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I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and a member of the Mathematics of Information, Learning and Data (MILD) research cluster at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Before joining UBC, I was an NSF Center for Science of Information postdoctoral fellow, 2017-2019. From 2015-2017, I was a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University and Tel Aviv University. I obtained a PhD degree at the University of California San Diego in 2015. I attended the Academic Talent Program and obtained a B.E. degree at Tsinghua University, China in 2009.
My current research focuses on the information-theoretic approach to data science and machine learning. Several recent works in this direction include universal compression of graphical data, coding theoretical approach to distributed machine learning, statistical inference on graphs, noisy computing problems, group testing for controlling COVID-19 outbreaks, etc. More broadly, I am interested in developing and applying tools in information theory, coding theory, high dimensional statistics, combinatorics and random graphs, and deep generative models for emerging practical challenges in the era of big data.
Contact
Kaiser 4112, ECE, UBC
4112-2332 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4
+1-604-822-3515
Openings
Students with strong backgrounds in probability, analysis, linear algebra, combinatorics, and a decent mathematical maturity are welcome to apply to the MASc or PhD program at UBC ECE. Here are some words for prospective students. If you are interested in working with me, please send me an email with your CV and transcripts.
Group
PhD students
Yuxin (Jossie) Jiang
Ziao Wang
Qi Yan (co-advised with Prof. Renjie Liao)
Qihang Zhang (co-advised with Prof. Renjie Liao)
MASc students
AmirHossein Dabiri Aghdam
Jiahe Liu (co-advised with Prof. Renjie Liao)
Alumni
Nicholas Kwan (BASc, Engineering Physics, 2023), thesis: Constructions for Nonadaptive Tropical Group Testing
Ziao Wang (MASc, 2019-2021), thesis: Universal graph compression: Stochastic Block Models
Animesh Sakorikar (MASc, 2019-2022), thesis: Soft BIBD and product gradient codes
Ning Zhang (MASc, 2020-2022), thesis: On the information-theoretic limits of attributed graph alignment
News
My student Ziao Wang won the Graduate Support Initiative Award, ECE, UBC, September 2023.
My student Qi Yan won the Graduate Support Initiative Award, ECE, UBC, September 2023.
My undergraduate student Yuxin (Jossie) Jiang from the Department of Statistics won the Work Learn International Undergraduate Research Award (WL IURA), April 2023. She will be working on coding theory.
My undergraduate student Nicholas Kwan from Engineering Physics won the NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA), April 2023. He will be working on high-dimensional expanders.
My student Ziao Wang won the Graduate Support Initiative Award, ECE, UBC, September 2022.
My undergraduate student Anthony Ho from Engineering Physics won the NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA), May 2022. He works on the graph alignment problem.
My student Qi Yan won the Four-Year Fellowship, ECE, UBC, March 2022.
My student Ziao Wang won the Graduate Support Initiative Award, ECE, UBC, September 2021.
My student Ning Zhang won the Second Prize for Best Poster Prize at 2021 IEEE North American School of Information Theory, UBC, June 2021.
My undergraduate student Anthony Ho from Engineering Physics won the NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA), May 2021. He works on Polar codes for 5G wireless communication.
My student Animesh Sakorikar was a university-wide Semi-Finalist in Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition, UBC, March 2021.
My Ph.D. thesis "Channel coding techniques for network communication" won the 2017 IEEE Information Theory Society Thomas M. Cover Dissertation Award.
I received the NSF Center for Science of Information (CSoI) postdoctoral fellowship, 2017.
Last updated: September 8, 2023