Yingru Li
Yingru Li
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Deep Learning
Why d log T Particles Are Enough, and What Carries Over to Networks
The particles of Ensemble++ are a random projection of the data history, so tracking the posterior is a Johnson–Lindenstrauss statement. When the agent picks its own data the classical lemma fails; a sequential version survives at the price of one log T, so d log T particles suffice. In a network the same update is an SGD step on M linear heads.
Yingru Li
Oct 13, 2026
7 min read
Research
,
Theory
Beyond Precision: Why Training-Inference Mismatch is an Optimization Problem and How Simple LR Scheduling Fixes It
RL training for LLMs is notoriously unstable. While recent studies attribute this to training-inference mismatch from hybrid engines, we show this is not merely a static numerical issue, but a dynamic problem coupled with the model’s optimization trajectory. We propose a specialized Learning Rate Scheduler that decays LR as gradient noise rises, using response length surge as a reliable early indicator of impending instability.
Yaxiang Zhang
,
Yingru Li
,
Jiacai Liu
,
Ziniu Li
,
Jiawei Xu
,
Qian Liu
Dec 20, 2025
1 min read
Research
,
Theory
The Optimal Token Baseline
RL training for LLMs frequently suffers from training collapse due to exploding gradient variance in long-horizon tasks. We derive the Optimal Token Baseline (OTB) from first principles, proving that updates should be weighted inversely to their accumulated uncertainty (Realized Energy). Our computationally free Logit-Gradient Proxy eliminates training collapse, matches N=32 performance with just N=4, and reduces token consumption by 62-66%.
Yingru Li
,
Jiawei Xu
,
Ziniu Li
,
Jiacai Liu
,
Yuxuan Tong
,
Wei Liu
,
Longtao Zheng
,
Zhenghai Xue
,
Yaxiang Zhang
,
Tianle Cai
,
Ge Zhang
,
Qian Liu
,
Baoxiang Wang
Dec 20, 2025
1 min read
Research
,
Theory
Trust Region Masking for Long-Horizon LLM Reinforcement Learning
We derive tighter off-policy bounds for LLM-RL: O(T^1.5) Pinsker-Marginal and O(T) Mixed bounds, compared to classical O(T²). We propose Trust Region Masking (TRM), which excludes entire sequences from gradient computation if any token violates the trust region. TRM is the principled form of masked importance sampling (MIS): a sequence-level trust-region mask combined with per-token importance sampling.
Yingru Li
Dec 20, 2025
4 min read
Research
,
Theory
arXiv
Slides
PR
Mathematical Formulations of Rollout Correction Methods
Definitive mathematical formulations for rollout correction methods in VeRL, progressing from REINFORCE to PPO to Decoupled PPO. Handles policy mismatch, temporal lag, replay buffers, and off-policy algorithms with importance sampling and rejection sampling techniques.
Yingru Li
Nov 4, 2025
1 min read
Research
,
Theory
,
Documentation
Information Bandwidth in Reinforcement Learning
An information-theoretic analysis showing that scalar advantage formulations learn ≤ log₂(B) bits per episode, while per-timestep advantages preserve full reward entropy.
Yingru Li
Oct 1, 2025
16 min read
Research
,
Theory
When Speed Kills Stability: Demystifying RL Collapse from the Training-Inference Mismatch
The relentless push for faster inference creates a dangerous training-inference mismatch that silently kills RL with LLMs. We reveal the vicious cycle—particularly acute in reasoning and agentic RL—and introduce masked importance sampling (MIS), sequence-level importance sampling that masks rollouts outside the trust region.
Jiacai Liu
,
Yingru Li
,
Yuqian Fu
,
Jiawei Wang
,
Qian Liu
,
Yu Shen
Sep 17, 2025
1 min read
Research
,
Theory
HyperAgent - A Simple, Efficient, Scalable and Provable RL Framework
Practically and provably efficient RL under resource constraints!
Mar 23, 2024 1:30 PM
Rice University
Yingru Li
Slides
Video
HyperAgent - A Simple, Efficient and Scalable RL Framework for Complex Environments
Practically and provably efficient RL under resource constraints!
Jan 13, 2024 1:20 PM
Daoyuan Building
Yingru Li
Slides
News
Towards AGI for Humanity through Efficient Reinforcement Learning
Addressing the efficiency challenge in RL with the HyperFQI algorithm
Oct 21, 2023 2:30 PM
Teaching B Building
Yingru Li
Slides
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