Recruiting

For PhD applicants (3-5 open positions in Year 2025)

CS/math/EE/physics background is preferred but not necessary. You are welcome to email me and please specify your interest in research and your interest in working with me.

I am actively looking for self-motivated students interested in data science and machine learning, especially in graph neural networks, information retrieval, recommender systems, time series etc.

  1. Graph Neural Networks
    • Text-attributed graph and multimodal graph with (M)LLMs
    • Graph foundation models
    • Robustness and scalability of graph learning (OOD, test-time, condensation, graph-MLP distillation etc.)
  2. Recommendations and Information Retrieval
    • RL for recommendations
    • Rich side-information in recommendations with (M)LLMs
    • Domain-specific IR and document understanding with LLMs
  3. Time Series
    • Foundation models for time series
    • LLMs for time series
    • Time series for cross-disciplinary applications

What I will provide:

  1. Fully funded position (tuition waive, living stipend of AUD $35k per year, easy to live in Brisbane) with international conference travel.
  2. Nice and friendly environment.
  3. Freedom to choose topics, or I will provide ideas. Freedom to choose self-direction or close-supervision. I value self-motivation. (Tips: PhD study in Aus is short, typically taking 3-4 years. Thus pace and progress is important to finish PhD in a successful style.)
  4. Academic training, including research vision, presentation, academic writing, collaborations, management, soft skills, etc.
  5. Strong support for collaborations, internships, awards, and career development.

Why Data Science@UQ:

  1. The University of Queensland is one of Go8 members in Australia, consistently ranked top 50 among the world’s top universities (US News, Times, ARWU etc.).
  2. The Data Science group is rapidly growing, with 4 ARC Future Fellows and 9 ARC DECRA Fellows in faculty members.
  3. ~80 A100/H100 GPU cards in cluster.
  4. UQ requires PhD students to have at least one co-advisor. I highly value the diverse research direction, student’s will and freedom in co-advisor choice.
  5. One of the most beautiful campuses in the world/Australia, but really close to the city center. Sufficient facilities for various sports and cultural activities.
  6. The PhD study in Aus is short, typically taking 3-4 years, which is especially suitable for students aiming for industry or already completed a master degree. (Also very suitable for pursuing faculty job. Our group has many excellent PhDs serving as faculty members in Australia, Mainland China, HK, Europe.) (Bachelor with a great potential but without any experience is very welcome as well, yet the challenge should be evaluated in advance.)

Why Brisbane, Queensland:

  1. Brisbane is a VERY SAFE, large, modern and convenient city, with direct flights to many major cities in the world.
  2. The campus is located in St Lucia suburb, which is just 15min bus away from city center. Yes, Brisbane has a fast, punctual, complete, safe and operating-until-late-night public transport system, with bus, train, light rail, ferries, metro.
  3. Diverse, vibrant, inclusive and friendly international culture, including sports, music, food, etc.
  4. Beach, coastline, island, one of the best ocean scenes in Australia and the world.
  5. Friendly international immigrant/VISA support for CS PhDs.

Welcome to email me by “r.last-name-lower-case@uq.edu.au”:

  1. Email topic: “UQ CS PhD Application by Your Name”.
  2. Please attach your CV, transcripts and a representative writing sample (paper/preprint) if any.
  3. Please customize your email according to my research interest and be specific about your research interest, in several sentence.