Ph.D. researcher Beijing, China

Qili Zhang.

Third-year Ph.D. candidate at Beihang University and Zhongguancun Laboratory.

I study data security for large language models, agents, and retrieval-augmented generation. My interests span verifiable reasoning, modular RAG systems, and privacy-preserving learning.

Qili Zhang under flowering trees
Exploring reasoning & retrieval

01 Research

Selected projects

From reasoning with proof
to understanding retrieval.

02 Publications

Papers & preprints

View on Google Scholar

6 publications

ICDE 2026

XRAG: eXamining the core-benchmarking foundational components in advanced retrieval-augmented generation

Qili Zhang, Qianren Mao, Yangyifei Luo, Yashuo Luo, Hanwen Hao, Zhilong Cao, Weifeng Jiang, Zhijun Chen, Junnan Liu, Feng Yan, Xiaolong Wang, Jinlong Zhang, Zhenting Huang, Zhixing Tan, Jie Sun, Bo Li, Jianxin Li, Philip S Yu

EMNLP Findings 2026

Selective Knowledge Edit Reversal via Gated Singular Vector Shrinkage

Weifeng Jiang, Ruirui Chen, Qianren Mao, Junnan Liu, Qili Zhang, Kwok-Yan Lam

arXiv 2026

Learning to Prove, Not Just to Answer: Reinforcement Learning from Formal Verification for Natural-Language Logical Reasoning

Qili Zhang, Qianren Mao, Hanze Cai, Kaiming Zhao, Yuening He, Xihan Lei, Yashuo Luo, Hanwen Hao, Yutong Gu, Likang Xiao, Zhijun Chen, Weifeng Jiang, Haoyi Zhou, Jianxin Li

arXiv 2026

From Solver Trajectories to Teaching Trajectories: Cognition-Aligned Reasoning Distillation

Yashuo Luo, Qianren Mao, Ziqi Qin, Junnan Liu, Haitao Li, Qili Zhang, Yuan Gao, Zhijun Chen, Xu Wang

arXiv 2026

NanoNet: Parameter-Efficient Learning with Label-Scarce Supervision for Lightweight Text Mining Model

Qianren Mao, Yashuo Luo, Ziqi Qin, Junnan Liu, Weifeng Jiang, Zhijun Chen, Zhuoran Li, Likang Xiao, Chuou Xu, Qili Zhang, Hanwen Hao, Jingzheng Li, Chunghua Lin, Jianxin Li, Philip S Yu

arXiv 2025

Privacy-preserving federated embedding learning for localized retrieval-augmented generation

Qianren Mao, Qili Zhang, Hanwen Hao, Zhentao Han, Runhua Xu, Weifeng Jiang, Qi Hu, Zhijun Chen, Tyler Zhou, Bo Li, Yangqiu Song, Jin Dong, Jianxin Li, Philip S Yu

03 Background

Education

2024 — Present

Ph.D. in Computer Science

Beihang University & Zhongguancun Laboratory

National Superior College for Engineers · Direct Ph.D. program

2020 — 2024

B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering

Beihang University

School of Computer Science and Engineering

Get in touch

Beihang University · Beijing, China