Tianyi Chen

Tianyi Chen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), where he has been since August 2019. He specializes in theoretical and algorithmic aspects of bilevel optimization, multi-objective learning, and their applications in AI systems, including large language models (LLMs) and next-generation wireless communications.

• Education:
• Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (2019)
• M.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (2016)
• B.S., Communication Science and Engineering, Fudan University, China (2014)

His research focuses on advancing optimization frameworks for AI, particularly in meta-learning, LLM fine-tuning, and safety-aware AI systems. He has pioneered work on bilevel optimization for diffusion models and federated learning, addressing challenges in safety-capability trade-offs and algorithmic efficiency.

• Awards:
• IEEE Signal Processing Society Best PhD Dissertation Award (2020)
• NSF CAREER Award (2021)
• Amazon Research Award (2022)
• Best Student Paper Awards at NeurIPS Federated Learning Workshop (2020), ICASSP (2021), and IEEE Young Author Best Paper Award (2024)

Chen’s work bridges theoretical foundations and practical applications, with contributions to AI safety, wireless systems, and scalable machine learning algorithms. His research has been recognized for its impact on both academic and industrial domains.