Derin Gezgin

I am a fourth-year undergraduate student at Connecticut College, double majoring in Computer Science and Statistics and Data Science.

I am a member of two research labs at Connecticut College: the Autonomous Agent Learning Lab, where I work with Prof. Gary B. Parker and Prof. Jim O'Connor, and the Informatics Lab, where I work with Prof. Timothy James Becker. My research in the Autonomous Agent Learning Lab focuses on artificial intelligence for games and evolutionary robotics, while in the Informatics Lab I work on real-world applications of computer vision and machine learning.

From May 2025 to March 2026, I collaborated with Prof. Mayur Naik at the University of Pennsylvania and Prof. Saikat Dutta at Cornell University. I led the Docker integration for IRIS, containerizing the project workflow, publishing prebuilt images to Docker Hub for 189 Java projects, making them easier to build and run reproducibly. I also developed PoC-Gym, a system for LLM-assisted Java proof-of-concept exploit generation that combines CVE-tailored prompts, static source–sink traces, coverage-based feedback, and runtime validation.

I am currently working with Prof. Nick Cheney at the University of Vermont as part of the Neurobotics Lab through a Summer 2026 research internship, exploring continual learning and open-ended evolution.

Outside of research, I work as a teaching assistant and grader at Connecticut College. I am currently the Head Teaching Assistant of the Department of Computer Science at Connecticut College. I was also a member of the Connecticut College Computer Science Student Advisory Board as the Diversity Chair.

Publications

  1. Diagnosing and Repairing Representation Bottlenecks in Learned-Descriptor Quality-Diversity

    Derin Gezgin

    Advisors: Gary B. Parker & Nick Cheney

    Honors Thesis, expected completion: May 2027

Teaching Experience

I am fortunate to serve as a teaching assistant and grader at Connecticut College for the courses below, working with classes of 20–40 students. During the 2026–2027 academic year, I serve as the Head Teaching Assistant for the Department of Computer Science, coordinating a team of 25 teaching assistants. Previously, during the 2025–2026 academic year, I served as the COM110 TA Manager, coordinating the COM110 teaching assistants, session scheduling, and grading.

So far, as an undergraduate student, I have accumulated over 700 hours of TA service, supporting more than 250 unique students.

F: Fall Semester & S: Spring Semester & U: Summer Session

COM110 Introduction to Computer Science & Problem Solving S24, F24, S25, U25, F25, S26
COM212 Data Structures F24, S25, F25, S26
COM219 Computer Organization F25
COM304 Algorithms F26
COM316 Artificial Intelligence F26
COM322 Computer Vision S26
STA107 Introduction to Statistics S26
STA207 Advanced Regression Techniques F25, F26