About me Google Scholar CV Publications
Welcome!
I am an Assistant Professor in Statistics at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
My research develops theoretical tools for modern machine learning, with an emphasis on random matrices, high-dimensional statistics, information theory, and iterative algorithms. I study applications including overparameterized models, neural networks, structured data, conformal prediction, and reinforcement learning.
In a nutshell, it is always about:
\[y = f_\theta(X; \epsilon) \in \mathbb{R}^n, \qquad X \in \mathbb{R}^{n \times d}, \qquad \theta \in \Theta.\]But at least one of the above is unusual — Explore my research themes below!
Contact
chcheng (at) illinois (dot) edu
Bio
I am an Assistant Professor in Statistics at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Prior to that, I was fortunate to work as a postdoctoral scholar mentored by Professor Rina Foygel Barber at Department of Statistics, University of Chicago, and completed my PhD in Statistics at Stanford University, jointly advised by Professor John Duchi and Andrea Montanari. I was a recipient of the William R. Hewlett Stanford Graduate Fellowship. I received my Bachelor’s degree in Computational Mathematics from Peking University.
Employment
- Assistant Professor in Statistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2026.8 – Current
- Postdoctoral Scholar in Statistics, University of Chicago, 2025.8 – 2026.8
- Research Intern, LinkedIn Corporation, 2023.6 – 2023.9
Education
- Ph.D. in Statistics, Stanford University, 2019.9 – 2025.6
- B.S. in Mathematics, Peking University, 2015.9 – 2019.6