Dr. Chao Tian

Dr. Chao TIAN

 

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
Google Scholar

Announcements and News

  • Wenyuan’s first-authored paper, “Partial Information Decomposition via Normalizing Flows in Latent Gaussian Distributions,” has been accepted by NeurIPS 2025. Congratulations to Wenyuan for his first NeurIPS paper!
  • Seeking master students for thesis research in large language model (LLM), watermarking, data compression, and diffusion models.
  • Dr. Tian delivered a one-day short course on Large Language Models (with Applications in Power Systems) at Oncor Electric Delivery in Fort Worth in Apr. 2025. If your organization needs a quick introduction course on LLMs, please contact Dr. Tian directly. Please also visit here for information on an extended 3-day short course offered via the TAMU Smart Grid Center.
  • Our paper “Transforms learn variable-order Markov chains in context” was selected to receive the Best Paper Award at the Workshop on Machine Learning and Compression @ NeurIPS 2024! Dr. Tian was also invited to give a plenary at ITA 2025 on this topic.

Dr. Tian obtained his B.E degree from Tsinghua University, Beijing China, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University, Ithaca NY. He worked at AT&T Labs-Research (previously known as the Shannon Labs) as a researcher on communication and signal processing for seven years, before returning to academia. He was with the University of Tennessee Knoxville for a few years before joining Texas A&M University, where he is now a professor.

  • Best Paper Award at Workshop on Machine Learning and Compression @ NeurIPS 2024: “Transforms learn variable-order Markov chains in context”.
  • Best Paper Award at the first ‘Learn to compress’ workshop @ ISIT 2024: “Staggered quantizers for perfect perceptual quality: A connection between quantizers with common randomness and without”.
  • 2023-2024 IEEE Information Theory Society Distinguished Lecturer.
  • 2022 ECE Department Star Faculty Award.
  • Coauthor of 2020-2021 IEEE Data Storage Best Student Paper Award (awarded in 2022): “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: “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

  • Yuting CAI
  • Yu-Shin HUANG
  • Peter JUST
  • Mohammad RAHIMI
  • Wenyuan ZHAO
Alumni
Postdoctoral Researcher
  • Tao GUO, ECE, TAMU, Dec. 2018-Apr. 2020; now Associate Professor at Southeast University, China.
Ph.D. Students
  • Kai ZHANG, Ph.D. degree ECE/TAMU, May 2020; now with Amazon Inc.
  • Tianli ZHOU, Ph.D. degree CE/TAMU, May 2020; now with Google Inc.
  • Ruida ZHOU, Ph.D. degree ECE/TAMU, Aug. 2023; now with Amazon AGI.
  • Ali MENATI, Ph.D. degree ECE/TAMU (co-advised with Dr. Le Xie), May 2025.
Master Students
  • Sara MOUSAVI, CS Master degree, UTK, Dec. 2017; obtained her CS Ph.D. degree at UTK and now with Meta Inc.
  • Vineet GARG, ECE Master degree, TAMU, May 2019; now with Apple Inc.
  • Siqi FAN, ECE Master degree, TAMU, Dec. 2019; obtained his CE Ph.D. degree and now with Goldman Sacks.
  • Jianfeng SONG, ECE Master degree, TAMU, Dec. 2019; obtained his CE Ph.D. degree and now with Siemens Digital Industries Software, Inc.
  • Rachel YEH, ECE Master degree, TAMU, Dec. 2019; now with Michaels, Inc.
  • Lizi ZHANG, ECE Master degree, TAMU, May 2020.
  • Tianrui CHEN, ECE Master degree, TAMU, Dec. 2021; currently a Ph.D. student at Northwestern Polytechnical University China.
  • Wenjing CHEN, ECE Master degree, TAMU, Dec. 2022; currently pursuing Ph.D. degree at TAMU.
  • Chandra Sekhar TEDLA, ECE Master degree, TAMU, May 2023; currently with Aira Techonologies Inc.
  • Tianle ZHANG, ECE Master degree, TAMU, Dec. 2024; currently pursuing Ph.D. degree at TAMU.
Visiting Students
  • Chengyuan QIAN, Jun. 2021-Apr. 2022; currently pursuing Ph.D. degree at TAMU.
  • Min CHENG, Aug. 2019-Dec. 2019, TAMU visiting undergraduate student, University of Science and Technology of China; obtained her CE Ph.D. degree from TAMU 2025 and now with Amazon Inc.
  • Zekuan ZHANG, Jul. 2019-Sep. 2019, TAMU visiting undergraduate student, Southeast University (China).
  • Wenjing CHEN, Jul. 2018-Oct. 2018, TAMU visiting undergraduate student, University of Science and Technology of China.
  • Lei ZHENG, Oct. 2017-Apr. 2019, TAMU visiting Ph.D. student, Southwest Jiaotong University; currently Assistant Professor at Guangzhou University, China.
  • Jie LI, UTK visiting Ph.D. student, Oct. 2015-Oct. 2016, Southwest Jiaotong University; now as Senior Researcher at Huawei Technology, Hong Kong.
Texas A&M University
  • ECEN 601: Mathematical Methods for Signal Processing / Fall 2022-2023
  • ECEN 689: Advanced Optimization Techniques and Analysis / Spring 2022, 2024
  • ECEN 629: Applied Convex Optimization / Spring 2018-2021, 2023, Fall 2025
  • ECEN 446: Information Theory, Inference, and Learning / Spring 2018, Fall 2018, 2020-2023, 2025
  • ECEN 681: Department Seminar Series / Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020
  • ECEN 314: Signal and Systems / Fall 2019
  • ECEN 681: ISS Seminar Series / 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 Selected Areas on Communications-Special Issue on Rethinking the Information Identification, Representation, and Transmission Pipeline: New Approaches to Data Compression and Communication / 2023-2024
  • Editor for IEEE BITS Magazine (IEEE Information Theory Magazine) / 2024-
  • 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 / Jan. 2020-Jan. 2023
  • 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
Services
  • IEEE Information Theory Society Secretary / 2025-
  • IEEE Information Theory Society Conference Committee Member / 2024-
  • IEEE Information Theory Society Paper Award Committee Member / 2023-2024
  • IEEE Communication Society Data Storage Paper Award Committee Co-chair / 2018