Publications & Blogs

• Edward Yu and Jacob Phillips. Post-training open-weight models for code search.
  Applied Compute blog post, Turbopuffer blog post
• Edward Yu. Neural Reinforcement Learning for Van der Waerden Sequence Construction.
  Master of Engineering Thesis, MIT, 2026.
  PDF: forthcoming
• Alek Westover, Edward Yu, and Kai Zhe Zheng. New Direct Sum Tests.
  Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science, 2025
  DOI: 10.4230/LIPICS.ITCS.2025.94   arXiv: 2409.10464
• Eyvindur A. Palsson and Edward Yu. On Optimal Point Sets Determining Distinct Triangles.
  The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics, Volume 31, Issue 2, 2024.
  DOI: 10.37236/12360.   arXiv: 2308.13107
• Ghatak et. al. New Results Towards the Erdős-Fishburn Problem.
  Joint Mathematics Meetings, 2024.
  AMS: 28030.
• Nitya Mani and Edward Yu. Turán problems for mixed graphs.
  Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B, Volume 167, Pages 119-163. 2024. ISSN 0095-8956.
  DOI: 10.1016/j.jctb.2024.02.004.   arXiv: 2210.12888.

Research

• MIT CSAIL, FutureTech Lab.  2025.09 - 2026.05
  Master of Engineering thesis: framing Van der Waerden sequence construction as a reinforcement learning problem, we discover failure modes distinctive to this sparse-reward and long-horizon combinatorial setting such as action-mask induced biases and intrinsic-reward collapse, then propose targeted remedies. Advised by Jayson Lynch.
• MIT Math Department, Summer Program in Mathematics Research  2024.06-2024.08
  Researching linearity tests for Boolean functions using discrete Fourier analysis and other probabilistic techniques, with Kai Zhe Zheng. Won the Hartley Rogers Jr. Prize for best project at SPUR 2024.
• MIT CSAIL, FutureTech Lab.  2024.02 - 2025.05
  Investigating the effectiveness of quantization techniques in deep learning network inference, with Jayson Lynch and others.
• MIT Math Department.  2023.09 - 2024.09
  Extremal graph theory research focusing on Turán problems for directed graphs, mentored by Nitya Mani and sponsored by Yufei Zhao.
• Polymath Jr. Program.  2023.06 - 2023.08
  Investigated the Erdős-Fishburn $k$-distances problem and related variants, with Adam Sheffer and Eyvindur A. Palsson.
• University of Washington Math Dept.   2023.03 - 2023.06
  Guided reading of Daniel A. Spielman’s textbook Spectral and Algebraic Graph Theory and related works to spectral graph theory, with Rekha R. Thomas.
• eXperimental Lean Lab, University of Washington.  2023.03 - 2023.06
  Formalizing mathematical arguments with the Lean Theorem Prover, created formalizations for Euclidean plane geometry with an axiomatization system equivalent to Hilbert’s (poster), with Jarod Alper.
• MIT PRIMES-USA Program.  2022.01 - 2022.12
  Year-long research project on extremal graph theory, with Nitya Mani.
  Besides publication, presented at JMM 2023, awarded with $50K Davidson Fellow Laureate, Yau Science Award USA Gold Medal, and Regeneron STS Scholar.