Che Cheng
Psychometrician & Quantitative Psychologist Postdoctoral Scholar, Institute of Statistical Science, Academia Sinica
I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Psychology (specializing in developmental psychology & quantitative psychology) and M.Sc. from the Institute of Applied Mathematical Sciences (specializing in mathematical statistics) at National Taiwan University.
My research sits at the intersection of psychometrics, mathematical statistics, and developmental psychology. I work on the identifiability of latent-variable models and on item response theory and Thurstonian models for mixed-format response data, with applications in quantitative developmental psychology.
2025 Highlights
- NTU Graduate President's Award: Awarded for the dissertation "Paradigmatic decisions for measuring choices and preferences: Likert scales, comparative judgments, or combined models?" — the highest research honor for NTU graduate students.
- Professor Su Hsiang-Yu Doctoral Dissertation Award: Recognized for excellence in psychology doctoral research.
- Psychometrika Publication: "Identifiability of polychoric models with latent elliptical distributions" - exploring the mathematical foundations of polychoric correlations.
- Professor Chao-ming Cheng Memorial Scholarship: Awarded the top graduate research prize in Psychology at NTU for contributions to Psychometrika.
- Dean's Award: College of Science, NTU - for outstanding research achievement.
Education
| Degree | Institution | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Ph.D., Department of Psychology | National Taiwan University | 2017–2025 |
| M.Sc., Institute of Applied Mathematical Sciences | National Taiwan University | 2019–2020 |
| B.S. in Psychology (Minor: Philosophy) | National Taiwan University | 2011–2017 |
| B.S. in Mathematics | National Taiwan University | 2011–2017 |
Experience
| Position | Institution | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Postdoctoral Scholar, Institute of Statistical Science | Academia Sinica | 2026–present |
| Research Assistant, Department of Psychology | National Taiwan University | 2026 |
| Teaching Practicum, Mathematics | Taipei First Girls' High School | 2025–2026 |
Where to find me
I work in two parallel tracks. The columns below tell you which one you came for.
Research
Psychometrics, mathematical statistics, and developmental psychology. The published work centers on choice and measurement — when different measurement methods agree, when they don't, and what they imply about the underlying psychological process.
- Measurement Paradigm Unification — Likert + comparative judgment
- Toward Optimal Estimation — identifiability and finite-sample behaviour
- Publications · Conferences · Research Software
Tools
Swift-native MCP servers and Claude Code plugins that give LLM agents native access to macOS apps, document formats, and developer workflows. Distributed via the PsychQuant marketplace.
- che-word-mcp — 218+ tools for .docx OOXML
- che-apple-mail-mcp — Apple Mail automation
- PsychQuant plugin marketplace — full catalog
Recent Writing
Read Source Code at Runtime, Not Cache It
When AI agents need authoritative answers about package behavior, reading installed source code live beats every other approach
Repos, Not Catalogs: Where Plugin Identity Actually Lives
The default advice for distributing Claude Code plugins is one central marketplace per author. GitHub's social infrastructure — stars, forks, issues, releases, watchers, search — aggregates at the repository level, not the catalog level. A plugin that lives as one row in a multi-plugin catalog inherits the catalog's identity, not its own. Standalone products belong in self-marketplaces; toolkit clusters belong in central catalogs. The deciding factor is brand identity, not distribution overhead.
Three Circles, Not Three Steps: Where Prompt, Context, and Harness Overlap
Prompt, context, and harness engineering are not a progression. They are three overlapping perspectives on the same work, and many of the most consequential decisions live where all three apply at once.