Zixuan Yin

Year in School
Freshman

Major
Computer Science + Linguistics

Research Interests
Artificial Intelligence

Research Mentor

Research/Engagement Experience

Interests

Project Title

How did I get interested in Computer Science?
In elementary school, I deeply envied kids who were permitted to play video games at will, while I was restricted to a weekly 30-minute limit that strictly depended on my good behavior. As retaliation against such injustices imposed upon me by my parents, I decided to innovate games for my personal entertainment on Scratch, a block-based programming language/platform. This decision eventually led me down the path of the computer programmer.

What social interests matter to me?

Why did you choose Illinois?
Illinois appealed to me due to four reasons. One, it's home to world-class researchers, faculty, and resources, advancing work on projects that directly align with my interests. One example of this is the Speech Accessibility Project, which aims to make speech technology more accessible to those with speech irregularities. For me, the alignment lies in NLP and edge development, both fields that I've touched upon and am interested in. Two, due to UIUC's leniency in translating AP credits to college credits, I'm able to pursue the classes that I'm the most interested in as opposed to schools without this leniency. Three, the structure of UIUC’s program allows for a balanced lifestyle, allowing me to focus on other endeavors, including research, fitness, and extracurriculars, during my time at UIUC. Lastly, having many friends and peers attending the university allows me to begin my freshman year with a degree of familiarity and confidence that would've been impossible at many other schools, while also not restricting me from getting acquainted with new people.

What are your passions outside of computing?
I play sports (ranging from badminton to basketball to frisbee), binging anime, crochet, playing X-Bow 3.0 with evo Tesla, evo Archers, and hero Knight in Clash Royale

What has been one of your favorite experiences at Illinois that you would like to share with prospective students? (For Continuing UIUC Students)

What has been one of your favorite experiences as a CS STAR? (For Returning CS STARS)

What is my most impactful college experience?

These are a few of my favorite things!
Sleeping for eight hours, Agentic engineering (vibe coding), My younger siblings (7yo sister and 9yo brother) when they're not screaming, Larping at Starbucks

Research Description

Biography
I'm Zixuan, a CS + Linguistics freshman at UIUC. My goal is to be both a jack-of-all-trades in all CS fields and a specialist in a specific field (NLP, cybersecurity, or AI).