I am an assistant professor at Arizona State University, with a joint appointment in the School of Mathematical Statistical Sciences and the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence. My research interests include discrete geometry, graph theory, and topological combinatorics.
I was born and raised in Shanghai, and in my free time, I enjoy board gaming and skiing.
I am making Semina. Artificial intelligence is reshaping higher education. Semina brings back real learning through guided, instructor-aligned reasoning.
I co-organize the Discrete Mathematics Seminar at ASU, where we explore a variety of exciting topics in the field. If you’re interested, feel free to check out our schedule. We’d love to have you join us!
Since October 2024, I’ve been coaching ASU’s ICPC teams. Chaiwala Ballers placed 12th at the 2025 North America Championship, advancing to the World Finals in Baku where they solved nine problems and finished 17th overall, earning ASU a Highest Honors award. In the 2025–2026 season, Second Wind finished second in the Rocky Mountain Regional and placed 4th at the 2026 North America Championship (scoreboard), earning a bronze medal and advancing to the World Finals in Dubai in November 2026.
I put together a little tool called Findliner to help boost my productivity by adding line numbers to PDFs. It’s been really useful for me, and you might find it handy too!
I organized the Math Kangaroo competition for students in grades 1–12 in the greater Phoenix area in 2025. I’ll be organizing it again on March 19, 2026. Register now!
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sep 2018 – Dec 2020 
Applied Mathematics Instructor, Department of Mathematics
Mentor: Yufei Zhao
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Aug 2016 – Jul 2018 
Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Mathematics
Mentor: Ron Aharoni
Carnegie Mellon University, Sep 2011 – May 2016 
Ph.D., Department of Mathematical Sciences
Advisor: Boris Bukh
Peking University, Sep 2007 – Jun 2011 
B.Sc., School of Mathematical Sciences
Charles Wexler Hall A839
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ 85281
Email: zilinj [at] asu [dot] edu