Dr. Shufang Zhu

I am a Lecturer (Assistant Professor in US terms) at the Department of Computer Science, University of Liverpool. Additionally, I am an Associate Member of the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford. Prior to joining Liverpool, I was a Senior Research Associate at the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, working with Prof. Giuseppe De Giacomo on his Advanced ERC project WhiteMech. My expertise lies in the interdisciplinary research area of artificial intelligence (AI) and formal methods (FM), with a focus on automated planning and synthesis.

I received my Ph.D. degree in 2020, at East China Normal University (ECNU), Shanghai, China, under the supervision of Prof. Geguang Pu. During my Ph.D., I got the scholarship from Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) and studied as a visiting Ph.D. student (August 2016 to Feb 2018) at Rice University, under the supervision of Prof. Moshe Y. Vardi.

See my CV for more details.

I am continually seeking highly motivated PhD students who are interested in research. Currently, I have several funded PhD positions:

• A fully funded departmental PhD studentship (home students).
  • International applicants will need to cover the difference between home and international fees.
• A fully funded Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) studentship (home students)
  • A limited number of scholarships to meet the fee difference will be available to support outstanding international students.
• CSC-Liverpool scholarship, which usually has a deadline at the beginning of a year (Chinese students).

If you have other means of supporting your study, you are also welcome to get in touch.

Quick links to find me:

• Github
• Google Scholar
• DBLP

My Erdős number is at most 3 (via Moshe Y. Vardi -> Joel H. Spencer -> Paul Erdős).

Email: shufang.zhu(at)liverpool.ac.uk

Academic Appointment

• Lecturer, 2024 - present
  University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

• Senior Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2023 - 2024
  University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

• Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2020 - 2022
  Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy

Education

• Ph.D. in School of Software Engineering, 2014 - 2020
  East China Normal University, Shanghai, China (ECNU).

• B.Sc. in School of Software Engineering, 2010 - 2014
  East China Normal University, Shanghai, China (ECNU).

Teaching

• 2024: Game-Theoretic Approach to Planning and Synthesis
  Lecturer, European Summer School on Artificial Intelligence

• 2024: Foundations of Self-Programming Agents
  Class Tutor, Hilary Term, University of Oxford

• 2023: Game-Theoretic Approach to Planning and Synthesis
  Lecturer, European Summer School on Artificial Intelligence

• 2023: Foundations of Self-Programming Agents
  Class Tutor, Hilary Term, University of Oxford

• 2022: Game-Theoretic Approach to Planning and Synthesis
  Lecturer, Italian National PhD Program in Artificial Intelligence