Ying Wu College of Computing Proudly Welcomes New Faculty for 2024-2025
Ying Wu College of Computing (YWCC) is pleased to formally announce the appointments of four new assistant professors who will lead research and education initiatives in the departments of Data Science and Informatics during the 2024-2025 academic year.
These new faculty members have collectively contributed pioneering research in areas of machine and contributed learning (distributed and federated learning) and creative, novel applications of Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) as well as gaming. Their innovations have influenced healthcare related to breast cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, security and privacy, and forward-thinking methods of enhancing communication and collaboration through immersive experiences and play.
YWCC’s distinguished additions to the faculty come directly to NJIT from several top U.S. institutions, including Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, Georgia Institute of Technology and UCLA, and are poised to continue the mission of providing students at all degree levels with the unparalleled, real-world experience that immediately responds to the most pressing challenges facing the modern global ecosystem.
YWCC Dean Jamie Payton, herself having recently become part of the NJIT community, had this to say about what current and prospective students can expect moving forward during the 2024-2025 academic year: "We are incredibly pleased to welcome our new faculty, each of whom bring additional expertise in support of our mission to advance new discoveries and innovations through groundbreaking research in critical areas of computing and provide exceptional educational experiences. Our ability to solve complex challenges across disciplines through scholarly research is enhanced, and students at all degree levels are poised to reap the rewards of this expansion of expertise within our college as the field of computing continues to rapidly evolve.”
NJIT’s signature hands-on, practical approach to research and learning literally begins from day one, and all four new faculty members eagerly look forward to guiding the next generation of technical transformation. Students interested in research opportunities should contact the instructors directly via their personal websites or faculty department listings.
We await great things to come as we move forward to a new year. In the interim, we invite you to learn more about how YWCC’s new assistant professors plan on contributing to NJIT’s strategic plan for success:
Data Science
Lingxiao Wang (Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles)
What is it about NJIT that you feel is the right “fit” for you?
NJIT's strong emphasis on research and innovation, especially for my data science department. The DS department is very supportive of my research and there are lots of collaboration opportunities among faculties.
What is one thing that you are most looking forward to in fall 2023?
Meeting new students and faculty.
What do you expect to accomplish in your first year at NJIT?
Establish my research lab and teach several good courses.
Briefly describe the focus of your research
Addressing privacy leakage issues in modern machine learning models and developing more efficient optimization methods for training these models.
Significant publications:
1. Towards Optimal Communication Complexity in Distributed Non-convex Optimization, Kumar Kshitij Patel*, Lingxiao Wang*, Blake Woodworth, Brian Bullins, Nathan Srebro, Neurips 2022
2. Efficient Privacy-Preserving Stochastic Nonconvex Optimization, Lingxiao Wang, Bargav Jayaraman, David Evans, Quanquan Gu, UAI 2023
3. The limits and potentials of local sgd for distributed heterogeneous learning with intermittent communication, Kumar Kshitij Patel, Margalit Glasgow, Ali Zindari, Lingxiao Wang, Sebastian U Stich, Ziheng Cheng, Nirmit Joshi, Nathan Srebro, COLT 2024
Achievements:
Best Paper Award at ICML 2023 FL workshop, Rising Star in Data Science
What are some hobbies and pursuits away from your profession?
I like to swim.
Informatics
Erin Truesdell (Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology)
What is it about NJIT that you feel is the right “fit” for you?
I’ve always thrived at tech-focused universities despite being just as much of an arts person as I am a technology person. I’ve found places like NJIT to be full of people with a wide variety of backgrounds and fields of expertise that have a strong desire to take technology and explore the boundaries of what is possible. I’m really looking forward to working in an environment focused on not only the what, but also the how and the why of technical innovation and how it can support human experiences.
What is one thing that you are most looking forward to in fall 2024?
I’m really excited to start setting up collaborations with other members of the faculty. Some of my favorite work has been done at the intersection of very different fields, and I love learning from other people who have completely different areas of study than I do and working to figure out what new things we can learn, build or accomplish when we work together.
What do you expect to accomplish in your first year at NJIT?
I have plans to expand my work into new areas while remaining close with my collaborators from other institutions. Building on my prior work, I plan to begin work on projects centered on games for behavior change and reflection in fields including consumer cybersecurity, online privacy and collective action; games for education in areas including chemotherapy side effect management, financial literacy and computational thinking; and projects furthering my work on understanding how groups of two or more individuals collaborate in a game-based setting with alternative controllers.
Briefly describe the focus of your research
My work centers broadly on the ways people collaborate and play in digital and hybrid settings, and how we can apply this understanding to design new games, experiences and interfaces. Recently, I’ve focused on how we can approach the design of alternative game controllers (publishing papers on themes and analysis techniques for designing and evaluating collaborative game controllers), as well as the application of game design techniques for learning and behavior change.
During my Ph.D., I worked with a large multi-institution team on the design of CAI, a co-creative AI agent for the EarSketch expressive computing platform; the paper I first-authored on the design and pilot of the agent won Best Long Paper, Student-Led at the 2021 International Conference on Computational Creativity. I am probably best known for my game Haber Dasher, which uses a gigantic two-player bowler hat as a controller and has been featured at festivals such as MAGFest and alt.ctrl.GDC.
What are some hobbies and pursuits away from your profession?
I play the alto and soprano saxophones and have previously had the enormous privilege of performing with the Philadelphia Wind Symphony! I also enjoy traveling, cooking, baking, painting, and building extremely weird game controllers. Of course, I also play plenty of games – I’ve logged a huge number of hours in Valheim!
Chenxi “Chelsea” Yuan (Ph.D., Northeastern University)
What is it about NJIT that you feel is the right “fit” for you?
The university's programs in engineering and computer science, particularly its focus on cutting-edge fields like artificial intelligence and data science, offer an ideal environment for my aspirations. Ying Wu College of Computing and NJIT have multiple alliances with industry, such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Bloomberg. This not only helps to attract more students by offering outstanding career opportunities, it also gives faculty members more chances to pursue external funding through these industry partners in addition to the general funding program such as NSF/NIH/DARPA.
What is one thing that you are most looking forward to in fall 2023?
One thing I am most looking forward to is the chance to work on hands-on, cutting-edge research projects. Collaborating with respected faculty and fellow students to find innovative solutions to real-world problems is very exciting to me. This experience will not only improve my technical skills but also enable me to make meaningful contributions to the field and prepare me for a successful career in technology and research.
What do you expect to accomplish in your first year at NJIT?
I anticipate welcoming two PhD students to join my lab. I also plan to submit two external funding proposals to the NIH and NSF, in collaboration with NJIT faculty. In terms of research, my focus will be on addressing challenges such as missing data, data generation for under-represented populations, and integrative analysis of multimodal data in Alzheimer’s disease. My ultimate goal is to develop an end-to-end AI system that accelerates prediction modeling for diseases and advances equity in health outcomes. This work will extend beyond Alzheimer’s disease to include other public health issues, such as breast cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Briefly describe the focus of your research
My research interests are artificial intelligence (AI) for social good. At present, my work focuses on the development of generative AI models that facilitate precision medicine and equitably improve health outcomes. Specifically, I develop deep generative models to generate complete medical data, such as magnetic resonance imaging and electronic health records, for under-represented populations. Additionally, I characterize and assess algorithmic fairness in machine learning models that predict prevalent public health diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and breast cancer.
What are some hobbies and pursuits away from your profession?
Basketball, swimming, and travelling.
Lei Zhang (Ph.D., University of Michigan)
What is it about NJIT that you feel is the right “fit” for you?
I enjoy interacting with the faculty here at NJIT and appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with them on a wide range of topics. I also admire how NJIT prioritizes inclusiveness and teamwork, creating an environment where diverse ideas and backgrounds are embraced. The campus's proximity to NYC is also a significant advantage, as it facilitates collaboration with nearby academic institutions.
What is one thing that you are most looking forward to in fall 2024?
I am excited about establishing my new lab, setting up infrastructure and launching impactful research projects. I plan to actively recruit passionate students across all levels: undergraduate, master’s, and PhD. I look forward to building a creative and supportive team to drive our research agenda forward.
What do you expect to accomplish in your first year at NJIT?
In my first year at NJIT, I aim to excel in teaching by developing an engaging and informative course that can inspire our students. I am also passionate about exploring new ideas and collaborating with colleagues and students on research projects.
Briefly describe the focus of your research
My research focuses on human-computer interaction, specifically on designing and developing creativity support tools that enable end-users to create immersive experiences, including Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). We invent novel interaction techniques and systems to study how they can enhance creativity, collaboration, and communication.
What are some hobbies and pursuits away from your profession?
In my leisure time, I enjoy songwriting & music production, skateboards, and film photography. I also enjoy exploring new restaurants and exhibitions.