Humans of SymSys: Hang Jiang

Hang is a first year master’s student in SymSys.

Where are you from? 

I am from Wuhan, China. Prior to Stanford, I went to Emory University located in Atlanta, GA, where I finished my BS in CS and BA in Linguistics.

What's something cool you've worked on? 

I was a summer natural language processing intern at Educational Testing Service (ETS), the organization to give standardized exams such as TOEFL and GRE. I developed a grammar error detection system based on machine and deep learning algorithms for preposition errors during my internship, which is used to assist raters in grading essays. As someone who used to be “tortured” by exams from the institute, I felt quite unreal to work there the whole time. :D 

What drew you to the SymSys MS program? 

The unique curriculum that bridges computer science and humanities really interests me. Specifically, I love the perspective that this program takes on artificial intelligence, which is more than just computation and is intrinsically interdisciplinary. 

What are some of your initial impressions of Stanford? 

A campus full of startup cultures. Definitely love the vibe here and enjoy talking to people about their plans.

What kind of research are you hoping to do here?

Natural language processing, computational linguistics, machine learning, and language learning. 

What's one piece of advice you'd like to offer to younger students?

Take fewer classes in your first quarter. I am glad that I did that and I was able to participate many activities and make new friends at Stanford.