Xianzhong Ding
I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). I received my Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of California, Merced (UCM), under the guidance of Prof. Wan Du and Prof. Alberto Cerpa. My research focuses on applying deep learning to address real-world resource scheduling and optimization challenges, such as energy optimization in smart buildings, water resource optimization in agriculture, and computing resource scheduling in data centers. My work has been featured in top-tier conferences and journals, including EuroSys, IPSN, LCTES, DAC, BuildSys, ICLR, IOT-J, TASE, and TOSN.
For more information, please click here for the Curriculum Vitae (CV)
[Google Scholar] [LinkedIn] [Email]
Research Interests
- ML for System
- Large Language Models
- Deep Reinforcement Learning
- Resource Optimization/Scheduling
News
- 2025/02 - Invited as Guest Editor for IoT 2025.
- 2025/02 - One paper got accepted to IEEE IoT-J 2025.
- 2025/01 - Won the Best Paper Award at HICSS 2025.
- 2024/12 - One paper got accepted to EuroSys 2025.
Selected Publications (* denotes equal contribution)
- [IoT-J'25]: Xianzhong Ding*, Zhiyu An*, Arya Rathee, Wan Du, "A Safe and Data-efficient Model-based Reinforcement Learning System for HVAC Control", IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 2025. Paper
- [EuroSys'25]: Xianzhong Ding*, Yunkai Zhang*, Binbin Chen, Donghao Ying, Tieying Zhang, Jianjun Chen, Lei Zhang, Alberto Cerpa, Wan Du, "Towards VM Rescheduling Optimization Through Deep Reinforcement Learning", Proceedings of the Twentieth European Conference on Computer Systems. Rotterdam, April 2025. Website · Paper · Poster · Code · (44/381=11.54%)
- [HICSS'25]: Xianzhong Ding, Wanshi Hong, Zhiyu An, Bin Wang, Wan Du, "Deepot: Parking Lot Identification Using Low-Resolution Satellite Imagery", The 58th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). Hawaii, January 2025. Paper · Best Paper Award · (12/736=1.63%)
- [TOSN'24]: Xianzhong Ding, Wan Du, "Optimizing Irrigation Efficiency Using Deep Reinforcement Learning in the Field", ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks. July 2024. Paper
- [TASE'24]: Xianzhong Ding, Alberto Cerpa, Wan Du, "Multi-zone HVAC Control with Model-based Deep Reinforcement Learning", IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering. June 2024. Paper
- [DAC'24]: Zhiyu An, Xianzhong Ding, Wan Du, "Go Beyond Black-box Policies: Rethinking the Design of Learning Agent for Interpretable and Verifiable HVAC Control", The 61st ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference. February 2024. Paper · Code · Slides · Video · Poster
- [ICLR'24]: Zhiyu An, Xianzhong Ding, Wan Du, "Reward Bound for Behavioral Guarantee of Model-Based Planning Agents", Tiny Paper Track, International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) 2024. Paper · OpenReview
- [TOSN'24]: Xianzhong Ding, Alberto Cerpa, Wan Du, "Exploring Deep Reinforcement Learning for Holistic Smart Building Control", ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks. 2024. Paper
- [MLSys'23]: Xianzhong Ding, Yunkai Zhang, Binbin Chen, Donghao Ying, Tieying Zhang, Jianjun Chen, Lei Zhang, Alberto Cerpa, Wan Du, "Reinforcement Learning for Virtual Machines Rescheduling in Cloud Data Centers", Workshop on ML for Systems at NeurIPS. New Orleans, December 2023. Paper · OpenReview · Video · Code · Spotlight Presentation
- [SC-W'23]: Xianzhong Ding, Le Chen, Murali Emani, Chunhua Liao, Pei-Hung Lin, Tristan Vanderbruggen, Zhen Xie, Alberto Cerpa, Wan Du, "HPC-GPT: Integrating Large Language Model for High-Performance Computing", Workshops of The International Conference on High Performance Computing, Network, Storage, and Analysis. 2023. Paper · Code · Dataset
- [BuildSys'23]: Zhiyu An, Xianzhong Ding, Arya Rathee, Wan Du, "CLUE: Safe Model-Based RL HVAC Control Using Epistemic Uncertainty Estimation", ACM International Conference on Systems for Energy-Efficient Buildings, Cities, and Transportation. 2023. Paper · Code · Slides (8 mins) · Slides (30 mins) · Best Paper Runner-Up Award
- [e-Energy'23]: Hamid Rajabi, Zhizhang Hu, Xianzhong Ding, Shijia Pan, Wan Du, Alberto Cerpa, "MODES: Multi-sensor Occupancy Data-driven Estimation System for Smart Buildings", ACM International Conference on Future Energy Systems. 2022. Paper
- [IPSN'22]: Xianzhong Ding, Wan Du, "DRLIC: Deep Reinforcement Learning for Irrigation Control", The International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks. 2022. Paper
- [BuildSys'20]: Xianzhong Ding, Wan Du, Alberto Cerpa, "MB²C: Model-Based Deep Reinforcement Learning for Multi-zone Building Control", ACM International Conference on Systems for Energy-Efficient Buildings, Cities, and Transportation. 2020. Paper · Video · Best Paper Runner-Up Award · Best Presentation Award
- [ICDCS'20]: Miaomiao Liu, Xianzhong Ding, Wan Du, "Continuous, Real-Time Object Detection on Mobile Devices without Offloading", IEEE 40th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems. 2020. Paper · Video
- [BuildSys'19]: Xianzhong Ding, Wan Du, Alberto Cerpa, "OCTOPUS: Deep Reinforcement Learning for Holistic Smart Building Control", ACM International Conference on Systems for Energy-Efficient Buildings, Cities, and Transportation. 2019. Paper
- [LCTES'17]: Xianzhong Ding, Zhiyong Zhang, Zhiping Jia et al., "Unified nvTCAM and sTCAM Architecture for Improving Packet Matching Performance", 25th ACM SIGPLAN/SIGBED International Conference on Languages, Compilers, and Tools for Embedded Systems. 2017. Paper
Professional Activities
- Guest Editor: IoT'25.
- Program Committee: ATC'25, ATC'24.
- Conference Reviewer: ICML'25, AISTATS'24, ICLR'24, NeurIPS'24, SenSys'23, ICDCS'22, IoTDI'21, INFOCOM'21, Globecom'21, Buildsys'20, ICDCS'20, MASS'20, MSN'19.
- Journal Reviewer: Transactions on Network Science and Engineering '24, IEEE Internet of Things Journal '24, ACM Transactions on Internet of Things'24, Applied Artificial Intelligence'24, IEEE Transactions on Sensor Networks '23, IEEE Internet of Things Journal '22.
- Artifact Evaluation Committee: OSDI'24, ATC'24, OSDI'23, ATC'23.
Honors and Awards
- Best Paper Award, HICSS-58, 2025.
- Top Reviewer at NeurIPS, 2024.
- Best Paper Runner-up Award, ACM BuildSys, 2023
- Bobcat Summer Fellowship, EECS, UC Merced, 2021.
- Best Paper Runner-Up Award at BuildSys, 2020.
- Best Presentation Award, ACM BuildSys, 2020.
- Bobcat Summer Fellowship, EECS, UC Merced, 2020.
- ACM SenSys 2019 NSF student travel grant, 2019.
- Bobcat Summer Fellowship, EECS, UC Merced, 2019.
- First level scholarship of Shandong University, 2017 - 2018.
- Third level scholarship for comprehensive performance, Shandong University, 2016 - 2017.
- Scholarship for outstanding academic performance, Shandong University, 2015 - 2016.
