Yang Zhang, Ph.D.

Biography

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Miami University. Prior to this, I served as a Teaching Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Additionally, I also worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at UIUC and a W. J. Cody Research Associate at Argonne National Laboratory. I hold a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Notre Dame.

Prospective Students

We currently have openings for Ph.D. students in Computer Science and also welcome undergraduate and master’s students interested in participting our ongoing research through independent study or guided research projects. If you are interested, please feel free to email me your CV and/or research statement at zhang981@miamioh.edu.

Research Interests

Human-Generative AI/LLM Alignment

• Aligning human reasoning with generative AI models
• Designing interactive neural and hyperparameter search frameworks
• Enabling bidirectional learning between humans and AI systems

Generative AI/LLM Modeling

• Enhancing model learning under sparse and limited data
• Integrating multimodal inputs for unified generative understanding
• Ensuring robustness, fairness, and trust across domains

Quantum-GPU Hybrid Design

• Integrating quantum processors with GPU-based deep learning
• Developing scalable quantum-classical hybrid architectures
• Mitigating noise, decoherence, and interoperability issues

You can learn more about our lab and research at the Human-Centered Quantum Generative AI Lab.

Awards and Honors

• [2025] NSF OAC Core Research Award, National Science Foundation
• [2023, 2024, 2025] Teachers Ranked as Excellent, University of Illinois
• [2022] Best Paper Award, ACM/IEEE ASONAM
• [2022] Best Paper Honorable Mention, IEEE SMARTCOMP
• [2021] Outstanding Graduate Research Assistant Award, University of Notre Dame
• [2021] Video Presentation Award, ACM/IEEE IWQoS
• [2020] W. J. Cody Associate Award, Argonne National Laboratory
• [2018, 2019] Conference Travel Award, IEEE BigData
• [2015] Data Science Scholar Fellowship, Indiana Unviersity