- I have some capacity to remotely advise highly self-motivated students with the goal of publishing a top-tier conference publication. I had previously advised M.S. students remotely and they published at ICML/NeurIPS as the result.
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. Remote collaboration
I’m happy to advise high-motivated early researchers/students on research areas of mutual interests. Please email me with the below information:
- Your CV/resume and ideas that you want to explore (we could refine ideas but I want to know where you are)
- Do you have an availability of 6-12 months in your timeline? How many hours per week?
- Do you have an advisor at your institution/current program that supports this collaboration?
- Description of your GPU computation resources
I had helped many students in the past publish their first, first-authored papers (e.g. NeurIPS 2021, ICML 2025). It all started with a cold email from the student who have a fantastic motivation and availability for research. The collaboration/advising was entirely remote.
1. Undergraduate students
I only work with undergraduate students if I know you before, e.g. via meeting you at the department’s AI talks or in one of my classes. You are also welcome to audit any of my classes so that I have a chance to know you and your talent. Requirements:
- Amazing communication skills
- Good coding skills and a track record of interesting things you have tried (or demos you have built)
Send me a resume demonstrating the above!
2. Prospective M.S. students
I’m generally NOT recruiting Auburn M.S. students. However, send me your resume IF you:
- are looking for an M.S. thesis advisor.
- are done with all the coursework
- have strong coding skills OR be very familiar with Explainable AI literature
3. Prospective Ph.D. students
I’m currently NOT recruiting new Ph.D. students. However, we always have a position for exceptional candidates. If you believe you might be a great match to the group, please send me a G Drive folder that contains the following:
- CV (including your updated Google Scholar page in case you have any publications)
- TOEFL/IELTS scores (for international students)
- 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).
- Which semester do you plan to start?
- Any material that you want to use to 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 background in the lab’s focused research areas (eXplainable AI, evaluating and interpreting neural networks).
Why doing a Ph.D. 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 may 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 M.S. and 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:
- For example, Ph.D. student Michael Alcorn at CVPR 2019, M.S. student Naman Bansal at CVPR 2020, Ph.D. student Chirag Agarwal at ACCV 2020, Ph.D. student Thang Pham at ACL 2021, M.S. student Giang Nguyen at NeurIPS 2021, Ph.D. student Pooyan Rahmanzadehgervi at ACCV 2024, M.S. student An Vo at ICML 2025.
- 🎯 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.
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 Asian supermarket, shopping malls, and outdoor sports places.
🧑🏻⚕️ 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.
