Yiming Chen
Hi there! I am a Rhodes Scholar and PhD student in the Visual Geometry Group (VGG) at the University of Oxford, where I am fortunate to be advised by Professor Andrea Vedaldi and Dr. Yushi Lan. My research focus is spatial intelligence, generative world modeling, and building AI systems that understand and simulate physics.
I graduated from MIT with B.S. degrees in Math and Computer Science and an M.Eng in Computer Science (2020-2024). For my Master's, I was lucky to be part of the MIT Medical Vision Group led by Professor Polina Golland and worked in collaboration with IBM Research. I previously worked in quantitative finance (2024-2025). .
I'm passionate about teaching and scientific communication. Sharing appreciation for beautiful concepts is the most gratifying feeling! Outside the lab, you can find me playing Guzheng (a traditional Chinese instrument), singing A Capella, and doing activities on water of different states——rowing and figure skating. I also sometimes make things.
Please feel free to reach out at yiming [at] robots.ox.ac.uk. I am always excited to chat about research and collaborate!
Research
PhysiFormer: Learning to Simulate Mechanics in World Space
arXiv, 2026
project page / arXiv / code / demo
PhysiFormer learns physically plausible 4D mesh dynamics in world coordinates for multi-object, multi-material simulation.
Geo-UNet: A Geometrically Constrained Neural Framework for Clinical-Grade Lumen Segmentation in Intravascular Ultrasound
MLMI @ MICCAI, 2024
Services
Reviewer for MICCAI 2026, MIDL 2026, GRAIL @ MICCAI 2025, 2026.
Co-organizer for PhysAI Workshop @ ECCV ’26, Visual General Intelligence Workshop @ CVPR ’26.
Interests
Teaching đź“š
University of Oxford
- Tutor for Geometric Modeling (Fall 2026)
- Demonstrator for Uncertainty in Deep Learning (Fall 2025)
MIT
- Teaching Assistant for Design & Analysis of Algorithms | 6.1220 (Spring 2023, Fall 2023)
- Teaching Assistant for Probability & Random Variables | 18.600 (Fall 2022)
- Lecture Assistant for Intro to Python/Data Science | 6.100A/B (Fall 2021)
- Created educational videos with the MIT Edgerton Center (Fall 2020)
Hampshire College Summer Studies in Math (HCSSiM)
- Junior faculty (Summer 2022
)
Silk Road Trilogy
MIT Chamber Music Society Spring'24 (with Irene Huang on flute): Tango, By the Yili River, Waterlillies
One of the most rewarding experiences of my college career! Under the mentorship of Professor Hui Weng of New England Conservatory and Berkelee College of Music, I expanded my musical comfort zone by exploring more musical genres on Guzheng, a traditional Chinese instrument. From the chromatic flair of Spanish tango to the rhythmic vitality of Uygur dance music in Northwestern China to the pentatonic, lyrical melodies of Southern Chinese watertowns, I learned so much about improvisation, expression, and musical synergy between Guzheng and Western instruments.
Dance of the Yi
Guzheng solo
