• Current NYU students: If you are a BS or MS student currently enrolled at NYU, and looking for an MS Thesis or Senior Project topic, or simply interested in getting some research experience, feel free to contact me for an appointment. Make sure to include a CV and transcipts so I can see if you are ready to do research. I usually have some research topics available, mostly in the areas of web search, data compression, and distributed systems, and am looking for strong and highly motivated students to work on them.

    Note that this would often be an unpaid research experience, either as a volunteer or as part of a thesis or project course. In some cases, I may have special funding for undergraduate researchers who are US citizens or residents - let me know if this applies to you.

    Also, be advised that I expect a significant time commitment on your side, plus a very strong academic background and motivation. In particular, I am looking for students with strong programming and algorithms skills, and preferably with some background in web search, data mining, or machine learning. If you are willing to invest the effort, participation in research activities can be a very valuable preparation for the job market or graduate school. But you should be significantly above average in your grades - if you are struggling with your classes, it is better to focus on those.

  • Prospective grad students: If you are not a student at NYU, but currently applying or planning to apply to our PhD program, please only contact me if you are interested specifically in my research area and plan to work in this area during your PhD studies. I am unlikely to accept you as my student unless you have significant background in the area and/or an extremely strong academic background. For general application questions, please read the guidelines for PhD admissions on our department web site, or contact the Director of Graduate Studies.

    If you are a prospective MS student, then it is very unlikely that I would be able to offer you financial support, so there is little need to contact me before you have been admitted. After you arrive on campus, we can talk - but see above and below.

  • Incoming/admitted grad students: If you are an MS or PhD student who has already been admitted to our graduate program but without full financial support, please do not contact me or other faculty members to inquire about research assistantships before arriving on campus. If you were admitted with limited or no support, it means that we were unable to offer more support.

    Feel free to talk to me about possible research after you arrive on campus, but be aware that most likely this would be an unpaid research experience, at least for the first semester or so. Also, in most cases I would recommend talking to me after you have been on campus for 2-3 months - once you have adapted to the new environment and know how much time you need for coursework, and how much time you have for possible research.

  • Internships and visits: If you are a student from another school looking for a paid summer internship, please do not contact me directly. I sometimes do have summer visitors, but this is usually arranged through direct recommendations from colleagues. The same also holds if you are interested in visiting to perform research say for an MS thesis (or Diplomarbeit) or internship requirement at your school: if you do not need financial support from me and there is a close match in research interests, then it might be possible to arrange something, but please ask a faculty member (say, your advisor) to recommend you to me.