About
Harry (Haoran) Dai is a PhD candidate in Computer Science at the Illinois Institute of Technology (expected 2027), advised by Professor Binghui Wang, and a Research Scientist at QuiverAI. He studies the security and efficiency of generative AI models. At QuiverAI, he works on SVG generation and builds agent harnesses. He is based in Chicago, Illinois.
Research Themes
- Trustworthy generative AI. Backdoor attacks on text-to-image and multimodal diffusion models, safety testing of text-to-image generators, and attacks that exploit test-time scaling in reasoning models.
- Efficient and stable inference. Attention sinks and activation outliers in transformers, and suppressing them to keep inference stable and robust to quantization.
- Vector graphics generation. Benchmarks and reinforcement learning for vision-language models that generate, edit, and extract SVGs from text, sketches, and real-world images.
Selected Publications
- Attention Sinks and Outliers in Attention ResidualsNeurIPS 2026 (poster) · Spotlight at Efficient Reasoning @ COLM 2026
- TIDES: Test-time Inference Drift Exploitation via ScalingES-Reasoning @ ICLR 2026 (spotlight)
At QuiverAI
Research Scientist since October 2025, working on SVG generation (inference optimization, post-training, data optimization, internal tooling) and agent harness development. Contributed to the Arrow model family:
- Arrow 2 and Arrow 2 TelosQuiverAI · September 2026
- Arrow 1.0QuiverAI · February 2026
News
- Sep 2026Attention Sinks and Outliers in Attention Residuals (OASIS) accepted at NeurIPS 2026.
- Sep 2026Contributed to QuiverAI's Arrow model family: Arrow 2 and Arrow 2 Telos launched.
- Sep 2026Reviewing for ICLR 2027.
- Aug 2026VectorGym: A Multi-Task Benchmark for SVG Code Generation, Sketching and Editing accepted at EMNLP 2026.
- Aug 2026Attention Sinks and Outliers in Attention Residuals (OASIS) selected as a spotlight at Efficient Reasoning @ COLM 2026.
- Apr 2026TIDES: Test-time Inference Drift Exploitation via Scaling selected as a spotlight at ES-Reasoning @ ICLR 2026.
More news
- Mar 2026Began reviewing for IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC).
- Mar 2026When One Modality Rules Them All: Backdoor Modality Collapse in Multimodal Diffusion Models accepted at Principled Design for Trustworthy AI @ ICLR 2026.
- Feb 2026Arrow 1.0, QuiverAI's first SVG generation model, launched in public beta.
- Oct 2025Joined QuiverAI as a Research Scientist before its public launch, working on SVG generation systems.
- Aug 2025Practical, Generalizable and Robust Backdoor Attacks on Text-to-Image Diffusion Models released on arXiv.
- Aug 2024Started the PhD in Computer Science at the Illinois Institute of Technology, advised by Professor Binghui Wang.
Education & Experience
Academia
CUP Beijing2017 – 2021BE, Computer Software EngineeringChina University of Petroleum, BeijingSep 2017 – Jun 2021
Boston University2022 – 2024MS, Computer ScienceBoston UniversityResearch AssistantAug 2022 – Jan 2024
Illinois Tech2024 – PresentPhD, Computer ScienceIllinois Institute of TechnologyTeaching AssistantAug 2024 – Present
CUP Beijing2017 – 2021BE, Computer Software EngineeringChina University of Petroleum, BeijingSep 2017 – Jun 2021Boston University2022 – 2024MS, Computer ScienceBoston UniversityResearch AssistantAug 2022 – Jan 2024Illinois Tech2024 – PresentPhD, Computer ScienceIllinois Institute of TechnologyTeaching AssistantAug 2024 – PresentIndustry
China DataCom2020SDE InternChina DataCom Corporation LimitedJul 2020 – Aug 2020
CNPC2021 – 2022Software EngineerChina National Petroleum CorporationJul 2021 – Aug 2022
Revery AI2024Machine Learning Engineer InternRevery AI (YC S21)Jan 2024 – Aug 2024
QuiverAI2025 – PresentResearch ScientistQuiverAIOct 2025 – Present
China DataCom2020SDE InternChina DataCom Corporation LimitedJul 2020 – Aug 2020CNPC2021 – 2022Software EngineerChina National Petroleum CorporationJul 2021 – Aug 2022Revery AI2024Machine Learning Engineer InternRevery AI (YC S21)Jan 2024 – Aug 2024QuiverAI2025 – PresentResearch ScientistQuiverAIOct 2025 – Present20202021202220232024202520262027
- Oct 2025 – PresentResearch ScientistQuiverAI
- Aug 2024 – PresentPhD, Computer ScienceIllinois Institute of TechnologyTeaching Assistant
- Jan 2024 – Aug 2024Machine Learning Engineer InternRevery AI (YC S21)
- Aug 2022 – Jan 2024MS, Computer ScienceBoston UniversityResearch Assistant
- Jul 2021 – Aug 2022Software EngineerChina National Petroleum Corporation
- Jul 2020 – Aug 2020SDE InternChina DataCom Corporation Limited
- Sep 2017 – Jun 2021BE, Computer Software EngineeringChina University of Petroleum, Beijing