Research( Yilin Xia ) :-
Declarative(Query), Declarative(Graph), Declarative(AI).

I am a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate co-advised by Dr. Bertram Ludäscher and Dr. Matthew Turk in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I also collaborate closely with Dr. Shawn Bowers (Gonzaga University), Dr. Evgeny Skvortsov (Google), and the ArviZ Team.

My research addresses fundamental challenges in querying, reasoning over, and explaining graph-structured knowledge. I utilize Declarative Approaches that combine symbolic logic with large language models, enabling scalable analytics, hybrid retrieval, and explainable multi-agent interaction. My current research interests include:



Profile Image and My Procreate Arts


Ph.D. Candidate @UIUC


🧑‍🌾 A Graph Farmer


1
Unstructured Knowledge to Graph
DeepGit, ArguAgents
Multi-agent graph building from unstructured knowledge base
DaSH@VLDB'25
2
Declarative Query Language
Logica
Query language for graph transformation
TGD@EDBT'25 EDBT'24 Datalog2.0'24
3
Graph Reasoning & Explanation
AF-XRAY
Argumentation-based reasoning and explanation with provenance
ICAIL'25 TaPP@SIGMOD'25 COMMA'24
Neuro-Symbolic

LogicLM, ArguAgents
Combining symbolic logic with LLMs throughout the pipeline
EDBT'25


Featured Publications

DaSH@VLDB'25 Publication
DaSH@VLDB'25

DeepGit: Promoting Exploration and Discovery of Research Software with Human-Curated Graphs

Yilin Xia, Shin-Rong Tsai, Matthew Turk

ICAIL'25 Publication
ICAIL'25

AF-Xray: Visual Explanation and Resolution of Ambiguity in Legal Argumentation Frameworks

Yilin Xia, Heng Zheng, Shawn Bowers, Bertram Ludäscher

EDBT'25 Publication
EDBT'25

LogicLM: Robust Application of Large Language Models with Logic Programming for Data Analytics

Evgeny Skvortsov, Shayan Mirjafari, Ojaswa Garg, Yilin Xia, Shawn Bowers, Bertram Ludäscher

EDBT'24 Publication
EDBT'24

Logica: Declarative Data Science for Mere Mortals

Evgeny Skvortsov, Yilin Xia, Bertram Ludäscher

CHI'24 Publication
CHI'24

MAIDR: Making Statistical Visualizations Accessible with Multimodal Data Representation

JooYoung Seo, Yilin Xia, Bongshin Lee, Sean McCurry, Yu Jun Yam

CHI'23 Publication
CHI'23

CrowdIDEA: Blending Crowd Intelligence and Data Analytics to Empower Causal Reasoning

Chi-Hsien (Eric) Yen, Haocong Cheng, Yilin Xia, Yun Huang



Latest News


January, 2026    We have received the Gemini Academic Program Award ($10K GCP credit) from Google
December, 2025    We have received the Tinker Research Grant $5,000 from Thinking Machines Lab
July, 2025    We have received the GitHub Secure Open Source Fund
June, 2025    DeepGit got accepted by DaSH@VLDB'25!
Mar, 2025    AF-XRAY got accepted by ICAIL'25 demo track! Let's enhance legal reasoning with AFs!
Mar, 2025    DeepGit received Google Academic Research Grants, marking our first industry funding support for the project
Jan, 2025    LogicLM has been accepted by EDBT 2025 Demo Track
Sept, 2024    We got two papers on Logica accepted by ICLP workshops Datalog2.0 & PEG
July, 2024    Attended SciPy'24 and presented two posters on JupyterLab NodeEditor (JLNE) and Arviz Dashboard
June, 2024    Our demo paper "Layered Visualization of Argumentation Frameworks" accepted for COMMA 2024
Feb, 2024    Our demo paper "Logica: Declarative Data Science for Mere Mortals" accepted for EDBT 2024
Jan, 2024    Our paper "MAIDR: Making Statistical Visualizations Accessible with Multimodal Data Representation" has been accepted for CHI 2024
Nov, 2023    Received $10,000 funding from NumFOCUS to work on project "Dashboard-assisted exploratory analysis of Bayesian models"
Nov, 2023    Our work "Games, Queries, and Argumentation Frameworks: Time for a Family Reunion!" has been accepted to AI^3 at AIxIA
Oct, 2023    Awarded $1,000 Conference Travel Grant from United States Research Software Engineer Association(US-RSE)
July, 2023    One workshop paper was accepted by XLoKR at KR2023
July 10-14, 2023    Thrilled to be part of Princeton University INTERSECT Program, supported by an NSF travel grant
May, 2023    Got Outstanding Review for IEEE VIS 2023
March, 2023    Our first (VISxProv)*Domain workshop proposal accepted by IEEE VIS 2023. Check out the workshop website
Feb 22nd, 2023    I led a seminar reading discussion on Knowledge Graphs in Action: a Tour of Extensions and Real-World Applications of the Vadalog System at UIUC iSchool
Jan, 2023    Our paper CrowdIDEA: Blending Crowd Intelligence and Data Analytics to Empower Causal Reasoning" has been accepted to CHI 2023

Awards & Recognition

Google Gemini logo
Academic Program Award
Google Gemini
$10K GCP credit
2026
GitHub logo
Secure Open Source Fund
GitHub
$10K grant and $100K Azure credit
2025
Thinking Machines Lab logo
Tinker Research Grant
Thinking Machines Lab
$5K credit
2025
Logic Programming and Non-monotonic Reasoning logo
Travel Grant
Logic Programming and Non-monotonic Reasoning
2024
National Science Foundation logo
NSF ACCESS
National Science Foundation
2024
NumFOCUS logo
Small Development Grant
NumFOCUS
$10K Grant
2023
Google logo
CS Research Mentorship Program Scholar
Google
2022

Featured Projects


This is a graph from the paper where it indicates how similar the argumentation and game theory are
DeepGit
Graph Query; Query Interface; GraphRAG

Promoting Exploration and Discovery of Domain-Specific Scientific Software using Large Scale Graphs

Website Code Paper
This is a graph from the paper where it indicates how similar the argumentation and game theory are
Logica
Query Language

Logica is a logic programming language that compiles to SQL. It runs on Google BigQuery, PostgreSQL and SQLite.

Website Code Paper
This is a graph from the paper where it indicates how similar the argumentation and game theory are
DecViz
Formal Methods; Graph Visualization

Transforms domain knowledge into graph visualizations via declarative programming

Website Code
This is a graph from the paper where it indicates how similar the argumentation and game theory are
XRAY
Graph Reasoning and Explanation

A visual interface designed to explain Stable Models and Well-Founded Semantics in the context of graph-based queries on Abstract Argumentation Framework

Website Code Paper
CrowdIDEA Interface
CrowdIDEA
Causal Graph Construction; Causal Reasoning

CrowdIDEA integrates crowd beliefs, data analytics, and causal diagrams into a tool for stimulating causal reasoning. Its design encourages exploration of causal relationships using collective insights

Website Paper Presentation
ArviZ Logo
ArviZ Dashboard
Dashboards; Statistics; Model Comparison

Designed for Bayesian statisticians, this project transforms static visualizations into interactive dashboards with tools like Panel and Bokeh. It enables dynamic model comparison within a unified interface.

Code
Jupyterlab NodeEditor Logo
Jupyterlab NodeEditor
End-user Programming; Software Engineering

A graphical user interface using a dataflow-driven visual programming language to enhance data science tasks. It provides domain experts with intuitive tools for complex data workflow.

Code Demo
MAIDR interface with a braille display on the side
MAIDR
Accessible Visualization

MAIDR offers non-visual access to statistical visualizations for users with visual impairments. It supports interaction through braille, text, sonification, and review (BTS + R).

Code Paper Presentation