Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Does your group have open PhD positions available?

Subject to available funding, I may be recruiting students. I seek self-motivated students who are enthusiastic about machine learning research, especially projects that combine theory and experiments. I am also open to purely theoretical or applied projects when the opportunity is a good fit. Strong mathematical and programming skills are a plus. Due to the sheer volume of emails I receive every day, I may not be able to respond to your emails one by one. But please do not feel discouraged – if you are interested in working with me, you are very welcome to apply to the University of Arizona’s CS or Applied Math, or Statistics PhD programs and mark me as your faculty of interest. Best of luck!

I am a student at University of Arizona looking for research opportunities. Does your group have open positions?

You are very welcome to reach out to me or stop by my office hours. I also encourage you to stop by my research group’s weekly meeting to get a flavor of what research questions my group is interested in.

Can I request a letter of recommendation from you?

I am happy to write you a letter if you have done a research project under my supervision, or have completed a course under my instruction. If you are looking to get a strong letter from me, I would need to work closely with you on an independent project. This can be done by e.g., taking an independent study or thesis course with me, or discussing class project’s progress weekly in office hours. With six months of advance time, we can brainstorm about what we’d like to achieve in the project and how that fits with your goals. A month of advance time is often too late (quoted from Dr. Carlos Scheidegger).