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.
My research aims to advance scientific understanding of AI (especially neural models like LLMs), and more broadly, the general principles of intelligence and intelligent behavior. I approach this goal across three interconnected levels:
- Behavioral level — analyzing how models and humans reason, generalize, and solve problems, including studies of alignment, limitations, and trustworthy reasoning.
- Mechanistic level — interpreting model internals to understand the circuits, representations, and algorithms that give rise to intelligent behavior and drive observable performance and failures.
- Social level — investigating how intelligence emerges and interacts in multi-agent systems and human–AI collaborations.
One can think of these as three levels, paralleling psychology, neuroscience, and social science in their study of human intelligence and behavior. If any of this resonates with your interests, feel free to reach out and let's connect/collaborate!
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 [email protected].
[Last Update: 10/22/2025]