Prospective Students
One of my primary motivations for working in academia is the opportunity to collaborate with motivated and dynamic students. However, due to time and resource constraints, I am unable to work with everyone who expresses interest. If you’re a prospective student interested in working with me, I encourage you to carefully read this page before reaching out. It may help clarify whether your goals and interests align with my current research focus and mentoring capacity.
Research interests: I am broadly interested in large-scale computational challenges at the intersection of scientific computing and machine learning. On the computational side, my work focuses on parallel and distributed computing, aiming to scale algorithms across modern high-performance architectures. Algorithmically, I work on problems involving graph algorithms, sparse matrix computations, and machine learning methods tailored for large-scale data. My current applications span bioinformatics, earth science, and graph-based learning, but I remain open to exploring new domains and expanding my research into emerging areas that align with scalable computing.
Mentoring vision: I always prioritize the human aspect of mentoring. That means the personal well-being and happiness of both my students and myself take precedence over short-term research productivity. My goal is to remove unnecessary stress from the research process so that it becomes an enjoyable experience. At the same time, I encourage students to recognize that it is their research and that their career will be shaped by the ownership they take. When students take full ownership of their work, they are more likely to develop a genuine passion for discovering something new. While research is often measured through publications, my long-term aim is to help students become independent researchers who are capable of producing high-quality work and contributing meaningfully to their field.
Students already at TAMU: You are welcome to email me and set up a time to discuss your research interests.
Prospective Ph.D. students: I typically admit one Ph.D. student each year from the pool of applicants to our graduate program. If you are interested in working with me, the best way is to apply to our Ph.D. program and mention my name in your application. You are welcome to email me to express your research interests. Before reaching out, please review my research interests and consider whether your goals align with the topics I work on. When emailing me, please include the following in your email or CV: (a) Your academic background (university, degree, GPA) (b) Any prior research experience and publications (if applicable) (c) Relevant critical thinking activities (e.g., programming competitions, math olympiads) (d) A clearly defined statement of your research interests. Please do not share links to external sites such as Google Drive, as clicking unknown links may pose security risks.
Please note that I cannot assess your chances of admission before you apply. I can only discuss your research interests and, if appropriate, encourage you to apply.
Prospective M.S. students: I am not involved in the admission decisions for M.S. students and do not provide funding (TA/RA) to incoming M.S. students. Therefore, it is generally not productive to contact me before you have been admitted and have arrived in College Station. You are welcome to reach out after you join the program and are on campus.