Zhen Liu

Assistant Professor · School of Data Science

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen

Zhen Liu

I received my PhD in computer science from Mila and Université de Montréal, advised by Liam Paull and Yoshua Bengio. During my PhD, I visited the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, working with Michael J. Black and Bernhard Schölkopf. I received my M.S. and B.S. in computer science from Georgia Tech.

Join the group. I welcome prospective students, visiting students, and RAs with a strong background and interest in agentic reasoning, 3D generation, and/or foundation models. How to apply.

I study agents, representations, and learning methods that enable machines to re-create and simulate our world. I seek simple, effective methods that generalize across domains.

  • Agentic 3D reasoning and generation. Agents that understand and create physically sound, functional, simulatable, and manufacturable 3D assets and scenes.
  • Spatial and physical intelligence. Understanding and generating 3D environments and learning to interact with the physical world.
  • Foundation model adaptation. Efficient post-training and guidance for foundation and domain-specific models.

I also explore general agent reasoning and generative models.

Related projects
Agentic 3D reasoning and generation
BesiegeField, ChatGarment, SGP-Bench
Spatial and physical intelligence
PAct, MeshDiffusion, G-Shell, EVA
Foundation model adaptation
DrPO, VGG-Flow, PGD, Nabla-GFlowNet, EVA, ASAP, Nabla-R2D3

* Equal contribution   ·   Corresponding author

PhD students

MPhil students

  • Jinming Ren

Visiting students & research assistants

  • Yaocheng GuoMaster · CUHK-Shenzhen
  • Xiangwei ShenMaster · CUHK-Shenzhen
  • Zihao ZhouUndergraduate · Xi’an Jiaotong University
  • Zhuoran XiaUndergraduate · CUHK-Shenzhen
  • Jinlong YangUndergraduate · Sichuan University
  • Zigeng XuUndergraduate · CUHK-Shenzhen

Alumni

  • Qingming LiuMPhil, CUHK-Shenzhen → PhD, HKUST
  • Zhou JiangUndergraduate, SCUT → PhD, CUHK-Shenzhen
  • Yuping ZhengUndergraduate, CUHK-Shenzhen → PhD, University of Virginia
  • Bao LiMaster, Chinese Academy of Sciences, with Yuliang Xiu → PhD, Chinese Academy of Sciences
CSC6133Deep Learning for Computer VisionSpring 2026
DDA4220Deep Learning and ApplicationsFall 2025
AIR5101Generative AISpring 2025

School of Data Science
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen

Join the group

Students interested in Spring 2027 or Fall 2027 admission are welcome to contact me in advance, including for potential RA collaboration. I also welcome visiting students and research assistants with a strong background and interest in agentic reasoning, 3D generation, and/or foundation models.

At CUHK-Shenzhen: email me your resume and relevant experience.

At another institution: complete the application form, then send me an email.

Due to the volume of enquiries, I may not be able to reply to every email.