About Me

I am a PhD student in the Decision, Risk, and Operations (DRO) division at Columbia Business School, advised by Hongyao Ma.

My research asks how to design uncertainty-aware systems with strategic participants. I bridge the gap between optimization, market/mechanism design, and statistical inference to address challenges in modern digital platforms. My main projects focus on network pricing in ridesharing markets, fraud detection in online platforms, and the foundations of online learning and control.

I earned my Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences (Yao Class) at Tsinghua University. During my undergraduate studies, I spent time at Caltech working with Adam Wierman and at the University of Michigan working with Grant Schoenebeck.

My name in International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA): YU [y˧˥] Chen [tʂʰən˧˥] Kai [kʰaɪ˨˩˧]. “Yu” sounds like the French “u”.