About

Hongzong Li is currently a Professor with the School of Computer Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China. From 2025 to 2026, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Generative AI Research and Development Center, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, working with Prof. Dapeng Oliver Wu. He received the Ph.D. degree in computer science from the City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, in 2024, under the supervision of Prof. Jun Wang, and the B.E. degree in automation from Northeastern University, Shenyang, China, in 2020.

His research interests include optimization, computational intelligence, fuzzy systems, robotics, and autonomous systems.

CV / 中文简历

News

• Jun 2026
  Started my new position as a Professor at Northwestern Polytechnical University.
• Jun 2026
  "Compressed Sensing via Sequential Majorization-Minimization and Collaborative Neurodynamic Optimization" was accepted by IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems. (first author)
• Feb 2026
  "The Matthew Effect of AI Programming Assistants: A Hidden Bias in Software Evolution" was accepted by ICLR 2026. (corresponding author)
• Jan 2026
  "Adversary-Free Counterfactual Prediction via Information-Regularized Representations" was accepted by AISTATS 2026. (corresponding author)
• Jan 2026
  "TopoBind: Multi-Modal Prediction of Antibody-Antigen Binding Free Energy via Sequence Embeddings and Structural Topology" was accepted by ICASSP 2026. (co-first author)
• Sep 2025
  The paper on neurodynamics-driven constrained binary matrix factorization was accepted by IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems. (first author)
• Oct 2025
  Received the IEEE NTCI2025 Best Paper Award.
• Nov 2024
  I successfully defended my Ph.D. dissertation.
• May 2024
  "A Collaborative Neurodynamic Algorithm for Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization" was accepted by IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence. (first author)
• Apr 2024
  "Binary Matrix Factorization via Collaborative Neurodynamic Optimization" was accepted by Neural Networks. (first author)
• Sep 2023
  "From Soft Clustering to Hard Clustering: A Collaborative Annealing Fuzzy c-means Algorithm" was accepted by IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems. (first author)
• Dec 2022
  "CAPKM++ 2.0: An Upgraded Version of the Collaborative Annealing Power K-means++ Clustering Algorithm" was accepted by Knowledge-Based Systems. (first author)
• Oct 2022
  "Capacitated Clustering via Majorization-Minimization and Collaborative Neurodynamic Optimization" was accepted by IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems. (first author)
• May 2022
  "Collaborative Annealing Power K-means++ Clustering" was accepted by Knowledge-Based Systems. (first author)

Employment

Education

Selected Publications

1. From Soft Clustering to Hard Clustering: A Collaborative Annealing Fuzzy c-means Algorithm

   H. Li and J. Wang. IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, 32:1181-1194, 2024. Link

2. Compressed Sensing via Sequential Majorization-Minimization and Collaborative Neurodynamic Optimization

   H. Li, J. Wang, H. Che, and D. Wu. IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, accepted, 2026.

3. Capacitated Clustering via Majorization-Minimization and Collaborative Neurodynamic Optimization

   H. Li and J. Wang. IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, 35:6679-6692, 2024. Link

4. Machine-Cell and Part-Family Formation via Neurodynamics-Driven Constrained Binary Matrix Factorization

   H. Li and J. Wang. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems, 55:9456-9467, 2026.

5. Binary Matrix Factorization via Collaborative Neurodynamic Optimization

   H. Li, J. Wang, N. Zhang, and W. Zhang. Neural Networks, 176:106348, 2024. Link

6. CAPKM++ 2.0: An Upgraded Version of the Collaborative Annealing Power K-means++ Clustering Algorithm

   H. Li and J. Wang. Knowledge-Based Systems, 262:110241, 2023. Link

7. Collaborative Annealing Power K-means++ Clustering

   H. Li and J. Wang. Knowledge-Based Systems, 255:109593, 2022. Link

8. A Collaborative Neurodynamic Algorithm for Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization

   H. Li and J. Wang. IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence, 9(1):228-239, 2025. Link

9. The Matthew Effect of AI Programming Assistants: A Hidden Bias in Software Evolution

   F. Gu, Z. Liang, J. Ma, and H. Li✉️. International Conference on Learning Representations, 2026. (Corresponding author) Link

10. Adversary-Free Counterfactual Prediction via Information-Regularized Representations

    S. Tang, R. Feng, S. Zhuang, Y. Zhang, and H. Li✉️. International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics, 2026. (Corresponding author) Link

Honors and Awards

• CityU Outstanding Academic Performance Award, 2024 and 2023
• IEEE NTCI2025 Best Paper Award
• CityU Postgraduate Studentship and Institutional Research Tuition Scholarship
• Outstanding Graduate of Liaoning Province, 2020
• Baosteel Special Prize for Outstanding Students, 2019
• Special Prize, 7th China TRIZ Cup Undergraduate Innovation Method Competition
• First Prize, 2018 TI Cup Electronic Design Competition for Undergraduate Students in Liaoning Province

Academic Service

Publication Chair and Committee Member

• The 20th International Symposium on Neural Networks (ISNN 2026), Hanzhong, China
• The 17th International Conference on Advanced Computational Intelligence (ICACI 2025), Bath, UK

Session Chair and Committee Member

• The 13th International Conference on Information Science and Technology (ICIST 2023), Cairo, Egypt

Reviewer

• IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence
• IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems
• IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering
• IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics
• IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics
• IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems
• Neural Networks
• Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering
• Signal Processing
• Journal of Low Frequency Noise, Vibration & Active Control
• Science China Technological Sciences
• Scientific Reports
• Quantum Information Processing
• Cloud Computing and Data Science
• ICIST 2022, ICIST 2024, ICICIP 2024, ISNN 2024, ICCA 2024
• NeurIPS 2024, AAAI 2025, ICLR 2025, AISTATS 2025, ICML 2025, AAAI 2026, AISTATS 2026

Mentoring and Teaching

Mentoring

• Fei Gu, M.S. student, Department of Computer Science, City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan), Jul 2025 - Feb 2026. Topic: the impact of vibe coding on software ecosystems; first-author paper accepted by ICLR 2026.
• Ciyuan Yu, M.S. student, Department of Computer Science, City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan), Jul 2025 - Dec 2025. Topic: topology-based antibody-antigen binding prediction; first-author paper accepted by ICASSP 2026.
• Ran Zhang, M.S. student, Department of Data Science, City University of Hong Kong, Jun 2021 - Dec 2021. Topic: portfolio management and index tracking; first-author paper accepted by ICICIP 2021.
• Xuntan Ye, undergraduate student, Department of Computer Science, City University of Hong Kong, Jan 2023 - Dec 2023. Topic: classification methods for HVAC system fault diagnosis; first-author paper accepted by ICIST 2023.

Teaching

• Spring 2025: Tutorial Teacher, CS5486 Intelligent Systems
• Fall 2024: Teaching Assistant, CS5487 Machine Learning: Principles and Practice
• Spring 2024: Teaching Assistant, CS4386 AI Game Programming
• Fall 2023: Teaching Assistant, CS5489 Machine Learning: Algorithms and Applications
• Fall 2022: Tutorial Teacher, CS5486 Intelligent Systems
• Spring 2023: Teaching Assistant, CS4386 AI Game Programming
• Spring 2022 and Fall 2022: Teaching Assistant, GE2313 Global IT Case Studies
• Spring 2021: Teaching Assistant, CS1302 Introduction to Computer Programming