Marcus Ma

Hello! I am a PhD Student at USC in the SAIL Lab advised by Shrikanth Narayanan supported by the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Graduate Student Fellowship. I previously received my Undergraduate and Master’s degrees in Computer Science from Georgia Tech with concentrations in Intelligence and Theory, where I was fortunate to be advised by Wei Xu (Master’s), Jennifer Gahee Kim (Undergrad), and Lelia Glass (Undergrad).

I am broadly interested in bridging the gap between how language models and humans understand language. My research tackles this question from several directions. From a neuroscience perspective, I am investigating how fMRI signals are interpreted by the human brain and the neural networks behind larguage language models for different language types. I also have previously investigated how LLMs differentiate between the stylistics and semantics of written documents. Currently, I am using rt-MRI scans to reconstruct audio from vocal tract contours, building upon my research from Georgia Tech that created an automated pipeline for improving transcription speed and accuracy. While LLMs are an impressive piece of technology, I don’t think they the best vehicle for future development of artificial cognition. I hope to understand the core properties of human thought to inspire future research.

Feel free to take a look at my publications or my various lab involvements. I have also written descriptions of my various software internships along with my resume.