Kyle R. Chickering - kyrochickering@gmail.com

Updated: 09/28/2026

🎓 Education

Ph.D. In Applied Mathematics

UC Davis - 2025. Advisor: Prof. Muhao Chen.

Thesis: Self-Similar Shock Formation and Some Results in Deep Learning

M.S. in Applied Mathematics

UC Davis - 2021. Advisor: Prof. Steve Shkoller.

B.S. in Applied Mathematics, Minor in Computer Science

UC Davis - 2019. Advisor: Prof. Timothy J. Lewis.

📄 Preprints & Publications

1. Simon Kuang, Kyle Chickering, and Xinfan Lin. Stable initialization without the CLT. (2026). [arXiv:2609.30633].

2. Kyle Chickering, Wei-An Lin, Swayam Bhanded, Dan Saunders, Akshat Tripathi, Jiaming Song, Shyamal Buch, and Xinchen Yan. Abra: Scaling Diffusion Image Training. (2026). [arXiv:2608.17286].

3. Zhaonan Li, Kyle R. Chickering, Bangzheng Li, Jacob Dineen, Xiao Ye, Zhikun Xu, Shijie Lu, Yuxi Huang, Ming Shen, Bach Nguyen, Jaya Adithya Pavuluri, Mau Son Nguyen, Sanika Chavan, Ngoc Minh Thu Le, Muhao Chen, and Ben Zhou. VisAnalog: A Diagnostic Suite for Visual Concept Transfer on Natural Images. (2026). [arXiv:2605.23141]. Workshop on Visual Concepts at CVPR 2026.

4. Kyle R. Chickering, Huijuan Wang, Mengxi Wu, Alexander Moreno, Muhao Chen, Xuezhe Ma, Daria Soboleva, Joel Hestness, Zhengzhong Liu, and Eric Xing. GQA-μP: The maximal update parameterization for grouped query attention. (2026). [arXiv:2605.15290]. Submitted.

5. Kyle R. Chickering, Bangzheng Li, and Muhao Chen. QLIP: A Dynamic Vision Prior Enhances MLLM Performance Without Retraining. ICLR 2026. [arXiv:2505.23004].

6. Kyle R. Chickering. A Quasilinear Algorithm for Computing Higher-Order Derivatives of Deep Feed-Forward Neural Networks. (2024). [arXiv:2412.09752].

7. Kyle R. Chickering, Ryan C. Moreno-Vasquez, and Gavin Pandya. Asymptotically self-similar shock formation for the 1d fractal Burgers equation. Siam J. Math. Anal. Vol 55, Iss. 6 (2023). [PDF, 2021].

👷🏻‍♂️ Work and Research Experience

🔦 Luma AI - Research Scientist (Pre-Training and Scaling)

November 2025 - Present

• Scaling foundation models for multimodal intelligence.

🦄 MBZUAI Institute for Foundation Models - AI Research Intern (LLM Pre-Training)

May 2025 - October 2025

• Working on $\mu$P and large-scale pre-training.

🎠 UC Davis Dept. of Mathematics - Graduate Researcher

September 2019 - September 2025

• Analysis of partial differential equations, machine learning for dynamical systems, efficient machine learning, LLMs / VLMs / MLLMs, model training.

🧪 Irreverent Labs - Research & Engineering

June 2023 - October 2024

• Research in diffusion models for video. Diffusion upsampling and interpolation. Responsible for model pre-training.

🕊️ Hummingbird.ai - Founding AI Research Engineer

October 2023 - June 2024

• Researching efficient computation for convolutional networks. Built R&D infrastructure.

🎠 UC Davis Dept. of Mathematics - Undergraduate Researcher

May 2018 - September 2019

• Undergraduate research in computational biology, mathematical neuroscience, dynamical systems, and viscoelastic fluids.

⚙️ Various Companies - Engineering Intern

May 2016 - September 2018

• Computer vision, zero-touch provisioning, hardware automation.

🦜 Selected Talks

• Scaling Laws for Diffusion Models
  1X Seminar Hosted by Sam Sinha. 2026.

• $n$-TangentProp: A Quasilinear Algorithm for Computing Derivatives of Neural Networks
  UC Davis Student Run Analysis and PDE Seminar. January 2025.

• Asymptotic Self-Similar Shock Formation for 1D Fractal Burgers
  UC Davis Student Run Analysis and PDE Seminar. April 2021.

• Long Time Existence via a Modified Energy Method
  UC Davis Student Run Analysis and PDE Seminar. February 2020.

• Effect of Elastic Fluids on Cilia Dynamics
  UC Davis Undergraduate Mathematics Research Conference. October 2019.

• Measure Theory, Integration, and $L^p$ Spaces
  Undergraduate Math and Physics Reading Group. April 2019.

• Mathematical Modeling of Anomalous Electrical Activity in Networks of TSC1- Mutant Neurons in the Thalamus
  UC Davis Spring Research Conference. April 2019.

• Fractals and Recursion
  UC Davis Math Circle. March 2019.

• LaTeX: A Document Preparation System
  UC Davis Math Club. February 2019.

• Spike-Escape Behavior in Electrically Coupled Thalamocortical Relay Cells with TSC1 Gene Deletion
  UC Davis Undergraduate Mathematics Conference. October 2018.

🏅Awards and Recognition

• Mathematics Department Fellowship
  Awarded by the Mathematics department. Fall 2020.

• Citation for Excellence in Undergraduate Research
  Awarded by the Mathematics department. October 2019.

• Mathematics Department Summer Fellowship
  Summer 2019.

• Citation for Outstanding Performance
  June 2019.

• UC Davis Outstanding Senior Award in Applied Mathematics
  Awarded by the university to a single student each year. May 2019.

👨🏻‍🍳 Service

📝 Reviewer

2025 - Present

• ICLR, CVPR, NeurIPS

📚 Co-Founder - Mathematics Directed Reading Program

2021

• Co-founded with Ashleigh Adams.

• Website.

🏦 Treasurer - Galios Group

2020 - 2021

• Managed the graduate group finances during the COVID-19 pandemic.