Rice University’s Department of Computer Science is pleased to welcome four new tenure-track faculty members for the 2025–2026 academic year. Their arrival marks an exciting expansion of the department’s strengths in artificial intelligence, computer systems, theory, and cutting-edge applications that shape the future of technology.
Together, their research spans machine learning theory, deep learning systems, multimodal learning, computer vision, cloud systems, and networking security. Their expertise enhances both the department’s research portfolio and the educational opportunities available to Rice students.
Alireza Fallah, assistant professor of computer science
Fallah’s research spans machine learning theory, economic theory, market and mechanism design, game theory, optimization, and privacy. He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2023, working with Asu Ozdaglar and Daron Acemoglu.
Before joining Rice, Fallah was a postdoctoral researcher at University of California, Berkeley, hosted by Michael Jordan and the Gamelin Postdoctoral Fellow at the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute. His work integrates tools from machine learning and economics to address challenges at the intersection of algorithms and human behavior.
Yuke Wang, assistant professor of computer science
Wang’s research develops intelligent and efficient systems for diverse deep learning applications, including deep neural networks, graph neural networks, deep learning recommendation models, and large language models.
Wang earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2024 under the supervision of Yufei Ding. In 2022, he received the NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship.
Chen Wei, assistant professor of computer science
Wei’s research focuses on artificial intelligence, multimodal learning, and computer vision. She is particularly interested in building scalable AI systems that transform raw sensory inputs, especially visual signals, into structured and actionable knowledge.
Wei earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University in 2024, advised by Alan Yuille. Before coming to Rice, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Meta AI (FAIR).
Jiarong Xing, assistant professor of computer science
Xing’s research interests include efficient cloud systems, large-scale machine learning systems, systems and networking security, and programmable devices.
Xing received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Rice in 2024 and was advised by Ang Chen. Before returning to Rice as faculty, he was a postdoctoral scholar in the Sky Computing Lab at University of California, Berkeley, hosted by Ion Stoica.