I am a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Washington Programming Language and Software Engineering (PLSE) group, advised by Zachary Tatlock. At PLSE, I actively work on language design, program analysis, and compiler optimization involving e-graphs/equality saturation.

I earned my Ph.D. degree in May 2024 from Cornell University, co-advised by Greg Morrisett and Robbert van Renesse. My dissertation is titled “Formal Modeling Languages for High-assurance Domain-specific Systems.” During my seven years of graduate school, I worked on language-based formal verification of distributed systems, concurrent programs, and parsers; secure smart contract languages utilizing information flow control type systems; and new protocols for distributed systems.

With the recent advances in coding agents, programs of limited scope that sort of work now take much less effort to write. I believe the situation is analogous to the early days of physics, when “heavier objects fall faster” is the most widely spread view. Society would create tremendous demand for programming language research to deepen our understanding of program behavior and invent ways to provide certainty.

As a competitive programming veteran who won silver and gold at the 2014 and 2016 ICPC World Finals, I coached the Cornell ICPC team from 2018 to 2024. We won the GNYR and advanced to the WF through NAC in both 2019 and 2023. I started as the coach of the University of Washington ICPC team in Fall 2025. We won the PacNW and advanced to the WF through NAC in 2025. I also volunteer as a problem-setter and judge in the Cornell High School Programming Contest. My Codeforces ID is TankEngineer.

Besides doing research and competitive programming, I enjoy good humor, cooking “grad cuisine” foods, and my daily dose of existential doubts.