Chunjiang Zhu, Ph.D.

Dr. Chunjiang Zhu is an assistant professor and interim associate head in Department of Computer Science at the UNC Greensboro. He was a postdoctor fellow at the Laboratory of Machine Learning & Health Informatics led by Prof. Jinbo Bi, Department of Computer Science and Engineering in the University of Connecticut. Before that, he was a postdoctor at the City University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Baptist University for a few months, and also worked in the Hong Kong based Wisers AI Lab as a researcher and then a senior researcher. Dr. Zhu received his PhD in Computer Science from City University of Hong Kong in 2015. His Erdös number is 4. [CV]

Contact: Department of Computer Science
UNC Greensboro
153 Petty Building
Greensboro, NC 27412
Office: 153 Petty Building
E-mail: chunjiang "dot" zhu "at" uncg "dot" edu
Phone: 336-334-4373


Research Interests: Foundations of graph learning and analysis through the interplay of graph learning and graph algorithms, Applications in science (AIForScience), database systems and embedded computing systems.

Recent News: One Paper Accepted in COCOA 2024.

Two Papers Accepted in EMNLP 2024.

Welcome Prof. Erik Saule from UNCC to visit my lab!

One paper accepted in ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems.

GraLNA 2024 REU successfully concluded. In this cohort, we have nine students from Duke, TAMU, Emory, WM, UMN, Appalachian State University, Valparaiso University, UNC-CH, and UNC-G, completing seven projects in eight weeks. Congratulations, All!

Master student Srilekha Geda got a paper "Density-Preserving Heterogeneous Graph Sparsification for Representation Learning" accepted in the ICLR'24.

Thrilled to announce that I have recently received a research grant of $372,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish an REU Site at UNC Greensboro as a PI [Award]. The funds will provide 8-week paid summer research opportunity in the foundations of graph machine learning and network analysis and their concrete applications in real-life networks.

Undergraduate researcher Eli Stafford's paper "Improved Sourcewise Roundtrip Spanners with Constant Stretch" accepted and to appear in the 29th International Computing and Combinatorics Conference (COCOON 2023). Congratulations, Eli!

One paper accepted in the 26th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI 2023).

Two papers accepted in the IEEE International Conference on Web Services (ICWS'23) and the 19th International Conference on Advanced Data Mining and Applications (ADMA'23).

A paper entitiled "Communication-Efficient Distributed Graph Clustering and Sparsification under Duplication Models" accepted in the 13th International Symposium on Algorithms and Complexity (CIAC 2023).

Graduate student Chandan published a paper "Heterogeneous Graph Sparsification for Efficient Representation Learning" in the IEEE BIBM 2022 Workshop. Congratulations, Chandan!

Received the Jeffry D. Madura Memorial Graphics Prize for our paper OctSurf published in JMGM.

Serve as a PC Member in ICML'22, NeurIPS'22, AAAI'23, and IJCAI'23.

A paper entitled "MVLevelDB: Using Log-Structured Tree to Support Temporal Queries in IoT" is accepted and to appear in the IEEE Internet of Things (IoT) Journal.

A paper entitled "A Fast Algorithm for Source-Wise Round-Trip Spanners" is accepted and to appear in Theoretical Computer Science.

A paper entitled "Spectral Vertex Sparsifiers and Pair-Wise Spanners over Distributed Graphs" is accepted and to appear in ICML'21.

A paper entitled "Communication Efficient Distributed Hypergraph Clustering" is accepted and to appear in SIGIR'21.

Dr. Zhu received a UNCG Faculty First Award for his proposal, "Pairwise Graph Sparsification Algorithms for Big Data Network Analytics". Thank you very much for the generous support from UNCG!

A paper entitled "OctSurf: Efficient Hierarchical Voxel-based Molecular Surface Representation for Protein-Ligand Affinity Prediction" is accepted and to appear in Journal of Molecular Graphics and Modelling.

Serve as a Senior PC Member in IJCAI'21.

Our paper accepted by AAAI'21.

A paper entitled "Asynchronous Parallel Stochastic Quasi-Newton Methods" is accepted and to appear in Parallel Computing.

A paper entitled "Benchmark on Indexing Algorithms for Accelerating Molecular Similarity Search" is accepted and to appear in the premier Chemoinformatics journal, Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling.

  • Selected Publications: In publications marked with '*', authors are ordered alphabetically according to the convention in the theory community.

    • Jesse Campbell and Chunjiang Zhu. Differentially Private Counting Queries on Approximate Shortest Paths. Accepted and to appear in the 17th International Conference on Combinatorial Optimization and Applications (COCOA 2024).

    • Mingcong Shi, Chunjiang Zhu, Detian Zhang, Shiting Wen and Qing Li. Multi-Granularity History and Entity Similarity Learning for Temporal Knowledge Graph Reasoning. Accepted and to appear in EMNLP 2024.

    • Jiyuan Liu, Hegang Chen, Chunjiang Zhu and Yanghui Rao. Unsupervised Hierarchical Topic Modeling via Anchor Word Clustering and Path Guidance. Accepted and to appear in EMNLP 2024 Findings.

    • Kam-Yiu Lam, Xiaofei Zhao, Chunjiang Zhu and Tei-Wei Kuo. MVLevelDB+: Meeting Relative Consistency Requirements of Temporal Queries in Sensor Streams Databases. To appear in ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems, 2024.

    • Srilekha Geda and Chunjiang Zhu. Density-Preserving Heterogeneous Graph Sparsification for Representation Learning. Tiny Papers @ ICLR 2024. [pdf]

    • Eli Stafford and Chunjiang Zhu. Improved Sourcewise Roundtrip Spanners with Constant Stretch. The 29th International Computing and Combinatorics Conference (COCOON 2023). [pdf]

    • Xunlian Luo, Chunjiang Zhu, Detian Zhang, and Qing Li. Dynamic Graph Convolutional Network with Attention Fusion for Traffic Flow Prediction. The 26th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI 2023). [pdf]

    • Haiyang Liu, Chunjiang Zhu, Detian Zhang, and Qing Li. Attention-based Spatial-Temporal Graph Convolutional Recurrent Networks for Traffic Forecasting. The 19th International Conference on Advanced Data Mining and Applications (ADMA 2023). [pdf]

    • Detian Zhang, Lun Jin, Chunjiang Zhu, and Qing Li. Efficient Optimal Pick-up and Drop-off Point Recommendation for Ride-hailing Services. IEEE International Conference on Web Services (ICWS 2023). [pdf]

    • Chun Jiang Zhu. Communication-Efficient Distributed Graph Clustering and Sparsification under Duplication Models. The 13th International Symposium on Algorithms and Complexity (CIAC 2023). [pdf]

    • Chandan Chunduru, Chun Jiang Zhu, Blake Gains and Jinbo Bi. Heterogeneous Graph Sparsification for Efficient Representation Learning. Workshops at IEEE BIBM'22. [pdf]

    • Xiaofei Zhao, Kam-Yiu Lam, Chun Jiang Zhu, Chi-Yin Chow and Tei-Wei Kuo. MVLevelDB: Using Log-Structured Tree to Support Temporal Queries in IoT. The IEEE Internet of Things (IoT) Journal, 2022. [pdf]

    • Chun Jiang Zhu, Song Han and Kam-Yiu Lam. A Fast Algorithm for Source-Wise Round-Trip Spanners. Theoretical Computer Science (TCS), 876, 34-44, 2021. [pdf]

    • Chun Jiang Zhu, Qinqing Liu and Jinbo Bi. Spectral Vertex Sparsifiers and Pair-Wise Spanners over Distributed Graphs. ICML'21. [pdf]

    • Chun Jiang Zhu, Qinqing Liu and Jinbo Bi. Communication Efficient Distributed Hypergraph Clustering. SIGIR'21. [pdf]

    • Qinqing Liu, Peng-Shuai Wang, Chun Jiang Zhu, Blake Gaines, Tan Zhu, Jinbo Bi and Minghu Song. OctSurf: Efficient Hierarchical Voxel-based Molecular Surface Representation for Protein-Ligand Affinity Prediction. Journal of Molecular Graphics and Modelling, 105, 107865, 2021. [pdf]

    • Tan Zhu, Guannan Liang, Chun Jiang Zhu, Haining Li and Jinbo Bi. An Efficient Algorithm for Deep Stochastic Contextual Bandits. AAAI'21. [arXiv]

    • Qianqian Tong, Guannan Liang, Xingyu Cai, Chun Jiang Zhu and Jinbo Bi. Asynchronous Parallel Stochastic Quasi-Newton Methods. Parallel Computing, 101, 102721, 2021. [arXiv]

    • Chun Jiang Zhu, Minghu Song, Qinqing Liu, Chloe Becquey and Jinbo Bi. Benchmark on Indexing Algorithms for Accelerating Molecular Similarity Search. Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling (JCIM), 60, 12, 6167–6184, 2020. [pdf]

    • Guannan Liang, Qianqian Tong, Chun Jiang Zhu and Jinbo Bi. An Effective Hard Thresholding Method based on Stochastic Variance Reduction for Nonconvex Sparse Learning. AAAI'20. [pdf]

    • Chun Jiang Zhu, Tan Zhu, Haining Li, Jinbo Bi and Minghu Song. Accelerating Large-Scale Molecular Similarity Search through Exploiting High Performance Computing. BIBM'19. [pdf]

    • Chun Jiang Zhu, Sabine Storandt, Kam-Yiu Lam, Song Han and Jinbo Bi. Improved Dynamic Graph Learning through Fault-Tolerant Sparsification. ICML'19. [pdf]

    • Chun Jiang Zhu, Kam-Yiu Lam, Joseph Kee Yin Ng and Jinbo Bi. On the VC-Dimension of Unique Round-Trip Shortest Path Systems. Information Processing Letters (IPL), 145:1-5, 2019. [pdf]

    • Chun Jiang Zhu, Tan Zhu, Kam-Yiu Lam, Song Han and Jinbo Bi. Communication-Optimal Distributed Dynamic Graph Clustering. AAAI'19. [arXiv] [pdf]

    • * Moritz Beck, Kam-Yiu Lam, Joseph Kee Yin Ng, Sabine Storandt and Chun Jiang Zhu. Concatenated k-Path Covers. ALENEX'19. [pdf]

    • Chun Jiang Zhu and Kam-Yiu Lam. Deterministic Improved Round-trip Spanners. Information Processing Letters (IPL), 129:57-60, 2018. [pdf]

    • Chung Keung Poon (equal contribution), Chun Jiang Zhu (equal contribution) and Kam-Yiu Lam. Energy-efficient Air-indices for Shortest Path and Distance Queries on Road Networks. Information Systems, 72:182-198, 2017. [pdf]

    • Chun Jiang Zhu and Kam-Yiu Lam. Source-wise Round-trip Spanners. Information Processing Letters (IPL), 124(C):42-45, 2017. [pdf]

    • Chun Jiang Zhu, Kam-Yiu Lam and Song Han. Approximate Path Searching for Supporting Shortest Path Queries on Road Networks. Information Sciences, 325:409-428, 2015. [pdf]

    • Chun Jiang Zhu, Kam-Yiu Lam, Reynold C.K. Cheng and Chung Keung Poon. On Using Broadcast Index for Efficient Execution of Shortest Path Continuous Queries. Information Systems, 49(C):142-162, 2015. [pdf]

    • Chun Jiang Zhu, Kam-Yiu Lam, Yuan-Hao Chang and Joseph Kee Yin Ng. Linked Block-based Multiversion B-Tree Index for PCM-based Embedded Databases. Journal of Systems Architecture, 61(9):383-397, 2015. [pdf]

    • Kam-Yiu Lam, Chun Jiang Zhu, Yuan-Hao Chang, Jen-Wei Hiseh, Po-Chun Huang, Chung Keung Poon and Jiantao Wang. Garbage Collection of Multi-version Indexed Data on Flash Memory. Journal of Systems Architecture, 60(8):630-643, 2014. [pdf]

    • Kam-Yiu Lam, Jiantao Wang, Joseph Kee-Yin Ng, Song Han, Limei Zheng, Calvin Ho Chuen Kam and Chun Jiang Zhu. SmartMood: Towards Pervasive Mood Tracking and Analysis for Manic Episode Detection. IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems, 45(1):126-131, 2014. [pdf]

    • Kam-Yiu Lam, Jiantao Wang, Yuan-Hao Chang, Jen-Wei Hiseh, Po-Chun Huang, Chung Keung Poon and Chun Jiang Zhu. Garbage Collection for Multi-version Index on Flash Memory. DATE'14. [pdf]

    • * Chung Keung Poon and Chun Jiang Zhu. Energy-efficient Air-indices for Distance Queries on Road Networks. SIGSPATIAL'12. [pdf]

  • Research Students: I am fortunate to have worked with these excellent students.

    • Xiuwen Nong (Ph.D. Student)

    • Chenhao Tang (Ph.D. Student, Co-advised with Prof. Jianjun Wei)

    • Srilekha Geda (M.S. Student, Graduated in 2023)

    • Chandan Chunduru (M.S. Student, Graduated in 2022)

    • Chandra Malgari (M.S. Student, Graduated in 2022)

    • Eli Stafford (Undergraduate, Graduated in 2024)

    • Dominic Turmenne (Undergraduate, Graduated in 2022)

    • Andrew Kawabata (Undergraduate, Graduated in 2021)

    • Nadia Doudou (Undergraduate, Graduated in 2021)


  • Teaching:

    • Instructor: CSC350(Fall, 22): Foundations of Computer Science II; CSC429/629(Spring 2021 - Fall 2023): Artificial Intelligence; CSC452/652(Fall, 21): Theory of Computation; CSC730(Fall 2023): Advanced Topics in AI, UNC Greensboro

    • Tutorial Instructor: CS6492 (Fall, 13, Fall, 12): Advanced Database Systems, City University of Hong Kong

    • Teaching Assistant: CS6223 (Spring, 14): Distributed System; CS6492 (Fall, 13, Fall, 12): Advanced Database Systems; CS2311 (Spring, 13, Spring, 12): Computer Programming; CS3334 (Fall, 11): Data Structures, City University of Hong Kong


  • Professional Services:

    • Senior Program Committee Member: IJCAI 2021

    • Program Committee Member: NeurIPS 2020-2023; ICML 2020-2023; AAAI 2020-2021, 2023; IJCAI 2022-2023; BIBM 2019-2020

    • Reviewer: IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering; IEEE Transactions on Computers; ICALP'20; KDD'19; NIPS'18; GLOBECOM'18; ICDE'15


Hobbies: Music (Concert) and Sport (Basketball).

Last Modified: 10/27/2020