Short Story

I'm Tao Ma, currently a PhD candidate in data science at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). I obtained my master degree in mathematics from Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University (NYU). My research interests lie in the wide range of decision science, to solve problems in real life, combining ideas from mathematics, data science, computer science and statistics. I'm especially honored to have graduated from Beijing No.4 High School (BHSF).

Research Interests

I have broad interests in many different research fields:

  • I focus on methods in decision science, including reinforcement learning (RL), multi-armed bandits (MAB), game theory.
  • Another recent focus is on deep generative models and large language models (LLMs).
  • I used to work on partial differential equations (PDE) and mathematical physics.
  • Meanwhile, I have been actively co-leading collaborative work on social sciences and humanities with AI.
  • Trained as an applied mathematician before coming to London, collaborations are always welcome for topics on optimization, privacy, supply chains, robotics and others.

I am honored to have been advised by Prof. Zoltán Szabó, Prof. Chengchun Shi and Prof. Milan Vojnovic. My referees also include Prof. Qiwei Yao and Prof. Christine Yuen.

Some of my long-term collaborators are Xuzhi Yang (JP Morgan), Philipp Schoenegger (Microsoft), Jiacheng Liu (RUC), Ramit Debnath (Cambridge), Daryl Y. H. Lee (UCL), Mert Kobaş (NYU), Peter Slattery (MIT), Linjie Xu (QMUL), Chuyao Wang (LSE), Aaron J. Li (UC Berkeley), Ming Ma (Free University Berlin), Feng Han (LSE), Yutong Wang (DRW & LSE).

Teaching

Passionate about helping others, I have started teaching courses from 2016, with topics in mathematics, computer science and statistics. I am quite honored to have received the Class Teacher Award at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and Best Teaching Assistant Award at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).

Academic Service

Session chair, LSE Statistics Research Showcase 2025

Reviewer, ICML 2025

Affiliated member, Data Science Institute, LSE 2025

Reviewer, AISTATS 2024-2026

Reviewer, ICLR 2024-2026

Reviewer, NeurIPS 2024, 2025

Department Review Representative, LSE 2024

Department Teaching Committee, LSE 2023-2025

Department Moving Plan Committee, LSE 2023-2025

Selected Awards

LSE Class Teacher Award LSE 2022-2023

LSE PhD Scholarship LSE 2021-2025

Best Teaching Assistant Award HKUST 2019-2020

Outstanding Student Award The Baptist Convention of Hong Kong 2015-2016

Scholastic Award HKBU 2015-2016

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Scholarship APEC 2013-2016

Hong Kong Government Scholarship HKSAR 2013-2016

The Best Debater Prize World Mandarin Debating Championship 2015-2016

Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship HKBU 2014-2015

Outstanding Academic Performance Award HKBU 2013-2014