Ali Najibi
Ph.D. Student (Causal Generative AI for Vision)

Ph.D. student in ECSE at RPI, advised by Professor Qiang Ji. I work on causal generative AI for vision, combining structural causal models, counterfactual image generation, and causal representation learning. I use interventions to build controllable generators for data augmentation, domain generalization, image editing, causal inference, and uncertainty quantification.

Contact

profile_pic
Troy, NY, USA
+1 (518) 720-2866
/in/ali-najibi
njibiali@gmail.com
najibs@rpi.edu
anajibi.github.io
/anajibi
Updated at: 4/2/2026

Research Interests

  • Causal Generative AI for Vision
  • Structural Causal Models
  • Counterfactual Image Generation
  • Causal Representation Learning

Education

2024-9
Current
Ph.D., Computer Vision / Machine Learning GPA: 4.0/4.0
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA
2019-9
2023-9
B.S., Computer Engineering GPA: 19.03/20
Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

Publications

2026
Ali Najibi, and Qiang Ji, "DiNA: Disentangled Noise Abduction for Counterfactual Image Generation"
Under Review
2026
Ali Najibi, and Wang Ma, and Qiang Ji, "CURE: Counterfactual-guided Uncertainty REfinement to Break Uncertainty Entanglement"
Under Review

Accomplishments

2019-8
Top Rank in Iran’s National University Entrance Exam
National Organization of Educational Testing
Ranked 17th nationally in the Computer Engineering track (nationwide competitive entrance exam).

Work Experience

2021-0
2024-11
Software Engineer / Architect / Team Lead
System Group, Tehran, Iran
Worked across software engineering, software architecture, and technical leadership roles.
Python
Type Script
JavaScript
React
Node.js
Go
Angular
PostgreSQL
gRPC
Azure DevOps
Cypress
Automated E2E Testing (Team / Platform)
  • Implemented an automated testing system that reduced diagnostic workflow time by 30% and lowered operational costs by 15%.
  • Built conversion tooling to migrate legacy test scripts into the new framework, reducing manual migration work by 95%.
Sepidar Cloud (Developer / Architect)
  • Participated across the SDLC from requirements analysis to implementation and delivery.
  • Owned and delivered critical product modules; coordinated implementation with cross-functional stakeholders.
Internal Tools (Team Lead)
  • Led development of internal tools to optimize operations and improve developer productivity.
  • Automated and streamlined recurring departmental processes to reduce cross-team coordination overhead.

Research Experience

2022-7
2023-7
Remote Research Assistant under supervision of Dr. Vali Tawosi
SOLAR Team at University College London
  • Worked on text summarization techniques for improving accuracy in text-based agile story point estimation.
2022-7
2023-7
Research Assistant under supervision of Dr. Mahdieh Soleymani Baghshah
MLL Lab at Sharif University of Technology
  • Worked on self-supervised disentangled representation learning and related representation-learning methods.
2022-7
2023-7
Research Assistant under supervision of Dr. Abolfazl Motahari
VMS Team at Sharif University of Technology
  • Worked on traffic video analytics including detection, tracking, counting, and event detection.

Certificates

2022-8
Deep Learning (Specialization)
Offered through Coursera and Authorized by DeepLearning.AI
2020-9
Programming with Google Go (Specialization)
Offered through Coursera and Authorized by University of California, Irvine

Hard Skills

Causality
SCMs
Causal Graphs
do-calculus
Counterfactual Reasoning
Probabilistic Modeling
ML / CV
PyTorch
PyTorch Lightning
NumPy
SciPy
scikit-learn
pandas
OpenCV
transformers
JAX
Engineering
Python
C/C++
Go
TypeScript
JavaScript
Docker
Kubernetes
CI/CD
Cypress

Languages

English(Fluent)
  • TOEFL iBT: 110 (R: 28, L: 30, S: 24, W: 28)
  • GRE: 326 (Quant: 168, Verbal: 158, AW: 4)
Persian(Native)
Spanish(Basic)

Teaching Assistant Experience

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Linear Algebra
  • Engineering Probability and Statistics
  • Computer Networks
  • Advanced Programming

Selected Courses

A
Probabilistic Graphical Models
19.2/20
Advanced Information Retrieval
18.3/20
Deep Learning
In Progress
Advanced Topics in Causal Generative Models
Expected
In Progress
Combinatorial & Integer Optimization
Expected