Interns

I really enjoy working with visitors and interns. Many of my previous mentees have written amazing papers and later gotten into top PhD programs. Usually, I prefer to work on a very specific and well-scoped project, as you might not have much research experience yet. Solid coding and analytical skills are required.

FAQ

• Do you support your students in building start-ups?
  • 200%. I consider my lab as an incubator for not only research papers, but also meaningful products that can actually succeed in the business world. You have my full support to convert your research project into a startup.