Tiange Tim Zhou

Hi! I’m Tim. I’m a final-year undergraduate student in the combined Honours Computer Science and Statistics program at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC.

I will be starting as a PhD-track student at UBC Computer Science in Sept 2025, co-supervised by Dr. Geoff Pleiss and Dr. Evan Shelhamer.

Piragua, piragua, new block of ice, piragua. – “In The Heights”

I am particularly interested in application-driven machine learning research, human-centric design, and computational efficiency. My undergrad honours thesis focuses on uncertainty quantification in deep learning, developing robust and practical methods to improve the reliability of machine learning systems in high-risk applications. I am especially excited about applying these methods to biodiversity-related research and applications.

Peviously, I was a research assistant in UBC SPIN Lab to give furry robots heartbeats and make them breathe. This project, called Happraisal, examined the impact of a person’s haptic interaction with an affective, zoomorphic robot on their ability to cognitively reappraise their emotions. As the lead developer for the robotics software, I developed real-time systems that enabled tetherless robot control and synchronized high-frequency physiological data collection from participants. I worked closely with Preeti Vyas and Bereket Guta, supervised by Professor Karon Maclean.

Outside of research, I am an enthusiastic, albeit mediocre, bird watcher, and am known to perform with UBC Acappella’s Choral Reef.