Devan Shah
I am a senior in Computer Science at Princeton University pursuing a minor in mathematics, and I am grateful to be advised by Prof. Elad Hazan. Through the Hazan Lab, I work with Google DeepMind Princeton on language modeling and dynamical systems. Separately, I have also worked on projects with Jane Street and TikTok.
Broadly, I am interested in better understanding language models, such as improving how models reason, designing post-transformer architectures, and thinking more about post-training. At Princeton, I help host a few reading groups, chair our ACM chapter, and am a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, and Tau Beta Pi.
Some recent work I am especially proud of is [1] and [3].
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GitHub /
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LinkedIn
News
- Oct 2025 — Honored to be an early inductee into Phi Beta Kappa.
- Sept 2025 — Excited to have received the Exemplary Independent Work award for [1], which I will be presenting at NeurIPS 2025. I am presenting [2] at NeurIPS SEA.
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Image Snippet from PRD presentation
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Hazan Lab w/ Google DeepMind Princeton
September 2024 — Present
I work on language modeling and dynamical systems in the Hazan Lab and collaborate with Google DeepMind Princeton. I've worked on projects aiming to accelerate the Google Spectral Transformer and better model linear dynamical systems, such as such as SpectraLDS, FutureFill, and Google Deluca.
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Quantitative Research at Jane Street
May 2025 — August 2025
I interned as a Quantitative Research intern at Jane Street.
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Recommendation Systems at TikTok
May 2024 — August 2024
As a machine learning engineering intern, I improved the recommendation system for ecommerce videos for a projected $33,000,000+ increase in annual sales through projects focusing on improving multi-interest modeling.
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Show 3 more experiences
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EEG Vision Embeddings at CareYaya
November 2023 — May 2024
I studied the reconstruction of viewed images from brain activity, improving performance by conditioning on a user's camera roll. We aimed to better align EEG embeddings with CLIP space.
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Scooter Authentication at Cal Poly Pomona
June 2023 - April 2024
I worked on continuously authentication of mobility scooter riders based on their posture patterns. We worked on developing embeddings based on motion that could be suitable for identification or auth.
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Price Prediction at Ticket Wallet (YC X25)
June 2023 — August 2023
I worked at an early-stage startup to advise and design data pipelines, pricing algorithms, and refine product pitches. I also worked on algorithms to determine if a ticket was likely to be sold.
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SpectraLDS: Provable Distillation for Linear Dynamical Systems
Devan Shah, Shlomo Fortgang, Sofiia Druchyna, Elad Hazan
NeurIPS 2025
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paper
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UpSkill: Mutual Information Skill learning for Structured Response Diversity in LLMs
Devan Shah*, Owen Yang*, Daniel Yang, Chongyi Zheng, Benjamin Eysenbach
NeurIPS 2025 Workshop on Scaling Environment for Agents
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FutureFill: Fast Generation from Convolutional Sequence Models
Naman Agarwal, Xinyi Chen, Evan Dogariu, Devan Shah, Hubert Strauss, Vladimir Feinberg, Daniel Suo, Peter Bartlett, Elad Hazan
Preprint
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ScooterId: Posture-Based Continuous User Identification From Mobility Scooter Rides
Devan Shah , Ruoqi Huang, Nisha Vinayaga-Sureshkanth, Tingting Chen, Murtuza Jadliwala
IEEE TMC 2025
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Augmenting Large Reasoning Models with Contrastive Goal-Conditioned Reinforcement Learning
Devan Shah*, Kevin Wang*, David Yan* (* indicates equal contribution)
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Parallel Scaling with Entropic Reasoners
Devan Shah*, Owen Yang*, Daniel Yang*
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Wave Filtering for General Linear Dynamical Systems
Devan Shah* , Brandon Cho*
paper
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Truly Adaptive Bloom Filters
Devan Shah* , David Yan*
paper
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Rider Posture-Based Continuous Authentication with Few-Shot Learning for Mobility Scooters (Student Abstract)
Devan Shah , Ruoqi Huang, Tingting Chen, Murtuza Jadliwala
AAAI 2025
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DreamScape: Denoising CLIP Embeddings with User Images for Improved Visualization Reconstruction
Devan Shah
paper
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Discussion on "Why Does Deep and Cheap Learning Work So Well?"
Devan Shah
paper
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A Survey of State Space Models: From Linear Systems to Language
Devan Shah* , Brandon Cho* (Equal Contribution)
paper
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Understanding Dynamic Algorithms for Packing-Covering LPs via Multiplicative Weight Updates
Devan Shah* , Owen Yang*, Sunil Vittal*
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Computer Science
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| COS217 |
Introduction to Programming Systems |
| COS226 |
Algorithms and Data Structures |
| COS326 |
Functional Programming |
| COS418 |
Distributed Systems |
| ECE435 |
Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition |
| COS435 |
Introduction to Reinforcement Learning |
| COS484 |
Natural Language Processing |
| COS597 |
Long Term Memory in AI - Vector Search and Databases |
| COS597 |
Systems and Machine Learning |
| COS597 |
Inference in Action: Probabilistic Topics in Reinforcement Learning |
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Math
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| MAT216 |
Multivariable Analysis and Linear Algebra I |
| MAT218 |
Multivariable Analysis and Linear Algebra II |
| ECO310 |
Microeconomic Theory: A Mathematical Approach |
| MAT377 |
Combinatorial Mathematics |
| MAT385 |
Probability Theory |
| MAT478 |
Topics in Combinatorics: The Probabilistic Method |
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Theory
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| ECE434 |
Theoretical Machine Learning |
| COS445 |
Economics and Computing |
| COS487 |
Theory of Computation |
| COS521 |
Advanced Algorithm Design |
| COS522 |
Computational Complexity |
| COS585 |
Information Theory and Applications |
| ORF543 |
Deep Learning Theory |
| COS598 |
Theory of Natural Algorithms |
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Creative Writing
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| FRS116 |
Evolution of Human Language |
| CWR202 |
Creative Writing (Poetry) |
| POL316 |
Civil Liberties |
| ATL494 |
Creating Comedy for Television |
| ATL497 |
How to Write a Monologue |
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| 2025 |
Agent Builders Hackathon: #3/46 (and 2 track wins), Competed Solo |
| 2025 |
Anthropic Alignment Hack #2/13 |
| 2025 |
Stanford Treehacks Codegen: Best Code Generation Application #1/24 |
| 2024 |
Columbia DevFest Overall Winners #1/54 |
| 2023 |
MIT Energy and Climate Hackathon #3/80 |
| 2023 |
ICPC Greater NY Regional Contest #4/92 |
| 2023 |
HackHarvard CareYaya Track #1/24 |
| 2023 |
Princeton HackaTron Web3 Hack #2 |
| 2022 |
HackPrinceton Best AI Hack |
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