Yikang Liu / 刘逸康

About me

Hi, I'm Yikang, a Ph.D. student in computational linguistics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). I am currently advised by Rui Wang and Hai Hu. Before that, I received my M.A. in linguistics from SJTU, and a B.A. in English and a minor B.Eng. in CS from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST).

For now, I am trying to investigate properties of human language and human language cognition by building and analyzing language models, or neural networks in general.

For my daily hobbies, I like to play the violin and listen to classical music, especially symphonies and violin concertos. I was once a violin player in the student orchestra of HUST, performing at a New Year Concert in the magnificent Qintai Concert Hall in Wuhan!

Education

• Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, China
  Ph.D. in Computer Science 2026.04 - Now
• Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, China
  M.A. in Linguistics 2023.09 - 2026.03
• Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan, China
  B.A. in English Language and Literature 2019.09 - 2023.06
  B.Eng. in Computer Science 2021.02 - 2023.06

Experience

• Hithink RoyalFlush AI Research Institute Hangzhou, China
  Research Intern 2025.11 - Now
• Tongyi Lab, Alibaba Cloud Hangzhou, China
  Research Intern 2024.07 - 2025.05

Publications

Math natural language inference: This should be easy!
Valeria de Paiva, Qiyue Gao, Hai Hu, Pavel Kovalev, Yikang Liu, Lawrence S Moss, Zhiheng Qian
[*SEM 2025] [paper]

Translationese-index: Using likelihood ratios for graded and generalizable measurement of translationese
Yikang Liu, Wanyang Zhang, Yiming Wang, Jialong Tang, Pei Zhang, Baosong Yang, Fei Huang, Rui Wang, Hai Hu
[EMNLP 2025] [paper] [code]

A systematic assessment of language models with linguistic minimal pairs in Chinese
Yikang Liu, Yeting Shen, Hongao Zhu, Lilong Xu, Zhiheng Qian, Siyuan Song, Kejia Zhang, Jialong Tang, Pei Zhang, Baosong Yang, Rui Wang, Hai Hu
[TACL, 2026] [paper] [code]

MELA: Multilingual evaluation of linguistic acceptability
Ziyin Zhang*, Yikang Liu*, Weifang Huang, Junyu Mao, Rui Wang, Hai Hu (*Equal contribution)
[ACL 2024] [paper] [data]

Can local ecological knowledge establish conservation baselines for the Critically Endangered Blue-crowned Laughingthrush?
Rosalind A. Gleave, Sarah K. Papworth, David Bauman, Steven J. Portugal, Weiwei Zhang, Yikang Liu, Zhiming Cao, Xiaojin Cheng, Samuel T. Turvey
[People and Nature, 2024] [paper]

ArguGPT: Evaluating, understanding and identifying argumentative essays generated by GPT models
Yikang Liu, Ziyin Zhang, Wanyang Zhang, Shisen Yue, Xiaojing Zhao, Xinyuan Cheng, Yiwen Zhang, Hai Hu
[preprint, 2023] [paper] [data] [demo]