Recruiting

• 02 fully funded Ph.D. positions (supported via Research Assistantships) are available now in the exciting field of Machine Learning.
• Postdoctoral fellow positions are available. Requirement: A track record in machine learning research.
• I have some capacity to remotely advise highly self-motivated students with the goal of publishing a top-tier conference publication. Requirement: A strong, relevant background and interests in one of the below areas.

The research topic is flexible and will be in areas of mutual interest in Trustworthy (example papers) and Explainable AI (example papers). See example topics on the Lab page.

Feel free to reach out to Anh at anh.ng8@gmail.com for any inquiries.

Application Instructions

0. Undergraduate students

I only work with undergraduate students if I know you before e.g. meeting you at the department’s AI talks or in my classes. You are also welcome to audit one of my classes so that I have a chance to know you and your talent. Send me an impressive resume or a cool demo if you have!

1. Prospective M.S. students

I’m not recruiting M.S. students unless you are done with all the coursework and are looking for an M.S. thesis advisor. You must also have exceptional coding skills OR be very familiar with Explainable AI literature to start working on a project.

2. Prospective Ph.D. students

If you are interested in applying for a Ph.D. position, please send a URL to a Google Drive folder containing the following docs to anh.ng8@gmail.com.

1. CV (including your updated Google Scholar page in case you have any publications)
2. TOEFL/IELTS scores (for international students)
3. A 2-min video of yourself speaking of your interests in any research topic. This is to give me an idea how you would discuss ideas with colleagues (so don’t read off a script).
4. A list of references (their names, titles, organizations, and how you know them)
5. A pdf document (1-page max) where you answer specifically:
   • What do you want to do for your Ph.D. or in the future that is aligned with our lab?
   • If admitted, in which semester do you plan to start?
6. All previous university-level transcripts
7. A list of background courses relevant to research in AI (e.g. statistics, math, machine learning, etc.)
8. Any other material that may showcase your strengths (e.g. videos of your projects; code samples)

Preferred qualifications: A strong mathematical background and programming skills. It’d be a big (+) to applicants who have industry experience as a software/research/ML engineer OR strong interests in the lab’s focused research areas (eXplainable AI, interpreting neural networks).

Why work with me?

• If you have multiple offers from Auburn/me and e.g., Boston U, Harvard, Purdue, or USC, you might want to read David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell and chat with me before you turn down my offer. Because ranking systems are biased and ranks are not the sole criterion when it comes to Ph.D., rather which group do you work in? Working with me at Auburn might provide one with more resources and support to be even more successful than if he/she goes to an arbitrary group in a higher-ranked place.
• Under my advising, many Auburn Ph.D. students (from a wide range of backgrounds) have published top-tier CV/ML conference papers as the first author, for their first time (e.g., Michael at CVPR 2019, Naman at CVPR 2020, Chirag at ACCV 2020, Thang at ACL 2021, Giang at NeurIPS 2021). This is doable! I believe anyone can contribute to research. All you need is a cutting-edge research topic that fits your current ability (which I can find with you) and self-motivation! :) If you indeed have strong self-motivation, I estimate you’d to publish, at least, 4 first-author papers by the end of the Ph.D.
• Our Ph.D. program is light on coursework (only 6 courses required post-bachelor) to enable students to perform research from Day 1. If you already have an M.S. in Computer Science, you’d mostly just do research in the Ph.D. (no coursework unless you and I decide that you’d benefit from taking more courses).
• I always support a student to intern in the summer, if that’s what they really want at that time. In fact, I have helped students secure summer internships (e.g. at Bosch, Adobe) by directly talking to companies.

Admission: Please check the admission requirements by the CSSE department at Auburn University.

Deadlines: I’m always looking for talented students. NO hard deadlines except that you need to be here before the semester begins.

Due to the high volume of applications, unfortunately, I’m unable to notify every applicant, except only those who appear to be a good match.

3. Prospective Postdoctoral Researchers

We are looking for postdoctoral researchers with competitive salaries to work on eXplainable Artificial Intelligence, in the intersection of Machine Learning, Causal Reasoning, and Human-Computer Interaction. These positions are funded by NSF and the industry. The XAI applications are in the medical or autonomous-vehicle domains.

Preferred qualifications: A track record of at least 1-2 publications in the top-tier conferences in ML/AI/NLP/CV.

Application: Please send your CV to anh.ng8@gmail.com with the research questions that you are excited about.

Deadlines: NO hard deadlines.

Auburn University and the city

Auburn is a small, friendly college town, a home for many types of outdoor activities, with a population of around 60,000. It is near many major cities: 60 miles from Montgomery, AL; 30 miles from Columbus, GA; and 100 miles from Atlanta, GA. You also can reach the beach in 3.5 hrs. Auburn has been previously ranked by CNNMoney, USNews, Forbes and recently Livability as one of the best places to live in the U.S. The graduate CS program at Auburn is ranked #90 by USNews.

In addition to being an R1 Carnegie research institution, Auburn Engineering research is ranked among the nation’s top 50 in research expenditures. We’re right in the automotive industry, and also 3.5 hrs from Cummings Research Park (the world’s 4th largest research park). Remarkably, the university is planning on hiring 500 new tenure-track faculty within 2019-2024!

Opelika, Auburn’s sister city, is full of quaint charm and rich in heritage. It is a vibrant small town with a high quality of life for its nearly 30,000 residents.

Famous Auburn University alumni include: Tim Cook, CEO of Apple and Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia. Auburn Computer Science graduates have been well placed at top companies, e.g., Microsoft, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Amazon.