Skyler Hallinan

Skyler

I am a Computer Science Ph.D. student 🤖🧑‍💻 at the University of Southern California advised by Sai Praneeth Karimireddy and Xiang Ren. Previously, I completed a B.S./M.S. in computer science at the University of Washington, where I was fortunate to work with Yejin Choi. I also concurrently completed a B.S. in bioengineering 🧬🛠️. I also previously completed research internships at Samaya AI, Apple, and Amazon AWS.

I aim to build autonomous AI systems capable of complex, long-horizon reasoning, even in unfamiliar environments. I achieve this by shaping their reasoning process: understanding why they fail, then curating better training experiences and inference strategies. Specifically, I focus on:

  • Data Attribution: I build tools to understand how training data shapes model behavior: detecting what models have learned (CoLM 2025) and tracing how it appears in their outputs (ICLR 2025).
  • Experience Curation: I optimize the data models learn from at training time, synthesizing and curating data offline, and designing environments and exploration strategies online (NeurIPS 2025).
  • Inference-Time Scaffolding: I design algorithmic structures that transform fixed models into autonomous reasoners, enabling them to refine their outputs (NeurIPS 2023), explore their environment (preprint), and coordinate with tools and agents.

Email: skyler.r.hallinan [at] gmail.com

Links: [Google Scholar] [Twitter] [Github] [CV] [Bio] [Semantic Scholar]

Selected Publications

(for the full list of my publications, please see my Google Scholar)

Selected All

Invited Talks

  • 2025 - "The Surprising Effectiveness of Membership Inference with Simple N-Gram Metrics"
    Google, Mountain View, CA (Virtual) [Video]
  • 2025 - "OpaqueToolsBench: Learning Nuances of Tool Behavior Through Interaction"
    Microsoft, Redmond, WA (Virtual)
  • 2025 - "The Surprising Effectiveness of Membership Inference with Simple N-Gram Metrics"
    USC ISI Seminar [Video]
  • 2024 - "Small but Mighty: Empowering Small Language Models to Outperform Their Larger Counterparts"
    Qualcomm, San Diego, CA (Joint Talk with Jillian Fisher)
  • 2023 - "Enhancing the Utility of Large Language Models with Algorithms"
    Apple, Seattle, WA (Virtual)

Media Coverage

  • 2024 - "AI writing is improving, but it still can’t match human creativity"
    Science [Article]
  • 2021 - "“Every single one of you has what it takes to do great things”: A tribute to the Allen School Class of 2021"
    Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering [Article]
  • 2020 - "Six Allen School undergraduates recognized for excellence in research"
    Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering [Article]

Honors & Awards

  • (2024) Anneberg PhD Fellowship
  • (2021) Outstanding Senior Award, Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering
  • (2021) Dean's Medal Nomination, College of Arts & Sciences, University of Washington
  • (2020) Levinson Emerging Scholars Award, University of Washington
  • (2019) Stratos-Stephen Endowed Scholar, University of Washington
  • (2019) Resarch Conference Travel Award, University of Washington
  • (2018) Robert B. Rodal Endowed Scholar, University of Washington

Teaching Experience

  • (Winter, 2023) Head TA @ CSE 573 (Graduate Artifical Intelligence) at University of Washington
  • (Winter, 2024) TA @ CSE 447/517 (Undergraduate/Graduate NLP) at University of Washington
  • (Spring, 2021 - Autumn 2023) TA @ CSE 473 (Undergraduate Artifical Intelligence) at University of Washington