A number of research positions are available for 2021 entry. Self-motivated, reliable, responsible and hardworking students able to work well both in a team environment as well as using own initiative are largely in KRistal's favor. Research enthusiasts and logic enthusiasts are particularly welcome.
Short Bio
I obtained my Ph.D. degree in computer science from The University of Manchester in 2017 (under the supervision of Prof. Renate A. Schmidt, best supervisor ever!), where in the same research group I acquired my first postdoctoral work experience. Right after this, I joined the Department of Computer Science at University of Oxford as a postdoctoral researcher, working on the EPSRC project "Proof-driven Query Planning", which involved the study of automata theory and database theory. Since May 2019 I have been working as an associate professor in the School of Artificial Intelligence at Nanjing University.
Research Interests
My research is situated in the realm of Artificial Intelligence (AI), with particular interest in logics for knowledge representation and automated reasoning. In AI, knowledge representation is the study of how beliefs, intentions, and value judgments of an intelligent agent can be expressed in a transparent, symbolic notation suitable for automated reasoning. Collectively, knowledge representation and automated reasoning are referred to as Knowledge Representation and Reasoning. I am currently working with description logics and description logic-based ontologies. Description logics have a long tradition in computer science and knowledge representation, being designed so that domain knowledge can be described and so that computers can reason about this knowledge. Description logics have recently gained significant momentum since they form the logical basis of widely used ontology languages such as Web Ontology Language (OWL).
Publications
An irregularly updated list of my publications is available online via a shiny DBLP database. Also, Google Scholar is so kind to maintain the metadata of my publications.
Teaching
- Object-Oriented Programming with Java (for first-year undergraduates, 2013 - 2015)
- Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence (for first-year undergraduates, 2014 - 2015)
- Fundamentals of Computation (for first-year undergraduates, 2016 - 2017)
- Fundamentals of Databases (for second-year undergraduates, 2013 - 2015)
- Software Engineering (for second-year undergraduates, 2014 - 2015)
- Logic and Modeling (for second-year undergraduates, 2015 - 2018)
- Automated Reasoning and Verification (for graduates, 2013 - 2017)
- Ontology Engineering for the Semantic Web (for graduates, 2013 - 2018)
- Data Engineering (for graduates, 2013 - 2018)
- Automated Planning and Reasoning (for graduates, 2019 - 2021)
- Knowledge Representation and Processing (for undergraduates & graduates, 2019 - 2020)
Research Projects
- 大规模医学本体上的语义差异追踪 (国家自然科学基金青年科学基金, 2021.1 - 2023.12)
- 基于遗忘算法的知识推理技术在SNOMED CT开发升级中的应用 (中央高校基本科研业务费国际合作专项资金, 2020.5 - 2022.4)
- 基于知识驱动的人工智能技术的探究 (中央高校基本科研业务费, 2020.3 - 2021.2)
- 开放网络知识计算中关于自动化构建知识库方法的探究 (南京留学人员科技创新项目拟择优资助, 2019.9 - 2022.8)
- 江苏省留学回国人员创新创业计划 (南京朴归信息科技有限公司, 2019.9 - 2022.8)
- WSN-070: 基于知识工程的新一代智能医疗系统开发与应用 (江苏省六大人才高峰计划, 2019.7 - 2022.6)
- EPSRC IAA 204: Advanced Reasoning Technologies for Medical Ontologies (英国工程与自然科学委员会, 2017.9 - 2018.4)
- EPSRC EP/M005852/1: Proof-driven Query Planning (英国工程与自然科学委员会, 2015.6 - 2020.12)
Research Students
The following is a tabular list of students whom I have had great pleasure to supervise:
| Full Name | Program | Enrollment | Graduation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xuan Wu (吴萱) | Ph.D. | 2020.9 | 2025.6 |
| Heng Zhang (张恒) | M.S. | 2019.9 | 2022.6 |
| Yuting Gao (高雨婷) | M.S. | 2020.9 | 2023.6 |
| Zhao Liu (刘昭) | M.S. | 2020.9 | 2023.6 |
| Yue Xiang (向粤) | M.S. | 2020.9 | 2023.6 |
| Shuni Xu (许书铌) | M.S. | 2020.9 | 2023.6 |
| Zhihao Yang (杨志豪) | M.S. | 2020.9 | 2023.6 |
| Yu Dong (董昱) | B.S. | 2018.9 | 2022.6 |
| Chang Lu (陆畅) | B.S. | 2018.9 | 2022.6 |
| Chengjia Wang (王成佳) | B.S. | 2018.9 | 2022.6 |
| Tianci Zhang (张恬慈) | B.S. | 2018.9 | 2022.6 |
| Ruiqing Zhao (赵瑞卿) | B.S. | 2018.9 | 2022.6 |
| Xinhao Zhu (朱鑫浩) | B.S. | 2018.9 | 2022.6 |
Info for Prospective Students
For the present within KRistal, in desperate need are students to undertake research on the topic of ontology learning from text, which is concerned with identifying terms, concepts, relations, and optionally axioms from textual information and using them to construct and maintain ontologies, based on the artistry of natural language processing, machine learning, data mining, and information retrieval. Hence, students with immense interest and strong footing in these areas are greatly preferred.
Students interested in pursuing a master's degree in the areas of logics, knowledge representation, automated reasoning, ontologies, ontology-based knowledge systems, and any topics within my area of expertise are welcome to have a chat with me about possible projects. Personally, I would prefer students to undertake a full-time program that includes a significant amount of time for academic growth, but is certainly rooted in a vocational subject chosen by the students.
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Yizheng Zhao (赵一铮)Associate ProfessorKnowledge Representation & Reasoning Group (KRistal) School of Artificial Intelligence National Key Laboratory for Novel Software Technology Nanjing University Research Fellow Shenzhen Research Institute of Nanjing University Address: Room A505, Siu Yat-Fu Building, Xianlin Campus, 163 Xianlin Avenue, Qixia District, Nanjing City, China Email: zhaoyz@nju.edu.cn |
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