Xu Cao

Bio

I am a CS PhD Candidate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, advised by Prof. James M. Rehg and Prof. Jimeng Sun. Driven by my personal history as a former pediatric rare disease patient, I co-founded PediaMed AI to advance AI technologies specifically for pediatrics. My research lies at the intersection of Vision Language Models (VLMs), Agentic AI, Social Embodied AI. In the meanwhile, I also focus on developing applications such as AR smart glasses and Pediatrics Foundation Models.

Previously, I gained industry experience as a Machine Learning Engineer at SambaNova Systems and Tencent, working on autonomous driving and generative AI. I have also held research internships at NEC Labs America and Google Research. I hold an MS in Computer Science from the Courant Institute (NYU) and a BS in Data Science and Chemistry from Fudan University, where I graduated ranked 1st in my major.

Collaboration & Future Plans: I am actively seeking to establish collaborations with motivated undergraduate and master’s students. If you are interested in working together, please reach out via this Google Form. Note: I plan to seek tenure-track faculty positions during the 2028-2029 academic cycle.

❗I am looking for full-time research scientist roles in Canada, USA, and China starting from 2027.