Working with Professor Musco's Group

General Information

I get many emails from students interested in working on research projects, so have created this page to collect information and resources for those students.

In general, while I advise students at all levels on research at NYU, I regretfully do not have capacity to work with the many interested and capable students who contact me, so obtaining a research position ends up being quite competitive. The best paths to working with my group include:

  • Take and perform well in one of my courses, ideally Algorithmic Machine Learning and Data Science. If you are interested in research, I strongly encourage you to take this course: it has a student led paper reading group and substantial final project. There is both an undergraduate and a graduate student section taught once per year (currently in the Spring).
  • Regularly attend my group's weekly Theoretical Computer Science Seminar. Anyone is welcome, and there is free lunch. You can sign-up for the email list or Google Calendar on the website.
  • Attend other theory events and seminars at NYU to get to know the group. A good place to learn about such events is to join our TCS@NYU Slack channel.
  • Contact a current Ph.D. student or postdoc. My current Ph.D. students and postdocs are listed on my webpage. All are far enough along in their research careers that they would make for capable mentors. Please take a look at their research, and reach our directly if there are projects you are interested in.

If you do one or more of these things and feel like the group is a good fit for you, let's talk more about how to get you involved in a project.

Some more specific information is included below.

Ph.D. Applicants

I advise students through NYU Tandon's Ph.D. program in Computer Science. Information on how to apply can be found here. Applications are due in December and I interview candidates in January. For Fall 2025, I plan to admit 1 new Ph.D. student. I am not admitting any students for a Spring start. If you are interested in working with me, please make sure to mention my name in your applications and statement of purpose.

Current NYU Ph.D. Students

In addition to the seminar listed above, we run a Ph.D.-student reading group, held weekly in Brooklyn. Please send me an email if you want to attend. It is open to any Ph.D. students, postdocs, and faculty fellows. Lunch is provided.

Current NYU M.S. Students

I unfortunately do not have funding to support paid RAships at this time. However, students who work with me can earn credit through independent project courses, or possibly an M.S. thesis.

Current NYU Undergraduates

I almost exclusively advise undergraduates who have taken my CS-UY 3943 course (Algorithmic Machine Learning and Data Science), since this course prepares students for the sort of theoretical algorithms research my group focuses on. This is challenging course, but many students excel. If you do start working with me on research, there are opportunities for paid summer positions for undergraduates.