Welcome!
I am an Assistant Professor in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. Additionally, I hold courtesy appointments with the Department of Computer Science and the School of Information. I am also an affiliated faculty member of the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, a core member of the UT Machine Learning Lab, and affiliated with the MIT Media Lab.
I received my Ph.D. from the MIT Media Lab in 2020. Prior to this, I earned dual Master's degrees in Computer Science and Transportation Engineering from MIT. My research has been supported by National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Marketing Science Institute, UT Good Systems, Texas Global, UT Research & Creative Grants, and UT McCombs.
My research focuses on:
- Interpretable Machine/Deep Learning on Networks
- Network Spillovers and Dynamics
- Human-Centric Interpretability in Generative AI
At McCombs, I also designed and teach the first foundational Generative AI course for business students, covering transformers, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), fine-tuning (SFT, DPO, RLHF), activation engineering (e.g., sparse autoencoders and steering vectors), automated data operations using LLMs, and the risks and limitations of large language models.
Teaching Awards
- 2023-2024 Trammell/CBA Foundation Teaching Award for Assistant Professors.
- McCombs BBA Faculty Honor Roll for 2021, 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Research Grants
- Received a $1M grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) AIM-AHEAD program to build AI tools to support Black youth mental health in 2023 (joint with Ying Ding, Craig Watkins, Yifan Peng, and David Hodge).
- National Science Foundation (NSF) CRII Award from the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) department in 2022.
- UT Austin Research & Creative Grants in 2023.
- McCombs Research Excellence Grant in 2023 and 2021.
- Texas Global Faculty Research Seed Grants in 2023.
- Marketing Science Institute in 2021.