PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Junliang Xing

Also known as Jun-liang Xing, 兴军亮

Junliang Xing is a computer scientist at Tsinghua University whose work spans computer vision and game-playing AI. After studying at Xi'an Jiaotong University and earning a Tsinghua PhD in 2012, he worked at the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences from 2012 to 2022, where a paper he coauthored won the Best Paper Award at ACM Multimedia 2013. In 2020 he coauthored OpenHoldem, a toolkit for imperfect-information game research, and he also coauthored AlphaHoldem, a poker program that defeated Slumbot and DeepStack in a 100,000-hand study and won a Distinguished Paper Award at AAAI 2022. Since February 2022, he is a professor in Tsinghua's Department of Computer Science and Technology, where his research on game-interactive learning joins game theory, machine learning and human-computer interaction. In 2025, he coauthored BodyGen, a robot embodiment co-design method accepted as an ICLR 2025 Spotlight.

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Timeline

  1. 2003–2012

    Dual bachelor's degrees, then a PhD

    From 2003 to 2007, he studies at Xi'an Jiaotong University and earns bachelor's degrees in computer science and technology and in mathematics and applied mathematics. A PhD in Tsinghua University's Department of Computer Science and Technology follows, from 2007 to 2012.

  2. 2012–2015

    Assistant researcher and visiting posts

    In July 2012, he becomes an assistant researcher at the National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is a visiting researcher at the National University of Singapore from December 2012 to November 2013, and a visiting professor at Microsoft Research Asia in 2015.

  3. 2013–2014

    Best paper at ACM Multimedia

    ACM Multimedia 2013 gives its Best Paper Award to "Wow! You Are So Beautiful Today!" by Luoqi Liu, Hui Xu, Junliang Xing, Si Liu, Xi Zhou and Shuicheng Yan. A paper of the same title in ACM TOMM in 2014 describes Beauty e-Experts, an automatic makeover system that recommends and synthesizes hairstyles and makeup based on facial attributes.

  4. 2014–2021

    A multiple object tracking review

    In September 2014, he and Wenhan Luo, Anton Milan, Xiaoqin Zhang, Wei Liu and Tae-Kyun Kim post "Multiple Object Tracking: A Literature Review", which discusses the formulation, categorization, key principles and evaluation of multiple object tracking systems. The review appears in the journal Artificial Intelligence in 2021.

  5. 2015–2022

    Researcher at the Institute of Automation

    He is an associate researcher at the National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, from November 2015, and a researcher there from November 2018 to January 2022. His anchor-free single-stage online multi-object tracking algorithm wins the Best Paper Award at PRCV 2020. From 2017, he also teaches graduate game theory at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

  6. 2020–2022

    OpenHoldem and AlphaHoldem

    In December 2020, he coauthors OpenHoldem with Kai Li, Hang Xu, Enmin Zhao and Zhe Wu, an imperfect-information game toolkit built on no-limit Texas hold'em with a standard evaluation protocol, four public baselines and an online testing platform. AlphaHoldem, coauthored with Enmin Zhao, Renye Yan, Jinqiu Li and Kai Li, learns heads-up no-limit poker through end-to-end self-play and defeats Slumbot and DeepStack in a 100,000-hand study after three days of training on one PC. It wins a Distinguished Paper Award at AAAI 2022.

  7. Since 2022

    Professor at Tsinghua

    In February 2022, he becomes a professor in Tsinghua University's Department of Computer Science and Technology, where his research route is game-interactive learning, which integrates game theory, machine learning algorithms and human-computer interaction. In 2023, his algorithm for semantic transfer and synthesis of gesture motion wins the Brave New Idea Paper Award at ACM Multimedia.

  8. 2025

    BodyGen at ICLR 2025

    In March 2025, he and Haofei Lu, Zhe Wu, Yuanchun Shi and others post BodyGen, a method for optimizing a robot's morphology and control policy together. The paper is accepted as an ICLR 2025 Spotlight, and he is a professor in Tsinghua's Department of Computer Science and Technology.

Career

  1. Since 2022Tsinghua UniversityProfessor
  2. From 2017University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
  3. 2015Microsoft Research AsiaVisiting Professor
  4. 2012–2022Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of SciencesAssistant Researcher, Associate Researcher
  5. 2012–2013National University of SingaporeVisiting Researcher

Education

  1. 2012Tsinghua UniversityPhD
  2. 2007Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityBachelor's degrees

From the biography.

  1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Junliang Xing. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Tsinghua University. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  3. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Tsinghua University. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  4. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorateIncludes Tsinghua University. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorate. Across 2,116 people with both an undergraduate degree and a doctorate recorded, we trace which undergraduate schools feed which doctoral programs, how often students stay at the same school, and how paths differ by birth-country region.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Junliang Xing yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Junliang XING - Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University cs.tsinghua.edu.cn. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. ACM MM 2013 awards records.sigmm.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Junliang Xing pi.cs.tsinghua.edu.cn. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Multiple Object Tracking: A Literature Review arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. OpenHoldem: A Benchmark for Large-Scale Imperfect-Information Game Research arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. AlphaHoldem: High-Performance Artificial Intelligence for Heads-Up No-Limit Poker via End-to-End Reinforcement Learning ojs.aaai.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. BodyGen: Advancing Towards Efficient Embodiment Co-Design arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.