Thinh T. Doan (Đoàn T. Thịnh in Vietnamese)
Assistant Professor
Bradley ECE Department, Virginia Tech
Autonomy and Robotics at Virginia Tech (Member)
Wireless at Virginia Tech (Member)
Center for Advanced Innovation in Agriculture (Affiliated)
Contact Information:
Office: Room 466 Whittemore Building, Virginia Tech
1185 Perry St., Blacksburg, VA 24060
Email: thinhdoan (at) vt.edu. Phone: +1 (540) 231-8849
My CV [Updated Oct.]. Profile on Google Scholar
📢 Announcement: We have an open position in generative AI, machine learning, and optimal decision making. PhD Candidates with strong mathematical background in control, optimization, and machine learning are encouraged to apply. Please apply to ECE@VT and send me an email with your CV if you are interested.
Recent news
Our paper on developing a new fast two-time-scale stochastic gradient method with an optimal convergence rate, joint work with Sihan Zeng (JP Morgan AI Research), has been accepted to the Conference on Learning Theory (COLT) and is available on arXiv.
Our paper on studying the complexity of policy gradient and actor-critic methods for solving multi-task reinforcement learning, joint work with Sihan Zeng (JP Morgan AI Research) and Justin Romberg (GaTech), is available on arXiv.
I'm honored to receive an NSF CAREER Award.
My newest paper on fast nonlinear two-time-scale SA can be found here, where I propose a new variant to achieve an optimal convergence rate.
I'm honored to receive the AFOSR Young Investigator Program (YIP) award. We thank AFOSR/AFRL for supporting our research in resilient resource allocation over dynamic networks. Details can be found here.
Upcoming/Recent Talks
I'll give an invited talk at Modeling and Optimization: Theory and Applications (MOPTA) Conference.
I'll attend ECC 2024 in Stockholm.
I gave a talk at CDC 2023 in Singapore. I also played for the first time at the CDC soccer cup. It was amazing.
I gave an invited talk at ITA 2023 in San Diego.
I gave an invited talk at the Allerton Conference - UIUC 2023.
I attended and gave a talk at CDC 2022 in Cancun, Mexico.
I gave an invited talk at the Allerton Conference - UIUC on September 28 2022.
I gave an invited talk at the LIONS Seminar Series at Arizona State University on March 4 2022, hosted by Dr. Duong Nguyen (Virtual).
Research Interests: My research interests span the intersection of control theory, optimization, and applied probability theory, with the main focus on reinforcement learning, machine learning, and distributed optimization over multi-agent systems.
Teaching: ECE - 5894 Mathematical Foundation of Reinforcement Learning Algorithms - Fall 2020, 2021
ECE - 3714 Introduction to Control Systems - Spring 2021, 2022
Bio. I was born in Vietnam, where I got my bachelor degree in ECE at Hanoi University of Science and Technology in 2008. I was very fortunate to study in the undergraduate talented program (majored in automatic control), and worked with Professor Hoang Minh Son for my dissertation. Then I obtained my master's in ECE at the University of Oklahoma in 2013, working with Professor Choon-Yik Tang. While at OU, I also worked as a GRA in Professor Younane N. Abousleiman's group. In 20218, I finished my Ph.D. in ECE at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, under the supervision of Professor Carolyn L. Beck. I was also fortunate to have Professor R. Srikant as my mentor. At Illinois, I was the recipient of the Harriett and Robert Perry Fellowship Award in two years, 2016 and 2017. Before joining VT, I was a TRIAD postdoctoral fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology, working with Professors Siva Theja Maguluri and Justin Romberg. I received the 2024 AFOSR YIP and NSF CAREER Awards.