Zhi-Qi Cheng, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Computer Science & Systems

Multimodal Generative AI · Embodied Intelligence · Intelligent Transportation

Ex‑CMU, Google, Microsoft · Intel Ph.D. Fellowship · IBM Outstanding Student Scholarship

  • 📧 Email: zhiqics@uw.edu
  • ☎︎ Phone:  412‑623‑9121
  • 📍 Office: Milgard Hall 221.6

Students Supervised

  • Research culture: weekly reading groups, milestone‑based project plans, reproducible code & data release.
  • Career development: mock talks/interviews, statement reviews, and targeted introductions to collaborators.
  • Responsible mentoring: authorship transparency, inclusive feedback, and clear expectations.

Doctoral Students

Topics: multimodal foundation model, vision‑language agents and privacy‑preserving perception.

University of Washington

Carnegie Mellon University

  • Tingyao Hu (Ph.D., CMU; now @ Apple Research)
  • Yuxuan Zhou (RA @ CMU; Ph.D., MPI)
  • Changdae Oh (RA @ CMU; Ph.D., UW–Madison)
  • Hyesu Lim (RA @ CMU; Ph.D., KAIST‑AI)
  • Mingze Sun (RA @ CMU; Ph.D., Tsinghua)
  • Xudong Yan (RA @ CMU; Ph.D., CityU Macau)

Master's Students

Focus: research‑for‑practice—fast prototyping, ablations, and robust baselines for open‑world scenarios.

University of Washington

  • Sanjian Zhang
  • Guanyu Chen
  • Charlie LeWarne

Carnegie Mellon University

  • Siyao Li (now @ Amazon)
  • Heng Li · Xiwen Chen · Sean Chang · Joong Ho Choi · Yuran Wang

Other Institutions

  • Hanbing Liu (Tsinghua)
  • Yuzhi Hu (Boston U)
  • Bukun Ren (UC Berkeley)
  • Yuxiang Lin · Fan Zhang (Georgia Tech)
  • Shuyuan Tu (Fudan)
  • Minghan Li (SWJTU)
  • Zebang Cheng · Xiang Li · Jue Wang · Xiaolong Wang (SZTU)

Undergraduate Students

On‑ramp: reading seminars, small‑scope replications, and mentored first‑authorship opportunities when ready.

University of Washington

  • Masumi Yano
  • Johnny Garnica

Other Institutions

  • Yusen Hu (Imperial → MSR@CMU)
  • Aike Shi (Georgia Tech)
  • Wei Liu (U-Michigan)
  • Zekai Li (NUS)

High-School Mentoring

  • Jasmine Liu · Aimee Zhang · Susan Wang (MIT)
  • Zejia Shao (UIUC)
  • Yulun Wu (Harvey Mudd)
  • Chiyu Zhou (Imperial)
  • Qiyuan Gu (UChicago)

Emphasis on scientific thinking, data ethics, and clear communication through short, mentored projects.

Advisees won ISEF & Yau Science Awards; now at top universities.