PhD in Computer Science (USC) -- Math, Algorithms, and ML Tutor

Chandra Sekhar M.

I am a theoretical computer scientist by training, now working at the intersection of mathematics and biology as a postdoctoral researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. I completed my PhD in Computer Science at USC in 2026, working on spectral methods, community detection, and recovering latent structure from data. Before that, I completed an M.Tech at the Indian Statistical Institute, where I graduated as a gold medalist (ranked 7th all-India on the entrance exam). I have authored publications at leading theoretical CS and machine learning venues like SODA, NeurIPS, ICLR, and AISTATS.

I have TA-ed for undergraduate courses (discrete math, algorithms) and graduate courses (complexity theory, graduate algorithms), and have delivered lectures on these subjects to classes ranging from 20 to 200 students.

Beyond the classroom, I have mentored K-12 students in research through the SHINE program at USC, and worked with undergraduate and Master's students at various stages of their training. Several of these mentorships have led to publications co-authored with the students.

My teaching style focuses on building mathematical intuition and formalism together, in a complementary way. I see formalism as key to developing intuition and becoming comfortable with mathematical abstraction, complemented by visual cues where helpful.

I find teaching to be a fulfilling activity and enjoy working with students at many levels, from middle school through graduate school. I tutor pre-algebra through calculus, proof-based mathematics, probability and statistics, linear algebra, combinatorics, discrete mathematics, algorithms, theoretical computer science, and introductory (and advanced) machine learning. I am also happy to work with students preparing for competitive exams or mentor students on research projects.