Kevin Zhou

Kevin Zhou

Hi! I received my PhD in Pure Mathematics from the Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago in August 2024, where I was fortunate to be advised by James Freitag. My thesis was titled "Model Theory and AI: Results in Query Learning of Automata and Weighted Model Counting" (pdf). You can reach me at khzhou96 [at] gmail.com.
I am currently on the job market. My CV is available here.

Research

My research interests lie in mathematical logic, more specifically model theory. I'm currently working on connections between model theory, computational learning theory, finite combinatorics, and theoretical computer science.

Papers

  1. Hereditary properties and weighted model counting. In preparation
  2. Query learning bounds for advice and nominal automata. ATVA 2024. preprint

Fellowships & Funding

In Spring 2022, I was a UIC NSF TRIPODS Graduate Fellow.
In Summer 2019, I was a UIC NSF RTG Pre-doctoral Fellow.

Teaching

At UIC, I have been an Instructor for the following courses:

At UIC, I have been a TA for the following courses:

I won a Graduate Student Teaching Award for the academic year 2023-2024!

In Spring 2024, I am a mentor for the Directed Reading Program at UIC, a mentorship program that pairs undergraduate students with graduate student mentors working on a semester-long reading project.

In Fall 2022, I was a TA for the Preliminary Arizona Winter School on Heights and Model Theory.

Outside of teaching at the undergraduate and graduate level, I love teaching fun and interesting math topics to middle and high school students. Some opportunities I've had for this include:

During my time as an undergraduate at Carnegie Mellon University, I was a TA for:

Other work

I've worked on a variety of research projects in the past unrelated to my current mathematical research. Code for some of these projects can be found on my GitHub.

Miscellany

Outside of mathematics, I enjoy making music, reading, watching anime, playing video games, and exercising (usually some combination of weightlifting, running, and volleyball).
I have been a covenant member of Church of the Beloved since 2019, where I also served on staff part-time as Production Manager from 2021 to 2024. From 2015 to 2018, I was a member of Pittsburgh Chinese Church.
I'm proficient in Mandarin Chinese (你好!) and am currently self-studying Japanese (こんにちは!).