Kerim Kochekov

About

Education

• Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

  Sept 2022 — Aug 2026

  PhD in Computer Science and Engineering

  Thesis: Parameterized Algorithms for Verification and Compiler Optimization.

• Innopolis University

  Aug 2018 — Aug 2022

  BSc in Computer Science (Data Science)

  Thesis: Image-Text Matching using an Encoder and Decoder architecture.

Experience

• Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

  Sep 2022 — May 2026

  Teaching Assistant

  • COMP 5712 — Introduction to Combinatorial Optimization.
  • COMP 3711H — Honors Design and Analysis of Algorithms (twice).
  • COMP 4901W — Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies and Smart Contracts.

• University of Oxford

  Feb — Dec 2025

  Visiting Researcher

  Research on merging similar functions at the IR level for compiler optimization, leading to a publication at PLDI 2026.

• Getir

  Feb 2023 — Jul 2024

  Backend Engineer, Algorithm Team

  Developed a novel clustering algorithm on top of Google OR-Tools for vehicle routing. Deployed across Türkiye for nine months; improved courier utilization by 20–30% and reduced checkout miss ratio by 10–15%.

• Morphy Capital

  May — Aug 2022

  Quantitative Researcher

  • Dynamic feature-selection algorithm in Python for ML pipelines.
  • BIST-30 model with CatBoost; beat company baselines by 9%.

Publications

• Parameterized Algorithms and Complexity for Function Merging with Branch Reordering

  PLDI 2026 (Programming Language Design and Implementation)

  A. K. Goharshady, K. Kochekov, T. Shu, and A. K. Zaher

• Exploiting the Sparseness of Control-flow and Call Graphs for Efficient and On-demand Algebraic Program Analysis

  OOPSLA 2023 (Object-oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications)

  G. K. Conrado, A. K. Goharshady, K. Kochekov, Y. C. Tsai, and A. K. Zaher

Awards

• Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme

  HKPFS recipient for four years — among ~300 top PhD students worldwide each year.

• ACM-ICPC Northern Eurasia

  3rd-degree diplomas (2018, 2020, 2022)

• Meta Hacker Cup 2021

  342nd of 34,584 (top 1%) at the 3rd round

• Google Hash Code 2019

  101st of 6,647 teams (top 2%)

• International Olympiad in Informatics 2018

  Bronze medal (~90 countries)

• International Zhautykov Olympiad 2018

  Silver medal, Computer Science (~35 countries)

• National Olympiad in Informatics 2018

  1st place, Turkmenistan

• Asian-Pacific Olympiad in Informatics 2017

  Bronze medal (~34 countries)