Ph.D. Student in Computer Science at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Research Affiliate at MIT Media LabI am a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, advised by Yiling Lou. My current research focuses on the intersection of AI and software engineering (AI4SE/SE4AI), with an emphasis on agent observability, debugging, and reliability in large language model-based systems.
Previously, I was a Research Affiliate at the MIT Media Lab, working with Paul Liang, and a Research Assistant at Johns Hopkins University, collaborating with Hao Frank Yang and Hongru Du. My earlier research explored multimodal large language models, human-centered AI, and intelligent systems, aiming to model and understand human reactions, decisions, and behaviors in complex environments.
Before academia, I worked as a Software Engineer at Microsoft, where I built large-scale distributed systems in Azure Workflow, gaining strong experience in production-grade infrastructure, system optimization, and scalable AI system deployment.
I received my B.S. in Computer Science from Tongji University, where I worked on medical imaging and robotics with Yufei Chen and Peng Qi.
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University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignPh.D. Student in Computer Sciencepresent
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Johns Hopkins UniversityMaster StudentAug. 2024 - May. 2025 -
Tongji UniversityB.S. in Computer ScienceSep. 2019 - Jul. 2023
Experience
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MIT Media LabResearch Affiliate at MIT Media LabMay. 2025 - Present
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Massachusetts Institute of TechnologySummer Research Intern at JTLJun. 2025 - Aug. 2025 -
MicrosoftSoftware Engineer FTE / InternMar. 2023 - Aug. 2024 / Jun. 2022 - Oct. 2022 -
Johns Hopkins UniversityResearch AssistantJul. 2024 - May. 2025
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Tongji UniversityResearch AssistantMar. 2020 - Aug. 2022
Honors & Awards
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JHU Departmental Tuition Support (merit-based stipend/tuition award)2024
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Outstanding Graduate of Shanghai City2023
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Taiyuan Municipal Outstanding Undergraduate Student Scholarship2022
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Tongji University Outstanding Student Scholarship2021
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Tongji University Outstanding Student Scholarship2020
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Excellent Student in Tongji University2021
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Excellent Student in Tongji University2020
News
Selected Publications (view all )
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
Yang Zhao, Pu Wang, Yibo Zhao, Hongru Du, Hao Frank Yang
Nature Communications, accepted. 2025
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
ReactionBench: Evaluating Models on Fine-Grained Human Reaction Understanding from Video Stimuli
Yibo Zhao*, Ao Qu*, Xuan Jiang, Keane Ong, Hang Jiang, Zhaofeng Wu, Dingyi Zhuang, Yihong Tang, Kaichen Zhou, Jinhua Zhao, Paul Liang (* equal contribution)
Under review with CVPR 2026. 2025
ReactionBench: Evaluating Models on Fine-Grained Human Reaction Understanding from Video Stimuli
Yibo Zhao*, Ao Qu*, Xuan Jiang, Keane Ong, Hang Jiang, Zhaofeng Wu, Dingyi Zhuang, Yihong Tang, Kaichen Zhou, Jinhua Zhao, Paul Liang (* equal contribution)
Under review with CVPR 2026. 2025
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. 2025
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. 2025
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. 2025
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. 2025
All publications
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