I am a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of Illinois Chicago. My research focuses on Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF), preference alignment, and bandits. I am broadly interested in the mathematical foundations of machine learning, with applications to computer vision and natural language processing.
Prior to UIC, I completed my B.Sc. in Computer Engineering at K. N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, where my thesis focused on windshield reflection removal. I also interned at the Technical University of Munich in Summer 2021, working on motion planning for autonomous vehicles using RL, supervised by Prof. Matthias Althoff.
News
| Jun 2026 | Website updated with a new look. |
| Fall 2023 | Started Ph.D. at UIC. |
| Summer 2021 | Machine Learning intern at TU Munich — motion planning for self-driving cars via RL. |
| 2022 | Completed B.Sc. in Computer Engineering at K. N. Toosi University of Technology. |
Research Interests
- Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) & Preference Alignment
- Bandit Algorithms & Online Learning
- Computer Vision & Image Processing
- Natural Language Processing
Publications
Papers in preparation — check back soon.
Selected Projects
Edge Motion Detection via Discrete MRF & Belief Propagation
Personal project implementing optical flow estimation using Markov Random Fields and loopy belief propagation.
Knowledge Distillation Methods Comparison
Implemented and compared logit imitation, feature imitation, and feature imitation with orthogonal projection. [Code]
iVAE: Nonlinear ICA via Identifiable VAE
Implemented iVAE (Identifiable Variational Autoencoder) and compared it with vanilla VAE on ICA benchmarks. [Code]
Spiking Neural Network Classifier & Transformer Language Model
Built an SNN classifier on MNIST and an attention-based transformer from scratch for citation classification.
BEV Perspective of Soccer Match (Homography & Classification)
Produced bird's-eye-view perspective from a soccer live stream using homography estimation and OpenCV/PyTorch.
Stanford CS231n Projects
LSTM image captioning on COCO; GAN variants (standard, DC-GAN, LS-GAN) for image generation on MNIST.
Education
| Expected 2028 |
Ph.D. Computer Science University of Illinois Chicago |
| 2022 |
B.Sc. Computer Engineering K. N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran Thesis: Windshield Reflection Removal |
Experience
| Fall 2023 – Present |
Ph.D. Research Assistant — University of Illinois Chicago Research on RL preference alignment and bandits |
| Summer 2021 |
Machine Learning Intern — Technical University of Munich Motion planning for autonomous vehicles via RL (Prof. Matthias Althoff) |
| 2019 – 2020 |
Teaching Assistant Fall 2020: Signal and Systems (Dr. Fatemeh Rezaei) Fall 2019: Hardware-Software Co-design (Dr. H. Roodaki) |
Selected Coursework
- UIC CS 512 — Advanced Machine Learning (Prof. Xinhua Zhang)
- UIC ECE 508 — Convex Optimization (Prof. Shuo Han) — A
- UIC CS 594 — Energy-Efficient Deep Learning (Prof. Yan Yan) — A
- UIC CS 520 — Causal Inference and Learning (Prof. Elena Zheleva)
- UIC CS 412 — Introduction to Machine Learning (Prof. Pedram Rooshenas) — A
- MIT 18.06 — Linear Algebra (Prof. Gilbert Strang)
- MIT RES.6-012 — Introduction to Probability (Prof. John Tsitsiklis)
- Stanford CS231n — Convolutional Neural Networks for Visual Recognition (Prof. Fei-Fei Li)
- Coursera — Deep Learning Specialization (Prof. Andrew Ng)