rm 3304, EB2 • Com. Sci., EB2, 890 Oval Dr, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
Mess to insight. Days to seconds. Bucks to pennies.
I earned my Ph.D. in Computer Science from UNSW (1995) and am now a Full Professor at NC State University , where I direct the Irrational Research Lab . My work focuses on software engineering for AI , specifically building data-driven, explainable, and intelligent software systems . I am an ACM, IEEE, and ASE Fellow , and co-creator of the PROMISE repository , helping establish modern empirical software engineering by showing that small, interpretable AI models can often outperform larger, more complex ones.
I have published over 300 papers with more than 24,000 citations (h-index=74) and have advised 24 Ph.D. students . I serve as the Editor-in-Chief of the Automated Software Engineering journal and, from 2010 to 2026 , as an Associate Editor for IEEE TSE .
My research is supported by $19M in competitive grants from government ( NASA ) and industry ( LexisNexis, Microsoft, Meta ). Recent highlights include over $2.5M from the NSF and $1M from the NSA to advance the science of trustworthy and compact AI. For more information, visit timm.fyi .
I strongly advocate for "AI, for Less" . My research demonstrates that you do not always need massive computational power; simpler, optimized models can yield exceptional results while remaining fair, transparent, and trustworthy. We emphasize reproducibility and simplicity over "black box" deep learning.
AI software is still software, so faults in SE mean faults in AI. SE teams often race to deliver AI-based solutions without first checking for bias, optimality, or explainability . I apply decades of Software Engineering wisdom to address these problems in AI, utilizing analytics for defect prediction and effort estimation.
Ensuring AI systems in high-stakes environments are explainable, and trustable. We use causal graphs and rigorous optimization to ensure AI can be trusted by end-users and institutions.
I seek talented grad students & industrial partners to find + fix the problems in real-world AI/ML. If you want to be a leader in AI (and not just another follower), we should talk.
I have advised 24 Ph.D. students. Below is a list of my current students and alumni:
| Year | Name | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 2028 | Srinath Srinivasan | NC State |
| 2027 | Kishan Ganguly | NC State |
| Amirali Rayegan | NC State |
| Year | Name | Where Now |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Andre Lutosa | Red Hat |
| Kewen Peng | Meta | |
| Rahul Yedida | Lexis Nexis | |
| 2023 | Sherry (Xueqi) Yang | Oracle |
| Xiao Ling | Meta | |
| Suvodeep Majumder | AWS | |
| 2021 | Rui Shu | Hong Kong |
| Shrikanth Chandrasekaran | Oracle | |
| Tianpei (Patrick) Xia | NewsBreak | |
| Huy Tu | ||
| 2020 | Joymallya Chakraborty | Amazon |
| 2019 | Zhe Yu | Rochester Institute of Technology |
| Rahul Krishna | IBM Research | |
| Jianfeng Chen | Meta | |
| Amritanshu Agrawal | TikTok | |
| Vivek Nair | Meta | |
| 2018 | Wei Fu | Meta |
| 2014 | Abdel Salam Sayyad | Birzeit University |
| Fayola Peters | Johnson & Johnson | |
| Joe Krall | Cloudvirga | |
| 2012 | Ekrem Kocaguneli | |
| 2011 | Ashutosh Nandeshwar | CCS Fundraising |
| 2007 | David Owen | Messiah College |
| 2004 | Scott Chen | Masimo.com |