Dr. Chao Tian

Dr. Chao TIAN

 

Associate Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Texas A&M University
Email: chao Dot tian AT tamu DOT edu
Phone: 979-458-7822
Address: ROOM 301R, WEB Building, 3128 TAMU, College Station TX

Announcement

  • The paper “Capacity-achieving private information retrieval codes from MDS-coded databases with minimum message size,” IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory 2020, was selected for the 2020-2021 IEEE Data Storage Best Student Paper Award! Congratulations to Ruida!
  • Congratulations to Ruida for winning the 2022-2023 Chevron Scholarship Award!
  • (updated Aug. 2022) Seeking a Ph.D. student with mathematical background and programming skills to start in Fall 2023.

Experience

  • Associate Professor, Department of ECE, Texas A&M University / Sep. 2017-present
  • Associate Professor, Department of EECS, The University of Tennessee at Knoxville / Aug. 2014-Aug. 2017
  • Adjunct Assistant/Associate Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University / Jan. 2011-Dec. 2013
  • Member of Technical Staff-Research, AT&T Labs-Research, Florham Park&Bedminster, NJ / Oct. 2007-Jul. 2014
  • Postdoctoral Researcher, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland / Sep. 2005-Sep. 2007

Education

  • Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, Ph.D. Electrical and Computer Engineering / Aug. 2005
  • Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, Bachelor of Engineering (BE), Electronic Engineering / Jul. 2000

Awards

  • 2023-2024 IEEE Information Theory Society Distinguished Lecturor
  • Coauthor of 2020-2021 IEEE Data Storage Best Student Paper Award: “Capacity-achieving private information retrieval codes from MDS-coded databases with minimum message size” in IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory 2020.
  • 2019 NetApp Faculty Fellowship.
  • Coauthor 2017 IEEE Jack Wolf ISIT Best Student Paper Award: “A generic transformation for optimal repair bandwidth and rebuilding access in MDS codes” in ISIT 2017.
  • 2014 IEEE Data Storage Best Paper Award: For the paper “Characterizing the rate-region of the (4,3,3) exact-repair regenerating codes” in IEEE JSAC May 2014.
  • AT&T Key Contributor Award: For technical contribution in AT&T / 2010, 2011, 2013.
  • Liu-Memorial Award, Cornell University: For excellence in graduate study and research / 2004.
Current Students

  • Ruida ZHOU, Ph.D. program in ECE, TAMU, Fall 2018-
  • Chandra Sekhar TEDLA, M.S. program in ECE, TAMU, Fall 2021-
  • Sriram CHAKRAVARTHY, M.S. program in ECE, TAMU, Fall 2021-
Alumni
Postdoctoral Researcher
  • Tao GUO, ECE, TAMU, Dec. 2018-Apr. 2020; now Assistant Professor at Southeast University, China.
Ph.D. Students
  • Kai ZHANG, Ph.D. degree ECE/TAMU, May 2020; now Assistant Professor at UT-Health School of Biomedical Informatics.
  • Tianli ZHOU, Ph.D. degree CE/TAMU, May 2020; now with Google Inc.
Master Students
  • Sara MOUSAVI, CS Master degree, UTK, Dec. 2017.
  • Vineet GARG, ECE Master degree, TAMU, May 2019; now with Apple Inc.
  • Siqi FAN, ECE Master degree, TAMU, Dec. 2019; currently Ph.D. student at TAMU.
  • Jianfeng SONG, ECE Master degree, TAMU, Dec. 2019; currently Ph.D. student at TAMU.
  • Rachel YEH, ECE Master degree, TAMU, Dec. 2019.
  • Lizi ZHANG, ECE Master degree, TAMU, May 2020.
  • Tianrui CHEN, ECE Master degree, TAMU, Dec. 2021.
Visiting Students
  • Min CHENG, visiting undergraduate student, University of Science and Technology of China; TAMU, Aug. 2019-Dec. 2019; currently with TAMU pursuing her Ph.D. degree.
  • Zekuan ZHANG, visiting undergraduate student, Southeast University (China).
  • Wenjing CHEN, visiting undergraduate student, University of Science and Technology of China; TAMU, Jul. 2018-Oct. 2018; currently with TAMU pursuing her graduate degree.
  • Lei ZHENG, visiting Ph.D. student, Southwest Jiaotong University; TAMU, Oct. 2017-Apr. 2019; now Assistant Professor at Sichuan Normal University, China.
  • Jie LI, visiting Ph.D. student, Southwest Jiaotong University; UTK, Oct. 2015-Oct. 2016; now as Senior Researcher at Huawei Technology, Hong Kong.
Texas A&M University
  • ECEN 601: Mathematical Methods for Signal Processing / Fall 2022
  • ECEN 689: Advanced Optimization Techniques and Analysis / Spring 2022
  • ECEN 629: Applied Convex Optimization / Spring 2018-2021
  • ECEN 446: Information Theory, Inference, and Learning / Spring 2018, Fall 2018, 2020-2022
  • ECEN 681: Department seminar / Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020
  • ECEN 314: Signal and Systems / Fall 2019
  • ECEN 681: ISS seminar / Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018
The University of Tennessee Knoxville
  • ECE 611: Convex Optimization / Fall 2016
  • ECE 342: Fundamentals of Communication / Spring 2016, Spring 2017
  • ECE 644: Codng and Information Theory / Fall 2015
  • ECE 342: Analog Communication, AM and FM / Fall 2014, Spring 2015
Columbia University
  • ELEN E6884: Topics in Data Compression / Spring 2011
  • ELEN E6718: Algebraic Coding Theory / Fall 2011, 2012, 2013
  • ELEN E6712: Communication Theory / Spring 2013
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
  • IC-62: Source Coding Theory and Practice / Winter 2006
Editorship
  • Guest Editor for IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Information Theory (JSAIT) on Distributed Coding and Computation / 2021-2022
  • Guest Editor for Entropy–Special Issue on Information Theory and Machine Learning / 2021
  • Guest Editor for IEEE Selected Areas on Communications-Special Issue on Private Information Retrieval, Private Coded Computing over Distributed Servers, and Privacy in Distributed Learning / 2020-2021
  • Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Information Theory / Oct. 2019-present
  • Guest Editor for Entropy–Special Issue on Information and Coding for Distributed Storage / 2018-2019
  • Guest Editor for Science China–Special Issue on Distributed Storage Coding / 2018
  • Editor of IEEE Transactions on Communications / Jan. 2016-Jan. 2021
  • Associate Editor of IEEE Signal Processing Letters / Feb. 2012-Feb. 2014