Ao Liu

Work Experience

2023 — 2026
ML Engineer · Google Core ML — Mountain View, CA, USA
Large–Small Model Collaboration Personalization LLM Recommendation Systems
Summer 2022
Research Intern · Google Core ML — Mountain View, CA, USA
Recommendation Systems Learning to Rank
2019 — 2020
Visiting Scholar · MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab — Cambridge, MA, USA
Differential Privacy Robustness Interpretable ML

Education

2018 — 2023
Ph.D. in Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) — Troy, NY, USA
Learning to Rank Differential Privacy Recommendation Systems Computational Social Choice Theoretical Computer Science Mechanism Design Quantum Computation GPA: 4.00/4
2015 — 2018
M.Eng. in Material Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) — Troy, NY, USA
Received Presidential Graduate Research Fellowship GPA: 3.83/4
2010 — 2014
B.S. in Mathematics and Physics, Tsinghua University — Beijing, China
Minor in Computer Technology In Academic Talent Program GPA: 85/100 (Rank: 8/50)

Services & Awards

Journal Reviewer for Information Sciences, ACM ToIS, TMLR, DMLR, Information Processing in Agriculture, Sankhya B
Conference Reviewer for NeurIPS (20–24), ICML (22–24), ICLR (23–25), AAAI (21–22), UAI-26, AISTATS-25, IJCAI-22
Rensselaer-IBM AI Horizon Scholarship (cover tuition and stipend for 3 years)
Presidential Graduate Research Fellowship (1-year fellowship)

Publications

Computer Science
Accepted Papers
  1. Zhechen Li, Ao Liu, Lirong Xia, Yongzhi Cao, and Hanpin Wang. Trading Off Voting Axioms for Privacy. In Proceedings of The 41st Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI-25). PDF
  2. Ao Liu, Yu-Xiang Wang, and Lirong Xia. Smoothed Differential Privacy. TMLR. PDF
  3. Ao Liu. Group Decision Makings from Partial Preferences. Doctoral Dissertation. PDF
    Committee Members: Lirong Xia, Malik Magdon-Ismail, Alex Gittens, and Rongjie Lai.
  4. Ao Liu, Qishen Han, Lirong Xia, and Nengkun Yu. Accelerating Voting by Quantum Computation. In Proceedings of The 39th Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI-23). PDF
  5. Zhechen Li, Ao Liu, Lirong Xia, Yongzhi Cao, and Hanpin Wang. Differentially Private Condorcet Voting. In Proceedings of The 37th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-23). PDF Oral Presentation
  6. Ao Liu, Xiaoyu Chen, Sijia Liu, Lirong Xia, and Chuang Gan. Certifiably Robust Interpretation via Rényi Differential Privacy. Artificial Intelligence (2022): 103787. Link
    Also in Proceedings of (the journal track of) The 37th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-23). Oral Presentation
  7. Ao Liu, and Lirong Xia. The Semi-Random Likelihood of Doctrinal Paradoxes. In Proceedings of The 36th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-22). PDFSpotlight Presentation
  8. Zhibing Zhao, Ao Liu, and Lirong Xia. Learning Mixtures of Random Utility Models with Features from Incomplete Preferences. In Proceedings of The 31st International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-22). PDF Oral Presentation
  9. Farhad Mohsin, Ao Liu, Pin-Yu Chen, Francesca Rossi, and Lirong Xia. Learning to Design Fair and Private Voting Rules. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research 75 (2022): 1139-1176. PDF
    Also in Proceedings of (the journal track of) The 32nd International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-23). Oral Presentation
  10. Ao Liu, Yun Lu, Lirong Xia, and Vassilis Zikas. How Private Are Commonly-Used Voting Rules? In Proceedings of The 36th Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI-20). PDF Oral Presentation
  11. Brendan John, Ao Liu, Lirong Xia, Sanjeev Koppal, and Eakta Jain. Let It Snow: Adding pixel noise to protect the user's identity. ETRA'20 Adjunct: ACM Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications (2020). Link
  12. Ao Liu, Qiong Wu, Zhenming Liu, and Lirong Xia. Near-Neighbor Methods in Random Preference Completion. In Proceedings of The 33rd AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-19). PDF Oral Presentation
  13. Ao Liu, Zhibing Zhao, Chao Liao, Pinyan Lu, and Lirong Xia. Learning Plackett-Luce Mixture from Partial Preferences. In Proceedings of The 33rd AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-19). PDF Oral Presentation
  14. Ao Liu, Lirong Xia, Andrew Duchowski, Reynold Bailey, Kenneth Holmqvist, and Eakta Jain. Differential Privacy for Eye-Tracking Data. In Proceedings of The 11th ACM Symposium on Eye Tracking Research & Applications (ETRA-19). PDF Oral Presentation
Non-Archival Papers
  1. Qishen Han, Sikai Ruan, Yuqing Kong, Ao Liu, Farhad Mohsin, and Lirong Xia. Truthful Information Elicitation from Hybrid Crowd. Presented at COMSOC-21 student poster session. PDF
  2. Farhad Mohsin, Lei Luo, Wufei Ma, Inwon Kang, Zhibing Zhao, Ao Liu, Rohit Vaish, and Lirong Xia. Making Group Decisions from Natural Language-Based Preferences. Presented at COMSOC-21. PDF
Patents
  1. Ao Liu, Sijia Liu, Bo Wu, Lirong Xia, Qi Cheng Li, and Chuang Gan. Certifiably Robust Interpretation. US Patent, US 11,687,777 B2. PDF
  2. Ao Liu, Sijia Liu, Abhishek Bhandwaldar, Chuang Gan, Lirong Xia, and Qi Cheng Li. Interpretation Maps with Guaranteed Robustness. US Patent, US 11,341,598 B2. PDF
Material Physics
Accepted Papers
  1. Ao Liu, Fei Zeng, Yuandong Hu, Siheng Lu, Wenshuai Dong, Xiaojun Li, Chiating Chang, and Dong Guo. Simulation of pulse responses of lithium salt-doped poly(ethylene oxide). Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics 54, no. 8 (2016): 831-837. Link
  2. Fei Zeng, Siheng Lu, Wenshuai Dong, Ao Liu, Xiaojun Li, and Chiating Chang. Thresholds of frequency selectivity of Pt/poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl)/polyethylene oxide+Mg2+/Pt heterojunctions. Solid State Ionics 287 (2016): 42-47. PDF
  3. Wenshuai Dong, Fei Zeng, Siheng Lu, Ao Liu, Xiaojun Li, and Feng Pan. Frequency-dependent learning achieved using semiconducting polymer/electrolyte composite cells. Nanoscale 7, no. 40 (2015): 16880-16889. Link
  4. Siheng Lu, Fei Zeng, Wenshuai Dong, Ao Liu, Xiaojun Li, and Jingting Luo. Controlling ion conductance and channels to achieve synaptic-like frequency selectivity. Nano-Micro Letters 7 (2015): 121-126. PDF
  5. Wenshuai Dong, Fei Zeng, Siheng Lu, Xiaojun Li, Chiating Chang, Ao Liu, Feng Pan, and Dong Guo. Effect of heavy-ion on frequency selectivity of semiconducting polymer/electrolyte heterojunction. RSC Advances 5, no. 119 (2015): 98110-98117. Link
  6. Fei Zeng, Xiaojun Li, Chiating Chang, Yuandong Hu, Wenshuai Dong, Siheng Lu, and Ao Liu. Excitatory post-synaptic current and synaptic plasticity of semiconducting polymer/electrolyte system. In The 15th IEEE Non-Volatile Memory Technology Symposium (NVMTS-2015). Link
  7. Xiaojun Li, Fei Zeng, Chiating Chang, Yuandong Hu, Wenshuai Dong, Siheng Lu, and Ao Liu. Influence of ionic size to the pulse responses of semiconducting polymer/electrolyte hetero-junctions. In The 15th IEEE Non-Volatile Memory Technology Symposium (NVMTS-2015). Link
  8. Xiaoyan Wang, Fang Liu, Ao Liu, Boyu Fan, Kaiyu Cui, Xue Feng, Wei Zhang, and Yidong Huang. Optical fiber sensor based on the short-range surface plasmon polariton mode. Chinese Optics Letters 12, no. 1 (2014): 010602. Link