About Me

I am Liang “Charles” Lyu, a third-year PhD student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) within the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). I am advised by Professors Asu Ozdaglar and Dan Huttenlocher.

Previously, I graduated from Duke University in 2020 with a B.S. degree in Computer Science and Mathematics, where I worked with Professors Kamesh Munagala and Brandon Fain.

Here is my latest CV (updated January 2024).

Research Interests

My research revolves around the impacts of algorithms on humans and society. Currently, my focus is on understanding social media, namely the interactions between platforms, users, creators and content, and the effects of platform decisions on behaviors of human agents. I also aim to analyze how such interplays can contribute to potentially undesirable impacts such as the spread of misinformation, and develop algorithmic solutions to mitigate them.

I employ a mix of theoretical and empirical approaches in understanding these issues. On one hand, I develop models that capture the behavior of humans and algorithms. My interests and technical machinery on this front broadly relate to theoretical computer science, game theory and operations research. On the other hand, I also conduct empirical and experimental studies on real-world social media platforms to analyze data and measure human behavior, both to calibrate our models and to observe their applicability in practice.

Previously, I have also worked on algorithmic fairness in contexts such as clustering and graph centrality.

Contacts

Email: lianglyu at mit.edu

Address:
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 32-D640
Cambridge, MA 02139

Notes about my name

This video shows the accurate pronunciation of my last name. However, I am fine with the more common pronunciation that’s akin to “liu” or “lew”, which 99% of people (regardless of nationality) will pronounce it as on their first try.

Feel free to call me Charles whenever possible.

This website is last updated on January 3, 2024.