Zhiyao Xie

Zhiyao Xie

Assistant Professor at HKUST, Ph.D. at Duke University, B.Eng. at CityU HK

Zhiyao Xie (谢知遥)

Assistant Professor
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)

Zhiyao Xie is an Assistant Professor in the ECE Department at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), where he joined in 2022 Fall. His research focuses on AI-assisted electronic design automation (EDA) and chip design methodologies. He completed his Ph.D. at Duke University in 2022 under the supervision of Prof. Yiran Chen and Prof. Hai (Helen) Li, following his B.Eng from CityU HK in 2017 with a full scholarship & first-class honours. During his Ph.D. studies, Zhiyao also worked as a research intern at leading IC and EDA companies, including NVIDIA, Arm, Cadence, and Synopsys, where he was fortunate to work with Dr. Haoxing Ren, Dr. Brucek Khailany, Dr. Xiaoqing Xu, Dr. Shidhartha Das, and Prof. Jiang Hu.

Zhiyao has received multiple prestigious awards, including the RGC HK Early Career Award 2023 (7 out of 525), ACM Outstanding Dissertation Award in EDA 2023 (1 awardee per year), EDAA Outstanding Dissertation Award 2023 (4 awardees per year), MICRO 2021 Best Paper Award (1st-author, 1 out of 430), ASP-DAC 2023 Best Paper Award (2 out of 328), WAIC Yufan Award (Brilliant Star) 2023, ACM SIGDA SRF 2022 Best Research Poster Award, and 4 more best paper nominations. He also received Faculty Teaching Excellence Appreciation Award 2023/24 for his computer architecture course. He has published 50+ refereed papers, more than half in top EDA venues (DAC, ICCAD, IEEE TCAD) and some others in top computer architecture venues (MICRO, ISCA, HPCA).

He served as the conference TPC Member/TPC Track Chair/Student Forum Chair of DAC, ICCAD, DATE, ASPDAC, MLCAD, LAD, ISEDA, GLSVLSI; the journal reviewer of IEEE TCAD, ACM TODAES (Distinguished Reviewer), IEEE TCAS-I, IEEE TVLSI, IEEE ESL, IEEE Design & Test, IEEE CAL, IEEE SPL, ACM JETC, ACM TECS, Springer JCST; and as the Chair of IEEE Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA) Hong Kong Chapter.

Selected Award & Honors

  • ASP-DAC 2025 Best Paper Nomination, 2025 (13 out of 537)
  • Faculty Teaching Excellence Appreciation Award, ECE Department, 2023/24
  • ACM/IEEE ISLPED 2024 Best Paper Nomination, 2024 (8 out of 167)
  • IEEE LAD 2024 Best Paper Nomination, 2024 (6 out of 80)
  • RGC HK Early Career Award, 2023 (7 out of 525 early-career faculties)
  • WAIC Yufan ‘‘Brilliant Star’’ Award, 2023 (Top 10 AI researchers under age of 35)
  • ACM Outstanding Dissertation Award in EDA, 2023 (1 awardee worldwide per year)
  • EDAA Outstanding Dissertation Award, 2023 (4 awardees worldwide per year)
  • ASP-DAC 2023 Best Paper Award, 2023 (2 out of 328)
  • ASP-DAC 2023 Best Paper Nomination, 2023 (11 out of 328)
  • ACM TODAES Distinguished Reviewer, 2022
  • ACM SIGDA SRF Best Research Poster Award, 2022
  • IEEE/ACM MICRO 2021 Best Paper Award, 2021 (1 out of 430)
  • ECE Ph.D. Fellowship, Duke University, 2018
  • Dean’s List for all 8 UG Semesters, CityU HK, 2013-2017
  • Outstanding Student Prize, CityU HK, 2016
  • Full Scholarship for Mainland Undergraduates, CityU HK, 2013-2017

Selected Government Research Grants

  • PC, “Intelligent and Agile Integrated Circuit Design Methodologies Based on Circuit Foundation Models,” Research Grants Council (RGC) Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) YCRG, 06/2025 – 05/2028, HK$ 3,537,000.
  • PI, “Register-Transfer Level Early Timing Prediction and Optimization by Machine Learning in Electronic Design Automation,” Research Grants Council (RGC) General Research Fund (GRF), 01/2025 – 12/2027, HK$ 1,121,111.
  • PI, “Reliable Machine Learning Techniques for Electronic Design Automation: Understanding Circuit Layouts from Data Perspective,” Research Grants Council (RGC) Early Career Scheme (ECS), 09/2023 – 08/2026, HK$ 1,156,155.
    (RGC Early Career Award 2023, only 7 awardees in HK)
  • PI, “Early-Design-Stage Power Estimation and Runtime On-Chip Power Monitoring for VLSI Design,” National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Young Scientists Fund (YSF), 01/2024 – 12/2026, HK$ 339,570.

Selected Research Directions

My lab explores ground-breaking data-driven EDA/AI methods to deliver better VLSI circuit design with lower NRE cost, less human effort, and shorter turnaround time. We view circuit as a special data type, then explore and utilize its unique data properties.

We are especially experienced in 1) early-stage circuit power evaluation, 2) early-stage circuit timing evaluation, 3) automated circuit generation, and 4) CPU prefetcher design.

    Please check my full publications list here

Meet Some of My Students

    The full list of our excellent group members is here

Ph.D. Student Recruitment

  • I am looking for motivated students to join my lab as Ph.D. students in HKUST!
    • We welcome students with both CS and EE background.
    • We only take students that meet at least one of following criteria: 1) strong algorithm and programming background; 2) strong deep learning background; 3) strong computer architecture background; 4) rich research experience with publications.
    • Learn more about ML for EDA in Chinese.
    • We support RA or Master only if you intend to continue with a PhD in our team.
  • Do not hesitate to email me (eezhiyao@ust.hk) if you are interested!
    • Please do excuse me for not being able to reply every email… Also please do not be discouraged if you do not receive a reply.
    • No need to waste time writing a long email, just drop me your CV with grade.
  • Why Joining Us?
    • Our research is highly cross-disciplinary. You are expected to master deep knowledge on programming, data structure and algorithm, machine learning, EDA, VLSI design, etc. I believe these directions are in a very high demand in job market nowadays.
    • HKUST is undoubtedly a top Asian university in science and engineering. Its world ranking was #34 in QS 2022, and #24 in QS 2022 Engineering & Technology.

News

  • [2025/06] Organized a 3-hour tutorial about “foundation AI model and its applications in EDA” at DAC’25. Speakers include Prof Ang Li, Dr Wei Wen, and myself.
  • [2025/06] 1 ISCA’25 paper (Prophet) presented, first-authored by Mengming.
  • [2025/06] 5 DAC’25 papers (NetTAG, AutoPower, ATLAS, SynCircuit, ELF) presented, all 5 first-authored by our students: Qijun, Wenkai, Wenji, Yao, Shang, and Dimi.
  • [2025/05] Organized and hosted a panel about “foundation AI model for EDA” at ISEDA’25. Speakers include Prof Qiang Xu, Prof Cheng Zhuo, Prof Huawei Li, Prof Fan Yang, and Dr Mingxuan Yuan.
  • [2025/05] Served as ISEDA’25 Session Chair. Delivered an invited talk “AI-Assisted EDA: from Supervised Learning to Circuit Foundation Model” at ISEDA’25 special session.
  • [2025/04] Served as TPC member of ICCAD’25 and PhD Forum Co-Chair at DAC’25.
  • [2025/04] 1 ICLR’25 paper (CircuitFusion) presented, first-authored by Wenji.
  • [2025/03] Served as TPC track chair (Computer-Aided Design Track) of GLSVLSI’25 and TPC track co-chair (Power and Timing Track) of ISEDA’25.
  • [2025/03] 1 HPCA’25 paper (Alecto) presented, first-authored by Mengming.
  • [2025/03] Released a comprehensive 60-page survey about foundation AI model for chip design (circuit foundation model), covering 130+ recent works.
  • [2025/02] Research Grants Council (RGC) Collaborative Research Fund (CRF)-YCRG led by me is granted, securing HKD 3,537,000. Thanks RGC and our Co-PIs!
  • [2025/01] 1 ASP-DAC’25 Best Paper Nomination (SMART-GPO).
  • [2025/01] 7 ASP-DAC’25 paper presented (CircuitGen, CircuitEncoder, FirePower, AssertLLM, Pointer, SMART-GPO, PRICING), 5 first-authored by our students: Qijun, Wenji, Shang.
  • [2024/12] 1 IEEE TCAD’25 paper (PANDA-extension) accepted, first-authored by Qijun.
  • [2024/12] Delivered a guest UG lecture “Introduction to AI-Assisted EDA” for Peking University.
  • [2024/10] 1 IEEE TCAD’25 paper (RTL-Coder) accepted, first-authored by Shang.
  • [2024/10] Served as TPC member of DATE’25.
  • [2024/10] Organized a special session about “open-source circuit data” at ICCAD’24. Speakers include Prof Hai Li, Prof Sachin Sapatnekar, Prof Vidya Chhabria, Prof Keren Zhu, and myself.
  • [2024/10] 2 ICCAD’24 papers (OpenLLM-RTL) presented, 1 first-authored by Shang.
  • [2024/09] Delivered invited talk about “LLM-aided Chip Generation” at CCF-Chip Rising Star Forum in Shanghai and LLM for Chip Design Forum by Southeast University.
  • [2024/09] Received the Teaching Excellence Appreciation Award 2023-24 by ECE.
  • [2024/09] Wenji, Mengming, Jay, and Wenkai joined HKUST as PhD students, welcome!
  • [2024/09] 1 ACM TRETS paper (FADO 2.0) accepted.
  • [2024/08] 1 ISLPED’24 Best Paper Nomination (AgileDev), first-authored by Yao.
  • [2024/08] Served as TPC member of ASPDAC’25 and attended in-person TPC meeting.
  • [2024/07] Organized HKUST-HKUST(GZ) Joint EDA workshop.
  • [2024/07] 1 IEEE TCAD’25 paper (MasterRTL-extension) accepted, first-authored by Wenji.
  • [2024/06] 1 LAD’24 Best Paper Nomination (RTL-Coder), first-authored by Shang.
  • [2024/06] 1 IEEE TCAD’25 paper (PROPHET-extension) accepted.
  • [2024/06] Research Grants Council (RGC) General Research Fund (GRF) led by me is granted, securing HKD 1,121,111. Thanks RGC!
  • [2024/06] 2 DAC’24 papers (RTL-Timer) presented, 1 first-authored by Wenji.
  • [2024/04] Served as TPC member of ICCAD’24, MLCAD’24, and LAD’24.
  • [2024/02] HKUST-HKUST (GZ) project is granted, securing HKD 500,000 for my share.
  • [2024/02] Delivered invited talk about “AI-assisted EDA” at seminars of CUHK and CityU HK.
  • [2024/01] 2 ASPDAC’24 papers (RTLLM, APPLE) presented, both first-authored by our students: Yao and Tao.
  • [2024/01] Jing and Yugao formally joined HKUST as PhD students, welcome!
  • [2023/12] An industrial project led by me is granted, securing HKD 1,603,950.
  • [2023/12] An industrial project led by me is granted, securing HKD 1,087,200.
  • [2023/11] 2 ICCAD’23 papers (MasterRTL, PANDA) presented, both first-authored by our students: Qijun and Wenji.
  • [2023/11] An industrial project led by me is granted, securing HKD 1,370,000.
  • [2023/10] Received the RGC HK Early Career Award 2023 (only 7 out of 525 early-career faculties), at RGC Award Presentation Ceremony in Hong Kong.
  • [2023/09] Qijun, Yao, and Shang formally joined HKUST as PhD students, welcome!
  • [2023/08] National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Young Scientists Fund (YSF) led by me is granted, securing HKD 339,570. Thanks NSFC!
  • [2023/08] Delivered invited talk about “power and timing modeling” at HiSilicon CPU Summit, HKUST-ICDC Symposium, and EDA Forum at HKUST (GZ).
  • [2023/07] Received the ACM Outstanding Disseration Award in EDA 2023 (1 awardee worldwide per year), at DAC’23 in San Francisco, USA.
  • [2023/07] Received the WAIC Yufan “Brilliant Star” Award 2023 (10 excellent AI researchers under age of 35) in Shanghai.
  • [2023/07] 2 DAC’23 papers (PROPHET, PertNAS) presented.
  • [2023/06] Research Grants Council (RGC) Early Career Scheme (ECS) led by me is granted, securing HKD 1,156,155. Also awarded the RGC Early Career Award 2023. Thanks RGC!
  • [2023/04] Served as TPC member of ICCAD’23.
  • [2023/03] Received the EDAA Outstanding Disseration Award 2023 (4 awardees worldwide per year), at DATE’23 in Antwerp, Belgium.
  • [2023/02] 1 FPGA’23 paper (FADO) presented.
  • [2023/01] Qijun and Wenji started to work with me as RA and co-supervised master student.
  • [2023/01] Received the ASPDAC’23 Best Paper Award, at ASPDAC’23 in Tokyo, Japan.
  • [2022/11] 1 IEEE TCAD’25 paper (security of AI for EDA) published, first-authored by me.
  • [2022/11] 2 ICCAD’22 papers (DEEP, Robustify) presented, 1 first-authored by me.
  • [2022/08] Served as TPC member of ASPDAC’23.
  • [2022/08] Recognized by ACM TODAES Distinguished Reviewer Board.
  • [2022/08] 2 Book Chapters published in Springer Book: “Machine Learning Applications in Electronic Design Automation”, 1 first-authored by me.
  • [2022/06] Joined HKUST ECE as a tenure-track Assistant Professor.
  • [2022/05] Received Ph.D. Degree from Duke University.