cv
Table of contents
- General Information
- Work Experience
- Education
- Honors and Awards
- Technical Skills
- Research Interests
- Professional Activities
- Other Interests
General Information
| Full Name | Yikun Bai |
| Languages | English, Mandarin |
| laobai312@gmail.com | |
| Address | West Lafayette, IN, USA |
| Phone | +1 (302) 244-8486 |
Work Experience
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2026 - present Physical AI Postdoc Fellow
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN - Discrete/Continuous flow matching and diffusion models
- Reinforcement learning methods for agentic AI systems
-
2022 - 2025 Postdoctoral Research Assistant
Department of Computer Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN - Research on computational optimal transport and its applications
- Unbalanced optimal transport theory and algorithms
- Machine learning applications in computer vision and data science
- Collaboration with interdisciplinary research teams
Education
-
2017 - 2022 Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Delaware, Newark, DE - GPA 4.0/4.0
- Dissertation: Optimal Transport in Information Theory and Machine Learning
- Relevant Coursework
- Information Theory and Coding
- Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition
- Statistical Learning Theory
- Convex Optimization
-
2017 - 2019 M.S. in Applied Mathematics
University of Delaware, Newark, DE - GPA 4.0/4.0
- Transferred to Ph.D. program in ECE
- Relevant Coursework
- Numerical Analysis
- Partial Differential Equations
- Probability Theory and Stochastic Processes
- Functional Analysis
-
2007 - 2011 B.S. in Medical Imaging
Mudanjiang Medical University, Mudanjiang, China
Honors and Awards
-
2025 - Advanced Research in Physical AI Fellowship (Purdue University)
- Google Cloud Research Award
- Lambda AI Research Grant
-
2023 - SEAM Travel Grant (Clemson University)
- Outstanding Postdoc Award (Vanderbilt University)
-
2022 - Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation Award (University of Delaware)
- Graduate Research Excellence Award
-
2021 - ECE Seminar Best Presentation Award (University of Delaware)
- Graduate Student Travel Grant
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2020 - Dean's List for Academic Excellence
-
2017-2022 - Graduate Research Assistantship (University of Delaware)
Technical Skills
-
Programming Languages
- Python (NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib, Pandas)
- MATLAB
- R
- C/C++
-
Machine Learning Frameworks
- PyTorch
- TensorFlow
- Scikit-learn
- Keras
-
Mathematical Software
- Mathematica
- Maple
- LaTeX
- Git/GitHub
Research Interests
-
Flow Matching
- Continuous-time generative modeling
- Probability path design and transport dynamics
- Scalable training and sampling algorithms
-
Diffusion Models
- Discrete and continuous diffusion processes
- Score-based modeling and inverse problems
- Theory and applications in scientific machine learning
-
Reinforcement Learning
- Policy optimization and value-based methods
- Model-based reinforcement learning
- Decision-making under uncertainty
Professional Activities
-
2022-present - Member of SIAM (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics)
- Member of IEEE Signal Processing Society
Other Interests
- Hobbies: Anime, Hiking, Reading
- Sports: Basketball, Swimming
- Languages: Native Mandarin, Fluent English