Zhang Wan | University of Manchester

About Me

My name is Zhang, surname Wan. I am a PhD student at the University of Manchester, UK, fortunately supervised by Dr. Tingting Mu and Prof. Samuel Kaski. Previously, I was a master’s student studying Artificial Intelligence at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, supervised by Prof. Chee-Keong Kwoh. I received my B.Sc. from the University of Birmingham, UK, and B.Eng. from the Harbin Institute of Technology, China, in 2022.

Research Interests

My current interest lies in exploring distribution shifts across various scales, for which a narrow meaning draws on dealing with the broken i.i.d. assumption whose synonyms include extrapolation, domain adaptation, etc. In a broader sense, I am interested in situations where classic assumptions are either invalid or irrelevant, due to generalised/specific cases (e.g. domain-specific assumptions) and external effects (e.g. varying observation or environment). These scenarios often necessitate additional assumptions to impose extra structures, offering insights on how to model things in change and constancy.

I am also interested in the following topics:

Machine Learning: geometric deep learning, dimensionality reduction, visualisation, human-in-the-loop, reinforcement learning, etc.
AI for Science: drug discovery, earth science, bioinformatics, etc.

Several subfields of (applied) math play significant roles in my research or personal interests, e.g., optimal transport, (random) graph theory, Riemannian geometry, functional analysis, etc. Exploring more than exploiting as an early-stage researcher. Recent trending topics are also interesting to me. Feel free to contact me for any discussion!

News

[Jan 2024] Received my Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence from NTU. Thanks to all the peers and seniors throughout the journey.

Miscellaneous

Wir müssen wissen. Wir werden wissen. (David Hilbert)
Of all things the measure is man, of the things that are, that they are, and of things that are not, that they are not. (Protagoras)
A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems. (Alfréd Rényi)
I turn coffee into nothing. I’m not a mathematician :-) (Zhang Wan)
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. (Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love., 1973.)