cv

Curriculum Vitae of Xinyi Zhang. Download the PDF version.

Contact Information

Name ZHANG Xinyi
Professional Title Final-year PhD Candidate
Email csxyzhang@comp.hkbu.edu.hk
Phone +852-56027517
Location DLB 625G, 34 Renfrew Rd, HKBU, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong SAR
Website https://linekm.github.io

Professional Summary

Final-year PhD candidate in the Department of Computer Science at Hong Kong Baptist University, with experience in designing and implementing high-performance, secure database systems and distribution-aware data structures.

Experience

  • 2026 - Present

    Singapore

    Visiting Scholar
    Nanyang Technological University
    Hosted by Dr. Qichen Wang.
    • Working on “Learned Indexes for Query Optimization”, integrating learned index structures into structure-guided execution plans for acyclic queries.
  • 2021 - Present

    Hong Kong SAR

    PhD Candidate
    Hong Kong Baptist University
    Advised by Prof. Jianliang Xu.
    • Designed novel algorithms and indexes for relational and vector databases to support efficient and secure query processing in a wide range of systems.
    • Designed novel distribution-aware data structures to handle complex database workloads while ensuring robust performance.
    • Research resulted in publications at top-tier conferences.
  • 2020 - 2020

    Beijing, China

    Intern
    ByteDance
    • Optimized the inter-cluster communication for internal database clusters of ByteDance to enhance throughput and reduce latency.
  • 2019 - 2020

    Wuhan, China

    Researcher
    Huazhong University of Science and Technology
    • Designed a fast consensus algorithm for blockchain combining SDN, dPOS and PBFT consensus algorithms.
    • Built a practical blockchain system for ASTRI as an integrity-assured record for their public distributed database.

Education

  • 2021 - Present

    Hong Kong, China

    Ph.D.
    Hong Kong Baptist University
    Computer Science
    • Supervisor: Prof. Xu Jianliang
  • 2017 - 2021

    Wuhan, China

    B.Eng.
    Huazhong University of Science and Technology
    Electronics & Information Engineering

Awards

  • 2024
    VLDB Student Travel Award
    VLDB Endowment

  • 2024
    ACM SIGMOD Student Travel Award
    ACM

  • 2024
    RPg Research Performance Award
    Hong Kong Baptist University

  • 2022
    Excellent Teaching Assistant Performance Award
    Hong Kong Baptist University

  • 2018, 2021
    Academic Excellence Scholarship
    Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Publications

Skills

Programming (): Rust, C/C++, Golang, Python, LaTeX, Bash
Tools (): Docker, Vim, Git, Linux

Languages

English : Fluent
Chinese : Native speaker

Interests

Research Interests: Oblivious query processing for data federation and outsourcing cloud computing, Scalable secure query processing for vector databases based on Trusted Execution Environments, Robust updatable learned indexes under real-world workloads, Distributed vector database design

Projects

  • FedKNN: Secure Federated k-Nearest Neighbor Search (SIGMOD '24)

    A system for secure and privacy-preserving federated kNN search, achieving up to 4.8× efficiency improvement over SOTA by optimizing local computations with a distribution-aware algorithm.

    • Secure federated similarity search
    • Distribution-aware local computation
    • Up to 4.8× efficiency improvement over SOTA
  • HIRE: A Hybrid Learned Index for Robust and Efficient Performance (SIGMOD '26)

    A hybrid in-memory index combining learned predictions with traditional robustness, which reduces tail latency by 98% and improves throughput by 41.7× compared to SOTA approaches.

    • Hybrid learned + traditional index design
    • 98% tail-latency reduction
    • 41.7× throughput improvement
  • Privacy-Preserving Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search (Under Review)

    A secure ANN index structure within trusted execution environments, mitigating side-channel attacks by enforcing oblivious memory access patterns on proximity graph indexes. Achieves plaintext-level throughput with provable privacy guarantees via a distribution-aware oblivious access algorithm.

    • Oblivious proximity-graph access in TEE
    • Plaintext-level throughput with provable privacy
    • Distribution-aware oblivious algorithm
  • Authenticated Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search (Under Review)

    VIDA, a novel scheme for authenticated graph-based ANN search that leverages vector commitments and Inner Product Arguments to verify distance computations, drastically reducing the overall data transmission size. MeST, a proof aggregation mechanism, compresses the verification of multiple vectors into a single cryptographic proof. Up to 5.2× speedup in end-to-end latency and 99.3% reduction in data transfer time.

    • Vector commitments + Inner Product Arguments
    • MeST proof aggregation
    • Up to 5.2× end-to-end speedup; 99.3% data-transfer reduction

References

  • Prof. Xu Jianliang — Head & Chair Professor, Hong Kong Baptist University

  • Dr. Wang Qichen — Assistant Professor, Nanyang Technological University

  • Prof. Byron Choi — Associate Head & Professor, Hong Kong Baptist University