About Me

I am a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at University of California San Diego, advised by Prof. Julian McAuley. I received my M.S. in Computer Engineering from New York University and B.S. in Statistics and Computer Science/Engineering from Chongqing University.

My research focuses on large language models, reinforcement learning, multimodal learning, and recommender systems, with an emphasis on reasoning, personalization, and agentic workflows. I enjoy working at the intersection of language, vision, music, and sequential decision-making. Specifically, my core research interests span:

• 🧠 Reasoning in (M)LLMs: I explore methods to enhance the reasoning capabilities of language and multimodal models, including chain-of-thought reasoning via latent state-transitions (Ctrls), information-theoretic soft prompt tuning (InfoPrompt), coordinated multimodal instruction tuning (CoMMIT), and information-theoretic diagnostics for traceable multimodal reasoning (T&E MLLMs).
• ⚖️ Alignment in (M)LLMs: My work tackles aligning models with human preferences while preserving learned capabilities. I develop preference optimization strategies such as in-context ranking preference optimization (IRPO), adversarial preference optimization for image difference captioning (IDC-APO), alongside offline chain-of-thought evaluation and alignment (OCEAN) and mitigating visual knowledge forgetting during MLLM instruction tuning via modality-decoupled gradient descent(MDGD).
• 🔗 Causal Learning & Inference: I leverage causal interventions to structurally debias chain-of-thought processes for knowledge-intensive tasks (DeCoT), apply information-theoretic causal de-biasing for interactive sequence labeling, and develop deconfounded approaches for explainable vision-language retrieval (DeExpRetrieval) and interactive recommendation.
• 🎵 AI for Music: I investigate computational music understanding through temporally-enhanced generative augmentation (FUTGA), contrastive long-form language-audio pretraining (CoLLAP), benchmarking symbolic music reasoning in the wild (WildScore, CSyMR), and audio-centric conversational recommendation (MusicRS).
• 🤖 Agentic Workflows: I design autonomous agents powered by foundation models for multi-page heterogeneous document question-answering (Doc-React), dynamic in-context example selection via efficient knowledge transfer (Dice), self-taught action deliberation (SAND), and agentic paradigms for recommender systems (survey).
• 🔍 Recommendation & Information Retrieval: I work on personalized and conversational recommendation, including collaborative retrieval-augmented long-tail recommendation (CoRAL), neighborhood-based collaborative filtering for conversational recommendation (NBCRS), RL-based cross-domain interactive recommendation (DACIR), and conversational bandits for user preference elicitation (CtoF-ConUCB).

You can find my papers on Google Scholar, DBLP, and ACL Anthology.

🌟 Beyond the ML Research

Outside of research, I have a diverse set of passions that keep me balanced:

• 🎻 Classical Music & Opera: I am a passionate classical music fan and a regular concert and opera goer. My absolute favourite symphony is Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 (particularly the recording by Michael Gielen and SWR), and I have a deep appreciation for operas like Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier and Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. 💿 Recommended Recent Recordings (keep updating):

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 5
Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Paavo Järvi

Allan Pettersson
Symphonies Nos. 8 & 10
Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, Leif Segerstam

Sergei Prokofiev
Symphony No. 4
The Cleveland Orchestra, Franz Welser-Möst

Arnold Schoenberg
Pelleas und Melisande
Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Rafael Payare

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Symphony No. 6
London Symphony Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda

• 🪩 Rave & Clubbing: I am drawn to the immersive energy, vibrant communities, and dynamic soundscapes of the electronic music and clubbing scene. Some Techno/Post-rave Recordings:

Khrys
Khrysalid

Joep Beving
Liminal

Asco
Symphony of CAOS

Sounds From the Ground
Thru the Ages

Morton Subotnick
Electronic Works 3

• 🥾 Hiking: I am an avid outdoorsman always looking for a rewarding ascent. My trail adventures range from group excursions with the NY Ramblers to tackling challenging, scenic routes like the Ohlone Wilderness Trail, the John Muir Trail, and Mount Diablo. Follow me on Alltrails