Yibo Zhao
Portrait
Logo Research Affiliate at MIT Media Lab
Logo Master Student at Johns Hopkins University

I am a research affiliate at the MIT Media Lab, advised by Prof. Paul Liang, and a research assistant at Johns Hopkins University, working with Prof. Hao Frank Yang and Prof. Hongru Du. My research explores the intersection of multimodal large language models, human-centered AI, and intelligent transportation systems, aiming to build AI that understands and generates human reactions, decisions, and behaviors in complex social and physical environments. I completed my B.S. in Computer Science at Tongji University in 3.5 years, working with Prof. Yufei Chen and Prof. Peng Qi on medical imaging and robotics. In March 2023, I joined Microsoft as a full-time software engineer and spent 1.5 years in Azure Workflow, where I built large-scale distributed services, developing strong foundations in algorithmic implementation, and interdisciplinary collaboration. I am currently seeking Ph.D. opportunities starting Fall 2026 in the areas of multimodal large language models, human-centered AI, and intelligent systems.

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Education
  • Johns Hopkins University
    Johns Hopkins University
    Master Student
    Aug. 2024 - May. 2025
  • Tongji University
    Tongji University
    B.S. in Computer Science
    Sep. 2019 - Jul. 2023
Experience
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Summer Research Intern at JTL
    Jun. 2025 - Aug. 2025
  • MIT Media Lab
    MIT Media Lab
    Research Affiliate at MIT Media Lab
    May. 2025 - May. 2026
  • Microsoft
    Microsoft
    Software Engineer FTE / Intern
    Mar. 2023 - Aug. 2024 / Jun. 2022 - Oct. 2022
  • Johns Hopkins University
    Johns Hopkins University
    Research Assistant
    Jul. 2024 - May. 2025
  • Tongji University
    Tongji University
    Research Assistant
    Mar. 2020 - Aug. 2022
Honors & Awards
  • JHU Departmental Tuition Support
    2024
  • Outstanding Graduate of Shanghai City
    2023
  • Taiyuan Municipal Outstanding Undergraduate Student Scholarship
    2022
  • Tongji University Outstanding Student Scholarship
    2021
  • Tongji University Outstanding Student Scholarship
    2020
  • Excellent Student in Tongji University
    2021
  • Excellent Student in Tongji University
    2020
News
2025
Our paper "SafeTraffic Copilot: Adapting Large Language Models for Trustworthy Traffic Safety Assessments and Policy Interventions" has been published in Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-64574-w), officially released on October 7, 2025 . Read more
Oct 07
"Personalized Decision Modeling: Utility Optimization or Textualized-Symbolic Reasoning" accepted as a Spotlight paper at NeurIPS 2025. Read more
Sep 18
Joined the MIT–UF–NEU 2025 Summer Research Camp as a Summer Research Intern Read more
Jun 16
Started working as a Visiting Student at the MIT Media Lab under Prof. Paul Liang.
May 30
2024
Collaborated with UC Berkeley on "DRBO—A Regional Scale Simulator Calibration Framework Based on Day-to-Day Dynamic Routing and Bayesian Optimization", which was accepted in December 2024.
Dec 15
Joined Johns Hopkins University (JHU) to continue collaboration with Prof. Hao Frank Yang.
Aug 24
Completed 1.5 years at Microsoft, concluding work on large-scale distributed systems.
Aug 08
Selected Publications (view all )
RAST-MoE-RL: A Regime-Aware Spatio-Temporal MoE Framework for Deep Reinforcement Learning in Ride-Hailing
RAST-MoE-RL: A Regime-Aware Spatio-Temporal MoE Framework for Deep Reinforcement Learning in Ride-Hailing

Yuhan Tang*, Kangxin Cui*, Jung Ho Park*, Yibo Zhao*, Xuan Jiang, Haoze He, Jiangbo Yu, Haris Koutsopoulos, Jinhua Zhao (* equal contribution)

Under review with ICLR 2026. 2026

RAST-MoE-RL: A Regime-Aware Spatio-Temporal MoE Framework for Deep Reinforcement Learning in Ride-Hailing

Yuhan Tang*, Kangxin Cui*, Jung Ho Park*, Yibo Zhao*, Xuan Jiang, Haoze He, Jiangbo Yu, Haris Koutsopoulos, Jinhua Zhao (* equal contribution)

Under review with ICLR 2026. 2026

ClassMind: Scaling Classroom Observation and Instructional Feedback with Multimodal AI
ClassMind: Scaling Classroom Observation and Instructional Feedback with Multimodal AI

Ao Qu, Yuxi Wen, Jiayi Zhang, Yunge Wen, Yibo Zhao, Alok Prakash, Andres F. Salazar-Gomez, Paul Liang, Jinhua Zhao

Under review with CHI 2026. 2026

[Preprint]

ClassMind: Scaling Classroom Observation and Instructional Feedback with Multimodal AI

Ao Qu, Yuxi Wen, Jiayi Zhang, Yunge Wen, Yibo Zhao, Alok Prakash, Andres F. Salazar-Gomez, Paul Liang, Jinhua Zhao

Under review with CHI 2026. 2026

[Preprint]

Personalized Decision Modeling: Utility Optimization or Textualized-Symbolic Reasoning
Personalized Decision Modeling: Utility Optimization or Textualized-Symbolic Reasoning

Yibo Zhao, Yang Zhao, Hongru Du, Hao Frank Yang

Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), accepted. 2025 Spotlight

Personalized Decision Modeling: Utility Optimization or Textualized-Symbolic Reasoning

Yibo Zhao, Yang Zhao, Hongru Du, Hao Frank Yang

Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), accepted. 2025 Spotlight

SafeTraffic Copilot: Adapting Large Language Models for Trustworthy Traffic Safety Assessments and Policy Interventions
SafeTraffic Copilot: Adapting Large Language Models for Trustworthy Traffic Safety Assessments and Policy Interventions

Yang Zhao, Pu Wang, Yibo Zhao, Hongru Du, Hao Frank Yang

Nature Communications, accepted. 2025

[Nature Communications] [Code]

SafeTraffic Copilot: Adapting Large Language Models for Trustworthy Traffic Safety Assessments and Policy Interventions

Yang Zhao, Pu Wang, Yibo Zhao, Hongru Du, Hao Frank Yang

Nature Communications, accepted. 2025

[Nature Communications] [Code]

All publications
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