I am an incoming (Fall 2025) Assistant Professor in Computer Science at Rutgers University New Brunswick.

Previously, I was a postdoctoral researcher at UC San Diego advised by Sorin Lerner. I completed my PhD in Computer Science at UMass Amherst, where I was advised by Yuriy Brun. I received a BS in Math and Computer Science from Harvey Mudd College.

When I’m not working on research, I’m mostly watching reality TV or rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles (go birds). I also enjoy playing tennis, skiing, and cooking with my amazing husband Subendhu Rongali.

Research Interests

Overall, my research interests are quite broad: AI for SE/PL and quantitative reasoning.

I am interested in leveraging AI for theorem proving as a playground for exploring how AI can reason better, and in turn, how humans can use AI to reason better themselves in a variety of domains.

I consider myself an interdisciplinary researcher, working at the intersection of machine learning, software engineering, and programming languages. So far, I have worked on creating tools to automatically generate proofs in proof assistants, such as Coq, Isabelle/HOL, and Lean.

If you’re interested in working with me (prospective PhD student, current PhD/masters/undergrad student at Rutgers, or just wanting to collaborate) please reach out via email.

Contact

emily.first@rutgers.edu

Please do not send emails to my ucsd or umass email addresses as they are no longer active.