Han Shao

Hi! I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, College Park. Previously, I was a CMSA postdoc at Harvard, working with Cynthia Dwork and Ariel Procaccia. I did my PhD at TTIC, advised by Avrim Blum.

My research interests span machine learning theory, economics and computation, and algorithmic game theory. During my PhD, I focused on fundamental questions arising from human social and adversarial behaviors in the learning process, examining how these behaviors impact machine learning systems and developing methods to enhance accuracy and robustness.

Prospective students: I am recruiting PhD students for Fall 2026. You are welcome to apply to the UMD CS PhD program and mention me as a faculty of interest.

I also welcome motivated undergraduate and master's students who are interested in research to join my group. If you're interested, I suggest reading my recent work Probably Approximately Precision and Recall Learning before reaching out. After reading the paper, please email your thoughts on the work, your transcript, your CV, and what you hope to work on.

I will be teaching an undergraduate course in algorithmic game theory (CMSC498W) in Spring 2026. If you are a UMD undergraduate student interested in working with me, I encourage you to take the class.

Email: hanshao@umd.edu

Recent news

Dec 3-6, 2025: I'll be attending NeurIPS in SD!
Nov 12, 2025: I'll be giving a talk at JHU CS theory seminar.
Oct 17, 2025: I'll be giving a talk at the UMD CS department seminar on Probably Approximately Precision and Recall Learning.
Summer 2025: I'm co-organizing the workshops on Reliable and Responsible Foundation Models (ICML) and Incentives for Collaborative Learning and Data Sharing (TTIC, August 13–15). Please come by!
July 2025: I've moved to College Park! Come say hi if you're in the DC area.

Teaching

CMSC498W (Spring 26) Selected Topics in Economics and Computation
CMSC848P (Fall 25) Selected Topics in Machine Learning Theory

Students

Shashaank Aiyer (2025-)
Yancheng Zhu (2025-)

Contact

Email: hanshao@umd.edu
Office: IRB 5132