About Me
I am a Ph.D. in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, College Park, advised by Prof. Nirupam Roy. My research interests include Spatial Intelligence, Minimalist Perception, Multi-modal Perception, and Spatial Aware LLM/LAM, with applications in human-machine interaction, healthcare, and robotics. I hold an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from WINLAB, Rutgers University.
Research Interests
- Spatial Intelligence
- Minimalist Perception (power, size, frequency band)
- Multi-modal Perception (audio and acoustics, images and video, IMU, text)
- Spatial Aware LLM/LAM
News
- April 2025: I passed my Ph.D. defense! Thank to my advisor Prof. Nirupam Roy, and my committee members Prof. Ashok K. Agrawala, Prof. Christopher Metzler, Prof. Min Wu, and Prof. Xiaofan (Fred) Jiang!
- March 2025: My research is highlighted by University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies.
- October 2024: SPiDR received ACM Research Highlight.
- September 2024: Scribe is presented at UbiComp 2024.
- August 2024: Finished my second internship at Apple Inc.
- April 2023: SPiDR received ACM SIGMOBILE Research Highlight.
- September 2023: Finished my first internship at Apple Inc.
- February 2023: Co-organized a panel on “Diversity and Inclusion: What? Why? How?” at ACM HotMobile 2023.
- July 2022: SPiDR won the Best Paper Award at ACM MobiSys 2022.
- July 2021: Owlet received the Best Demo Award at ACM MobiSys 2021.
Publications
Highlighted Publications
IMWUT/UbiComp 2024
Scribe: Simultaneous Voice and Handwriting Interface
Y. Bai, I. Shahid, H. Takawale, N. Roy
Y. Bai, I. Shahid, H. Takawale, N. Roy
ACM MobiSys 2022
SPiDR: Ultra-low-power Acoustic Spatial Sensing for Micro-robot Navigation
Y. Bai (Co-primary author), N. Garg (Co-primary author), N. Roy
Best Paper Award, ACM SIGMOBILE Research Highlight, ACM Research Highlight
Y. Bai (Co-primary author), N. Garg (Co-primary author), N. Roy
Best Paper Award, ACM SIGMOBILE Research Highlight, ACM Research Highlight
ACM MobiSys 2021
Owlet: Enabling Spatial Information in Ubiquitous Acoustic Devices
Y. Bai (Co-primary author), N. Garg (Co-primary author), N. Roy
Best Demo Award
Y. Bai (Co-primary author), N. Garg (Co-primary author), N. Roy
Best Demo Award
ACM SenSys 2020
BatComm: Enabling Inaudible Acoustic Communication with High-throughput for Mobile Devices
Y. Bai, J. Liu, L. Lu, Y. Yang, Y. Chen, J. Yu
Y. Bai, J. Liu, L. Lu, Y. Yang, Y. Chen, J. Yu
Computer Networks
Acoustic-based Sensing and Applications: A Survey
Y. Bai, L. Lu, J. Cheng, J. Liu, Y. Chen, J. Yu
Y. Bai, L. Lu, J. Cheng, J. Liu, Y. Chen, J. Yu
Other Publications
GetMobile 2024
Microstructure-Assisted Vision: Adding New Senses to Low-Power Devices
Y. Bai (Co-primary author), N. Garg (Co-primary author), Nirupam Roy
Y. Bai (Co-primary author), N. Garg (Co-primary author), Nirupam Roy
ArXiv 2024
IMUOptimize: A Data-Driven Approach to Optimal IMU Placement for Human Pose Estimation with Transformer Architecture
V. Ramani, H. Khayami, Y. Bai, N. Garg, N. Roy
V. Ramani, H. Khayami, Y. Bai, N. Garg, N. Roy
IASA workshop co-located with CPS IoT Week 2023
Structure Assisted Spectrum Sensing for Low-power Acoustic Event Detection
N. Garg, H. Takawale, Y. Bai, I. Shahid, N. Roy
N. Garg, H. Takawale, Y. Bai, I. Shahid, N. Roy
IASA workshop co-located with ACM MobiSys 2022
VoiceFind: Noise-Resilient Speech Recovery in Commodity Headphones
I. Shahid, Y. Bai, N. Garg, N. Roy
I. Shahid, Y. Bai, N. Garg, N. Roy
ACM HotMobile 2023
Poster: Natural Voice Interface for the Next Generation of Smart Spaces
Y. Bai, N. Garg, H. Takawale, A. Das, N. Roy
Y. Bai, N. Garg, H. Takawale, A. Das, N. Roy
ACM MobiSys 2024
Poster: Ultra-low-power Acoustic Imaging
Y. Bai (Co-primary author), N. Garg (Co-primary author), N. Roy
Y. Bai (Co-primary author), N. Garg (Co-primary author), N. Roy
ACM MobiSys 2021
Demo: Microstructure-guided Spatial Sensing for Low-power IoT
N. Garg, Y. Bai (Co-primary author), N. Roy
N. Garg, Y. Bai (Co-primary author), N. Roy
ACM MobiCom 2019
Poster: Inaudible High-throughput Communication Through Acoustic Signals
Y. Bai, J. Liu, Y. Chen, L. Lu, J. Yu
Best Poster Runner-up Award, Bronze prize of Student Research Competition
Y. Bai, J. Liu, Y. Chen, L. Lu, J. Yu
Best Poster Runner-up Award, Bronze prize of Student Research Competition
IEEE DySPAN 2019
Demo: Monitoring Movement Dynamics of Robot Cars and Drones Using Smartphone’s Built-in Sensors
Y. Bai, X. Yang, C. Liu, J. Wain, R. Wang, J. Cheng, C. Wang, J. Liu, Y. Chen
Y. Bai, X. Yang, C. Liu, J. Wain, R. Wang, J. Cheng, C. Wang, J. Liu, Y. Chen
Awards
- ACM Research Highlight - 2024
- Future Faculty Fellowship, Clark School of Engineering at UMD - 2024
- Outstanding Graduate Assistant Award, University of Maryland - 2023
- SIGMOBILE Research Highlight - 2023
- Summer Research Fellowship, University of Maryland - 2023
- Student Travel Grant, ACM HotMobile - 2023
- Best Paper Award, ACM MobiSys - 2022
- Student Travel Grant, ACM MobiSys - 2022
- Best Demo Award, ACM MobiSys - 2021
- N2Women Young Researcher Fellowship - 2021
- Rutgers ECE Departmental Leadership and Service Award - 2021
- UMD CS Summer Research Fellowship - 2021
- iREDEFINE Professional Development Award, iREDEFINE Workshop of Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association - 2020
- Best Poster Award Runner-up, ACM MobiCom - 2019
- N2Women Travel Grant, ACM MobiCom - 2019
- Bronze prize of Student Research Competition, ACM MobiCom - 2019
Activities & Services
- Organized Panel: Diversity and Inclusion: What? Why? How? at HotMobile 2023
- Organized Panel: How to Prepare for Academia and Industry Career? at MobiSys 2021
- Technical Program Committee: ALLSENSORS 2024
- Technical Program Committee: IoTAI 2024
- Shadow Technical Program Committee: ACM SenSys 2022
- Reviewer: AIChallenge IoT 2022
- Artifact Evaluation Committee: MobiSys 2022
- Reviewer: The Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT)
- Reviewer: IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing
- Reviewer: Transactions on Network Science and Engineering
- Reviewer: IEEE Signal Processing Letters
Teaching
Undergraduate-level Courses
- (UMD) Computer Networks, TA, Fall 2024
- (UMD) Web Application Development with Javascript, TA, Fall 2022 & Spring 2023
- (UMD) Object-Oriented Programming I, TA, Fall 2021
- (Rutgers) Fish Bowl Tutor, Fall 2020
- (Rutgers) Intro to Computer Systems, TA, Spring 2019 & Spring 2020
- (Rutgers) Computing Principles of Mobile Embedded Systems, TA, Fall 2019
- (Rutgers) Digital System Design, TA, Fall 2018
Graduate-level Courses
- (Stevens) Data Structures & Algorithms, Peer Tutor, Fall 2017 & Spring 2018
- (Stevens) Engineering Programming: Java, Peer Tutor, Fall 2017 & Spring 2018
- (Stevens) Engineering Programming: C++, Peer Tutor, Fall 2017 & Spring 2018
Undergraduate Mentoring
- Mentored 6 undergraduate students in UMD CS Bitcamp 2021
- Worked as a Fish Bowl Tutor at Rutgers ECE department, Fall 2020
Photo Gallery
Organizing diversity and inclusion panel at HotMobile 2023
Best Paper Award, MobiSys 2022
Presenting at MobiSys 2022
Working on building outdoor WiFi in a state park
Best Demo Award at MobiSys 2021
Rutgers ECE Departmental Leadership and Service Award
First Runnder-Up Poster Award and Bronze Prize of Student Competition