Computing Student Named 2025 Apple Scholar

Ph.D. student Guanghui Wang has been named a 2025 Apple Ph.D. Scholar in its artificial intelligence/machine learning fellowship program.

Wang, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the School of Computer Science (SCS), is focused on researching machine learning theory, specifically online machine learning.

While traditional machine learning relies on training models using large, pre-collected datasets, online machine learning is designed for real-time sequential decision-making. Because of this, it is always learning and adapting as new data arrives. Wang began working on online learning while completing his master’s degree.

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“I was first astonished by their application achievement, but then I found that I was more interested in the theoretical aspect behind those models,” Wang said.

Wang said he aims to make online learning more adaptable to various environments, ensuring that models can learn effectively even when conditions change. This goal is crucial for real- world applications like self-driving cars, financial markets, and healthcare systems, where data patterns constantly evolve. His research could help make artificial intelligence systems more reliable and efficient in dynamic settings by improving adaptability.

As part of the award, Wang will receive funding for two years and an Apple research mentor. He is also interning with a group at Apple this summer.

“I’m truly honored to receive this award and I look forward to cooperating with them on machine learning theory problems. I want to thank my advisors, Jake and Vidya, for their invaluable help and guidance. I couldn’t have received this scholarship without them,” he said.

Wang is co-advised by SCS Associate Professor Jacob Abernethy and Vidya Muthukumar, an assistant professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. 

“I was very excited to recruit Guanghui ever since I saw his Ph.D. application,” Abernethy said. “His co-advisor Vidya Muthukumar and I have been extremely impressed by his technical capabilities and his drive to excel at research. We were thrilled when he was announced as an Apple Scholar and we knew the recognition was well-deserved given his amazingly productive doctoral work.”