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Basics

Name Yifan Kang
Label Student
Email yifank@mit.edu
Url https://yifank.github.io/
Summary A student at MIT studying Mathematics and Computer Science, interested in machine learning, computer vision, and robotics

Work

  • 2025.06 - 2025.08
    Student Researcher
    MIT
    Working under Prof. Antonio Torralba on visual generation with multimodal LLMs.
    • Co-first author of Doodle Agent: Exploring Freeform Visual Generation with Multimodal LLMs (Accepted to ICCV 2025 AI4VA Workshop), a drawing agent for open-ended visual creation using LLMs and structured prompting.
  • 2025.06 - Present
    Student Researcher
    MIT
    Working under Prof. Leslie Pack Kaelbling on few-shot concept discovery and robotic manipulation using diffusion policies with vision-language conditioning.
    • Developed few-shot concept discovery framework, implementing diffusion policy with vision-language conditioning for robotic manipulation.
    • Built comprehensive computer vision pipeline integrating ResNet18 encoders, text embedding networks, and classifier-free guidance for diffusion policy, achieving robust policy adaptation from minimal demonstrations.
    • Engineered benchmarking system with custom dataset loaders, advanced optimization techniques (AdamW, EMA), and Weights & Biases tracking, evaluating generalization across 12 distinct object-language configurations.
  • 2023.06 - 2023.08
    RSI Scholar
    Research Science Institute (RSI)
    Authored research paper on quantum circuit synthesis under mentorship of Henry Ma (MIT).
    • Authored the paper "CNOT-Optimal Circuit Synthesis" under the mentorship of Henry Ma (MIT); Selected as the top 5 paper at RSI out of 100 candidates.
  • 2021.07 - 2021.07
    T-Spark Scholar
    Tencent
    Selected for Tencent's T-Spark program, a highly competitive research initiative for high school students.
    • Selected for Tencent's T-Spark program, a highly competitive research initiative for high school students.
    • Optimized machine learning models for video recommendation systems, focusing on improving personalization accuracy.
  • 2021.01 - 2023.12
    Researcher
    MIT PRIMES
    Conducted research on NUMA-aware data structures and benchmarking, and studied advanced mathematical topics.
    • Conducted research on NUMA-aware data structures and benchmarking under Shangdi Yu and Prof. Julian Shun.
    • Studied advanced mathematical topics including coding theory, game theory, topology, and representation theory.
    • Presented research findings at the annual MIT PRIMES mini-conference.
  • 2020.06 - 2020.07
    Participant
    Yau International Mathcamp
    Completed advanced coursework in mathematics and presented research findings.
    • Completed advanced coursework in linear algebra, algebraic combinatorics, analysis, and topology.
    • Selected to present a final project proving Kirchhoff's Matrix-Tree Theorem.

Education

  • 2024.09 - Present

    Cambridge, MA

    B.S.
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Mathematics and Computer Science
    • Fundamentals of Probability (6.7700)
    • Discrete Probability and Stochastic Processes (18.619)
    • Deep Learning (6.7960)
    • NLP (6.4610)
    • Computer Graphics (6.4400)
    • Advanced Algorithms (6.5210)
    • Machine Learning (6.7900)
  • 2020.09 - 2024.06

    Andover, MA

    High School Diploma
    Phillips Academy Andover
    High School

Publications

Skills

Programming Languages
Python
C++
Java
Rust
LaTeX
Machine Learning
Deep Learning
Computer Vision
Natural Language Processing
Robotics
Generative Models
Tools & Frameworks
PyTorch
Weights & Biases

Languages

English
Native
Chinese
Bilingual Proficiency
Japanese
JLPT N1

Interests

Research
Machine Learning
Computer Vision
Robotics
Natural Language Processing
Quantum Computing
Mathematics
Combinatorics
Algebra
Topology
Coding Theory
Game Theory
Representation Theory