Hello!

My name is Yuan Cui (崔元), and I also go by Charles. I work with technology and humans to make an impact. Here’s my story.

2020 – 2025: Northwestern University

Following my passion for computer science, I joined the CS Ph.D. program at Northwestern. I started grad school studying the intersection of economics and theoretical computer science. I spent my first couple years taking CS and econ theory courses. Loving the abstract beauty of math and theory but yearning for solving more applied and human-centered problems, I pivoted to conducting research in human-computer interaction, data visualization, and data science. I have built adaptive, scalable, and interactive technology for data visualization and education using large language models and data science methods. I publish at top HCI and data visualization venues such as ACM CHI and IEEE VIS. At the same time, I also sought opportunities every summer to develop expertise in engineering, data science, and interdisciplinary research.

  • Summer 2025: Engineer @ Adobe — TBD :)

  • Summer 2024: Social Data Science Researcher @ Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) — I joined MPIDR as a visiting researcher in the Population and Social Data Science Incubator program under the supervision of Ugofilippo Basellini, Monica Alexander, and Irena Chen. My team worked on improving age-specific national mortality estimation in a data scarce context.

  • Summer 2023: Graduate Student Fellow @ Stanford RegLab — I worked on a project to estimate racial disparity in health outcomes when race data is scarce. We partnered with the Stanford Center for Population Health Sciences, and I conducted simulations and analyzed a large healthcare dataset with 7 million Americans’ healthcare records. I developed a statistical sampling method to optimally use additional, but scarce, race data to estimate disparity.

  • Summer 2022: Data Science Fellow @ Data Science for Social Good (DSSG) / Carnegie Mellon University — My team partnered with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and built a machine learning pipeline based on historical call data to help the lifeline make routing decisions that would allow them to answer more calls.

  • 2020 – present: EAAMO Bridges — A multi-institutional research initiative aiming to improve access and create opportunities for historically underserved communities. I co-directed the initiative.

Other activities at Northwestern:

  • Consulting: Advanced Degree Consulting Alliance (ADCA), Impact Consulting Chicago — I gained consulting and project management skills while serving as VP of University and Alumni Relations at ADCA, as well as co-founding Impact Consulting Chicago.

  • Entrepreneurship: HomeRiser, Inc., The Garage at Northwestern — I co-founded a real estate technology startup aimed at providing more flexible and affordable ways to finance home ownership.

  • Leadership Development: Center for Leadership — I participated in the leadership coaching program, the fellowship program, and later served as a team lead in the fellowship program.

2016 – 2020: Oberlin College

I majored in mathematics and computer science. I took as many math and theoretical computer science classes as I could, and studied abroad at Budapest Semesters in Mathematics. I did research on economics and computation, primality testing, and machine learning. My undergraduate thesis examined how simple modifications of the deferred acceptance matching algorithm affects perceived fairness and strategic behavior of school applicants. I graduated with high honor and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. I was fortunate to be mentored by Jack Calcut, Ben Linowitz, and Sam Taggart.