Responsible AI in Varying Environments 🪩
Postdocs
PhD Students
Bryan Christ (co-advisor w/ Paul Perrin; SDS)
Mingtian Tan (co-advisor w/ Dave Evans; CS)
Karolina Naranjo-Velasco (co-advisor w/ Yangfeng Ji; SDS)
Matt Landers (co-advisor w/ Afsaneh Doryab; CS)
Zhanwen Chen (SDS)
Zack Gottesman (SDS)
Medhasweta Sen (SDS)
Xu Ouyang (CS)
Himanshu Beniwal (visiting)
Undergraduate Students
Chelsea Qian
Joining
Applications for Fall 2025 Data Science PhD positions are now CLOSED---please do not contact me for admissions unless you have already applied. If you are interested in joining my group as a PhD student in Fall 2026 in Data Science, please apply directly to the UVA Data Science PhD program (should open Fall 2025). If you want to get in touch, send me an email with "[PHD APPLICANT]" in the subject line. Please also include your CV, briefly describe your research vision, and mention which of our recent papers aligns best with your interests and why. I cannot promise responses to emails that don't meet these criteria. If your email meets these criteria and you have a question you need answering, please follow up!
If you are a current Undergraduate, Masters, or PhD student at UVA looking to do a project with me, please send me an email with "[CURRENT STUDENT]" in the subject line, describe your interests (as specifically as possible), and mention which which of our recent papers aligns best with your interests and why.
I am NOT recruiting Masters students through the Data Science program at this point. If you are already a Masters student at UVA, please feel free to get in touch as described above. However, I am not recruiting new masters students through our masters program.
Group outing to Monticello
Sponsorship
Mentoring Philosophy
While we conduct exciting research in a fast-paced field, a healthy work-life balance and general wellbeing are key to sustained research success.
I aim to broaden participation in machine learning research in all aspects: I welcome folks from all walks of life into my group and I do my best to accommodate everyone's situation.
Conducting successful research should be fun and involve diving deep into details. To facilitate this, students and I work together to define concrete problems we are both excited about.
I encourage and foster independence at all stages of students' degrees.
A big component of doing a PhD is self-discovery, so I encourage students to try new things and read broadly. One way I facilitate this is through weekly paper-reading group.
Supervision logistics: I meet each student 1:1 for 1 hour per week. This meeting is student-led and often focuses on research updates and feedback. I try to be available as much as possible for paper-writing and other support.