The Machine Learning Center at Georgia Tech (ML@GT) is home to many talented students from across campus, representing all six of Georgia Tech’s colleges and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).

These students have diverse backgrounds and a wide variety of interests, both inside and outside of the classroom. Today, we’d like you to meet Zifan Jiang, a brunch aficionado who pays homage to his home country by learning to make traditional Chinese seals.

Name: Zifan Jiang

Hometown: Chengdu, China

Advisor: Gari D. Clifford, Department of Biomedical Engineering

Current Georgia Tech degree program: Ph.D. in Machine Learning

Other degrees earned: B.E. in Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University

Tell us about your research:

My research interest lies in applying state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms in healthcare, with a focus on diagnosis and prediction of neurodegenerative diseases with multi-modality time series data. We develop novel methods for learning with noisy labels and missing data. A specific application would be using audio or visual recordings to analyze visual and verbal queues from the interviewee to diagnose depression.

What is your favorite conference and why?

The beach is my favorite place, so I’m a big fan of any conference that is held near a beach.

Favorite place to hang out on campus or in Atlanta and why?

You might find me wandering in different brunch places on weekends. Some favorite spots are Joy Café, La Belle Vie, and Royal China.

Tell us about some of your hobbies:

I have a lot of hobbies, but some favorites are watching movies and playing video games. I love “2001: Space Odyssey”, “Inception”, and the game “The Last of Us”. I also love to travel, especially to the islands.

Favorite Georgia Tech experience:

It is hard to pick just one. The most recent one would be rafting in Ocoee with my friends from Georgia Tech. It was a 10-mile half-day tour rafting down the river. We had a ton of fun and it was great exercise! Unfortunately a sunburn was our souvenir.

What is your proudest accomplishment?

Getting admitted into the machine learning Ph.D. program at Georgia Tech is something that I am very proud of.

What is the most random or useless talent that you have?

I learned how to make a traditional Chinese seal (yinzhang). Maybe I should bring one to sign my daily bills.

Best app on your phone:

Termius is amazing. It allows you to check the server jobs from your phone. I couldn't ask for more!

What are your plans for after graduation?

I’d like to end up in academia permanently, so I’ll hopefully work as a post-doc and then try to find a tenure-track assistant professor position.

If you could time travel, what period of time would you go to and why?

I would definitely go to the far future. I am always an optimist and believe everything will get better. Hopefully I won’t find a radioactive wasteland.