Search this site
Embedded Files
hojae

 Hojae Lee 이호재

[CV], [Linkedin], [Google Scholar], [GitHub], [hojae@arizona.edu]


Hi👋. I'm Hojae, a PhD student at the University of Arizona, advised by Prof. Mihai Surdeanu. My primary research lies in the area of Natural Language Processing; I work on how human behaviors/virtues can be computationally applied to language models, so that they behave like us and understand our world more appropriately. I am currently interested in (but not limited to) the research topics below:

  • Complex Reasoning: Improving reasoning abilities (which is a core ability of human intelligence) of language models through methods such as multi-step reasoning and information retrieval systems.

  • Efficient NLP: Devising methods to decrease training/inference costs of language models while preserving their performances, such as knowledge distillation.

  • Computational Linguistics: Investigating natural language understanding of language models through the lens of linguistics, such as construction grammar.

News

  • [2025/04] Excited to share that I am accepted to the University of Arizona's CS PhD program which will begin in Fall 2025 🌵. I have officially accepted the offer!!

  • [2024/10] I joined the Language Technology Research Institute (LTRI) at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies as a visiting predoctoral researcher.

  • [2024/09] Our paper "Mentor-KD: Making Small Language Models Better Multi-step Reasoners" has been accepted to EMNLP 2024. See you all in Miami ⛱️!!

  • [2024/05] I successfully defended my Master's thesis🧑‍🎓!

Education

Ph.D. in Computer Science (In Progress)

University of Arizona @ Tucson, AZ, USA   ―    Aug 2025 to Present

Advisor: Prof. Mihai Surdeanu


M.S. in Computer Science and Engineering

Korea University @ Seoul, South Korea   ―    Mar 2022 to Aug 2024

Advisor: Prof. SangKeun Lee


B.A. in English Linguistics, B.L.S. in Language & AI (double major)

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies @ Seoul, South Korea    ―   Mar 2016 to Feb 2022

Publications

*: equal contribution

  • Mentor-KD: Making Small Language Models Better Multi-step Reasoners 

Hojae Lee*, Junho Kim*, SangKeun Lee

EMNLP 2024 (long)

  • Improving Chain-of-Thought Distillation with Annotator Models

Hojae Lee

KCC 2024

Other Interests

I do music for fun, and enjoy re-arranging/orchestrating musical pieces as well as playing the piano/synthesizer.

  • [Here] is an example of a soundtrack I orchestrated when I was in college, now being the official theme track for College of English in HUFS.

  • [Here] [are] some videos of me actually playing on stage.

Google Sites
Report abuse
Google Sites
Report abuse