Charles Lai

CS & Math @ MIT

Providence, Rhode Island, United States

About

MIT student studying computer science and mathematics. Interested in machine learning, quantitative analysis, and software systems. Experience in LLM research, AI engineering, and predictive modeling, with a focus on solving complex problems through data and computation.

Experience

  • Software Engineer at Mercor
    Mar 2026 - Present · 5 mos

    Project Blitz - AI infrastructure and automation tooling; Project Jericho

  • Undergraduate Researcher at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)
    Jan 2026 - Present · 7 mos

    Big-data Algorithms & Scalable Systems (BASS) Group; AI/ML for Performance Engineering

  • AI Intern at Link Studio
    Jan 2026 - Feb 2026 · 2 mos

    Built Shortlist.ai, a Python/JS platform for matching candidates to roles; developed AI-driven interview scoring to automate candidate–role fit evaluation.

  • Undergraduate Researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Dec 2025 - Feb 2026 · 3 mos

    Worked on a multi-agent LLM pipeline to generate PHITS simulation inputs from natural language, benchmarking to improve correctness vs human baselines.

  • Summer Intern at MIT Beaver Works Summer Institute
    Jul 2024 - Sep 2024 · 3 mos

    Built an autonomous quadrotor (PX4, ROS, OpenCV), integrating perception and control for real-time navigation.