I am Pengrui Han (Barry). I am currently in the MSCS program at UIUC, advised by Prof. Jiaxuan You.
I am also a researcher in the MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences department, working with Prof. Evelina Fedorenko and Dr. Andrea de Varda in the EvLab.
During my undergrad, I was fortunate to work with Prof. Anima Anandkumar and Dr. Rafał Kocielnik at Caltech. I also previously interned at NVIDIA.
I’m interested in language and intelligence in both humans and machines, particularly the role language plays in shaping intelligent behavior, which I study through comparisons between LLMs and humans. I analyze their behavioral capabilities and failures, examine internal mechanisms, and develop strategies to enhance intelligent machine systems.
In the past, I have also worked on fair and human-centered AI, NLP, and more. You can find more on my Google Scholar and Personal Website.
I'm always open to collaborations. Please feel free to email me at phan12@illinois.edu.
[Last Update: 04/15/2025]