NDS Lab - Members

Faculty

Tyler Derr

Assistant Professor of Computer Science
email: tyler.derr@vanderbilt.edu

Teaching and Affiliate Faculty Member, Data Science Institute
Faculty Fellow, Frist Center for Autism and Innovation

PhDs

Anne Tumlin

Computer Science PhD
email: anne.m.tumlin@vanderbilt.edu

Co-advised with VeriVITAL Lab @ VU
DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship
Vanderbilt Russell G. Hamilton Graduate Scholars Award
Vanderbilt Provost Graduate Fellowship

Bo Ni

Computer Science PhD
email: bo.ni@vanderbilt.edu

Qinwen Ge

Computer Science PhD
email: qinwen.ge@vanderbilt.edu

Vanderbilt Engineering Graduate Fellowship Award

Ngoc Ngo-Quang Tran

Computer Science PhD
email: ngoc.n.tran@vanderbilt.edu

Co-advised with Dr. Xenofon Koutsoukos @ VU

Masters

Undergraduates

Haowei Fu

Computer Science + Math BS

Xutao Mao

Computer Science + Math BS

Alejandro Castillo

Computer Science BS

Duo (Dora) Bai

CS + Mol Cell Bio BS

Interns

Catherine Yang

CS BS+MS, ‘24

Thesis: An Analysis of Local Neighborhood-based Paradoxes in Signed Social Networks
Current position: Microsoft

Xuhui (Daniel) Zhan

DS MS’25

Fanhao Zhou

CS MS’25

High School

Former PhDs

Yu Wang

CS PhD, ‘24
email: yuwang@uoregon.edu

2025 - ACM SIGKDD Dissertation Award Honorable Mention
2024 - VU Outstanding Doctoral Student Award
2023 - VU Graduate Leadership Anchor Award in Research
Dissertation: Data Quality-Aware Graph Machine Learning
Next position: Assistant Professor of Computer Science at University of Oregon

Yunchao (Lance) Liu

CS PhD, ‘25
email: yunchao.liu@vanderbilt.edu

Co-advised with Meiler Lab @ VU
2024 - 1st Place VU's AI Showcase
2022 - Awarded Nvidia Academic Hardware Grant
Disseration: Geometric Deep Learning in Drug Discovery
Next position: Computational Scientist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

Yuying Zhao

CS PhD, ‘25
email: yuying.zhao@vanderbilt.edu

Vanderbilt IBM Fellowship Award
2023 - VU C.F. Chen Best Paper Runner-up Award in CS
Dissertation: Learning Beyond Utility: Fairness, Explainability, and Diversity
Next position: AI Research Scientist at Accenture's Center for Advanced AI

Former MS (Thesis)

Catherine Yang

CS BS+MS, ‘24
email: catherine.y.yang@vanderbilt.edu

Thesis: An Analysis of Local Neighborhood-based Paradoxes in Signed Social Networks
Next position: Microsoft

Xueqi Cheng

Computer Science MS ‘25
email: xueqi.cheng@vanderbilt.edu

Vanderbilt IBM Fellowship Award
Vanderbilt Engineering Graduate Fellowship Award
Thesis: Edge-Centric Network Analytics
Next Position: PhD Student at Florida State University

Xin (Allen) Wang

CS MS ‘25
email: xin.wang.1@vanderbilt.edu

Vanderbilt Engineering Graduate Fellowship Award
Thesis: Data-Centric AI for Small Molecule Drug Discovery
Next Position: PhD Student at Yale University

Qinwen Ge

CS MS ‘25
email: qinwen.ge@vanderbilt.edu

Vanderbilt Engineering Graduate Fellowship Award
Thesis: Enhanced Brain Graph Construction in Neuroimaging: A Data-Centric AI Approach
Next Position: PhD in NDS Lab at Vanderbilt University