Yufan Zhang

I’m a research assistant hosted by Prof. Hao Peng at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I am currently interested in machine learning, especially LLM post-training. I graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.S. in Mathematics and a minor in Computer Science.

Papers

Understanding LLM Parameter Update Sparsity through the Lens of Fisher
Yufan Zhang, Sagnik Mukherjee, Hao Peng

arXiv, 2026
Covariance-Aware Transformers for Quadratic Programming and Decision Making
Kutay Tire*, Yufan Zhang*, Ege Onur Taga, Samet Oymak

COLM, 2026
Reinforcement Learning for Infinite-Horizon Average-Reward Linear MDPs via Approximation by Discounted-Reward MDPs
Kihyuk Hong, Woojin Chae, Yufan Zhang, Dabeen Lee, Ambuj Tewari

AISTATS, 2025

Miscellanea

Feel free to reach out for badminton, poker, or a Letterboxd profile swap :)