Yicong Li

Yicong_Little_Havana.png

Little Havana, 2025

I’m a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at Harvard University, advised by Prof. Hanspeter Pfister in Visual Computing Group (VCG), with an M.S. in Bioengineering. I also work with Prof. Jeff W. Lichtman, Prof. Aravinthan D.T. Samuel, Prof. Dmitri “Mitya” B. Chklovskii, Prof. Jingpeng Wu, Prof. Bill Lotter, and Prof. Wanhua Li.

Previously, I obtained my master’s degree from Tsinghua University advised by Prof. Yang Li and my bachelor’s degree from Sichuan University’s Wu Yuzhang Honors College. During this period, I also worked with Prof. Nir Shavit and Prof. Lu Mi at MIT CSAIL, and Prof. Faisal Mahmood at Harvard Medical School.

I interned at Netflix, Genentech, Microsoft Research (with Dr. Kristen Severson), Simons Foundation’s Flatiron Institute, and Huawei (with Prof. Nanshan Zhong’s team).

I aim to develop bleeding-edge AI techniques to address important real-world challenges. My recent work explores:

  • VLM/LLM Post-Training: supervised fine-tuning, reinforcement learning, in-context learning, and synthetic data generation.
  • Self-Evolving Agentic Systems: prompt, skill, workflow, harness automatic optimization.
  • Computer Vision: 2D & 3D segmentation, restoration, compression, detection, self-supervised learning, and vision foundation models.
  • Generative Models: VAEs, GANs, and diffusion models.
  • AI for Neuroscience: large-scale electron microscopy image analysis for connectomics.
  • AI for Healthcare: computational pathology, respiratory disease screening and quality assurance, embryo viability prediction in IVF, and MRI/CT/X-ray image analysis.

I’m a recipient of the Laverack Family Innovation Fund Fellowship from Harvard University and the prestigious (only 5) “Wang Wen Guo” Scholarship from Sichuan University. My research has been featured in MIT News, Forbes, MarkTechPost, Computer Vision News, and ERCIM News.

Beyond research, I analyze investments in full-stack AI, from next-gen compute chips, AI & space infrastructure, physical AI foundation models & robotics, to Agentic AI solutions across industries. I also have extensive experience leading a student organization of 70+ members, managing large-scale business, academic, social events, and serving 5000+ students and scholars at Harvard.

I'm currently on the job market — feel free to reach out!

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