Meet Our New CS Faculty

The department is proud to welcome new faculty whose expertise strengthens our academic mission and expands our research and teaching horizons. More than new appointments, they bring fresh ideas, energy, and a shared commitment to excellence in scholarship, mentorship, and discovery.

Chris Murphy
Senior Lecturer in Discipline
PhD, Columbia University
Research Area: Computer Science education, software testing

Murphy is a teaching faculty member who teaches courses on software quality, introductory programming, and software development. His current academic interests include student mental health, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in computer science, as well as software engineering education and software testing.

This semester, he will be teaching COMS 1004 Introduction to Computer Science and Programming in Java. It is the introductory course for CS majors and Engineering students, and covers algorithmic thinking, basic programming, and software development skills. Additionally, generative AI will be incorporated into the course, enabling students to learn how to utilize it as a tool for developing, testing, analyzing, and improving software.

Murphy received his BS from Boston University in 1995 and his PhD from Columbia Engineering in 2010. He previously served as a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania and Bryn Mawr College, earning teaching awards in 2019 and 2023, respectively. He was also a visiting faculty member at Swarthmore College and has worked as a professional software developer in Boston, San Francisco, and London.

Zhuo Zhang
Assistant Professor
PhD, Purdue University
Research Area: Security

Zhang is a computer security researcher whose work focuses on AI-enabled security, software vulnerabilities, and practical attack and defense techniques.

He is the recipient of the ACM SIGSAC Doctoral Dissertation Award and has received multiple best-paper honors, including an OOPSLA 2019 Distinguished Paper Award and a CCS 2024 Distinguished Paper Award. He has also achieved strong results in competitive security, including numerous CTF wins.

This semester, Zhang is teaching COMS 4995, AI for Software Security, which examines how AI is changing the way security vulnerabilities are discovered and analyzed in real-world software. He is actively recruiting undergraduate and master’s students to collaborate on projects in reverse engineering, blockchain security, and broader AI-enabled security.

Zhang holds a B.Sc. with Zhiyuan Honors from Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) (2018) and a PhD from Purdue University (2023).

Yining Liu
Lecturer in Discipline
PhD, Columbia University
Research area: Data science instruction

Liu’s research focuses on machine learning and computational biology, with a particular emphasis on data-driven methods for single-cell analysis. She teaches data science and machine learning with an emphasis on practical, hands-on learning. She is passionate about teaching and strives to create an engaging, well-structured learning environment that supports students in exploring their academic curiosity. She will teach COMS 4721: Machine Learning for Data Science this spring.

Liu holds a BA from the University of California, Berkeley (2020) and a PhD from Columbia University (2025).