Information for Prospective Research Students

Information for Prospective Research Students#

I receive many inquiries from students within and outside of Loyola University Chicago who are interested in joining my research group and/or seeking MS or PhD admission.

To help set expectations and reduce confusion, this page explains how admissions and funding work at Loyola University Chicago and what I seek in prospective members of the Software and Systems Laboratory (SSL), which I direct.

Even though this page is primarily intended for prospective PhD students, many of the same principles apply to current master’s and undergraduate students.

Please read this page carefully before contacting me by e-mail with questions about joining the lab.

Students Not Yet Applied to Loyola Must Follow These Steps#

If you are interested in working with the Software and Systems Laboratory, please follow these guidelines prior to e-mailing me or requesting a meeting:

  1. Submit a complete application to Loyola University Chicago at https://gpem.luc.edu/. I am unable to meet with students who have not yet applied through the university’s official process.

  2. Ensure that your Statement of Purpose clearly articulates your connection to SSL. Your application should describe why your background and goals align with our research directions, what areas of SSL’s work interest you, and how you see yourself contributing to ongoing projects.

  3. After submitting your application, you may request an appointment via Calendly (https://calendly.com/gkthiruvathukal). I will only consider meeting with applicants who already have an active application on file. This policy is not meant to be discouraging; it is necessary given the volume of inquiries and my responsibility to prioritize active applicants.

  4. Part-time applicants must have a clear and documented funding plan, including explicit employer support to dedicate substantial time to research. Without this, part-time study is not compatible with the expectations and demands of SSL projects. There are many more established PhD programs that welcome part-time professional applicants. We’re not quite ready to be one of them.

Admissions and Funding Considerations#

All undergraduate and graduate admissions at Loyola University Chicago are handled centrally by the university. Faculty members, including department chairs, cannot personally admit students or guarantee financial support.

For the PhD program, a departmental committee reviews all applications and makes admissions decisions. We have a limited number of departmental teaching assistantships each year. Research assistantships depend on whether individual faculty members have active grant funding. Even when when a faculty member has funding, they may not have sufficient resources to support an admitted student for their full studies.

Students who hold national or international fellowships are especially encouraged to apply. Applicants with fellowships that provide at least three years of support are typically the most competitive.

Admission to the MS or PhD program does not guarantee placement in my lab. Lab membership depends on research alignment, preparation, and available funding. Prospective students should be prepared to explain how their interests connect to ongoing work in the group.

Warning

Generic or mass-mailed inquiries cannot—and will not—be considered. Lengthy e-mails that do not demonstrate familiarity with our research and a clear rationale for joining SSL are likely to be ignored. We are a savvy AI research group; we can tell when you are using AI tools to draft your messages and will ignore such messages.

Course-Based Research Experiences (CUREs) for Current Undergraduates and Master’s Students#

Note

This is a new requirement for all undergraduate (BS) and graduate master’s (MS, not PhD) students, effective January 2026.

All undergraduate students wishing to conduct research with me will be expected to enroll in my course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) rather than pursuing ad hoc or informal research arrangements. Loyola’s CURE program is designed to provide students with a structured, mentored research experience embedded within a credit-bearing course, emphasizing authentic inquiry, collaboration, and scholarly practice. Additional information about the CURE initiative is available through the College of Arts and Sciences at: https://www.luc.edu/cas/academics/cures/.

A central purpose of the CURE model is to provide structure, accountability, and shared expectations for student research. In the Software and Systems Laboratory, this structure is realized through a set of common research milestones that all students are expected to meet. These milestones typically include the development of a research proposal, a mid-semester progress review, the creation of a research artifact (such as software, data, or experimental results), and a final written report (e.g., ArXiv, conference, or journal paper draft) and presentation. Students are expected to spend substantial and regular time engaged in lab-based research, rather than treating research as fully asynchronous or independent work. This amount of time should be no less than 10 hours/week, inclusive of our regular lab meetings.

Each research project (or project idea) operates as a small research team, often aligned with or extending active doctoral research in the lab. Mandatory weekly meetings are held for each research team to review progress, discuss technical and research challenges, and plan subsequent work. Students should expect to interact regularly with me and with doctoral students in the lab as part of this collaborative research process.

This research experience is offered as COMP 388-005 in Spring 2026, with me serving as the primary instructor. You are eligible to take this course, even if you have taken independent study previously with me or other professors. A COMP 488 section will also be available for master’s students who wish to engage in research. These courses are not intended for doctoral students, who are expected to be largely self-directed at this stage of their training. Projects in COMP 388 and COMP 488 are closely integrated with ongoing doctoral research in the Software and Systems Laboratory.

All students enrolled in the CURE sections will be expected to produce a final written report of arXiv quality, prepared using LaTeX and following the conventions of professional computer science research papers. This includes clear problem formulation, appropriate background and related work, a description of methods or systems, results or evaluation where applicable, and thoughtful discussion. While submission to arXiv or a conference is not guaranteed, the expectation is that the work is written at a level that would make such dissemination plausible.

Enrollment in these sections is by permission only. I will also be combining these offerings with my COMP 398 Independent Study section, which allows students to earn Engaged Learning credit when required for graduation. However, I will no longer supervise independent studies that are not directly connected to ongoing research in the Software and Systems Laboratory. Students seeking independent or exploratory project work unrelated to active SSL research are encouraged to reach out to other faculty members. As department chair, my research supervision capacity is limited, and I need to focus my time on students contributing to active, lab-aligned research efforts.

Expectations for Prospective and Current SSL Members Alike#

As director of the Software and Systems Laboratory, I oversee a research group focused on systems, high-performance computing, software engineering, AI-assisted scientific computing, and interdisciplinary work that spans computing and other fields. Because of this breadth and the applied nature of our research, we look for students who have strong foundational preparation and can grow into collaborative, long-running projects.

A solid understanding of fundamental computer science topics is essential. This includes experience with advanced data structures, systems programming, operating systems, and programming languages. Strong Linux/Unix proficiency is expected, as our work involves servers, distributed systems, and HPC environments.

We place a high value on excellent software engineering skills, including the use of open-source tools, version control (especially GitHub), testing practices, documentation, and collaborative workflows. Depending on the project, familiarity with mathematics (discrete mathematics, probability, and linear algebra) may be helpful.

Our group actively uses AI tools as part of research workflows, but we expect students to engage with these tools critically and not as substitutes for understanding. Intellectual curiosity, a willingness to learn, and comfort with complex, open-ended problems are crucial. Students should be able to give and receive constructive feedback.

Communication skills matter. SSL is not a code-only research group; students are expected to write papers, prepare presentations, and contribute to discussions about research methods and evaluation.

Conduct Expectations#

Professional conduct, reliability, and respect for others are essential to success. We maintain a collaborative, inclusive environment and expect all members to uphold recognized community standards.

Two examples that reflect the spirit of how we operate are:

These documents articulate widely accepted expectations for respectful behavior, professionalism, equity and inclusion, and responsible conduct in computing. We expect all SSL members to engage with colleagues in ways consistent with these principles.

Collaboration Model#

SSL is a highly collaborative research group. Students typically begin by joining an existing project, learning the technical foundation, research questions, and workflow conventions of the group. As they develop expertise, students may take on leadership roles and help shape new project directions.

Purely solo projects are rare in our group; however, many solo projects often originate as side projects and become SSL projects. Students should expect to work closely with peers, faculty, and sometimes collaborators at Argonne National Laboratory and other universities (e.g. Purdue University, Northern Illinois University, Northwestern University, and Arizona State University, among others).

As a world-focused laboratory, we greatly value diversity, equity, and inclusion, and we welcome students from all backgrounds who are committed to a respectful and collaborative research environment.

Please see my presentation on Inclusive Mentoring to understand my mentoring approach.

Preparing a Strong Case Join the Software and Systems Laboratory#

Students who wish to express interest in working with the lab should begin by reading several of our recent publications and briefly describing how their background aligns with specific projects.

Thoughtful inquiries that demonstrate familiarity with our work are far more likely to be considered than generic requests.

Prospective students should also be prepared to learn independently, read papers on their own initiative, and demonstrate evidence of technical depth through coursework, projects, open-source contributions, or prior research experience.

This page serves as a starting point. For formal application procedures, please consult Loyola University Chicago’s official admissions resources.

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