The iSchool is pleased to announce that Jiaqi Ma will join the faculty as an assistant professor in August 2023, pending approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. Ma is a PhD candidate in School of Information at the University of Michigan (UMSI). He earned his bachelor's degree in automation from Tsinghua University. For the 2022-2023 academic year, he will be a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University.
Ma's research focuses on understanding and improving machine learning for complex real-world data, such as networks, rankings, and data with missing values. He is particularly interested in machine learning problems motivated by human-related scenarios, such as social networks, recommender systems, and healthcare, for which he aims to develop both efficient and trustworthy solutions. Ma received the Gary M. Olson Outstanding PhD Student Award for his doctoral study at UMSI.
"Machine learning, especially when it is designed to improve the human condition, is a critical research area in information sciences," said Dean and Professor Eunice E. Santos. "We are thrilled to have Jiaqi join the ranks of our accomplished faculty working in this area."
"I'm very excited about the interdisciplinary collaboration opportunities at Illinois to improve machine learning in human-centric scenarios," said Ma. "I look forward to working with colleagues in the iSchool and at the University on key challenges that sit at the intersection of people, information, and technology."