Zhaofan Zhang

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Hi, I’m Zhaofan! I am currently a PhD candidate in the Artificial Intelligence Thrust of the Information Hub at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), China, under the supervision of Prof. Hui Xiong and Prof. Sihong Xie. My current research interests include (distributional) reinforcement learning algorithms, uncertainty-robust navigation, and the identification of critical states and conservative policies. Prior to joining HKUST(GZ), I received the M.S. degree in Data Science from the State Key Laboratory of Internet of Things for Smart City, University of Macau, Macau, China, in 2024, under the supervision of Prof. Pengyang Wang. I received the B.S. degree in statistics from the School of Mathematics, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China, in 2021.

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news

Jun 17, 2026 One paper accepted to IROS 2026.
Apr 29, 2026 One paper accepted to IJCAI 2026.
Feb 05, 2024 Received PhD offer from HKUST-GZ.
Dec 09, 2023 One paper on human mobility modeling is accepted by AAAI’24. [PDF][Code]

projects

  1. Adaptive-Critical: Identifying Critical States for Risk-Sensitive Navigation via Distributional Reinforcement Learning
    Adaptive-Critical: Identifying Critical States for Risk-Sensitive Navigation via Distributional Reinforcement Learning
    Zhaofan Zhang, Sihong Xie†, Hui Xiong†
    IROS, 2026
    Adaptive-Critical, a state-dependent risk-sensitive framework that transcends fixed heuristics by integrating distributional criticality signals with sensory cues, enabling robust navigation under partial observability and environmental uncertainty.