Hanzhi Wang awarded the 2024 CCF Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award
Hanzhi Wang, a PhD student supervised by Professor Zhewei Wei from Gaoling School of Artificial Intelligence at Renmin University of China, was recently awarded the 2024 China Computer Federation (CCF) Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award. This award is the most prestigious recognition for computer science PhD students in China and is given to only ten students nationwide each year. The selection is based on the technical depth and significance of each candidate’s doctoral dissertation. Prior to Hanzhi, PhD student Yulei Niu, supervised by Professors Ji-Rong Wen and Zhiwu Lu from Gaoling School of Artificial Intelligence, has won the award in 2021.
Hanzhi Wang earned her bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in Computer Science and Technology from the School of Information at Renmin University of China in July 2019 and July 2024, respectively, both under the supervision of Prof. Zhewei Wei. She is currently a PostDoc at BARC (Basic Algorithms Research Copenhagen), University of Copenhagen, working with Professor Mikkel Thorup.
During her doctoral studies, Hanzhi focused on designing scalable algorithms for estimating random-walk probabilities on large graphs, a fundamental problem in graph theory and modern network analysis. Her doctoral dissertation, “Efficient Computation of Random Walk Probabilities on Large Graphs,” addresses four critical query problems: single-node queries, single-target queries, single-source queries, and two random walks’ meeting probability queries. Hanzhi improved the best-known complexity bounds for all four query problems, with some results achieving optimality. She also successfully applied her methods to enhance query efficiency in practical applications, such as local graph clustering and graph neural networks. In recognition of her contributions, Hanzhi was awarded the 2021 Baidu Scholarship, the 2022 Microsoft Research Asia Fellowship, and the 2024 Wu Yuzhang Scholarship during her doctoral studies.
Hanzhi and Professor Zhewei Wei
Link to the award announcement page (in Chinese): //www.ccf.org.cn/Awards/Awards/2024-12-11/835343.shtml