Stanley Yang | University of Washington

About Me

I am a second-year undergraduate student in Computer Science at the University of Washington, working with Gilbert Bernstein and as a member of the PLSE lab.
I am currently interning at Amazon Web Services AI Shanghai Lablet, where I am working on the popular Deep Graph Library (DGL) framework.
I am actively seeking summer internships and research opportunities for 2025. Please feel free to reach out.
Although early in my academic journey, I have broad interests in programming languages, computer graphics, theory of computing, and machine learning.
Before college, I grew up in Wuhan, China. I was fortunate to attend Wuhan Foreign Languages School for middle school and Wuhan Britain-China School for high school; the experiences at both schools have given me the perspective and courage to study abroad.

Programming Languages: Proficient in Java, C/C++, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, SQL, OCaml, Racket, Ruby, MATLAB, Excel
Programming Concepts: Proficient in Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) and Functional Programming (FP); Familiar with applications of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs)
Frameworks: Proficient in JUnit Testing, ReactJS, PyTorch, Java Spark, NumPy, SQL Server, NoSQL; Familiar with Java Swing, Figma, Flutter
Mathematical Background: Completed two challenging honor math series; proficient in advanced calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, topology, real and complex analysis

Programming Languages: Compiler construction, program synthesis, formal verification
Graphics: Primitive tagging
AI: Deep learning, Graph Neural Networks (GNNs)

[Jun. 2024] I began my internship at Amazon Web Services AI Shanghai Lablet, working on the popular Deep Graph Library (DGL) framework.
[May. 2024] I delivered a guest lecture for CSE 341 Programming Languages. Watch the video.
[Mar. 2024] I delivered a talk on the book “Types and Programming Languages,” focusing primarily on lambda calculus, at Gilbert’s group meeting.
[Jan. 2024] I started research on primitive tagging, focusing on developing user-in-the-loop semi-automatic methods to identify the type and shape parameters of geometric primitives that best fit a given input mesh. View our poster.
[Jan. 2024] I took a challenging but interesting graduate course, CSE599O Differentiable and Probabilistic Programming Languages, where I learned a lot about abstract math, programming languages, and their applications.
[Sep. 2023] I joined Professor Gilbert Bernstein’s group.
[Sep. 2023] I participated in the 2023 TAPIA Conference, a conference promoting and celebrating diversity.
[Jun. 2023] I volunteered at the 2023 ACM SIGMOD/PODS Conference, assisting with six research and tutorial sessions.
[Jun. 2023] I began summer research with PhD student Remy Wang on SQL.
[Jun. 2023] I joined PLSE as an undergraduate researcher.
[Mar. 2023] I became a TA for CSE 341 Programming Languages.
[Jan. 2024] I joined UW CIRCLE as a CIRCLE Ambassador, volunteering for international students.

I am currently a teaching assistant for CSE 341 & 413 Programming Languages, having served for four consecutive quarters. The course focuses on functional programming, language design, and interpreter construction using OCaml. Other instructors have used languages such as Racket, Scheme, and Ruby. Additionally, I served as an infrastructure TA, leading grading tasks, developing autograders, and writing test scripts and cases. I also delivered a guest lecture on Static vs. Dynamic Typing, which can be viewed here.
I own the “StanleyYang Talking about Math Video” channel on WeChat, where I create and post math tutorial videos on a biweekly basis. My videos have supported the math studies of over 350 students, with a total of 26 videos.
I was a tutor for The Sailors, a student-run tutoring group. I taught math, physics, and computer science to seven students with varying academic backgrounds and needs.

UW ICPC (International Collegiate Programming Contest) Winter Programming Contest 2024 - Second Place
Canadian Computing Competition (Senior Division) 2022: Distinction, Top 5%, Honor Roll Group 4
Oxford University Computing Challenge 2021: China National High Distinction; Elite Global Finalist Round: High Distinction
American Computer Science League 2021: Individual Top Score, Team Bronze Award; All-Star Round: National Individual Silver Award
USA Computing Olympiad Jan. 2021: Promoted to Gold Division
Canadian Mathematical Olympiad (CMO) 2021: 14 out of 35 points (Median: 9 out of 35)
American Mathematics Competition 12 2021: Certificate of Distinction, Promoted to AIME
Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge (COMC) 2020: National Gold Award, Rank 7 in China, Invited to the Canadian Mathematical Olympiad (CMO)
High School Mathematical Contest In Modeling (HiMCM) 2020: Honorable Mention
Outstanding Club Achievement Award for .EXE Club, 2020
Wuhan High School English Academic Debate Tournament 2019: Octo-Finalist

Volunteered at the 2023 ACM SIGMOD/PODS Conference, assisting with six research and tutorial sessions and supporting session chairs and presenters in preparing slides and videos.
Event facilitator for FIUTS (Foundation for International Understanding Through Students), volunteering for international students.
CIRCLE Ambassador for CIRCLE (Center for International Relations & Cultural Leadership Exchange), volunteering for international students.
Camp leader at the Ice Cream Summer Camp, leading a diverse group of kids of different ages to enjoy the outdoors and explore scientific gadgets.

I am a crazy cat lover, though I don’t currently have one. Puff is the cutest cat in my opinion. Her mom is an American Shorthair, her dad is a Scottish Fold, and she has a younger Ragdoll cousin named Paofan. I have tons of Puff merch, including two pillows, two T-shirts, a cardholder, dozens of stickers, and thousands of digital stickers.
When I’m not coding or reading papers, I enjoy playing board games, petting cats, playing video games, doing sports, cooking, watching movies, and reading fiction. I am also a veteran LTK (Legends of the Three Kingdoms) player, once ranking top 20 globally in the 10th Anniversary server.
I applied to Oxford University for undergraduate studies but was rejected. Despite feeling good about the interview, I may have messed up. I did exceptionally well on the Maths Admissions Test (MAT), scoring 97 out of 100, ranking in the top 1% among 2,816 competitors. It felt so close, yet so far.
My Chinese name is 杨光 (Yáng Guāng), which means sunshine. It’s a common Chinese name, and many people share it. Fun fact: I have a neighbor, who is a PhD student in CSE, with the exact same name (first and last!) as mine.