Zhixiao Xiong

I am a third-year undergraduate student from Weiyang College, Tsinghua University. I am currently pursuing a double degree in Mathematics and Physics + Industrial Engineering. I achieved a GPA of 3.98/4.0 during my first year and a GPA of 3.93/4.0 for the first two years. From Sep 2023 to Dec 2023, I studied at the University of Toronto (U of T) as an exchange student.

My academic voyage is fueled by a curiosity and a passion for machine learning for combinatorial optimization (ML4CO). My intellectual spark was significantly ignited by the paper Learning Combinatorial Optimization Algorithms over Graphs. I have participated in a research project on curriculum learning during my second year. I am currently using machine learning methods to solve large-scale mixed-integer nonlinear programs. I am also working with two PhD students at U of T on the Maximum Clique Problem.

I am determined to learn more mathematics in my undergraduate years. I plan to apply for a PhD program in Operations Research in 2025 fall. I whish to dedicate my PhD years to the intersection of operations research, optimization and machine learning.