Yichen Huang

I am a second-year Ph.D. student in Computer Science at Harvard University under the wise guidance of Prof. Michael Mitzenmacher. Previously, I completed my undergraduate study at the University of Oxford, where I was fortunate to work with Prof. Christian Coester and Prof. Standa Živný.

I am broadly interested in theoretical computer science, particularly related to decision under uncertainty, including:

1. Online Algorithms: An algorithm is called online if it receives the input over time and has to make decisions without being revealed the future. How can we design algorithms that are competitive against the optimal algorithm in hindsight?
2. Learning-augmented Algorithms: Inspired by the successes of machine learning, how can an algorithm utilize a prediction oracle that provides us with some hint of the problem with no guarantee of correctness? Can we design algorithms that take advantage of predictions when they are good, while not misled too much even if predictions are grossly erroneous?
3. Mechanism Design: Many settings in the economics involves decision making uncertainty. When the participants in the algorithm may not be truthful but trying to maximize their own utility, what is the cost of making the algorithm strategyproof (= making every participant truthfully reporting an equilibrium)?

Occasionally, I also participate in empirical and experimental researches, mostly by providing theoretical insights and justifications.

I enjoying talking to people with different backgrounds and distinct insights. If you are interested in potential collaboration or want to talk about anything, feel free to email me at yichenhuang@g.harvard.edu.

Research

(α) denotes alphabetical ordering, as is convention in theoretical computer science; (*) denotes equal contributions.

Theoretical Computer Science

The Mixed Birth-death/death-Birth Moran Process
(α) David A. Brewster, Yichen Huang, Michael Mitzenmacher, Martin A. Nowak
Manuscript

Online and Dynamic Metric Embeddings with Monotone Recourse
(α) Christian Coester, Yichen Huang
Manuscript

EconCS

Form vs Information: The Regimes of Data Property Rights
(α) Yichen Huang, Zhen Sun, Xinzhen Xu, Bozhong Zheng
Manuscript

Machine Learning

Balancing Growth and Equity: Multi-Objective Optimization in Urban Renewal with Deep Reinforcement Learning
Jianghao Yu*, Yiche Huang*, Yuming Lin, Yu Zheng, Yuge Cui, Michael Mitzenmacher, Yong Li, and Li Tian
Manuscript

Efficient Task Grouping Through Samplewise Optimisation Landscape Analysis
Anshul Thakur*, Yichen Huang*, Soheila Molaei, Yujiang Wang, David A. Clifton
IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 2025

Property Prediction of Bio-Derived Block Copolymer Thermoplastic Elastomers Using Graph Kernel Methods
Shannon R. Petersen, David Kohan Marzagão, Georgina L. Gregory, Yichen Huang, David A. Clifton, Charlotte K. Williams, Clive R. Siviour
Angewandte Chemie, 2025

Talks

Online and Dynamic Metric Embeddings with Monotone Recourse
TGINF (Harvard Student Theory Seminar) 2025
Workshop on Local Algorithms 2025

Teaching

TA for Harvard CS 2380 Optimized Democracy, Fall 2025.

Seminars and Organizations

I currently co-organize TGINF, a theory seminar for graduate students and postdocs at Harvard.

Service

Subreviewer for ITCS 2025.

Misc

Outside of academics, I enjoy playing Poker and cooking. I also spend some time participating in competitive debating, mostly done in Mandarin Chinese. I currently lead the Harvard Chinese Debate Team, and I used to be the captain of the Chinese Debate Team at Oxford.