About Me

I am a Ph.D. in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at the University of Missouri–Columbia, advised by Prof. Prasad Calyam. My research sits at the intersection of computational network science, human-centered AI, and knowledge-driven systems, with a focus on building intelligent methods that help people discover, understand, and connect within complex information networks.

My work spans several interconnected threads:

• Computational Network Science — I develop graph and hypergraph-based methods for modeling complex relational structures, with applications ranging from scholarly collaboration discovery to team formation in academic social networks.
• Human-Centered AI and Conversational Intelligence — I design LLM-enhanced recommendation systems and dialogue-based interfaces that prioritize usability and trust, including applications in healthcare knowledge discovery.
• Knowledge-driven Cyber Defense — I build knowledge graph-based approaches for security and trust modeling in distributed and networked systems.
• AI for Social Good — I apply these methods to real-world domains including healthcare, education, and public-facing information systems, aiming to translate technical innovation into tangible societal benefit.

Across these threads, my broader goal is to develop AI systems that are not only technically robust but also interpretable and genuinely useful to the people who rely on them, whether that’s a researcher searching for collaborators, a patient navigating health information, or a student learning a new skill.

Before my Ph.D., I completed my Master’s at China Agricultural University under Prof. Ying Chen, where I worked on natural language processing for emotion analysis and text classification. This early experience in NLP continues to inform how I think about human-centered AI design today.

I have also had the opportunity to mentor and teach over 300 undergraduate and graduate students as a teaching assistant at Mizzou, covering courses in cloud computing, algorithm design, and computer networks, an experience that has shaped my commitment to accessible, engaging computer science education.

I am currently on the academic job market, seeking a faculty position where I can continue this interdisciplinary research agenda and build a research group at the intersection of AI, network science, and human-centered computing. Please see my CV and Publications pages for more details, or feel free to reach out at xcheng@missouri.edu.