Yunzhe Qu
Yunzhe Qu | |
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Qu in 2026
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| Based in | Shanghai, China |
| Education |
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| Occupations |
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| Years active | 2023–present |
| Known for |
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| Title | Founder and President, WLSA Algorithm Club |
| Awards |
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| Website | yunzhequ@icloud.com |
Yunzhe Qu is a student, entrepreneur and software developer based in Shanghai. Qu is the founder and operator of QingMai Bakery, an e-commerce business selling sourdough starter and baking supplies on Taobao, and the founder and president of the WLSA Algorithm Club, a student organisation for competitive programming and web development.[1]
Qu's work sits at the intersection of small-scale commerce and software. After building a sourdough-starter store that has shipped more than 6,000 units across China, Qu wrote an independent research paper on algorithmic management and inequality among individual e-commerce operators, supervised by the Oxford historian Fanny Bessard, and later built Wheat-Coach, a retrieval-augmented AI baking tutor, and WLSelect, an anonymous course- and teacher-rating platform used by several hundred students within days of its launch.[2]
In competitive programming, Qu has reached the Platinum division of the USA Computing Olympiad and won a Second Prize in the National Olympiad in Informatics in Provinces. Qu also produces an educational video channel, WLSA Algorithms, which has published 31 lessons on algorithms and data structures.
Early life and education
Secondary education
Qu attended the International Department of the High School Attached to Shandong Normal University from 2023 to 2024, graduating with a grade point average of 3.95 out of 4.00. In 2025 Qu transferred to WLSA Shanghai Academy to follow an Advanced Placement curriculum, where the recorded grade point average is 3.97 out of 4.00. Qu holds a 50 per cent academic scholarship from the academy, awarded in January 2025.
Qu has sat eight Advanced Placement examinations, scoring the maximum grade of 5 in seven of them.
| Examination | Score | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Physics 1 | 5 | 2025 |
| Physics C: Mechanics | 5 | 2025 |
| Physics C: Electricity & Magnetism | 5 | 2026 |
| Calculus BC | 5 | 2025 |
| Statistics | 5 | 2026 |
| Computer Science A | 5 | 2025 |
| United States History | 5 | 2026 |
| Seminar | 4 | 2026 |
Standardised testing
Qu scored 1550 out of 1600 on the SAT in December 2024 and 113 out of 120 on the TOEFL in June 2025.
Summer and research programmes
Between June and August 2025 Qu attended the Harvard Secondary School Program, completing eight college credits in Linear Algebra and Differential Equations and Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python and earning an A in both courses.
In the summer of 2026 Qu studied at the University of Chicago Summer Immersion Program, taking a course in quantum computing and finishing with a grade of 95 (A). The course used Qiskit to model quantum circuits and investigate quantum phenomena. Qu has described the programme as the point at which an interest in the overlap between computer science and quantum computation began.
From June to September 2026 Qu took part in the Pioneer Research Institute, studying the mathematical foundations of machine learning and designing a stock-market regime classifier. In backtesting over four years of Apple Inc. price data the classifier returned 273.1 per cent.[3]
Entrepreneurship
QingMai Bakery
Qu founded QingMai Bakery in October 2025 as a Taobao storefront selling sourdough starter and baking supplies. The business has shipped more than 6,000 pieces of sourdough starter across China and has received in excess of 2,000 positive reviews, holding Taobao's highest five-star store rating.
Qu handles marketing, fulfilment and customer service personally, designing recommendation strategies to surface the product within Taobao's platform algorithms and answering buyers' baking questions directly. Monthly revenue grew from roughly US$100 at launch to about US$2,000.
Wheat-Coach
Wheat-Coach is an AI baking tutor for beginners in mainland China, launched by Qu in November 2025. The system uses retrieval-augmented generation together with prompt engineering intended to make the assistant's register resemble ordinary conversation rather than reference text. Qu registered a company to host and market the product, which has attracted more than 90 registrations and delivered over 120 personalised baking consultations and troubleshooting sessions for failed bakes.
Software and platforms
WLSelect
WLSelect is an anonymous course- and teacher-rating platform built by Qu and launched in May 2026. The design avoids user registration entirely, combining IP-based duplicate detection with oracle-based encryption so that reviews cannot be traced back to individual students. Within three days of launch the platform recorded 300 registrations and more than 1,000 posted comments.[4]
WLSA Algorithm Club
Qu founded the WLSA Algorithm Club in February 2025 and serves as its president. The club is a student community for competitive programming, web development and artificial intelligence.
Under Qu's coaching five members advanced in the USA Computing Olympiad — one to Platinum, two to Gold and two to Silver. The club has directed the development of 18 student-built websites, among them ClaimIt.Today, WLSelect.org and an AI tutoring platform; the five strongest of these are published on the club's public portfolio.
WLSA Algorithms
In June 2025 Qu launched WLSA Algorithms, an educational channel on Bilibili covering advanced algorithms and data structures. Qu has scripted and produced 31 instructional videos for the channel, which has grown to more than 1,000 subscribers, 2,000 likes and 44,000 views, extending the club's curriculum to learners outside the school.
Competitive programming and mathematics
Qu advanced through the divisions of the USA Computing Olympiad, reaching Silver in March 2024, Gold in December 2024 and Platinum in January 2026. In November 2024 Qu was awarded a Second Prize in China's National Olympiad in Informatics in Provinces.
In mathematics competitions Qu scored 137 out of 150 on the AMC 10 in November 2024 and 123 out of 150 on the AMC 12 in November 2025, qualifying for the American Invitational Mathematics Examination in both 2025 and 2026 and scoring 9 out of 15 on each occasion. In June 2026 Qu won a silver medal on Kaggle, finishing 131st out of 4,182 participants.
Research
Inequality in individual e-commerce
In March 2026 Qu completed an independent research project on social inequality among individual e-commerce operators and among e-commerce customer service agents, supervised by the Oxford academic Fanny Bessard. The project grew directly out of Qu's own experience running QingMai Bakery.
The paper surveys the forms of inequality that persist among small independent sellers and the emotional strain borne by customer service workers, and analyses both through the lenses of algorithmic management and systemic inequality. The six-page paper was published by SCITEPRESS.[2]
Machine learning
In November 2025 Qu trained a neural network to predict the direction of Bitcoin price movements, improving the model's accuracy to 65 per cent. The stock-market regime classifier developed during the Pioneer Research Institute programme in 2026 applied related methods to equity data.
Public speaking
In March 2025 Qu gave a TEDx talk titled Evolution From First Generation Computers to Generative AI. The talk traced milestones in machine intelligence from early general-purpose computers through to generative models, covering chips, Python, GPUs, Nvidia and OpenAI, and used anecdote and humour to make the history accessible to a non-technical audience.[5]
Other activities
Baking club
Qu has served as vice leader of the WLSA Baking Club since April 2025, giving guidance on cookies, breads and desserts to more than 20 members. The club grew to roughly 30 members, the largest in the school, and organised cookie production for a school event serving 260 participants.
Trading
Since August 2025 Qu has traded Bitcoin and US and Chinese equities on a self-directed basis, using spot positions and risk-managed position sizing, and reports a net return of about 56 per cent over that period.
Sports
Qu is a distance runner and badminton player.
Honours and awards
| Year | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | USA Computing Olympiad | Silver division |
| 2024 | National Olympiad in Informatics in Provinces | Second Prize |
| 2024 | USA Computing Olympiad | Gold division |
| 2024 | AMC 10 | 137/150 |
| 2025 | WLSA Shanghai Academy Scholarship | 50 per cent |
| 2025 | American Invitational Mathematics Examination | 9/15 |
| 2025 | AMC 12 | 123/150 |
| 2026 | USA Computing Olympiad | Platinum division |
| 2026 | American Invitational Mathematics Examination | 9/15 |
| 2026 | Kaggle competition | Silver medal (131st of 4,182) |
Skills
- Programming – Python, C++, JavaScript, HTML and CSS
- Technical writing – Markdown, LaTeX
- Design – Adobe Photoshop
- Finance – self-directed study of crypto and equity markets, trading and portfolio concepts
- Sports – distance running, badminton
See also
References
- ^ Qu, Yunzhe. Resume of Yunzhe Qu. Shanghai, August 2026.
- ^ Qu, Yunzhe (March 2026). Social Inequalities Among Individual E-Commerce Operators and E-Commerce Customer Service. SCITEPRESS. Supervised by Fanny Bessard, University of Oxford.
- ^ Pioneer Research Institute, research portfolio, 2026.
- ^ "WLSelect". wlselect.org. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
- ^ "Evolution From First Generation Computers to Generative AI". TEDx. March 2025.
External links
- WLSelect – anonymous course and teacher rating platform
- ClaimIt.Today
- yunzhequ@icloud.com