team

Opening :blossom:

I am seeking multiple PhD students starting in Fall 2026 and Spring 2027. We will work on cutting-edge research topics, including:

  • Quantum Networking [Application / Methodology]

    • Quantum Network Optimization
    • Quantum Network Tomography
    • Quantum Machine Learning (theory)

  • Multi-Agent Learning [Methodology / Theory]

    • Multi-Agent Online/Reinforcement Learning
    • Multi-Agent System (include LLM/Agentic ones)

If you are interested, please email me (xuchuangw [@] gmail [dot] com) with the subject line: “Application for PhD in [Start Cycle]”. Kindly include

  • Research interests
  • CV
  • Transcripts

While I will make sure to read all inquiries, I apologize in advance if I am unable to respond to each one due to time constraints.

Mentoring :evergreen_tree:

note: bold means the mentored student is the first author, while I am typically the second or third.

UMass Amherst (with Prof. Don Towsley and Prof. Mohammad Hajiesmaili), CICS

  • Fatemeh Ghaffari (Ph.D. @ UMass Amherst with Prof. Hajiesmaili), 2024 - Present: L4DC’25, ICML’26 in submission, KDD’26 in submission
  • Amirmahdi Mirfakhar (Ph.D. @ UMass Amherst with Prof. Hajiesmaili), 2023 - Present: AAAI’25, ICML’26 in submission
  • Janice Y.Z. Chen (Ph.D. @ UMass Amherst with Prof. Towsley), 2022 - Present: QCNC’26, SIGMETRICS’25, AAAI’25, UAI’23, ICLR’23, AISTATS’23
  • Matheus Andrade (Ph.D. @ UMass Amherst with Prof. Towsley), 2023 - Present: QCNC’26, AAAI’25, npj QI in submission.
  • Anvi Gunjikar (Undergrad. @ UMass Amherst with Prof. Hajiesmaili), 2025-Present
  • Ezra R. Johnson (Undergrad. @ Caltech with Prof. Hajiesmaili), 2026 - Present
  • Richard Lin (Undergrad. @ UMass Amherst), 2026 - Present

Chinese University of Hong Kong (with Prof. John C.S. Lui), CSE

  • Maoli Liu (Ph.D. @ CUHK), 2023 - Present: INFOCOM’25, ICLR’25, INFOCOM’26
  • Xiangxiang Dai (Ph.D. @ CUHK), 2024 - Present: AAAI’26
  • Yu Jiang (Ph.D. in CSE @ CUHK), 2025 - Present:

City University of Hong Kong (with Prof. Jinhang Zuo), CS

  • Qirun Zeng (Ph.D. @ CityU), 2024-Present: ICML’25, ICML’26 in submission x 2

Nanjing University (with Prof. Lin Yang), SIST

  • Haoran Zhang (Ph.D. @ NJU), 2023 - Present: NeurIPS’25, UAI’25
  • Jingyuan Liu (Undergrad. @ NJU), 2023 - Present: ICML’26 in submission, KDD’26 in submission

Shanghai Jiao Tong University (with Prof. Shuai Li), John Hopcroft Center

  • Zichun Ye (Master @ SJTU), 2025 - Present: ICML’26 in submission
  • Runqi Wang (Undergrad.t @ SJTU), 2025 - Present: ICML’26 in submission