Justin Johnson is an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan's College of Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and a Research Scientist at Facebook AI Research (FAIR). His work bridges computer vision, machine learning, and deep learning, focusing on visual reasoning, vision-language tasks, image generation, and 3D reasoning using neural networks. PhD, Stanford University (advised by Fei-Fei Li) His research interests span visual reasoning , vision and language , 3D vision , and image generation , with a focus on innovative applications of deep neural networks. Recent publications highlight work on 3D consistency, self-supervised learning, and multimodal integration of vision and text. Notable contributions include PyTorch3D for 3D data processing, and foundational work in visual question answering , neural style transfer , and scene graph-based image generation . Publications span top conferences like ICCV, CVPR, and NeurIPS. He teaches courses including EECS 498/598: Deep Learning for Computer Vision and EECS 442: Computer Vision at University of Michigan, with prior involvement in Stanford's CS 231N in co-teaching roles. Software projects include open-source frameworks like fast-neural-style for real-time artistic style transfer, and PyTorch3D for efficient 3D deep learning. These tools demonstrate his commitment to practical implementations and community-driven research.
Florentina Bunea is a Professor in the Department of Statistics and Data Science at Cornell University’s Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, and an active member of the Graduate Fields of Statistics, Applied Mathematics, and Computer Science. She also serves on the Diversity and Inclusion Council of her college, championing workforce diversity in data-science disciplines. Education & Institutional Roles Professor, Department of Statistics and Data Science, Cornell University Member, Graduate Fields of Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science Member, Diversity and Inclusion Council, Bowers College of Computing and Information Science Research Interests Professor Bunea’s research lies at the intersection of statistical machine-learning theory and high-dimensional inference. She develops rigorous methodology supported by sharp theoretical guarantees to tackle core problems in modern data science. Recent themes include: Soft-max mixtures for understanding large-language-model/AI algorithms Optimal transport for high-dimensional mixture distributions Wasserstein-distance inference for sparse mixing measures in topic models Latent-space clustering and cluster-based inference in high dimensions Network modeling and hidden-structure inference Applications spanning genetics, systems immunology, neuroscience, sociology, and economics Research Funding & Awards Her work is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF-DMS). She is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and a recipient of the IMS Medallion Award. Editorial & Service Contributions Associate Editor: Annals of Statistics, Bernoulli, JASA, JRSS-B, EJS, Annals of Applied Statistics Co-Editor: Chapman & Hall/CRC Statistics and Applied Probability Monograph Series Advising & Collaboration Professor Bunea has mentored numerous doctoral and post-doctoral researchers, including Xin Bing, Shuyu Liu, Seth Strimas-Mackey, and Yang Ning, among others. Collaborative projects extend across Cornell and external institutions, producing widely-used software packages and high-impact publications. Contact Office: 1184 Comstock Hall, Cornell University Email: fb238@cornell.edu Phone: (607) 255-8449
David Bindel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Cornell University, affiliated with the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Engineering, and Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science. He earned his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley in 2006. His research focuses on applied numerical linear algebra, eigenvalue problems, and their applications in plasma physics, network analysis, and nonlinear systems. He develops methods for analyzing complex systems, including magnetic confinement in stellarators, stability of MHD systems, and community detection in networks. His work bridges theoretical foundations with practical computational tools, such as formal verification of linear algebra algorithms and scalable Gaussian process models. Bindel’s research explores the interplay between structure and computation, leveraging eigenvalue analysis to address challenges in computer vision, opinion dynamics, and engineering design. He has contributed to advancements in numerical methods for large-scale systems, including iterative solvers, spectral approximation techniques, and stochastic optimization. His interdisciplinary approach spans applied mathematics, computer science, and physics, with applications in fusion energy, machine learning, and network science. Recent work highlights include high-order expansions for magnetic confinement, adaptive filtering for dynamical systems, and Bayesian optimization strategies. His publications emphasize rigorous analysis alongside computational scalability, addressing both theoretical and practical aspects of modern scientific computing. Despite no explicitly listed awards, his contributions reflect significant impact in his fields.
Monika Henzinger is Professor at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), heading the research group of Theory and Applications of Algorithms. She also serves as Vice President for Technology Transfer at ISTA since 2024. Previously, she held professorships at the University of Vienna (2009-2023) and EPFL, Switzerland (2005-2009), was Director of Research at Google (1999-2005), and served as Assistant Professor at Cornell University. Professor Henzinger's research centers on efficient algorithms and data structures with three main thrusts. First, she investigates dynamic settings where program inputs are repeatedly updated, seeking solutions faster than restarting computations. Second, she develops privacy-preserving algorithms that add minimal noise to protect input data while maintaining efficiency. Third, she translates theoretically optimal algorithms into practical implementations for dynamically changing inputs. Her work consistently addresses resource conservation in data processing, particularly computing time and memory space, while exploring the theoretical limits of possible savings. Henzinger's recent publications (2024-2025) reveal strong trends in dynamic algorithms, differential privacy, and graph theory. Her research consistently bridges theoretical computer science with practical applications, focusing on algorithms that adapt to changing inputs while preserving computational efficiency and data privacy. She has made significant contributions to problems like dynamic matching, minimum cut computation, and privacy-preserving data analysis across various domains. Professor Henzinger has received numerous prestigious awards and honors: Wittgenstein Award (2021) Two ERC Advanced Grants (2014, 2021) Carus Medal of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2019) SIGIR Test of Time Award Fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery (2016) Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2017) CAREER Development Award of the National Science Foundation Best paper Award at the Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (2024) Professor Henzinger currently advises PhD students Bardiya Aryanfard, Antoine El-Hayek, and Roodabeh Safavi Hemami, along with postdocs Anamay Chaturvedi and Niklas Hahn. Her research is supported by multiple significant grants including an ERC Advanced Grant for 'Design and Evaluation of Modern, Fully Dynamic Data Structures,' the FWF Wittgenstein Prize, and the WEAVE Project on 'Static and dynamic hierarchical graph decompositions.' She also serves as Principal Investigator for the FWF project 'Fast algorithms for a reactive network layer,' providing substantial funding for her innovative work in algorithms and data structures. Professor Henzinger leads the Theory and Applications of Algorithms research group at ISTA, which focuses on developing practical algorithms for dynamic environments. Her team investigates resource conservation in data processing, specializing in dynamic algorithms that efficiently handle changing inputs, privacy-preserving algorithms that minimize noise while protecting data, and translating theoretical algorithms into practical implementations. The group maintains a strong presence in theoretical computer science through regular publications in top conferences and journals, and collaborates extensively with institutions worldwide to advance algorithmic research.
Jason Li is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science. He teaches advanced algorithms courses including 15-754 Spectral Graph Theory (Spring 2025), 15-451 Design and Analysis of Algorithms (Fall 2024), and 15-850 Advanced Algorithms (Spring 2024). His research focuses on fast graph algorithms , particularly solving longstanding open problems through modern algorithmic techniques. Key research themes include preconditioning and locality , which serve as reductions from worst-case to well-behaved and local instances respectively. His work has produced breakthroughs in deterministic global minimum cut algorithms, all-pairs minimum cut (Gomory-Hu trees), and near-optimal parallel shortest path algorithms. Analysis of his recent publications reveals a consistent trend toward almost-linear time algorithms for fundamental graph problems, with significant contributions to dynamic graph algorithms, minimum cut variants, and parallel computation. His work frequently appears in top venues including STOC, FOCS, and SODA, often with multiple best paper recognitions. EATCS Distinguished Dissertation Award (2021) Best Paper Award at SODA 2024 Invited to HALG 2024 Invited to TALG and JACM for SODA 2024 paper Machtey Best Student Paper at FOCS 2019 Professor Li actively advises graduate students including Henry Fleischmann and George Li. His research is supported by collaborations with leading institutions and frequent invitations to present at major conferences. He maintains an open-door policy for CMU students and collaborators, though notes the high volume of research inquiries he receives weekly.
Thatchaphol Saranurak is an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan , specifically in the Computer Science and Engineering Division . Prior to this, he earned his PhD in Computer Science from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in 2018 under Danupon Nanongkai , followed by a postdoctoral research assistant professorship at Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago (2018-2020). Research Focus : His work bridges fundamental problems in graph theory, including Dynamic graph algorithms for max-flow and min-cut Expander graph decompositions and their applications Robust algorithms against adaptive adversaries Continuous optimization for combinatorial problems Scientific Contributions : He has made breakthroughs in deterministic graph algorithms, notably improving vertex connectivity bounds, developing near-linear time Gomory-Hu trees, and advancing dynamic matching algorithms. His research has been recognized by Sloan Research Fellowship NSF CAREER Award Presburger Award 2023 Teaching : He teaches courses like Expander and Graph Algorithms and Introduction to Algorithms (Winter 23, Winter 25). His lecture videos and notes are publicly available. Collaborations : He works with leading researchers including Sayan Bhattacharya , Joakim Blikstad , and Jason Li , with affiliations to institutions like TTIC , KTH , and SODA conferences.
Jason Cong is the Volgenau Chair for Engineering Excellence and Distinguished Chancellor's Professor in the Computer Science Department at UCLA's Samueli School of Engineering. He directs the Center for Domain-Specific Computing (CDSC) and the VLSI Architecture, Synthesis, and Technology (VAST) Laboratory, and serves as Associate Vice Provost for Internationalization and Co-Director of UCLA/PKU Student and Scholar Program. Dr. Cong's research spans electronic design automation, customizable computing for machine learning and big-data applications, quantum computing, and highly scalable algorithms. His work has produced over 500 publications with more than 41,000 citations and an H-index of 106. His recent work focuses on quantum computing compilation, domain-specific acceleration for AI workloads, and high-level synthesis optimization techniques that leverage machine learning. His publication trend shows a strong emphasis on quantum computing and machine learning acceleration in recent years, with numerous papers on quantum layout synthesis, LLM acceleration, and high-performance FPGA implementations. His team has developed frameworks like TAPA for task-parallel dataflow programming and RapidStream for automated parallel implementation of FPGA designs. Member of National Academy of Engineering (2017) IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal recipient (2022) Phil Kaufman Award recipient (2024) ACM Chuck Thacker Breakthrough Award recipient (2024) 18 Best Paper Awards across major conferences Multiple 10-Year Retrospective Most Influential Paper Awards Dr. Cong has graduated 50 PhD students, many of whom are now faculty at major research universities or hold key positions at leading tech companies. He has led over 100 research projects funded by DARPA, NSF, SRC, and industry sponsors. His entrepreneurial activities include founding three successful companies (Aplus Design Technologies, AutoESL, and Falcon Computing Solutions), all acquired by major EDA players. His VAST Laboratory continues to push boundaries in domain-specific computing, with active research in quantum computing, AI acceleration, and high-performance FPGA implementations.
Alan Zaoxing Liu is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, College Park , with appointments at the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) and Maryland Cybersecurity Center (MC2) . His research bridges systems, networking, and cybersecurity to design scalable, trustworthy approximate computing systems. Ph.D. in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University (2018) Postdoctoral research at Carnegie Mellon CyLab (2018–2020) Research Interests : Networked and data-intensive systems Telemetry/analytics for heterogeneous networks Machine learning for network optimization Security in programmable networks Recent Publications include work on future-proof telemetry (PromSketch, VLDB’25), scalable caching (OctoCache, ASPLOS’25), and secure network analytics (TrustSketch, NDSS’24). His NSF-funded projects focus on optics-enabled DDoS defense and data-driven network management. Scientific Awards : USENIX FAST Best Paper (2019) USENIX ATC 'Best of Rest' (2021) Red Hat Collaboratory Research Awards (2022, 2023) Teaching : Leads Cloud Computing at Boston University , emphasizing agile development, open-source collaboration, and cloud infrastructure.
Piotr Indyk is the Thomas D. and Virginia W. Cabot Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at MIT. He is co-director of the Foundations of Data Science Institute (FODSI) and a member of MIT's Theory of Computation Group, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL), and multiple research initiatives like Wireless@MIT and Big Data@CSAIL. Education: Magister (MA) in Computer Science, University of Warsaw (1995) Ph.D. in Computer Science, Stanford University (2000), advised by Rajeev Motwani Research Interests: Focuses on high-dimensional computational geometry, data stream algorithms, sparse recovery, compressive sensing, and machine learning. His work includes foundational contributions like locality-sensitive hashing (LSH), the Sparse Fourier Transform, and efficient similarity search algorithms. Key Contributions: Known for developing FALCONN (Fast Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search library), and for pioneering work in sub-linear algorithms, streaming algorithms, and geometric computing. Awards: ACM Paris Kanellakis Award (2012) ACM Fellow (2015) Simons Investigator (2013) Member, National Academy of Sciences (2024) Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2023) Teaching & Mentorship: Advised numerous PhD/MSc students and postdocs, and taught courses on geometric computation, streaming algorithms, and algorithmic aspects of embeddings. Labs & Teams: Leads research in areas like FODSI, geometric algorithms, and data science at MIT's CSAIL.
Jerome Engel, M.D., Ph.D. is a Professor at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior , University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He serves as Director of the Epilepsy Telemetry Unit within the Seizure Disorder Center and is a member of the Brain Research Institute and the Neuroscience GPB Home Area. His work spans neurology, psychiatry, and biomedical research. Research Focus: Epilepsy, epileptogenesis, high-frequency oscillations (HFOs), neuroimaging, surgical interventions, and biomarker development. Key Contributions: Pioneering studies on fast ripples as biomarkers, network-based surgical outcome prediction, and advanced HFO detection algorithms. Publications (15 most recent) address topics such as kainic acid models of epileptogenesis, thalamic sleep spindles in pediatric epilepsy, self-supervised HFO analysis, and graph theoretical measures for surgical planning. His work frequently employs medRxiv and Epilepsia as platforms for translational findings. Contact: engel@ucla.edu
Cameron Musco is an Assistant Professor in the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is affiliated with the Theory Group and conducts research at the intersection of theoretical computer science, numerical linear algebra, and machine learning. His work focuses on randomized algorithms, streaming, and distributed computation, with applications in data science. Education: PhD in Computer Science, MIT (2019) BS in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Yale University Research Interests: Musco's research emphasizes algorithm design for large-scale data analysis, including fast randomized methods for linear algebraic problems. He explores topics such as low-memory computation, matrix approximations, and graph algorithms, driven by applications in machine learning and distributed systems. Publications: His recent work spans advancements in hierarchical matrix approximation, graph-based nearest neighbor search, and fair resource allocation, reflecting expertise in both theoretical foundations and practical algorithmic innovation. Awards: He has received an NSF Career Award, Google Research Scholar Award, and recognition for anti-racism leadership. He actively reviews for top conferences in theoretical computer science and machine learning. Advising & Grants: Musco advises multiple PhD students and has grants from NSF and Google. His lab collaborates on projects like low-rank matrix approximation and causal discovery. Labs/Teams: He is part of the Theoretical Computer Science Group and the Center for Data Science at UMass.
Yu Meng is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Virginia (UVA), part of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. He joined UVA in 2024 as a tenure-track faculty member. His research focuses on machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), and data mining, with recent emphasis on large language models (LLMs), alignment, reliability, and ethical AI development. Educated at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), Meng earned his Ph.D. in 2023 under advisor Jiawei Han. His doctoral thesis, Efficient and Effective Learning of Text Representations , received the ACM SIGKDD 2024 Dissertation Award. He also held a visiting researcher position at Princeton University under Danqi Chen and was a Google PhD Fellow. His work has been recognized with awards including the Superalignment Fast Grant from OpenAI and notable publications at venues like NeurIPS, ICLR, and ACL. Meng’s research explores topics such as preference optimization (SimPO), retrieval-augmented generation (InstructRAG), and zero-shot learning. He actively serves on program committees for top conferences (ICLR, ICML, NeurIPS) and as an action editor for Transactions of Machine Learning Research (TMLR) . He teaches graduate-level courses on NLP, emphasizing cutting-edge LLM topics like architecture design, instruction tuning, and ethical considerations. Key achievements include contributions to LLM alignment via retrieval optimization, efficient pretraining techniques, and foundational work on weakly supervised learning. His research bridges theory and practice, addressing both technical challenges and societal impacts of AI systems.
Ke Li is an Assistant Professor at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Vancouver, Canada. He previously worked at Google and the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton. He holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, advised by Jitendra Malik, and a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Toronto. His research focuses on machine learning, computer vision, and algorithms, with contributions to generative modeling, neural rendering, fast nearest neighbor search, and meta-learning. Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science, UC Berkeley (2016) B.Sc. in Computer Science, University of Toronto (2008) Research Interests: Dr. Li explores foundational challenges in machine learning, including: - Generative Modeling : Developing methods like Implicit Maximum Likelihood Estimation (IMLE) to improve generative model training. - Neural Rendering : Innovating techniques like Proximity Attention Point Rendering (PAPR) for dynamic 3D scene representation. - Fast Nearest Neighbor Search : Pioneering algorithms to overcome dimensionality curses. - Learning to Optimize : Automating algorithm design through reinforcement learning. Professional Activities: Organized the IAS Seminar Series on Theoretical Machine Learning with Sanjeev Arora Lead organizer of the BIRS Workshop on 3D Generative Models Reviewer for NeurIPS, ICML, CVPR, and other top conferences Teaching: Recently taught CMPT 726: Machine Learning and CMPT 983: Generative Models at SFU.
Julia Chuzhoy is the Manuel Blum Professor at the Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago (TTIC) and holds a part-time Professor appointment in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Chicago . She completed her Ph.D. at the Technion under the supervision of Seffi Naor , followed by postdoctoral positions at MIT , University of Pennsylvania , and the Institute for Advanced Study . She also served as a Weizmann Institute Weston Visiting Professor in 2018-2019. Her research in theoretical computer science focuses on graph-related optimization problems , including approximation algorithms, dynamic algorithms, fast graph algorithms, and hardness of approximation. She has received major funding through NSF grants (CCF-1318242, CCF-1616584, CCF-2006464, CCF-2402283) and the NSF HDR TRIPODS award (2216899). Her recent publications highlight advancements in approximation algorithms (e.g., maximum bipartite matching), dynamic graph algorithms (e.g., decremental shortest paths), and structural graph theory (e.g., excluded grid theorem). These works span both algorithmic improvements and theoretical lower bounds. Scientific recognition includes NSF Career Award (2013) Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2011) She has advised numerous TTIC and University of Chicago Ph.D. students, including Rachit Nimavat , Zihan Tan , and Parinya Chalermsook (now faculty at Aalto University ).
Dr. Roy Lederman is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Statistics and Data Science , Yale University. He is affiliated with the Quantitative Biology Institute (QBio) , the Applied Math Program , the Institute for Foundations of Data Science (FDS) , and the Wu Tsai Institute (WTI) . He was awarded the Sloan Research Fellowship (2023) . He previously held a Gibbs Assistant Professorship at Yale (2014-2015) and a postdoc at Princeton University (2015-2018) . Education: PhD in Applied Mathematics, Yale University (2014); dual BSc in Physics and Electrical Engineering, Tel-Aviv University. Teaching: Courses include Computational Tools for Data Science, Signal Processing, and Mathematical Machine Learning. Research Areas: Dr. Lederman works at the intersection of computational biology , structural biology , Bayesian inference , numerical analysis , and machine learning . His recent work focuses on cryo-EM and hyper-molecules for studying molecular heterogeneity, alternating diffusion for common variable recovery, and Zernike polynomials for 3D imaging. He also develops Hamiltonian Monte Carlo methods and randomized DNA sequencing algorithms . Publications Trends: His publications (15 most recent) emphasize structural biology and cryo-EM applications, machine learning (Bayesian deep learning, diffusion maps), numerical analysis (Fourier/Laplace transforms), and computational biology (DNA sequencing algorithms). Key sub-fields include heterogeneity analysis , manifold learning , Hamiltonian Monte Carlo , and Zernike polynomials . Scientific Awards: Sloan Research Fellow (2023) Dr. Lederman actively mentors graduate students and postdocs at Yale, and co-organizes the One World Cryo-EM seminar series . His lab develops open-source software (e.g., prolate function implementation ) and explores theoretical bounds on transforms and common variable recovery in multi-sensor experiments.
