I am currently pursuing my Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

My research interests lie in multi-modal interaction, a vibrant multi-disciplinary research field that aims to enable AI agents to interact seamlessly with users and complex environments by integrating and modeling diverse input and output modalities – including linguistic, acoustic, and visual messages. Specifically, my work focuses on developing efficient, controllable, adaptive, and interactive multi-modal generative models. My enthusiasm is to build robust AI agents capable of understanding, interpreting, and reasoning about the physical world. These systems are envisioned to effectively operate in complex and ever-changing environments, make informed decisions, and respond intelligently to real-world challenges.

I began my Ph.D. studies in Computer Science at Virginia Tech, advised by Prof. Lifu Huang and Prof. Ismini Lourentzou, and later transferred to UIUC to further expand my research capabilities. I obtained my Master of Science degree in Intelligent Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon University and my Bachelor’s degree from School of Software Engineering, Fudan University. Previously, I worked with Prof. Louis-Philippe Morency and Prof. Graham Neubig at CMU.

I am honored to have been awarded the Amazon-VT Fellowship for the 2023-2024 academic year.