About

Hello! My name is Zirong (Rex) Chen (陈子荣), currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer Science at Vanderbilt University under Professor Meiyi Ma's supervision. My research focuses on AI Safety and Trustworthy AI, with particular emphasis on Natural Language Processing (NLP), reliable AI systems for critical applications, and trustworthy AI-driven solutions for Smart Cities and emergency response.

I earned my bachelor's degree (B.E. in Computer Engineering) in China and my master's degree (M.S. in Computer Science) at Georgetown University. I was a basketball athlete in high school and college.

Education

  • 2021-2026 Ph.D. in Computer Science
    Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
  • 2019-2021 M.S. in Computer Science
    Georgetown University, Washington, DC
  • 2015-2019 B.E. in Computer Engineering
    Jinling Institute of Technology, Nanjing, China

News

Last updated April 2026.

2026
  • Apr.Our paper PACE: A Personalized Adaptive Curriculum Engine for 9-1-1 Call-taker Training is accepted by IJCAI-26 and ECAI-26 (23.96% acceptance rate). See you in Bremen, Germany!
  • Mar.Invited talk "Empowering 9-1-1 Training with Trustworthy AI" at Trustworthy AI Community, Ericsson AB, Sweden by Dr. Rafia Inam. See you (virtually) in Sweden!
  • Feb.Our LogiEx (Integrating Formal Logic and LLMs for Explainable Transit Planning) is accepted by ICCPS-2026! Shoutout to first author Ziyan An.
  • Jan.We demoed the first version of our dispatching simulator under the Angie platform at MNDEC with domain experts.
2025
  • Nov.Invited talk "Neurosymbolic AI for Safety-Critical Systems" at DTAI Lab, KU Leuven by Dr. Luc De Raedt and Dr. Jessa Bekker. See you (virtually) in Belgium!
  • Nov.Our LwP (Learning with Preserving) is accepted by AAAI-2026 as Oral Spotlight! See you in Singapore! Shoutout to first authors David Wang and Siwoo Bae.
  • Oct.Invited guest talk on our Angie work at Dr. Ehsan Hoque's ROC-HCI Lab at University of Rochester.
  • Aug.We presented LogiDebrief (oral and poster at IJCAI) in Montreal, returned to Vandy, Anchor Down!
  • Jul.I won the IJCAI volunteer scholarship!
  • Jun.Our project won the Vanderbilt Catalyst Funds!
  • MayI joined Epiq AI Labs as an AI Research Fellow (intern), researching legal AI topics, see you in NYC!
  • Apr.Our work LogiDebrief is accepted by IJCAI-2025! See you in Montreal, CA!
  • Apr.Our project is awarded by Google again (Gemma3 Academic Program)!
  • Mar.Angie now has two solutions: desktop and web!
  • Feb.Sim911 and our newly developed debriefing function are now also available online!
  • Jan.Our work Sim911 is selected as Oral Spotlight (4.9%) at AAAI-25!
2024
  • Dec.Our paper Sim911 is accepted by AAAI-25! See you in Philadelphia.
  • Oct.Our project is awarded by the Google Academic Research Award!
  • Sep.We were invited (permanently) to present our work at the LIVE session.
  • Sep.We were invited to the Innovation Panel organized by Davidson County and the Sheriff's Office.
  • Aug.Our project SimER/Angie got funded by NSF (pre-announcement).
  • Aug.We were awarded by the OpenAI Research Access Program.
  • Jul.We launched and deployed SimER/Angie V2 at DEC!
  • Jun.We hosted a Workshop on Future Technologies for Emergency Response and Public Safety!
  • MayWe were invited to the TN State Government of Education's K-12 Event at Peabody!
  • Apr.SimER/Angie prototype first participates in real-world training!
  • Mar.We won the Vanderbilt Generative AI Seed Grant!
  • Feb.We were at AAAI 2024 in Vancouver, CA.
  • Feb.Our work Auto311 is selected as Spotlight Oral Presentation (6%) at AAAI 2024!
  • Jan.Serve as TA for Automated Verification.
  • Jan.I won the AAAI Scholarship and Volunteer Award!
2023
  • Dec.I won the Vanderbilt Graduate Student Travel Grant!
  • Dec.Our paper Auto311 is accepted by AAAI-24! See you in Vancouver!

Research Projects

Personalized Adaptive Curriculum for 9-1-1 Training

PACE is a personalized adaptive curriculum engine that tailors 9-1-1 call-taker training to individual trainees. By modeling trainee proficiency and dynamically adjusting scenario difficulty, PACE delivers targeted practice that improves learning efficiency in safety-critical emergency response training.

Keywords: Adaptive Learning, Trustworthy AI, Safety-Critical Training

Learn more → PACE system architecture showing personalized adaptive curriculum engine for 9-1-1 call-taker training

Logic-informed Call-taking Performance Debriefing

We develop trustworthy AI systems that decompose LLM runtime into modularized function calls enhanced with Signal Temporal Logic, ensuring reliable and interpretable performance evaluation for safety-critical call-taking scenarios.

Keywords: Trustworthy AI, AI Safety, Reliable LLMs

Learn more → LogiDebrief system architecture showing LLM integration with Signal Temporal Logic for automated debriefing

Customized Emergency Response Training

Collaborating with Metro Nashville Department of Emergency Communications, we develop Angie/SimER, a safety-critical AI system that provides reliable, trustworthy simulation environments for call-taker training in high-stakes emergency response scenarios.

Keywords: Safety-Critical AI, Trustworthy LLMs, Reliable Systems

Learn more → SimER system overview showing AI-driven simulation environment for call-taker training with Metro Nashville DEC

Trustworthy Emergency Response Systems

We develop reliable AI systems with built-in safety guarantees that enhance emergency response decision-making. Our trustworthy machine learning approaches ensure robust performance in critical situations while maintaining transparency and accountability.

Keywords: AI Safety, Trustworthy ML, Reliable Decision Systems

Learn more → Auto311 system diagram showing confidence-guided automated processing for non-emergency calls

Adaptable City Knowledge

The Adaptable City Knowledge project aims to create a dynamic, data-driven platform that helps cities respond to evolving challenges. From traffic management to disaster preparedness, this initiative fosters collaboration between city officials, businesses, and residents to promote resilience.

Keywords: AI/ML, NLP, Life-long Learning

Learn more → CitySpec system architecture for intelligent requirement specification in smart cities with formal verification

Selected Publications

Contact

Email: zirong.chen AT vanderbilt.edu
Office: Institute for Software Integrated Systems, Vanderbilt University
Address: 1025 16th Ave S, Nashville, TN 37212
Links: Google Scholar · ORCID · LinkedIn

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