Siebel School SRP Lunch and Learn: How to do Research Part 2: Writing & Publishing - Yiling Lou, Irving Solis and Tandy Warnow 06232026

Abstract

How to do Research Part 2: Writing & Publishing

This session will cover writing and publishing papers and code. How to write a paper. How to publish -- conferences, journals, open access; what is and isn’t plagiarism (including self-plagiarism), how/when to cite other references, dual submissions, and author ordering; How to publish code and how you can use the code of others. It will also cover common ethical issues, e.g., what to do if you find a mistake in a paper you published, and you should - and shouldn’t - use AI tools in your research. 

Speakers

Yiling Lou
I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science at UIUC. Before joining UIUC, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Purdue University working with Prof. Lin Tan and a Pre-tenure Associate Professor at Fudan Univeristy. I received my Ph.D degree and B.S degree in Computer Science from Peking University, under the supervision of Prof. Lu Zhang and Prof. Dan Hao. My research interests mainly focus on Software Engineering, and its synergy with Artificial Intelligence and Programming Language, such as LLM4Code, Agent&SE, Vulnerability Detection, Software Testing and Debugging. 

Irving Solis 
My research focuses on motion planning for robotics, specifically in multi-robot systems. I am currently investigating experience-based learning algorithms to enhance conflict resolution in multi-robot motion planning (MRMP) problems. Additionally, I am developing a framework for ROS2 Movelt to provide support for multi-robot problems.

During my PhD at Texas A&M University, I worked on hybrid algorithms for multi-robot sampling-based motion planning, aiming to improve scalability and reduce planning time while maintaining efficient cost solutions. In 2019, I physically moved to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to continue working with my advisor, Prof. Nancy M. Amato, and her research group. I continued my PhD research here until completing my degree in December 2024. This move allowed me to expand my professional network, connect with peers across disciplines, and become involved in high-impact research projects. As part of these opportunities, I collaborated on human-robot interaction projects for the manufacturing industry, particularly focusing on mobile robot navigation.

Tandy Warnow
Warnow received her PhD in Mathematics at UC Berkeley (1991) under the direction of Gene Lawler, and did postdoctoral training with Simon Tavare and Michael Waterman at the University of Southern California (1991-1992). After positions at Sandia National Laboratories (1992-1993), University of Pennsylvania (1993-1998), and the University of Texas (1998-2014), she joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a Founder Professor of Engineering. She is now Associate Director for the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, and has affiliate faculty appointments in Bioengineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, and several biology departments.