Multi-agent reinforcement learningRobust coordinationEfficient AI systems
I am an Associate Professor in the College of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Hohai University, China. I received my B.Eng. in Information Engineering from Southeast University, Nanjing, China, and my Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA. Between 2009 and 2015, I was a visiting scholar at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA.
My research focuses on multi-agent reinforcement learning, especially coordination, communication, and adaptation when team composition or operating conditions change. I also study efficient AI systems, including spiking neural networks and resource-aware neural inference. My previous work includes federated and distributed learning. I have authored more than 50 papers and am an inventor on more than 20 granted patents.
Coordination, communication, and robust adaptation in teams of agents.
Spiking neural networks
Sparse architectures and robust processing of event-based data.
Efficient AI systems
Resource-aware inference under compute, memory, and latency constraints.
Recent news
AwardA student team I supervised won first prize in the 2026 Intel Cup Undergraduate Electronic Design Contest, Embedded AI Special Competition （英特尔杯大学生电子设计竞赛嵌入式AI专题赛）. Official results ↗
PaperTwo papers accepted at IEEE SMC 2026.
PaperOne paper accepted by Swarm and Evolutionary Computation.
PaperThree papers accepted by Machine Learning.
PaperOne paper accepted at IEEE BigData 2025.
PaperOne paper accepted by Expert Systems with Applications.
PaperTwo papers accepted at ECAI 2025.
PaperOne paper accepted at CollaborateCom 2025.
ServiceAppointed to the Editorial Board of Scientific Reports.
PaperOne paper accepted at CSCWD 2025.
PaperOne paper accepted at ICRA 2025.
PaperOne paper accepted by IEEE Internet of Things Journal.
AwardJianan Zhang's undergraduate thesis, which I supervised, received the Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis award in Jiangsu Province （江苏省普通高等学校优秀本科毕业论文）.
@article{tang2026evodiff,
author = {Zeyu Tang and Zaipeng Xie and Xiaoyi Wen and Bin Tang and Wenzhan Song},
title = {{EvoDiff-NAS: Evolutionary Neural Architecture Search with Diffusion-Guided Mutation}},
journal = {Swarm and Evolutionary Computation},
year = {2026},
volume = {107},
pages = {102442},
doi = {10.1016/j.swevo.2026.102442},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.swevo.2026.102442}
}
@article{zhang2026experience,
author = {Jianan Zhang and Zaipeng Xie and Nuo Yang and Juguang Jin and Wenzhan Song},
title = {{Boosting Efficient Experience Exchange in Sparse-Reward Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning}},
journal = {Machine Learning},
year = {2026},
volume = {115},
number = {4},
pages = {95},
doi = {10.1007/s10994-025-06967-y},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s10994-025-06967-y}
}
@article{xie2026rhomarl,
author = {Zaipeng Xie and Wenhao Fang and Chentai Qiao and Yiming Zhao and Wenzhan Song},
title = {{RhoMARL: Robust Learning for Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Systems in Dynamic Environments}},
journal = {Machine Learning},
year = {2026},
volume = {115},
number = {3},
pages = {44},
doi = {10.1007/s10994-025-06972-1},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s10994-025-06972-1}
}
@article{xie2026roco,
author = {Zaipeng Xie and Sitong Shen and Yaowu Wang and Chentai Qiao and Bin Tang and Wenzhan Song},
title = {{ROCO: Role-Oriented Communication for Efficient Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning}},
journal = {Expert Systems with Applications},
year = {2026},
volume = {297},
pages = {129421},
doi = {10.1016/j.eswa.2025.129421},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2025.129421}
}
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Venue rankings: CCF 2026 · JCR 2026 · XinRui 2026 for 2026 journals · CAS 2025 for earlier journals. XinRui and CAS tags use broad subject categories.
I especially welcome students interested in multi-agent reinforcement learning, including coordination, communication, and robust adaptation, as well as spiking neural networks and efficient AI systems. Please send a brief introduction, your research interests, and a CV or links to relevant projects.
Student mentoring
Students I have supervised have won first prizes in the Intel Cup Embedded AI competition and the National Undergraduate Embedded Chip and System Design Contest. An undergraduate thesis I supervised received the Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis award in Jiangsu Province.
Most of my former students have joined leading technology companies in China, including ByteDance, Baidu, Tencent, and DJI, among others.
Conferences: AAAI, AAMAS, IJCAI, The Web Conference (WWW), WSDM, ACM MM, ICRA, IROS, ECAI, and others.
Journals:IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, Expert Systems with Applications, Knowledge-Based Systems, Neural Networks, and others. ORCID peer-review record ↗
Contact
College of Computer Science and Software Engineering Hohai University
