About
I’m currently a Senior AI Engineer at the GSMA. Before joining the GSMA, I completed my PhD in Computer Science at the University of Edinburgh (2022–2025), funded by a fully supported scholarship and co-advised by Elizabeth Polgreen and Michael O’Boyle. Earlier, I earned an MSc (Distinction) in Image and Video Communications and Signal Processing from the University of Bristol and a BEng in Electronic Information from Xidian University.
My research focuses on large language models, formal methods and programming languages, in particular program synthesis and verification, and has been published at PLDI, AAAI, CAV, ACL Findings, FMCAD and IEEE TAC.
Education
- 2022–2025
PhD, Computer Science
University of Edinburgh
Informatics scholarship. Advised by Elizabeth Polgreen and Michael O’Boyle
- 2020–2021
MSc, Image and Video Communications and Signal Processing
University of Bristol
Distinction (GPA 76/100)
- 2014–2018
BEng, Electronic Information
Xidian University
Experience
- Jan 2026–Present
Senior AI Engineer
GSM Association (GSMA)
- Sep–Dec 2025
Research Intern
Huawei R&D UK
Contributed to open-source projects including an AI browser, LLM-based code analysis, and code generation tools
- Nov–Dec 2024
Research Assistant
Heriot-Watt University
Explored LLM-assisted theorem proving for formal verification
- Jan–Jun 2024
Teaching Assistant
University of Edinburgh
System Design Project (INFR09032). Mentored robotics teams from software design and embedded programming to fully deployed physical systems
Publications
- IEEE TAC '26
The Similarity Control Problem with Required Events
IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 2026
BibTeX@article{wang2026similarity, title = {The Similarity Control Problem with Required Events}, author = {Yu Wang and Zhaohui Zhu and Rob van Glabbeek and Jinjin Zhang and Yixuan Li}, year = {2026}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control}, pages = {1--12}, doi = {10.1109/TAC.2026.3728353} } - ACL '25 Findings
HyGenar: An LLM-Driven Hybrid Genetic Algorithm for Few-Shot Grammar Generation
Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL 2025, Vienna, Austria, 2025
BibTeX@inproceedings{HyGenar, title = {HyGenar: An LLM-Driven Hybrid Genetic Algorithm for Few-Shot Grammar Generation}, author = {Weizhi Tang and Yixuan Li and Chris Sypherd and Elizabeth Polgreen and Vaishak Belle}, year = {2025}, booktitle = {Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL 2025}, address = {Vienna, Austria}, pages = {13640--13665}, doi = {10.18653/v1/2025.findings-acl.701} } - FMCAD '25
Unlocking Hardware Verification with Oracle Guided Synthesis
Formal Methods in Computer-Aided Design (FMCAD), 2025
BibTeX@inproceedings{SMART, title = {Unlocking Hardware Verification with Oracle Guided Synthesis}, author = {Leiqi Ye and Yixuan Li and Guy Frankel and Jianyi Cheng and Elizabeth Polgreen}, year = {2025}, booktitle = {Formal Methods in Computer-Aided Design (FMCAD)}, pages = {235--245}, doi = {10.34727/2025/isbn.978-3-85448-084-6_30} } - PLDI '25
Guided Tensor Lifting
Proc. ACM Program. Lang. 9 (PLDI), Article 227, 2025
BibTeX@article{tenssorlifting, title = {Guided Tensor Lifting}, author = {Yixuan Li and José Wesley de Souza Magalhães and Alexander Brauckmann and Michael F. P. O'Boyle and Elizabeth Polgreen}, year = {2025}, journal = {Proc. ACM Program. Lang.}, volume = {9}, number = {PLDI}, articleno = {227}, numpages = {23}, pages = {1984--2006}, doi = {10.1145/3729330} } - AAAI '25
Online Prompt Selection for Program Synthesis
Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence 39 (11), 2025
BibTeX@inproceedings{li2025onlinepromptsolverselection, title = {Online Prompt Selection for Program Synthesis}, author = {Yixuan Li and Lewis Frampton and Federico Mora and Elizabeth Polgreen}, year = {2025}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence}, volume = {39}, number = {11}, pages = {11282--11289}, doi = {10.1609/aaai.v39i11.33227} } - CAV '24
Guiding Enumerative Program Synthesis with Large Language Models
Computer Aided Verification (CAV 2024), Montreal, Canada, 2024
BibTeX@inproceedings{LLM-SYGUS, title = {Guiding Enumerative Program Synthesis with Large Language Models}, author = {Yixuan Li and Julian Parsert and Elizabeth Polgreen}, year = {2024}, booktitle = {Computer Aided Verification}, publisher = {Springer Nature Switzerland}, address = {Cham}, pages = {280--301}, isbn = {978-3-031-65630-9}, series = {CAV 2024}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-65630-9_15} } - SYNT @ CAV '23
Genetic Algorithms for Searching a Matrix of Metagrammars for Synthesis
Workshop on Synthesis (SYNT), 2023
BibTeX@inproceedings{li2023geneticalgorithmssearchingmatrix, title = {Genetic Algorithms for Searching a Matrix of Metagrammars for Synthesis}, author = {Yixuan Li and Federico Mora and Elizabeth Polgreen and Sanjit A. Seshia}, year = {2023}, booktitle = {Workshop on Synthesis (SYNT)}, eprint = {2306.00521}, archivePrefix = {arXiv}, primaryClass = {cs.SE}, doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2306.00521} }
Talks
- Dec 2025
European OpenHarmony Technical Forum
Edinburgh, UK
- Sep 2025
Compilers Seminar
University of Edinburgh
- Jun 2025
PLDI Conference
Seoul, Korea
- Feb 2025
AAAI Conference
Philadelphia, USA
- Nov 2024
Programming Languages Seminar
University of Bristol
- Oct 2024
Compilers Seminar
University of Edinburgh
- May 2024
LAIV AI Verification Seminar
Heriot-Watt University
- Mar 2024
EuroProofNet Workshop on Machine Learning in Proofs
Vienna, Austria
- Jul 2023
SYNT Workshop
Paris, France
Awards & service
Scholarships
- 2022–2025
Fully Funded PhD Scholarship
University of Edinburgh
- May 2024
Verification Mentoring Workshop Scholarship
CAV Conference
- Mar 2016
University Scholarship
Xidian University
Service
- 2025
EuroProofNet Workshop on Theorem Proving in the Age of LLMs
Co-organizer and reviewer
- 2025
Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems (TACAS)
Reviewer