Potential New PhD Students

My lab is recruiting multiple PhD students for Fall 2024 at the University of Rochester. There is no application fee.

We work in deep learning, and especially efficient continual/lifelong machine learning, bias robust neural networks, self-supervised learning, and multi-modal large language models. My lab also has a grant for using generative AI for advancing nuclear fusion research, and a new NSF award for brain-inspired models for continual learning in temporal decision making tasks.

All full-time PhD students receive full-tuition scholarships and stipends, guaranteed for five years. Applicants should have strong programming skills in Python, significant deep learning experience, and have knowledge of linear algebra and calculus. Applicants do not necessarily need to have undergraduate degrees in computer science, and those with degrees in neuroscience, cognitive science, physics, math, and similar disciplines are encouraged. Because much of deep learning is an empirical science, training in other disciplines can significantly help you to conduct sound science, design experiments, and rigorously test hypotheses.

If interested in working in my lab please highlight that in your statement of purpose essay. You statement of purpose should describe why you want a PhD, your career objectives, your past research experiences, how your training has prepared you for a conducting research in deep learning, and discuss at a high-level the areas you want to work on. Much of the work in my lab is brain-inspired, so some familiarity with neuroscience or a willingness to learn is needed for some projects. Make sure to mention your desire to work in my lab in your essay and why you think you would be a good fit for my lab. Applicants will be reviewed based on their research and deep learning skills, especially as demonstrated by authoring papers in highly respected AI venues (CVPR, NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML, etc.). We use PyTorch in my lab. Strong alignment in our research interests is essential. I also look for strong communication abilities and grit. You should show familiarity with my recent work where I am the senior (last) author of the papers. With the exception of the nuclear fusion project, the others are related to continual learning. You can find some recent preprints here. We aim to progressively train deep neural networks for large-scale language and vision problems efficiently from growing streams of (biased) large-scale datasets. I also value work experience in AI and winning AI competitions (e.g., Kaggle). Your letters of recommendation should providing supporting evidence of your skills.

In addition to your statement of purpose, The University of Rochester requires a diversity statement in your application package. You can find advice on how to write one here. GRE scores are not required. If you are a US citizen, there are university specific fellowships you may be eligible for (beyond the funding I have in my lab), and you may want to call attention to your citizenship in your diversity essay. Women and underrepresented minorities in AI (Black/Hispanic) are especially encouraged to apply. Your essay should highlight any obstacles you had to overcome to achieve your educational objectives, including those related to the society you grew up in, and any activities you have done to help others overcome barriers to education.

Apply here for Fall admission before January 1, 2024. I’ll interview top-candidates in January and February, 2024.

While our normal pipeline is for students to be admitted in Fall, exceptionally strong candidates may be considered for Spring admission. My lab has no slots for Spring 2024, but will likely have some for Spring 2025.

If you have already published papers in continual learning or papers in premier journals (TPAMI, Nature, etc.) or conferences (CVPR, ICCV, NeurIPS, ICLR, ACL, AAAI, ICML, NAACL) then please email me.

I cannot meet with interested applicants due to multiple daily inquiries about this opportunity.