Prospective Students
For students who want to use AI and data to build something of their own.
I am actively recruiting PhD students, research interns, and engineers to join DELTA Lab at Shanghai Innovation Institute. I am especially interested in people who bring their own ideas and are driven to build something of their own — whether that’s a research direction, a product, or a venture.
What We Work On
DELTA Lab pursues a research program called AI × Data × X — a three-layer architecture built on a clear research philosophy:
AI × Finance
Applying machine learning to equity pricing and decision systems. Active research direction with real-world deployment.
AI × Consulting
Turning frontier AI into structured analyst-grade insights. Our first venture SOTAwise is operating in this space.
AI × Science (emerging)
Exploring how AI can transform scientific workflows. Under active investigation — ideal for students who want to shape a new direction.
AI Workspace
PM-DELTA — our AI-native team management system that makes multi-task autonomous development reliable. Everyone uses it; everyone co-iterates on it. Infrastructure-level research that powers everything above.
Scalability Research
How do you scale up AI capability through computing, data, and engineering practices? This is the foundational layer — our research philosophy. Every domain direction above is an instance of this question, and every tool we build is an answer to it.
Who I’m Looking For
I value execution ability, curiosity, and initiative over traditional metrics.
Ideal Candidates
- You bring your own ideas. You’re not waiting to be told what to work on.
- You build. You have shipped something — a project, a paper, a product, a startup attempt. Scale doesn’t matter; initiative does.
- You’re comfortable with ambiguity. Research directions are rarely well-defined when they matter most.
- You can work independently. And you know when to ask for help.
- Strong programming skills. Language doesn’t matter; ability to learn does.
What Matters Less
- Perfect GPA (academic foundation helps, but is not decisive)
- Existing publications (nice, not required)
- Specific technical background (cross-disciplinary backgrounds are welcome)
What You’ll Get
My approach emphasizes practice over theory — everyone works on real problems with real resources. Here’s what you can count on:
- 🧭 Personalized Development Plan — we design your path based on your long-term career goals. You need to think clearly about who you want to be in 5 years — then we build the plan together.
- 🤖 AI-Native Team Management — every member is equipped with Claude Code. We co-iterate on PM-DELTA together. No status reports — delivery context is captured and processed by AI.
- ⚡ 20,000P+ Compute — the institute has over 20,000 petaflops of compute resources available. Your experiments run at realistic scale, not toy scale.
- 💰 Funding & Venture Support — for strong ideas, we back student ventures with seed capital, financing support, and introductions to top-tier VCs from our industry network.
- 🤝 Team Culture — equal communication regardless of seniority, shared goal-driven collaboration, and fair distribution. No hierarchy games, no politics.
- 🌐 Internship & Exchange Opportunities — access to industry connections across startups, tech companies, and our own portfolio for internships, collaborations, and career exposure.
Career Paths
Our alumni pursue diverse paths — academia, industry ML/AI roles, and founding their own startups. If you want to eventually launch your own venture, we will actively help you get there.
About Shanghai Innovation Institute
Shanghai Innovation Institute (上海创智学院) is a cross-university collaborative platform. Students maintain enrollment at their home universities (SJTU, Fudan, ECNU, Westlake, etc.) while receiving joint training. The setup gives you academic rigor plus industry connection plus resource sharing across multiple institutions.
How to Apply
PhD Students
Check the admission requirements of your target home university (SJTU, Fudan, etc.), then contact me before the application deadline with:
- Your CV
- A brief description of your research interests (or your own idea)
- Links to any relevant projects or publications
Research Interns
Minimum 3-month commitment (6+ months preferred). Send me:
- Your CV
- Your available time period
- What you hope to learn or build
Engineers
We occasionally hire full-time engineers for data infrastructure and ML systems. Send an inquiry.
Email: lyk@sii.edu.cn
Please use a clear subject line: [PhD / Intern / Engineer] Your Name — University
I try to respond to all serious inquiries.
FAQ
Do I need publications to apply? No. Hands-on experience and genuine interest matter more.
What’s the typical PhD duration? Depends on your home university’s policy (typically 4-5 years in China).
Can international students apply? Yes, but you need to meet the admission requirements of partnering Chinese universities.
What programming languages should I know? Python is most common in our lab. But we care more about your ability to learn than your current stack.
Can I pursue my own startup idea while in the lab? Yes — this is exactly the kind of energy I want. We will help you think it through and connect you to the right people.