To Prospective Students and Postdocs

  • Yes-Lab, led by Prof. Yanfang (Fanny) Ye at the University of Notre Dame, is a team consisting of faculty, postdocs and students with research focusing on AI/ML, data mining, cybersecurity, and public health. We very much enjoy developing novel yet elegant techniques to solve real-world problems that generate broader impacts. By harnessing large-scale, multi-source, multi-modality data, we discover new research problems, propose novel machine learning models, and develop advanced AI techniques for real-world driven applications in cybersecurity and public health. More specifically, we strive to (1) advance knowledge and science in graph learning, trustworthy LLMs, and multimodal learning, (2) bridge AI/ML and cybersecurity concentrating on AI security and safety, large-scale malware detection, and the study of the evolving underground ecosystem, and (3) develop AI and data-driven techniques to combat the opioid crisis and infectious disease outbreaks. Integrating humanity and technology, our long-term goal of research is to advance capabilities and trustworthiness of AI to provide state-of-the-art innovations i) to secure cyberspace for its users, and ii) to improve health and well-being of people around the world. Please refer to our research webpage for details of our works.

  • I am currently looking for multiple Ph.D. students and Postdocs doing supervised research or independent study with me in the CSE department at the University of Notre Dame. If you are a well motivated and dedicated student pursuing a Ph.D. degree or postdoc related to the areas of AI/ML, Data Mining, Cybersecurity, and Public Health, please send me an email with your CV. I aim to recruit 1 postdoc and 5 Ph.D. students for Spring/Fall 2026 (until filled).

    The postdocs will be provided with competitive packages and the Ph.D. students will be provided with multi-year research assistantships which cover the full cost of tuition and offer the full year stipend ($41K+ for 12 month/year) and benefits. I will work with each postdoc or student to identify the most suitable topic based on his/her academic interests and background. I will also help each postdoc or student to build his/her strong capability and publication record as well as the career development with a good timing. I very much enjoy working with each member in my group and take each postdoc or student as a friend and a collaborator. Doing research is to build an enjoyable career and have fun.

    My expectations on perspective Ph.D. students are: (1) self-motivated, honest, diligent, intelligent, and easy-going personality; (2) strong research potential, programming capability, mathematical background; and (3) dedicated to research and willing to publish in prestigious forums. The minimum requirements for Ph.D. students are: B.S. in Computer Science (applicants with a master degree will be preferred), or related fields, and other general admission requirements.

My Students and Postdocs

  • Current Students and Postdocs

     Shifu Hou (Research Fellow, Spring 2025 -- )
     Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University
     Research Area: AI/ML, Data Mining, Cybersecurity

     Hadeel Almaimani (Ph.D. Student, Summer 2021 -- )
     Research Area: Cybersecurity, Data Mining

     Tianyi Ma (Ph.D. Student, Summer 2022 -- )
     MS from University of Southern California
     Research Area: Machine Learning, Public Health

     Shang Ma (Ph.D. Student, Fall 2022 -- )
     BS from Shichuan University
     Research Area: Cybersecurity, Software Engineering

     Chaoran Chen (Ph.D. Student, Fall 2022 -- )
     Co-advisor: Prof. Toby Li
     MS from Carnegie Mellon University
     Research Area: Cybersecurity, Human-Computer Interaction

     Zheyuan Zhang (Ph.D. Student, Summer 2023 -- )
     MS from New York University
     Research Area: AI/ML, Public Health

     Zehong Wang (Ph.D. Student, Fall 2023 -- )
     MS from University of Leeds
     Research Area: AI/ML, Data Mining

     Yiyang Li (Ph.D. Student, Fall 2024 -- )
     BS from Northeastern University
     Research Area: AI/ML, Public Health

     Zhengqing Yuan (Ph.D. Student, Fall 2024 -- )
     BS from Anhui Polytechnic University
     Research Area: AI/ML, Cybersecurity

     Yijun Ma (Ph.D. Student, Fall 2025 -- )
     MS from Renmin University of China
     Research Area: AI/ML, Data Mining

     Kaiwen Shi (Ph.D. Student, Fall 2025 -- )
     BS from Peking University (Yuanpei College)
     Research Area: AI/ML, Cybersecurity, Public Health

     Weixiang Sun (Ph.D. Student, Fall 2025 -- )
     BS from Northeastern University
     Research Area: AI/ML, Cybersecurity, Public Health

     Vincent Galassi (REU, ND, Fall 2023 --)
     Research Area: AI/ML, Public Health

  • Graduated Students and Postdocs

     Fangtian Zhong (Postdoc, Summer 2022 -- Spring 2023)
     Research Area: Software Security, Program Analysis, Machine Learning
     Current Employment: Assistant Professor (TT), University of Central Missouri, Fall 2023-.

     Jianfei Zhang (Postdoc, Fall 2019 -- Fall 2020)
     Research Area:Data Mining, Machine Learning, Public Health
     CIKM 2021 Best Paper Award (Full Paper Track)
     Current Employment: Research Associate, University of Sherbrooke, Canada, Summer 2022-.
     Previous Employment: Research Associate, University of Alberta, Canada, Spring 2021-Spring 2022.

     Qianlong Wen (Ph.D., March 2025)
     Research Area: Machine Learning, Public Health
     Ph.D. Dissertation:From Chaos to Harmony:
     Addressing Data Complexity, De-noising and Adaptability in Graph Machine Learning
     SIGKDD 2022 Best Paper Award Shortlist (Research Track)
     Current Employment: Machine Learning Scientist, TikTok, San Jose CA, USA, April 2025-.

     Mingxuan Ju (Ph.D., November 2024)
     Research Area: AI/ML, Data Mining
     Ph.D. Dissertation:Cost-effective Machine Learning Techniques for Graphs
     WWW 2021 Best Paper Award Shortlist
     Notre Dame CSE 2025 Outstanding RA Award
     Notre Dame 2025 Eli J. and Helen Shaheen Award Nominee
     Employment: Research Scientist, Snapchat, Seattle WA, USA, March 2024-.

     Yiyue Qian (Ph.D., May 2024)
     Research Area: AI/ML, Cybersecurity, Public Health
     Ph.D. Dissertation:Graph Representation Learning Techniques for the Combat against Online Abusive Activities
     CSE 2024 Outstanding RA Award - Honorable Mention
     Current Employment: Applied Scientist, Amazon, Seattle WA, USA, May 2024-.

     Yiming Zhang (Ph.D., December 2022; MS, December 2018)
     Research Area: AI/ML, Cybersecurity, Public Health
     Ph.D. Dissertation: Heterogeneous Graph Learning Techniques for Combating Opioid Epidemic and Online Trafficking
     MS Thesis: Using Social Media to Combat Opioid Epidemic
     Current Employment: Research Scientist, Singapore Management University, Spring 2023-.

     Shifu Hou (Ph.D., June 2022; MS, June 2019)
     Research Area: Machine Learning, Data Mining, Software Security
     SIGKDD 2017 Best Paper Award and  Best Student Paper Award (ADS Track)
     Ph.D. Dissertation: AI-driven Techniques for Malware and Malicious Code Detection
     MS Thesis: Automatic Detection of Insecure Code Snippets in Stack Overflow
     Current Employment: Research Fellow, University of Notre Dame, Spring 2025-.
     Previous Employment: Postdoc, University of Notre Dame, Fall 2022-Fall 2024.

     Yujie Fan (Ph.D., May 2022)
     Research Area: Machine Learning, Data Mining, Cybersecurity
     Ph.D. Dissertation: Heterogeneous Graph Representation Learning: Techniques and Applications
     Current Employment: Research Scientist, Visa Research, Palo Alto, US, Summer 2022-.

     Lingwei Chen (Ph.D., May 2019)
     Research Area: Machine Learning, Data Mining, Cybersecurity
     IEEE EISIC 2017 Best Paper Award
     Ph.D. Dissertation: Enhancing Security of Machine Learning-based Malware Detection at Feature & Model Levels
     Current Employment: Assistant Professor (TT), Rochester Institute of Technology, Fall 2025-.
     Previous Employment: Assistant Professor (TT), Wright State University, Summer 2021-2025.

     Michael Danzi (Master, May 2025)
     Research Area: AI/ML, Pulic Health

     Sidney Liu (Master, May 2025)
     Research Area: AI/ML, Data Mining

     Qian Peng (Master, April 2022)
     Research Area: Machine Learning, Cybersecurity
     MS Thesis: Heterogeneous Graph Neural Network for Key Player Identification in Underground Forums
     Current Employment: Software Engineer, China Intl. Capital Corp., Beijing, Summer 2022-.

     Shiyu Sun (Master, June 2021)
     Research Area: Data Mining, Public Health
     Current Employment: PhD Student (GRA), George Mason University, Fall 2021-.

     Jian Liu (Master, June 2018 )
     Research Area: Cybersecurity, Machine Learning
     MS Thesis: Automatic Detection of Cybercrime-suspected Threads in Online Underground Forums
     Current Employment: PhD Student (GRA), University of South Carolina, Fall 2018-.

    •  Sai Ram Nellutla (Master, December 2015)
     Research Area: Data Mining, Mobile Security
     MS Thesis: A Safety Support System for Children's Anti-loss
     Current Employment: Software Engineer, M*Modal, Pittsburgh, PA

     MRishitha Reddy Tumma (MS, March 2018)

     Madhusudhan Reddy Boddu (MS, March 2017)
     Current Employment: MongoDB Developer, Amazon, Silicon Valley

     Sai Venkata Akhil Thammineni (MS, November 2017)

     Srinivas Garapati (MS, October 2017)

     Utsav Kirtikumar Upadhyay (MS, September 2017)

     Sofia Nelson (REU, BS from ND, Summer 2024 -- May 2025)
     Research Area: Cybersecurity, Machine Learning

     Varun Taneja (REU, BS from ND, Summer 2024 -- May 2025)
     Research Area: Data Mining, Public Health

     Jasmine White (REU, BS from Purdue, Fall 2023 -- May 2024)
     Research Area: Data Mining, Public Health
     Current Employment: Lab Assistant at Northwestern University

     Evan Hall (REU, BS from ND, Fall 2023 -- May 2024)
     Research Area: AI/ML, Cybersecurity
     Current Employment: Software Developer at TQL, Cincinnati OH, USA

     Landon Bachman (REU, BS from ND, Fall 2023 -- May 2024)
     Research Area: AI/ML, Cybersecurity
     Current Employment: Federal Agency

      Sherry Zhu (REU, BS, May 2023)
      Current Employment: Software Engineer at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

      Carter Flayhart (REU, BS, May 2023)
      Current Employment: Allen Memorial Medical Library

      Daniel Chen (REU, BS, May 2022)
      Current Employment: Applied Math Ph.D. student at Brown University

      Yonghao Zhou (REU, BS, May 2022)

      Alex Finkelstein (BS, May 2015)

     Dominique Amos (BS, December 2015)

     Joshua Suess (BS, May 2015)

     Kevin Hao (BS, May 2015)

     Michael Hite (BS, May 2015)

     Jacob Sutton (BS, May 2015)

     Sam Wood (BS, May 2015)

     Reem AL Alshikh (BS, May 2015)

     Zainab Alamri (BS, May 2015)

  • Former Students

     Jianan Zhao (Ph.D. Student, CWRU, Fall 2020 -- Summer 2022)
     Research Area: Data Mining, Machine Learning


     Zhongyu Ouyang (Ph.D. Student, CWRU, Fall 2021 -- Spring 2024)
     Research Area: AI/ML, Data Mining

     Aaron Saas (Ph.D. Student, WVU, Fall 2016 -- Summer 2019)
     Research Area: Mobile Security, Data Mining

     Madhuri Siddula (Ph.D. Student, WVU, Spring 2015 - Summer 2016 )
     Research Area: Data Mining, Construction Safety

     William B. Hardy (MS Student, WVU, Spring 2015 - Summer 2017)
     Research Area: Cybersecurity, Data Mining
     Current Employment: Google