Hy Dang

Hy Dang

Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science & Engineering

About me

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science and Engineering at Notre Dame, where I work in the DM2 Lab advised by Prof. Meng Jiang.

My research focuses on building reliable and self-improving LLM agents capable of complex, multi-step reasoning and decision-making. I investigate how agents can effectively use and create tools, learn from experience, and autonomously evolve their capabilities.

My work centers on two directions: tool-augmented agents, including effective tool use and reliable tool construction, and self-improving agents that acquire and refine reusable skills through feedback and experience.

Outside research, I am very much a cat person, which means I am easily distracted by cats on the internet and in real life 🐈. I am also a proud dad of two amazing cats: Mam (Fish Sauce) and Muoi Tieu (Pepper Salt).

⭐ Recent News

🎉 Sep, 2026 I completed an Applied Scientist internship at Oracle in Redwood City, working on skill evolution for LLM agents.
📄 Aug, 2026 OpenTools (first author) was accepted to EMNLP 2026 Demo Track.
🎉 Jun, 2026 I passed my Oral Candidacy Exam and became a Ph.D. candidate. My thesis is titled Towards Reliable Tool-Augmented Agentic AI Frameworks. Thank you to my committee: Dr. Meng Jiang, Dr. Toby Li, Dr. Zhi Zheng, and Dr. Avi Sil.
📄 Apr, 2026 Uncovering Disparities in Rideshare Drivers’ Earning and Work Patterns (first author) was accepted to CSCW 2026.
📄 Aug, 2025 LLM Function Calling with Templates, completed during my Amazon internship, was accepted to EMNLP 2025 Main.
📄 May, 2025 DYDECOMP was accepted to ACL 2025 Main.
🎉 Sep, 2024 I joined Amazon Rufus as an Applied Scientist Intern in Palo Alto (September 2024–May 2025).
📄 May, 2023 Community Recommendation Using Mental Health Discourse was accepted to CODI at ACL 2023.
🎓 Aug, 2022 I joined the University of Notre Dame as a Ph.D. student in Computer Science and Engineering, advised by Prof. Meng Jiang.
🎓 Dec, 2021 I graduated from Texas Christian University with degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics and a 4.0 GPA.

📃 Publications

Uncovering Disparities in Rideshare Drivers’ Earning and Work Patterns: A Case Study of Chicago thumbnail

Uncovering Disparities in Rideshare Drivers’ Earning and Work Patterns: A Case Study of Chicago

Hy Dang, Yuwen Lu, Jason Spicer, Tamara Kay, Di Yang, Yang Yang, Jay Brockman, Meng Jiang, Toby Jia-Jun Li ·
CSCW 2026
Paper
Open, Reliable, and Collective: A Community-Driven Framework for Tool-Using AI Agents thumbnail

Open, Reliable, and Collective: A Community-Driven Framework for Tool-Using AI Agents

Hy Dang, Quang Dao, Meng Jiang ·
EMNLP 2026 Demo Track
Project Page Paper arXiv
Improving Large Language Models Function Calling and Interpretability via Guided-Structured Templates thumbnail

Improving Large Language Models Function Calling and Interpretability via Guided-Structured Templates

Hy Dang, Tianyi Liu, Zhuofeng Wu, Jingfeng Yang, Haoming Jiang, Tao Yang, Pei Chen, Zhengyang Wang, Helen Wang, Huasheng Li, Bing Yin, Meng Jiang ·
EMNLP 2025
Project Page Paper
Optimizing Decomposition for Optimal Claim Verification thumbnail

Optimizing Decomposition for Optimal Claim Verification

Yining Lu, Noah Ziems, Hy Dang, Meng Jiang ·
ACL 2025
Paper
Embedding Mental Health Discourse for Community Recommendation thumbnail

Embedding Mental Health Discourse for Community Recommendation

Hy Dang*, Bang Nguyen*, Noah Ziems, Meng Jiang ·
CODI-ACL 2023
Project Page Paper arXiv
A Quantitative Review on Language Model Efficiency Research thumbnail

A Quantitative Review on Language Model Efficiency Research

Meng Jiang, Hy Dang, Lingbo Tong ·
Preprint
arXiv

📧 Contact

I’m best reached via email. I’m always open to interesting conversations and collaboration.

  • Email: hdang [at] nd [dot] edu
  • Office: 355 Fitzpatrick Hall of Engineering
  • Location: University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46565