Hao Peng
Tong Zhang
NEW Faculty Spotlight: Hao Peng
Hao Peng is one of the new faculty who joined MMLI Thrust 1 during our renewal. He is currently an assistant professor of the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is broadly interested in LLM research. [Click to read more]
What is your background/what did you do before your current role?
I finished my PhD at the University of Washington with Noah Smith and spent a year at AI2 before I joined UIUC. You can find out more about my research and lab by visiting my website!
What is your current position/short description of what you are working on right now with MMLI.
In MMLI, my team works on developing chemical reasoning LLMs for molecular discovery in collaboration with other MMLI members.
What drew you to MMLI (or your lab)?
The potential to translate advances in AI to important problems in scientific discovery, which I believe represents the most important application of AI but remains underexplored by a largely commercially driven AI community.
What has been your favorite part of being a part of MMLI?
The opportunity to work on important interdisciplinary problems alongside collaborative and highly motivated colleagues.
How do you like to spend your free time?
Skiing, backcountry skiing, road cycling, catering to my quartet of furry overlords.
Fun fact (or extremely average fact) about yourself you would like to share.
I almost chose chemistry as my career.
NEW Faculty Spotlight: Tong Zhang
Tong Zhang is one of the four new faculty members who joined MMLI during our renewal. He is currently a professor in the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include machine learning algorithms and theory, statistical methods for big data and their applications. He is a fellow of ASA, IEEE, and IMS, and he has been in the editorial boards of leading machine learning journals and program committees of top machine learning conferences. [Click to read more]
What is your background/what did you do before your current role?
I have been working on machine learning theory, algorithms and applications. Previously I was a professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Rutgers University, and have worked at IBM, Yahoo, Google, Baidu and Tencent. I graduated with a B.A. in Mathematics and Computer Science from Cornell University followed by a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University. Find out more about my research area on my website!
What drew you to your project and/or MMLI?
I am excited by how MMLI applies AI to tackle real scientific problems.
What has been your favorite part of being a part of MMLI?
My favorite part so far has been working with fantastic faculty members with complementary skills, and I am confident that important scientific discoveries can result from such collaboration.
How do you like to spend your free time? (or what would you do for fun if you had more free time!)
Travel and hiking.
Fun fact (or extremely average fact) about yourself you would like to share.
I drink a cup of coffee every day.