Faculty

Xiaoqi Tan	Assistant Professor Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta Fellow of Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii)

Current Graduate Students

Haoxin Sang	PhD student (01/2025-present) Haoxin joined the SODALab in Jan 2025. He received his MSc in Fundamental Mathematics from University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (2024) and B.S. in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics from Harbin Institute of Technology (2021).
Faraz Zargari	PhD student (01/2025-present) Faraz joined the SODALab as a PhD student in Jan 2025. Before starting his PhD, Faraz worked as a RA in the SODALab during 2024-2025. He received his MSc in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Alberta (2023) and B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from Sharif University of Technology (2021). Co-advised with Yunwei (Ryan) Li University of Alberta Graduate Recruitment Scholarship (2025)
Kushagra Chandak	PhD student (09/2023-present) Kushagra joined the SODALab in Sept 2023. He received his MSc in Computing Science from University of Alberta (2023) and BTech in Computer Science from IIIT Hyderabad (2019). Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship (2023)
Shuai Liu	PhD student (09/2023-present) Shuai joined the SODALab in Sept 2023. He received his MSc in Computing Science from University of Alberta (2023) and B.Sc. in Computer Science from Harbin Institute of Technology (2021). Co-advised with Csaba Szepesvári Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship (2024)
Vlad Tkachuk	PhD student (09/2023-present) Vlad joined the SODALab in Sept 2023. He received his MSc in Computing Science from University of Alberta (2023) and B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from University of Waterloo (2021). Co-advised with Csaba Szepesvári Canada Graduate Scholarships – Doctoral (CGS D) Award (2025) Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship (2024)
Siyuan Yu	MSc student (09/2023-present) Siyuan joined the SODALab in Sept 2023. He received his B.Sc. in Computing Science from University of Alberta (2023). Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship (2024-2025)

Former Graduate Students

SeyedehKimia Alaviyar	MSc (03/2023-04/2025) Thesis: Multi-phase Regularized Online Allocation
Hasti Nourmohammadi	MSc (03/2023-04/2025) Thesis: Value-oblivious Secretaries with Advice
Shayan Karimi	MSc (03/2023-04/2025) Thesis: Computational Complexity of Reinforcement Learning under Partial qπ-realizability
Hossein Nekouyan	MSc (01/2023-04/2025) Thesis: Randomized Posted Pricing and Rounding Schemes for Online Selection and Matching
Yanzhao Wang	MSc (09/2022-01/2025) Thesis: Online Conversion under Horizon Uncertainty: From Competitive Analysis to Learning-Augmented Algorithms

Visitors (Current/Past)

Ying Cao	PhD student from HKUST (08/2023–01/2024)

Undergraduate Students (Current/Past)

We spend significant time mentoring undergraduate students through research internships (full-time in the summer or part-time during regular semesters) or individual study courses. Below is an incomplete list of undergraduate students, organized in reverse chronological order by their joining date. This list may become outdated over time.

Lyndon Hallett	NSERC USRA (Summer 2024) → Last known position: MSc student at University of Alberta (2025)
John Tyler	NSERC USRA (Summer 2023) → Undergraduate Research Intern (Summer 2024)
Yanze Song	Undergraduate Research Intern (Summer 2023) → Last known position: MSc student at University of Alberta (2025)
Zixuan Xie	Undergraduate Research Intern (Summer 2023) → Last known position: PhD student at University of Virginia (2024)
Johnson Wu	Undergraduate Research Assistant (Summer 2022) → Software Engineer Intern at Intel (2023)
Siyuan Yu	Undergraduate Research Assistant (Summer 2022) → URI Undergraduate Researcher (Summer 2023) → Last known position: MSc student at University of Alberta (2023)