Quick Edit Checklist: What to Fill In

This is your personal checklist of all the fields you need to update.

🎯 PRIORITY 1: Required for Your Site to Look Good

Update these in _config.yml:

Left Sidebar Info

• author.name - Change from “Your Name” to “Zixian Wang”
• author.bio - Replace with your 1-2 sentence bio. Example: “PhD student at UIUC studying machine learning systems”
• author.email - ✅ Already has zixianw4@illinois.edu (looks good!)

About Page

Update these in _pages/about.md:

• Research Interests section - Add 3-5 bullet points
• Education section - List your degrees
• Experience section - List your positions
• News & Updates section - Add any recent news (can be empty for now)

🎨 PRIORITY 2: Nice to Have (Profile Picture & Social Links)

Profile Picture

• Add profile.png to /images/ folder (300×300 px recommended)
  • This will appear at the top of your left sidebar

Academic Profiles (Optional but Recommended)

Add your URLs if you have them:

• author.googlescholar - Your Google Scholar profile
• author.arxiv - Your arXiv author page
• author.orcid - Your ORCID ID
• author.github - ✅ Already has “zixianwang2022” (good!)

Social Media (Optional)

• author.linkedin - Your LinkedIn profile URL
• author.twitter - Your Twitter/X handle
• author.website - Your personal website (if you have one)

📝 Current Status

✅ Already Done

• Name: “Zixian Wang” is set
• Email: “zixianw4@illinois.edu” is set
• GitHub: “zixianwang2022” is set
• Location: “University of Illinois Urbana Champaign” is set
• Pronouns: “He/Him” is set

⏳ Still Needs Work

• Author name in sidebar: Still says “Your Name”
• Bio: Still says “Your short bio here”
• Profile picture: Not added yet
• Research Interests: Empty
• Education: Empty
• Experience: Empty

📋 Exact Changes to Make

Step 1: Update Left Sidebar (in _config.yml)

Find this section:

author:
  name             : "Your Name"              # ← Change this
  bio              : "Your short bio here"    # ← Change this

Change to something like:

author:
  name             : "Zixian Wang"
  bio              : "First-year PhD student studying ML systems at UIUC"

Step 2: Fill Your About Page (in _pages/about.md)

For Research Interests, change from:

## Research Interests
<!-- TODO: List your research interests and areas of focus -->

To something like:

## Research Interests
- Machine learning systems and optimization
- Distributed computing and systems
- Performance analysis and profiling

For Education, change from:

## Education
<!-- TODO: Add your educational background -->

To something like:

## Education
**Ph.D. in Computer Science** (In Progress, 2023-Present)  
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Advisor: Prof. Minjia Zhang

**B.S. in Computer Science**  
[Your Undergraduate University], [Year]

For Experience, change from:

## Experience
<!-- TODO: Add your professional experience -->

To something like:

## Experience
**Graduate Research Assistant** (Aug 2023 - Present)  
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign  
Advisor: Prof. Minjia Zhang

**[Previous Position]** ([Dates])  
[Company/University]  
[Brief description]

How to Tell Your Changes Work

1. Edit a file (e.g., change “Your Name” to “Zixian Wang”)
2. Save the file in VS Code
3. Commit & push to GitHub
4. Wait 30 seconds (GitHub rebuilds your site)
5. Visit https://zixianwang2022.github.io/
6. Your changes appear! ✨

You should see:

• Left sidebar shows “Zixian Wang” (not “Your Name”)
• Left sidebar shows your bio
• Main content shows your research interests, education, etc.

Example of What Your Page Will Look Like

After you fill everything in:

┌────────────────────────┐
│  [YOUR PHOTO]          │
│                        │
│  Zixian Wang           │ ← Changed from "Your Name"
│  ────────────────────  │
│                        │
│  First-year PhD        │ ← Changed from placeholder
│  student studying ML   │
│  systems at UIUC       │
│                        │
│  📧 zixianw4@illinois  │
│  🐙 zixianwang2022     │
│  🔗 Google Scholar     │
│                        │
└────────────────────────┘

    Welcome to My Academic Portfolio

    About Me
    I am a first-year PhD student at University of 
    Illinois Urbana Champaign (UIUC) advised by 
    Prof. Minjia Zhang.

    Research Interests
    - Machine learning systems and optimization
    - Distributed computing and systems
    - Performance analysis and profiling

    Education
    Ph.D. in Computer Science (In Progress, 2023-Present)
    University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

    Experience
    Graduate Research Assistant (Aug 2023 - Present)
    University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
    ...

Troubleshooting

Q: I changed something but it’s not showing up on my website A: Wait 30 seconds after pushing to GitHub. GitHub Pages takes a moment to rebuild.

Q: How do I see what’s on my site? A: Visit https://zixianwang2022.github.io/ after committing changes.

Q: Can I preview changes locally? A: Yes, but requires installing Jekyll (optional). We can set that up if you want instant feedback while editing.

Q: Which file controls what I see on the home page? A: _pages/about.md (the main content) and _config.yml (the left sidebar)

Ready to edit? Start with updating author.name and author.bio in _config.yml! 🚀